Rank Pennsylvania's Cities (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown: crime rates, living, restaurants)

[W-B proud]

Philly and Pittsburg are the only true cities in this state everything else is more of a rustbelt town past it's prime. Philly is by far and away Pa's flagship city in everyway possible. If you combined the population of every other substantial city (including Pittsburgh) into one city, it still would be smaller then Philadelphia. Philadelphia and it's surrounding counties make up half the population of the entire vast state of Pa! Ive only been to Pittsburgh twice and am impressed. I must also say that Pittsburgh has the best skyline in Pa and one of the best in the entire country.

[CoalCityTrash]

1. Philadelphia
2. Wilkes-Barre
3. Allentown
4. Reading
5. Bethlehem
6. Bloomsburg
7. Lancaster

Scranton isn't on the list because I find it a depressing & dull place with a small skyline & little to do. Also, Scranton has about 7 colleges, which means drunk bros EVERYWHERE. The only youth that aren't bros are coffee shop hipsters, so if you're 20-30 & not a dingleberry, you won't like most of the people.
Pittsburgh isn't on the list because I've never been there & don't know much about the city.
Wilkes-Barre is second & I really mean it. Haha. I love any chance to brag on my city, so I'll tell you that W-B now boasts a casino/racetrack, 5 large night clubs which are open late, an increasingly vibrant & active downtown, one of the most historic backgrounds of ANY American city, the tallest buildings, largest downtown, & largest skyline in Northeast PA (and in PA outside of Philly, Pittsburgh, & Allentown), 3 colleges, and TONS of world renowned historic architecture. The problem is, as another member pointed out, the city hit its prime a long time ago & its been on a terrible population decline since coal began to die out in the 1930's, but that seems to be changing in the recent decade, with thousands of new people & businesses pouring in every year.

[KillerK]

Larger doesn't automatically mean better.

People can say what they will about Erie, but I think it's a great place. Every city has its slummy neighborhoods, but I've spent a lot of time in Erie and never had to go through any of its "Bad" neighborhoods. (Bad is in quotation marks because Erie's bad neighborhoods can't hold a candle to Philly and Pittsburgh's bad neighborhoods.)

Erie has a thriving arts scene, with lots of plays and ballets and musicals going on at the Warner Theatre and Erie Playhouse. Erie also has a small symphony orchestra that is pretty good. And if you're a history buff, Erie is where the Flagship Niagara is anchored, and it's a pretty neat thing to go see.

Also, Presque Isle State Park is beautiful and a lot of fun to go to in late spring, summer and fall. You can go in winter too and see the Ice Dunes. In late fall/winter/early spring it's a good place to go if you're into running and don't want lots of crowds, as it usually has more people in summer. Also there's the recently designated Erie Bluffs State Park not too far to the west along the lake shore. Erie's also about an hour or hour and a half away from Allegheny National Forest to the east, which is a great place to visit, and Chautauqua County, NY is right next door and is home to Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua Lake. Also that region is known for its good wineries. Some of the best locally made wine I've had, and it's usually not expensive.

In town there's always something to do. Splash Lagoon is an indoor water theme park which is a lot of fun, and in the summer, there's Waldameer Park and Water World, an amusement and water park that has some fun rides and is definitely worth at least a half a day. There's also some nice and interesting restaurants/pubs, Molly Branigan's, and Brewerie at Union Station being a couple of my favorites. Erie also has its own brewing company, Erie Brewing Co., that makes some really tasty and unique beers, including Railbender ale, one of my favorites.

Also there's a nice Tinseltown movie theater up there. Movie theaters aren't usually on people's lists of good stuff about a city, but I have to say I love that Tinseltown, it's just a very nice high quality theater. I went to college in the Pittsburgh area and never saw a movie theater down there that was nicer than Erie's Tinseltown. (OF course I don't think I saw EVERY movie theater in Pittsburgh so there might be a better one somewhere, but I never saw one.)

Bottom line, is that Erie, while substantially smaller than Philly and Pittsburgh, still offers a lot of the stuff that you'd expect from a city, while also being an easy drive to awesome outdoor opportunities. You can stay in town and do stuff there, and it never feels too claustrophobic or hectic like huge cities do (to me at least) and it's only a short drive out of the city to be in the picturesque rural countryside. I also feel a lot safer in Erie than in Philly, where the crime rate is higher.

[Pa Dutch]

My own completely unbiased opinion, after much research, I put Pittsburgh and Philly in a tie for first, they both have huge pluses and negatives....after that...

Bethlehem
Allentown
Harrisburg
Scranton

You can take that to the bank!

[PeterRabbit]

Originally Posted by KillerK

Larger doesn't automatically mean better...

Good post about Erie. I think I rated it #3. Waldameer Park got a lot bigger since the 1950s when my dad bribed me to go there for vacation because it was larger than Kennywood in Pgh. Bad beaches on Presque Isle because of cracked shells, drift wood, etc., that cut your feet, yet it is on a Great Lake and nowhere else in PA can claim that.

[Ohiogirl81]

Originally Posted by PeterRabbit

Bad beaches on Presque Isle because of cracked shells, drift wood, etc., that cut your feet

No, no, no ... the shells exfoliate your feet!

[new-era]

Pittsburgh is much better than Filthadelphia! Philly is bigger and everyone is a big city toughass. It's grimy looking and ghetto!

[1timbo1]

1 - Philadelphia
2 - Pittsburgh
3 - Bethlehem
4 - Harrisburg
5 - Erie
6 - Lancaster
7 - Easton
8 - Pottsville
9 - Reading
10 - Wilkes-Barre

Philly edges Pittsburgh because of it's connectivity to the greater east coast. NYC is an hour away, so is the beach, and Baltimore/DC are about 2 hrs, so is our state capital. It's a grimy, blue collar city, which to my surprise many PGH posters on here have criticized. In my experience, those are the exact traits that Pittsburghers will use to sell their city.

With the smaller cities, I kept to the PA definition of city, which others have not for obvious reasons. State College, Jim Thorpe, Doylestown, Carlisle, Lewisburg, Media, and Lititz are great "boroughs" with populations that rival most of PA's "cities". Why are "St. Marys" and "Hermitage" considered cities? They hardly are, at least compared with the top 10 results from this thread, what is the political gain from being a city? I look forward to the top boroughs and top townships threads.

[rainrock]

Originally Posted by 1timbo1

Philly edges Pittsburgh because of it's connectivity to the greater east coast. .

No. Philly demolishes Pittsburgh in just about every criticalcategory imaginable, none of it contingent on its east coast proximity.

2 different classes of city here gang.

Pittsburgh is a nice second or third tier US city. Philadelphia is firmly entrenched as one of the first tier cities. Pennsylvania is fortunate to have it as its. own

[CoalCityTrash]

Why do I keep seeing Scranton in people's lists? Can anybody tell me just 1 good thing about Scranton, that isn't far in the past, where I can't enjoy it?

The city is dead! It makes Detroit look like Tokyo, all of the people I've met there are rude & unwelcoming, everything is closed, there's no pretty skyline to look at, there are barely any jobs. The cool things to do if you live in Scranton are all located in Wilkes-Barre.
What does Scranton have, a mall in a small, dead downtown? We have a mall & a large vibrant downtown, which houses the NEPA offices of every single major company that chose to place itself in our area.