[laughs in Trump]

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.

There are things I like, things I don't - as with anywhere.

Gettysburg is a good spot, worth at least one visit.

Don’t die.

Nazi Clown weighing US Senate run. (Fixed it for you)😂

Five miles, north. Carlisle and York are also fine and pretty much everywhere in that triangle.. with some exceptions. Lancaster would be fine too.

Welp, looks like you didn’t read the article either.

Pretty similar experience here. Even married someone native to the area also.

DE has a higher income tax and has no tax reciprocity with neighboring states. I live in PA mainly because I'm on the border with NJ and our rental rates are cheaper than NJ and we're not in NJ.

I thought the flat rate was 3.07% for a long time. Even sales tax (unlike NJ) has been at 6% since I can remember (outside of Philly, at least)

Fuck churches more than Martin's? At least their bread tastes better than the churches'.

I grew up in Allegheny County then moved to Perry County shortly before I married my wife, who is a native to the area. It was a bit of a culture shock at first, but over the past thirty years, I've come to love it out here.

So far this is the best option especially because of the cost.

The secret to getting what you want in politics is to be involved in politics. Most Americans checked out decades ago. Religious folk did not. They stayed, manipulated, cajoled, paid, bribed, greased, streamlined, and just generally made things happen in politics in favor of them.

So, they get what they want. The rest of us just complained online.

There is a lot more to politics than voting, and right now the authoritarian Christians are the ones doing all the extra shit the most. Saying "it's illegal" to something is kind of meaningless when the power that is meant to make it illegal is being controlled by the group doing the illegal shit.

We can keep saying "that's illegal" until the entire US constitution is re-written and it is simply not illegal anymore because that is what they wanted.

Lol! Any reason in particular? 😂

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"A fisherman made an unexpected discovery in FDR Park over the weekend when he found an alligator-like reptile lurking in the water."

That's actually clever as hell. I leave them on because usually a cop only gets a glance at that part of your window, so I'd rather them see that there are stickers and go on about his or her day. Also, unfortunately, the verbiage in my lease agreement states that my car needs to have up-to-date stickers or they can remove the vehicles. You are right it is a lazy way of keeping inoperable cars out of the complex.

Not a bad place to live. My wife really wants to go take pictures at the Gettysburg battlefields.

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.

I’ll look into that! Perfect, thank you so much. 😊

I don’t know what you mean by strongly disagree.

All that frack moneys gonna pour in any day… they’re gonna lower the gas rates any day… 🤡

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