Lehigh Valley/Philadelphia demarcation line? (Allentown, Scranton: loft, crime, school)

[rainrock]

Where do you see the boundary of the LV/Philly area?

I was riding up 309 today from Plymouth Meeting and to be honest the development seems to have overlapped at least on this road. Continuous development on 309 pretty much the entire stretch. 611 and 100 are also very well developed and connected.


Also I imagine you like your soverignty up in the LV but is there anyone out there who thinks it is beneficial to be part of a larger metro Philly?


If you added the LV to metro Philly you would be part of a 7.5 M person metro region. Just curious.

[toobusytoday]

There's a huge chunk of open space and forest when you are the bypass part of 309 just south of Quakertown. And you can easily go east and west of Quakertown and be surrounded by farms. We are not quite Delco yet!

I don't quite know where the line is and I think the media plays a big part in our own perceptions. The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philly news channels think that Bucks county is the demarcation line. If they mention anything up here, it's usually crime or weather. When the Inquirer does the school report, they don't cover our counties. Sportswise, I think the majority of people are Phillies and Eagles fans and having the Iron Pigs here helps as does having the Eagles do their summer training at Lehigh.

I like not being part of the Philly metro area, being more Pennsylvania Dutch then Rocky, less suburban and more semi rural. The Lehigh Valley has a nicer ring then the Delaware Valley, don't you think?

[Kefir King]

Would that make Center Valley the Center of "Metropolitan Philadelphia?"

(I think extending a cities limits 60 miles is pushing it a bit.)
WHy not then go to 100 miles and call Phiadelphia AND the Lehigh Valley part of METROPOLITAN NEW YORK.

[toobusytoday]

Originally Posted by Kefir King

Would that make Center Valley the Center of "Metropolitan Philadelphia?"

(I think extending a cities limits 60 miles is pushing it a bit.)
WHy not then go to 100 miles and call Phiadelphia AND the Lehigh Valley part of METROPOLITAN NEW YORK.

New York? ugh, you're killing me.

[rainrock]

Originally Posted by toobusytoday

I like The Lehigh Valley has a nicer ring then the Delaware Valley, don't you think?

Well it depends. If you are concerned about a more pleasant, laid back, peaceful lifestyle then LV is definitely your cup of tea. On the other hand if your preference is being in a vibrant, professional,exciting area then the Philadelphia stands heads above imo.

LV freaks me out a bit. It has so much potential and a beautiful area yet I came through the middle of Allentown from the southside and could not believe the condition of the town.

If you rode down 476 from Allentown to Media/Swarthmore you can see and feel the transition once you get into the Philadelphia area.The further N is more blue collar, farm oriented as you enter the Philly area you begin to experience a more upscale, energetic,corporate aura.

I find it fascinating that Lehigh Valleyites would rather NOT be associated with one of the top urban cities in the usa not to metion the top 4 wealthiest counties in Pa.( Chester,Montgomery,Bucks,Delaware).

[rainrock]

Originally Posted by Kefir King

(I think extending a cities limits 60 miles is pushing it a bit.)
WHy not then go to 100 miles and call Phiadelphia AND the Lehigh Valley part of METROPOLITAN NEW YORK.

I tend to agree that combining LV with the Philly area is pushing it but not compared to some of these other supersized metroes like Bay Area,Dc/Bal,Dallas/FW,Bos/Providence.

I believe the DC/Bal metro spans like 165 miles N-S. Napa to San Jose 125 miles.

[toobusytoday]

Originally Posted by rainrock

Well it depends. If you are concerned about a more pleasant, laid back, peaceful lifestyle then LV is definitely your cup of tea. On the other hand if your preference is being in a vibrant, professional,exciting area then the Philadelphia stands heads above imo.

LV freaks me out a bit. It has so much potential and a beautiful area yet I came through the middle of Allentown from the southside and could not believe the condition of the town.

If you rode down 476 from Allentown to Media/Swarthmore you can see and feel the transition once you get into the Philadelphia area.The further N is more blue collar, farm oriented as you enter the Philly area you begin to experience a more upscale, energetic,corporate aura.

I find it fascinating that Lehigh Valleyites would rather NOT be associated with one of the top urban cities in the usa not to metion the top 4 wealthiest counties in Pa.( Chester,Montgomery,Bucks,Delaware).

I'm just one person, who knows how the rest of the LV feels? I have, however, lived in Delaware, Chester and Montgomery counties. None were city living so my perception is comparing living in those places compared to living up here - not a city to city experience. Our family life hasn't changed from where we lived in Delaware county to here in Lehigh county except the people are friendlier here. My husbands job is the same except he doesn't have to stress about being laid off like he did at his former big company job before. Most of the people we know are either self employed or work as engineers, teachers, etc - just like where we lived before.

The one big difference is more country close by (yay!) and less traffic to get anywhere. I really, really appreciate that. A traffic jam is waiting for ten minutes to get somewhere. If we feel the need for a big city experience we can be in downtown Philadelphia in one hour or Manhattan in about an hour and a half. When we lived in Delaware county, it wasn't a heck of a lot less then that.

Are there really more blue collar jobs up here? I don't really think so, but I could be wrong.

Allentown is definitely a city in need of revitalization, but have you seen Bethlehem?? Bethlehem has two great sections, two wonderful colleges, and a wonderful arts scene, besides retaining it's history in a very nice way.

I never saw Allentown in it's heyday so it's not-so-good-times now doesn't affect me as much as it does others.

[julian17033]

In my opinion there's a distinct "feel" to the Lehigh Valley that's just different than Philadelphia and the greater Delaware Valley.
Being approx 90 miles from NYC there are alot of influences from the NYC metro area and not all of them are good.

Cable television here has all NYC metro channels including FOX.
Also included is of course Channel 69 for Allentown and the Lehigh Valley and also a Scranton network.

Allentown is getting the new hockey arena located in Center City which is going to help immensely that immediate area of the city.
Of course because of the stadium your going to have upper end retail, loft living, restaurants, etc.
Where's the riff raff going to go? Who knows but they are in for a very rude awakening.

Philadelphia has a real magnetic effect on anything immediately outside that metro area up to and including Doylestown.

I consider Doylestown the northern demarcation line for the greater Philly area.

Anything north of there starts to move into the southern Lehigh Valley area including Quakertown.

[toobusytoday]

Julian, Our cable network, Service Electric, carries more Philly channels then NY ones. 3,6 and 10 are the same Philly ones I've always known. We've got a few NYC ones, but I don't think that many. We certainly get all the Eagles and Phillies games.

I think Quakertown is almost a no-man's land. It doesn't seem quite Philly, but neither is it LV.

[julian17033]

Hi!

We used to have Service Electric but switched to RCN back in October.
RCN has the NYC networks, Fox and PIX which also has their own newscast.
So I'm thinking five NYC channels in the RCN lineup.
Of course RCN has all the Philly networks as well plus the one Scranton network.
It's crazy to have all of that but I'm happy to have it.

Amen to those Phillies games!

As far as Quakertown is concerned you are absolutely right about them existing in neither.

Originally Posted by toobusytoday

Julian, Our cable network, Service Electric, carries more Philly channels then NY ones. 3,6 and 10 are the same Philly ones I've always known. We've got a few NYC ones, but I don't think that many. We certainly get all the Eagles and Phillies games.

I think Quakertown is almost a no-man's land. It doesn't seem quite Philly, but neither is it LV.