Top 5 Reasons why Harrisburg sucks.

[Mudkip Orange]

I've lived in Chicago, Seattle, Portland, Houston, and now here. This is by far the worst.

 

1. Kids - or rather, the lack of them. Harrisburg is a "family-friendly" city; lots are. The difference is, Harrisburg is family-friendly to the exclusion of all else. There is simply nothing here to cater to 20-somethings who aren't building a family, whether we're talking about singles, DINKs, or polyamorous pagans. Where a theater in Houston or Portland has a sizable proportion of 20-somethings, theaters in Harrisburg are exclusively the domain of teenagers. The one strip of nightlife that exists, on 2nd street, is primarily a hookup scene. No national bands or DJs stop here. No thriving local music scene finds its outlet. Bars and clubs - the one place you could go to get away from kids - are, in fact, primarily geared towards pairing people off... so they can go have kids.

 

Now, I got no problem with people who decide to pop out a couple. There ain't a 100% chance that won't even be me at some point. But a good city needs to have a variety of options catering to a variety of people, not just chitlins and the parents who clean up after them.

 

2. Parochialism. The above paragraph could be rephrased as a "lack of culture." However, this - by itself - isn't a deal breaker. Lots of places lack "culture," but are still damned nice places to live. What sets Harrisburg apart is that its residents are wholly blinded to the lack of culture here.

 

For instance, Brenham, Texas is kind of a hick town. If you live in Brenham, you know you live in a hick town. Complain to someone from Brenham about the lack of arts scene, and you'll get a response something like "so what'cher problem, city slicker." Maybe not quite that... but basically that. Whereas, tell someone in Harrisburg that there's no culture here, and they'll correct you. They'll point out the arts center, and the symphony. Out of the blue, walking back from lunch, I once had a coworker suggest to me that I check out one of the pops concerts. Now why in the hell would I do that?

 

3. Traffic - or rather, its existence at all. I'm not saying Harrisburg traffic sets records of awfulness. Obviously, there are worse places. For instance, the Holland Tunnel. But I expect a huge backup getting into the Holland Tunnel - I'm trying to go to *New York City*. Harrisburg is a teensy-tinesy little burg out in the middle of nowhere. There's no real excuse for how bad it is.

 

My afternoon commute from parking lot to door averages less than 10mph. At multiple points, I wait through multiple traffic light cycles. Alternate routes are just as jammed. The primary freeway routes out of town all stop at obvious chokepoints which have been there for thirty years or more. This is in contrast to the Texan way... oh sweet, sweet beautiful Texas, where traffic congestion is proportional to urban area size. This means that, yes, Houston and Dallas and San Antonio and Austin all have traffic jams. Might even be bumper-to-bumper, in places. But in lesser-populated cities it simply doesn't exist. A small Texas town like Tyler has bypasses, alternate routes, a full loop, and a second outer loop which is currently under construction. San Angelo has fully-grade separated expressways feeding in every direction. Lubbock and El Paso have freeway capacity on par with Philadelphia's.

 

Oregon doesn't have quite the road-building fervor that Texas does, but they're serious about transit. Portland's MAX Light Rail is well known. Lesser-known is Eugene's bus rapid transit system, which runs on special guideways with grass strips down the middle. And cities too small for trains or radial freeways don't neglect their roads. As Bend expands, it adds wide, continuous arterials, like Mount Washington Drive. Klamath Falls and McMinnville have established bypasses and alternates. Washington state is building new freeways in Spokane, widening them in Vancouver and Everett, and Seattle has sleek Kintetsu LRVs on elevated track, expanding in three directions.

 

Pretty much everyone does it better than Harrisburg.

 

4. Technology - or the lack thereof. Over the last 100 years, vast improvements in efficient domestic living have occurred. These guys didn't get the memo. Fuel oil furnaces are the norm for single-family houses, costing thousands each winter. Wood-frame semi-attached dwellings leak heat from ancient furnaces through poorly-insulated windows, and pose a fire hazard. Traffic signals run on fixed timers at 2am, stopping throughfares for side street cars that will never exist. Dishwashers are a luxury, and are not in most houses or apartments. Not even nice ones. Why haven't houses been remodeled, or retrofitted? Why is Harrisburg's domestic and civic technology frozen 50 years ago?

 

I have a theory.

