HOMETOWN USA: NEPA PICTURES
My NEPA Music Playlist
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People always ask where Scranton/ Wilkes Barre actually is. Here you go (map left). About 2.5hrs north of Philly and 3hrs from NYC, though you would feel like you were in the twilight zone if you were there. The valley, or NEPA as it is known is just well, strange. The thing that makes it unique is that its more that just a small backwards town. The region actually has a collective population of nearly 1 million people, 563,631 in the Scranton metropolitan area and 522,629 in the Wilkes Barre metropolitan area, though these numbers may overlap. Bottom line, it's more than a small village. And for some reason its like you stepped back 25yrs when your there. That may seem like me being dramatic. I promise if you ever end up there you will quickly realize what I am talking about. I'm not trashing it, on the contrary that's what fascinates me about it. With deep roots to early Eurpoean immigration and a blue collar coal and railroad industries the place it full of relics of the past prevalent in both its architecture and its population.
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Taken while walking through my parents land at sundown.
In more recent years, the area has seen a massive influx of people transiting from both Philadelphia and even more so New York City. The area is perfect for a city dweller to come and enjoy a country setting while still being close to a small city if they get scared. For the past 15 years the district has been tossing around the idea of constructing a metro directly to NEPA from NYC. Im not quite sure if it ever came to fruition but this influx of people from the major cities has resulted with serious negative effects. As a journalist for the Times Leader, Roger DuPuis put it in his editorial dated 04JAN14:
You are more likely to die in Wilkes Barre than major cities like New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, or even Chicago. There were 11 slayings in this city of 41,000 people this year through Friday, ranging from a bruised and battered 2-month-old boy to a 46-year-old woman allegedly shot to death by her estranged husband. With 210,000 people, Rochester, N.Y., is about five times larger than Wilkes-Barre, but both are aging industrial cities with homicide rates well into the double digits: Rochester's 31 killings this year translate into a rate of 14.7 per 100,000 people, while Wilkes-Barre's rate is nearly twice that at 26.7 per 100,000 people. For the full article click here.
Welcome to the Wild West. The Hotel Sterling (pic above) was an abandoned structure for nearly 60 years before it was finally demolished in the early 2000s. I had been in the inside and had some scary encounters with squatters/ addicts. I don't think I would be walking around there today with a murder rate 2x that of Rochester, NY.
So why in the world do I like this place? Well, I treat Wilkes Barre the same way a family keeps the proverbial "crazy relative" in the basement. We just don't talk about that place. It has been lost to a tidal wave of gang and drug violence moving between NYC, Philadelphia and a local police force that is woefully unequipped to handle it.
The tumultuous nature of the cities/towns wrapped in a beautiful setting is what draws me in. Call me a sucker for the irony of it all I guess. The Appalachian Mountains surrounding this region are beautiful and that's and understatement. As you can see in the pictures, if you like the outdoors, PA has endless hiking, hunting, and fishing spots. Besides Scranton, Philadelphia, Erie, and Pittsburgh, the state is nearly uninhabited. Don't believe me, come visit.
The tumultuous nature of the cities/towns wrapped in a beautiful setting is what draws me in. Call me a sucker for the irony of it all I guess. The Appalachian Mountains surrounding this region are beautiful and that's and understatement. As you can see in the pictures, if you like the outdoors, PA has endless hiking, hunting, and fishing spots. Besides Scranton, Philadelphia, Erie, and Pittsburgh, the state is nearly uninhabited. Don't believe me, come visit.
