Hobby shops with electric trains might be an option too.

> with the way the Southside has shaped up.

If anything, it's better now than it's been in the past. There's all that development on the eastern end of Carson and a lot of the get embarrassingly drunk crowd has moved to different neighborhoods.

I miss the old chaotic south side though, if anything, it's just not as full of life as it used to be. Entire area used to be one big party but honestly, I felt more at risk back then with so many drunks stumbling onto the road. Now it seems frighteningly calm almost any time I go down there.

Me? When it looks more like a shag carpet than a lawn... Junish? lol I want to live near a lawn, not a golf course.

You have a point, it could be read more than one way. Author may have added "so called" on the basis that no one actually is teaching CRT in k-12 and calling it out as BS. On second thought, it's ambiguous.

I don't think it was required at all for active duty out of state, and only PA would enforce it if you had the vehicle back home.

I think my stickers were still valid when I was in SC and NY states but they definitely expired at some point when I was in CA and WA.. was never an issue.

Perhaps I just misunderstood your comment, given the eyeroll emoji.

I'm in a rural-ish area that's about equal distance from Altoona, Johnstown, and Indiana (PA).. 60-90 minutes from Pittsburgh (depending on traffic) and about 60 minutes from State College. I work in Johnstown, currently. I've lived in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in the past.

I have mixed feelings.. it's home, but only because I have a lot of family in the area. I spent so many years of my life trying to get far away that its still sort of confusing that I found my way back here.

The upside is that it has a lot of history and natural beauty. The downside is that population keeps going down and the best minds tend to leave for jobs and greener pastures. There is a small handful of people that make their way back here though. The last few years have been rather depressing, seeing Trump signs go up in the yards of neighbors who I used to respect and trust their judgment. Incredibly, my county actually went for Obama in 2008 with 50% of the vote, although I was actually in Seattle when that happened.

It's weird though because the character can shift dramatically from one small town to the next one 10 minutes over.

I wouldn't really recommend my area to anyone who doesn't already have roots here, as it's not ideal even when you have that. But I did want to emphasize that it's not nearly as bad as some people make it out to be either. But again, that can swing wildly from one town to another. There's not much going on in the rural areas, living here is like treading water... you aren't drowning, but you aren't thriving.

If you want something that feels more like Seattle, I'd try to keep closer to Philly where it feels more metropolitan. Pittsburgh has more of a Tacoma vibe to it but without Seattle in close proximity (although the upside is that if you don't mind longer road trips, Pittsburgh is a nice hub to visit DC, Toronto, Philly, NYC, Chicago, etc.). Pittsburgh is a large enough city that you shouldn't have much difficulty making friends; if you're more introverted, then you could thrive in much of the state. Another thing Pittsburgh has going for it is all the colleges.

Both Harrisburg and State College have a lot of professionals with grad degrees and you're likely to find more people with a healthy lifestyle but they are also a bit isolated from the larger cities. I imagine that Erie might be the same way but I'm honestly totally ignorant of what goes on in Erie.

Other things to consider might be what your ideal weather is, how much you like hills vs relatively flatter regions, what sort of retail you want access to. I have one small Target within an hour's drive in any direction and as silly as it sounds, that fact alone makes me feel like I'm really living in a backwater. Back to weather, you'll get more snow on the west side of the state, more overcast days. Downtown Pittsburgh can get humid but the east side of the state has more humidity and heat for the most part. I'd only consider the west side of the state if you're really into the outdoors and value Pittsburgh as a smaller less sprawling city. Pittsburgh suburbs were built in the 50s and 60s (generally).. the suburbs out of Philly stretch out for an hour in any direction and are still in development.

If I were in your shoes, I'd make a list of things you value... retail chains, hobbies, arts, culture, music, etc. and see where most of the boxes get checked off.

My above comment had a very specific event in mind. A friend had a friend visiting from France and I was escorting her downtown one day because she wanted to pick up a room divider for when her parents were in town to visit. I had remembered seeing some cool Asian rice paper dividers at Uwajimaya so we were headed in that direction. We walked right into a May Day parade with probably 100 people dressed as chefs swing dancing, playing brass instruments, and handing out cakes (which coincidentally, she got one). It was so confusing... and awesome, to just blindly walk into that.

Another example was when my cousin was in town to visit and I wanted to show him Gas Works Park. There was apparently some Fremont Arts Council event going on which was a community mock wedding.

I feel like I never knew what I was going to walk into there.

Well, then I'm confused why you so strongly disagree with the above statement.

The dialects change but it's still guns and Jesus country no matter what corner of the state you go to. And yet, there's also a unique character in those red areas that still make it feel like Pennsylvania rather than Ohio or New Jersey although as I stated above I'm really not sure how to describe it but it's something different and still unifying.

>the population is shrinking pretty quickly, and lots of downtowns are filled with mostly empty shops.

Sadly common place no matter where you go in PA. On the other side of that coin, at least entire neighborhoods aren't being bull dozed to build new 500k condos where they can fit four units where one house was previously which was common in Seattle and San Diego when I was there.

Honestly that's the most depressing thing for me being back in this state, I just feel like all the momentum is elsewhere. There's a "land that time forgot" sort of energy, although still comforting in its familiarity and I do appreciate the local history.

