My assessment of York
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7/12/2017
I lived in the East end of York city basically on the Border of spring Garden township. Moved there in 2005 and left in 2015. These are my opinions and views from my perspective, nothing more nothing less.
Here is my review:
Weather: I will start with weather as many people find this the first thing they look for in a town, The Summers are hot (in the 90's and sometimes 100's) and somewhat humid (not like Florida or South carolina or anything but still humid) The Winters can range from mildly cold 30-40 degrees to a frozen hell of sub zero temps, snow can range from barely any one year to 2 30 inch snowstorms in one week with several more large snowstorms all winter, so as far as winter goes you never know what you will get. Oct. and May are the only really nice months.
Property taxes: HIGH HIGH SO DAMN HIGH!!!! Highest percent wise I have ever seen in my life...and I lived in NJ before. I can give you an example, my house in York was assessed at $50,000 and the yearly property tax (school and municipal) was $3000. that is more than 5% of the houses value every year in tax!!!
Roads and schools: for that high tax mentioned in the previous section you would think the streets would be paved in gold, or at least paved smooth, they are not, in fact they are some of the worst roads I have ever seen potholes everywhere broken asphalt and when they have to go under the road to fix lines and repave they do not use a steamroller they just shovel asphalt in the cut square and run it over with the truck a bunch it seems, or when they do use the steamroller they do not use enough stuff and the square sinks to a dip, there are these messed up squares everywhere some of the roads would be nicer if they just tore up the surface and left it dirt. In the winter they plow the main arteries fairly quickly but the side roads take them days to get to. And now schools, you would think for these taxes that the kids would be the most well educated around, but no! York city schools came in 499th in the list of 500 PA school districts (second to last!!!) Taxes are not being used to better the roads or schools or anything they are supposed to
Jobs: There are more jobs in York than there are where I am living now but that is not saying much. for someone who is not specialized in a field there are basically two choices, 1.warehouse jobs that force you to do mandatory overtime and retail/fast food that are low hour PT jobs with low pay
Crime: York city is extremely crime ridden for its size, one year it ranked 18th in the country for murder. I personally witnessed a boy of 14 laying lifeless in the downtown area at about noon with cops standing around him later on the news I learned a bunch of 14 year olds had a shootout in the streets (this was downtown) my area mostly experienced a lot of car and garage break-ins and property damage, my car got invaded twice. I hear it has gotten even way worse in my area since I left from people who still live there
Shopping: most of the shopping i did was not in the actual city but more in the East York, and West of York areas, Good selection of stores and they just re-did Manchester Mall which was kind of dead into a nice outdoor style Mall, for a traditional mall you can go to Galleria in East York. all the usual corporate stores and eating establishments can be found in both these areas as well. Downtown York has some small privately owned stores that are cute and eateries that are real nice, and if you like drinking there are a lot of different types of bars.
Parks and Bike trails: York county has a lot of Parks and a cool rail trail, I will jsut say the Park situation is very good for any kind of park you like, many many park choices as compare with other places i have lived and they are all very nice
People: the people of York can range from really pleasant to really grumpy, there really does not seem to be an overall mood to the place.
Located: York is located in PA. PA can be an annoying state to live in for various reasons many taxes and fees they like to nickel and dime you, not as bad as NY or NJ but they still take that cue. the car inspection style is one of the worst money grabs, the state leaves it in the hands of private garages to do your yearly mandatory car inspections which of course they always find something to "Fix" for you so you can pass, most everybody i knew never got away without at least a 500 dollar bill to get their car to pass the inspection, a nightmare that you have to look forward to every year!! and they also do mandatory yearly emissions testing in the York area.
Lona | Warrenville, SC