 

See, Harrisburg sucks so badly, that to live here long term - not a year, or two, or three, but a substantial chunk (maybe even a majority) of your life - living here requires giving up. It requires ceasing to strive for something better, to try to make life more comfortable. Everyone who cares about these things, the people who will work actively to create a more comfortable existence - these people have all left, or are plotting to leave. The remainder are the Eeyores, plodding along well-worn paths, doing everything the same way it's always been done. And it's these people who make the decisions not to install a newer oven, not to caulk the windows, not to redo the heating system.

 

This is a depressing place to live.

[gmat]

I hope things get better, for you.

 

On the other hand, I assume you are in Harrisburg, Pa. Didn't it file for bankruptcy last year? And possibly TMI might have dealt a body blow to its economic future. I guess what I'm saying is that if you could rationalize a 'why,' then it might make things a bit more bearable.

 

By strange coincidence, I have passed through Harrisburg many years ago, and it was intentional. They had and still have a funky C-130 outfit with heavily modified aircraft and I stopped by to see them but was too chicken to ask to visit them.

 

Best wishes,

Grant

[to2leo]

Wow always see the name on the highway sign whenever I venture into the US on the way to NYC or Philly or Pittsburg.  Sad to hear the city is not working for you.  Hopefully you will have the ability and/or opportunity soon to move to a place that you can truly call home.

[cteno4]

Actually half my family is from across the susquhanna in mechanicsburg. I grew up in northern California, but spent half of each summer in mechanicsburg and the other half in fort worth Texas area, so got quit a cycle of culture every year. Pa is its own culture like many places, sounds like its not the mix for you and time to look for a new adventure...

 

Unfortunately the other places you listed are relative culture centers in various ways and Harrisburg area is much more white bread.

 

Jeff

[bikkuri bahn]

On the bright side, at least Harrisburg has a cool looking rr station and great pedigree.  I would be railfanning in my spare time.  But I was a loser socialwise in my youth, so there you have it.

[traindork]

Having lived in Chicago, and now Houston, I know they have lots of things to do for all kinds of people. Museums, performances, resturants, pro sports, whatever. I used to date a girl down in Wharton (another hick town), and on weekends the only things to do was get drunk and fight, or play softball. Her friend's husband once invited me to go with him and his friends to get drunk and burn the dead trees that get caught on the bridge pilings in the river! Not my kind of 'fun'.

[Hobby Dreamer]

This is a depressing place to live.

 

 

MO,

You strike me as a bright guy (wicked sense of humor), so presumably its your job that keeps you in PA. A job is only 1/3 of our lives and unless you are getting well paid its useful to assess the qualitative aspects of your life as well.

 

You may be 100% correct in your observations but a lot might simply be that you are in a place with few social contacts, like minded people etc... You may also be at the age or stage where people pair off and being on your own stinks at times.

 

I'm certain you could do well anywhere that would suit your life interests.

 

The economy might hinder your options but you could explore other cities nearby, maybe join a club or a sport. There are probably many like you where you live, and they are dying to find fun.

 

Good luck!

 

Rick

[Guest Closed Account 1]

Off Route 19 right?

 

Lived in Peters Twp when I was a kid. Too busy playing in the woods,fishing in the pond a mile through the woods, and biking everywhere on our pseudo BMX bikes to know what boredom was.

 

Is the little hobby shop on the hill in Bethlehem still there? Got my Lionels fixed there and I remember getting my metal Beatles Yellow Sub there too.  Metal toys, ha, I'm getting old-er.

 

Find a club or form one.  Certainly you will impress a lot of people with Japanese trains in Amish country.

[Guest ___]

Last time I was in Harrisburg I was driving downtown to the CAT garage on some official business. A big fat black guy jumped out in front of my then Mustang GT waving knife. 250# man with knife vs 3200# Ford. Needless to say instead of slamming on the brakes, I slammed on the gas. He jumped out of the way. Sadly, his damn foot clipped my lower left fog light and smashed in in to the forward air dam. SOB cost me $125 for a replacement.From that point on, Harrisburg has been on my hellhole list. (Oddly enough after 15 years, NYC has just come off it)

[Kitayama]

I have never been to Harrisburg, but I can add another reason why Harrisburg sucks. Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station.

The site of the worst accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history. It is one year since Fukushima proved that nuclear power is not safe enough.

The Harrisburg accident (as it is called in Europe) was another reminder of that. When should we learn that energy is not worth that price?