The rural areas are just not super sustainable and too far removed from city hubs. It's funny but I sometimes forget where I live until I want to go out and try some new restaurant and realize there are no new restaurants to explore!

More likely you haven't visited the right pockets of Pittsburgh.. you go two blocks over and suddenly you feel like you're in Lancaster only they eat gobs instead of moon pies. Pittsburgh itself is a bit bipolar like that.

I've lived in both Pittsburgh and Philly.. Philly feels more like living in Chicago, San Diego, Phoenix, Seattle (other places I've lived). Pittsburgh is rather unique and boonies in its own way.

Whether I'm around Danville, Gettysburg, York, Lancaster, Sharon, Oil City, etc. there is definitely a sort of commonality although it's hard to describe.

Harrisburg is fine, but there's a sudden drop off about maybe five miles out.

A lot of other areas are fine too, from a feeling safe point of view, but then there's always this sense that you need to make the town better rather than actually just being happy where you live and enjoying what's already there.

When I lived in Seattle, especially... you'd just turn a corner and walk into some memorable and wonderful experience. Out in the PA boonies, you have to actively look for things and they're few and far between.

The red areas aren't actually that bad. But I'd definitely avoid the burgundy ones.

The downside to my red district is that I know my local votes don't matter at all. We do have a Dem state rep amazingly enough but he's of the Joe Manchin school of being a Democrat (none the less, they are really trying to push him out now that the Dems gained control of the state house... holy cow the political ads I'm getting right now are weekly attack ads in March).

I would honestly say that any medium size town that has decent cultural options, and food selection and that sort of thing... is probably going to feel safe and welcoming, even a few pockets in otherwise red counties.

The trouble you'll run into is more finding a community where you really feel at home rather than running into any sort of outright animosity. As a middle aged adult that mostly sticks to myself these days, there aren't many places in PA where I'd truly feel unwelcome or uncomfortable although many of those same areas I couldn't run away quickly enough when I was young and more outgoing (and more frequently around younger people with less of a filter).

So to put it another way, if an area meets all of your other needs, I wouldn't worry about LGBTQ+ working against you. I'm smack in the middle of a red area and can see two different same sex households from my bedroom window and a third household currently has a pride flag up. Myself, I'm queer but don't tend to flaunt that the way I did when I was younger.

Obviously, there's going to be a safer bet with higher population density, in general. But again, there are pockets all over.

Decade away due to military, and then another five-ish years in Chicago. I have a love/hate relationship with PA. Not sure I consider Lancaster a greener pasture, it's still very much Pennsylvania no matter what corner you're in... just a slight variation of the same.

Closer to Philly definitely makes me feel a bit less like I'll be battling zombies any time soon but then I miss the wildness. If I was independently wealthy I'd likely hang out in large population areas for a few months at a time (London, Paris, Singapore, Tokyo, etc.) and then spend the other half of the year in New Zealand or Alaska just trying to avoid people.

I sometimes miss the healthier lifestyles of the West Coast but I don't miss the woo woo.

>Gallikers iced tea

I like how even that is only east of Pittsburgh.. at some point it transitions into either Ritchey's or Turner's or whatever. What is it with W PA buying up instant iced tea already mixed for us?

lol... against Casey, at that. Casey who had 55% of the vote last time and a strong family legacy.

Best Dougie could do is maybe chip away at Bob's "pro life" credentials which may have been a good strategy 30 years ago, not in 2024.

I can use Facebook through a browser.

The apps are where the danger lies. And while a Facebook app certainly could be abused, the threat doesn't come from foreign nationals.

I had a secret clearance in the Navy, and I fully support US government devices being blocked from apps from hostile countries. There's nothing racist about it as it's well known that China actively collects information about our military. Are they actively using TikTok to do so? That's speculative (and/or confirmed but not to the general population). Given the way the government runs over there, they certainly can if they aren't doing so at the moment.

I'm not a fan of how the far-right pulls all the red scare BS with China or how Trump and co. turned Covid into some bizarre xenophobic nonsense. But on this particular topic, the decision appears to be objectively made, not for political gain and propaganda as you propose.

I doubt that I'll convince you otherwise, but I wanted to be clear that my own support of this move is not based on racism or any dislike of the Chinese people more generally. I do not consider the current Chinese government trustworthy, and that's different from not trusting the people/ethnicity more broadly.

Shoo, troll. Don't bother me.

Facebook is a danger insomuch as it propagates nonsense to gullible people who use the platform as a source of news.

TikTok is a danger in that it's a backdoor to hack government devices and computers.

Both are a danger, but in very different ways.

And considering there's a federal ban doing the same, I can't really blame them for following the lead. If it was some rogue action, I'd roll my eyes, but this hardly seems newsworthy at the county level.

You know, I never thought about this.. you're correct. Interesting trivia on PA I hadn't considered.

They aren't kids, they're probably all in the 25-35 age range. What they are is exploited cheap labor so that the university doesn't have to pay more for professors who have finished their PhD already.

Not sure what all they are demanding as I'm not following this strike, but I wouldn't just write them off as kids who don't have a valid issue with how things are being run. They are students, but they are also employees.

thanks!

My 'rights' to gender-specific bathrooms? Does this nut want to start burning down all the homes with unisex bathrooms? These people are all so coocoo.

What's up with litter boxes? Is there a story there or is this some weird anti furry rant?