I hate my city

Post Reply New Topic

These are the days where I really hate my hometown and current city where I live by. It's Erie, PA. In 2010 the county's population was 281,000, in 2016 today it estimated 276,000. I feel embarrassed to say I was born in an area with such massive population exodus. This has been going on in the proper city for decades, too. And Trump says he wants to try to bring these jobs back, but haters are gonna hate and at every turn, they refuse to let off. I wish I was alive in Erie during it's peak in the 1950s or even through the 1980s. I wish Erie would undergo a great economic and population miracle, soon. I hate what my city has become:

1) Lower 110 television market with all local television anchors and reporters being interns

2) High crime and poverty rate

3) Lack of jobs or opportunities for young people

We were within the top 100 US cities until 1970, but now we are out of the top 200 or 210 or whatever. I don't want to move though, how can I deal with my community being such a bad area? I want the OLD days of Erie back. I don't want to miss a miracle for the world. Everyone, even people who are on the same page as me politically, told me that I should just accept what's happening.

Gee, maybe I do wish Erie would just just turn into a real ghost town already.

Erie is not New York.

Though, by the same token, it's not Timbuktu.

Yeah, but I'm not looking at super-flashy. I just want to see a better number of people come to live here.

I've driven through Erie, PA and stopped there plenty of times over the years to eat while traveling between New York State and Ohio. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of Erie myself ... that city seems to get socked with snowstorms or tornado weather, I've experienced both. And while I actually love snow, Erie winter weather can make for quite "adventurous"/perilous driving conditions.

That said, why think small?
It's possible you can move out of Erie and into a city you like better at some point.

Yeah, but I have a personal independence problem. Let's leave it at that.

It's better than Lancaster (too bad that's the name of my favourite RWBY ship...), at least by a bit. The politicians are in charge, you just need to figure out their motives.

Apparently jobs in America destroys the environment according to many. It's necessary for American industry to take place in other countries for us to survive. You may finally end up living in a dystopian shell of its former self city, but at least your drinking water won't be poisoned.

There's an NT lady I know who was born a handicapped cripple with cerebral palsy (CP) who uses a wheelchair. She's handicapped for life and will always have certain physical challenges, but was taught how to live independently. She ended up going to college in another state, getting a job there, and moving away from her family so she could continue living on her own. Yes, she had a couple of things that helped her: A supportive family who loved her ... and a positive, "can-do" spirit.

Not knowing your situation ... it's possible for people to learn, grow, and improve.

I recognize the name Lancaster, if you mean Western New York.

I wouldn't be too sure.

Look at Pittsburgh as a place to live. It's not too terribly far from Erie (about 120 miles) and may actually have a future, unlike other rust belt cities.

Yeah, I would second this.

Pittsburgh? The city that's so bad off that a movie set in a post-apocalyptic world that occurs after a meteor smashes into the planet was almost entirely filmed there? (The Road, the adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel.) THAT Pittsburgh? Uh, whatever. I personally think that ANYWHERE in the Rust Belt is a bad choice. The places that are actually worth living in have sky high cost of living and very low wages. Even some of, say, the lesser known places in the Western US like Medford or Redding have pretty much a zero apartment vacancy rate coupled with a mostly minimum wage job market. And as a bonus there's all the pill and meth addicts. Redding has as an additional bonus summer heat that rivals Phoenix-seriously, 118 degrees F for days on end happens quite a bit.

I hate the rust belt. Unfortunately, I'm dead set on wanting Erie to have a future. I just can't accept the fact that it will die someday. At least Pittsburgh is still a top 100 US city and in the top 100 nielsen broadcast markets. Hey, even the Scranton-Wilkes Barre broadcast market is bigger than Erie's.

Pittsburgh is a nice, decent-sized city with distinct neighborhoods and nice architecture. The view from PNC Park, where the Pirates play, is really nice.

It has outgrown its "Steel City" persona. And it has Carnegie-Mellon, a great institute of learning.

What's your next move? Moving to another nearby city or staying in Erie?