Johnstown, PA

Would have been a beautiful lake after the flood, but instead they brought it back to be a failed dilapitated mining town

A city in Western Pennsylvania of around 28,000 and shrinking, and unfortunately my hometown. Johnstown, though once a hive of activity from the steel and coal industries, is now a dying town that is barely kept alive by skilled industries such as healthcare and pharmaceuticals. Johnstown is now populated mainly by retirees, who labor under the delusion that you can still get a job in the stillmill. Most young people stay in the area long enough to finish up school or college, and then move on to greener pastures.

Johnstown has very little social activities other than churches and bars, sometimes within 10 feet of each other. If you are not a working-class Catholic who likes cheap beer, you are very unlikely to feel connected to this community.

A town of about 30,000 residents in southwest Pennsylvania 90 minutes east of Pittsburgh. Its claim to fame is the Johnstown Flood of 1889, in which more than 2,200 died--the deadliest disaster in the U.S. until 9/11. The people are very nice in Johnstown, PA, but the town is extraordinarily religious, maybe because there is not much to do other than go to church, bowling, or to a dive bar. Newcomers may find it difficult to break into the well established social groups, since most of the residents have known each other since childhood. It has quite a number of large cemeteries. The population is mostly white. There are very, very few sidewalks and limited public transportation in this very hilly town. Unemployment is a serious problem here and the average wage is almost unlivably low, but housing costs are low, too. The main sources of employment are health care, defense, telemarketing, and retail.

Don't forget to mention that if you don't hunt, fish, eat cabbage, like the Steelers, drink beer, go to bars to hook up, have an opinionated closed mind, ride an ATV and a motorcycle...you simply will not fit in in this town