GDG- I surrender, you win.

[Margaret D. Blough]

Mike,

The difficulty is that in chosing where to live it's difficult, if not impossible, to find a place that is perfect.  There are always trade offs.  While I love my apartment here in Lower Paxton Township just outside of the city of Harrisburg, I have no particular attachment to the area which is strenuously endeavoring to become the Northern Virginia of Pennsylvania. I would love to live closer to Gettysburg. However, I also know that I do  not want to deal with the hellish traffic on Routes 15 and 581 on the west shore to get to and from work in the City of Harrisburg.  Where I currently live is convenient to work and to major highways.  I work for the state and like my job and the benefits are almost impossible to beat.  There is nothing closer to Gettysburg in my job classification.  Therefore, I have accepted that living in the Gettysburg area will have to wait until I retire and commuting into Harrisburg is no longer an issue.

Gettysburg earned a permanent role in the national memory in July and November of 1863.  The fact that not only the Park but the borough itself has preserved and protected so much of its historic appearance is not only part of its charm, but, to be coldly pragmatic, is in and of itself a substantial portion of its economic base.  Think of the number of people who work in or, in terms of children, are supported by people who work for businesses that cater to the historic tourism trade.  I just finished a long weekend in Atlanta.  The first day and a half was great since we mainly toured well-preserved areas. The last day, quite frankly, would not, by itself, have been worth the trip. The City of Atlanta has preserved very little.  Even for a hardcore, getting off a bus to look at a plaque and be told about and shown pictures of what USED to be there, gets old fast.  I was born and raised in Western Pennsylvania which is still recovering from the collapse of Big Steel.  The one thing
 about historic tourism is that the National Park Service can never get up and move the battlefield to another state or another country.  I know there are people in Gettysburg who are ambivalent at best about historical preservation.  It admittedly does come with inconveniences, but it also brings in a great deal of money and jobs.

Through growing up and working in Pennsylvania my entire life, I have been in a lot of its towns.  Gettysburg may not have the range of shopping available where I live but between the outlet mall and York Street in Straban Township, it has a lot more options than a lot of other towns of comparable size in Pennsylvania.

Regards,

Margaret

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: Michael Brubaker <mike_brubaker at yahoo.com> 

> Esteemed GDG Member Contributes: 
> 
> 
> Seeing as how my point of view keeps getting corrupted, I surrender. Some 
> clarifications before I leave the discussion: 
> 
> 1. I didn't move to Gettysburg to escape "urban blight". I moved here because 
> I'm a PA-raised person and wanted to get back closer to family in Lancaster 
> without having to quit my job in Maryland to do so. Gettysburg was the half-way 
> point. Plus, I couldn't afford $700K single family homes in Maryland at the 
> time. Housing is a hell of a lot cheaper in PA. 
> 
> 2. All I'm expressing is that there are a lot, A LOT, of people in town, both 
> Civil War buffs and not, who wish there were a few more shopping options in 
> town. Not a megalopolis, just perhaps a few more stores. I hear it over and 
> over and over again, so I'm not sure why this is news to you guys. 
> 
> 3. I'm glad my neighborhood has been so welcoming to my family because it seems 
> as though unless you were raised here in the minds of some others, you shouldn't 
> be allowed to live here. 
> 
> Mike 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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