Some have been paying attention, but for others, the Lehigh Valley's comeback (from something like the washed-up, jilted ex of expired industries like Bethlehem Steel to a network of thriving, reinvented communities) hasn't fully registered. Of course, the proximity to New York and Philadelphia is an obvious plus, but looking inward, years of hard work to build up the ABE area has borne nutritious fruit. Modern improvements dovetail with lovingly maintained or restored historical features and traditions, increasing demographic and social diversity invigorates the community and downtowns are balanced by beautiful park systems and easy access to Pennsylvania's forested mountains and tree-lined rivers. Those outside the lovely Lehigh Valley hardly know it exists, while those inside might take it for granted. For a fresh perspective, these Valley transplants share their impressions since making the area their home.
Krishan & Manasa
Living in Washington, D.C., Krishan Thakker and Manasa Kamineni were confirmed city people before moving to the Lehigh Valley last year. When Krishan took a position in the legal department at Lutron Electronics Co., Inc. at the end of 2017, the couple began their search for their home in the Valley. Krishan looked forward to life with a definitive commute instead of the boundary-blurring, seven-minute walk to work, while Manasa, working from home for a start-up, had reservations about how much life would slow down.
“We didn't know much about the area,” Manasa says, “but we fell in love with it.”
The history and architecture of historic Bethlehem, where the couple lives just a short walk from Main Street, charmed them right away. “It was the first neighborhood we stayed at,” Krishan says, “and I thought, this doesn't feel suburban or rural. It's like a neighborhood of New York or D.C.” It also reminds him, originally from London, of an English town, and provides the tastes of home at McCarthy's Red Stag where British biscuits and beer are sold.
In the early days, when the two didn't know anyone yet, the friendly owners of Tre Scalini took them in with warm hospitality and delicious pasta. Now the streets of Bethlehem are full of chance encounters with neighbors and business owners they know by name. Krishan and Manasa like to stock their bar with locally crafted beer and liquor from Bonn Place and Social Still, and pick up cheese at Kavva's Polish Market, run by the same family that produced Krishan's barber at Steel District.
Whether it's flitting to Morocco over the holidays or to dance classes in the Dominican Republic, they love to travel spontaneously, seeking out authentic experiences, and that's balanced with a zest for more domestic activities like hosting a book club or taking piano lessons. As a home base, the Valley offers fun, comfort and an international airport that continues to add new routes!
The proximity of major metropolises is an obvious plus for Valley denizens, but Manasa and Krishan also love the access to Bethlehem's neighboring cities. Their historic home was built in 1755, so their taste for industrial modern décor had to be tweaked. “We went to all the antique stores in Easton,” Manasa says, “because there are so many and they're so good.” Easton's vibrant downtown quickly became a favorite stomping ground.
The Lehigh Valley is also small enough to allow the average person a say in local civics. In D.C., unless you're part of the political bubble, it's next to impossible to feel involved. Here, Manasa joined a friend at a reelection campaign happy hour and met the mayor of Bethlehem. “In D.C., you just don't have that kind of access. Here, certain things seem more conquerable, and I love that,” she says.
Their skeptical city friends have visited and become converts, calling the Valley a “hidden gem.” Whether it's the mayhem of Musikfest, the storybook colors of fall or the snow globe quality of Christmastime, Bethlehem is beautiful, and always offering new things. On the agenda: hiking, learning to ski and exploring local theater.
Their young Siberian husky, Rex, also loves going on walks in historic Bethlehem, and has brought their family a sense of stability and responsibility to temper younger, more carefree days in D.C.
Their Wish List: When it comes to young people enjoying and investing in the Lehigh Valley, the attitude is: the more the merrier. Clue them in and keep them coming.
Nic & Megan
Megan Braemore and Nic Fulton live in a brand-new apartment building in Downtown Allentown, in a high-ceilinged, window-walled space overlooking the busy office buildings of the city. Though Nic grew up in Allentown and Megan in Nazareth, the two haven't lived here for the past 15 years, so the Lehigh Valley they returned to last year was almost unrecognizable.
Megan was a high-end wedding photographer in Boston, while Nic made his way to Southern California by way of a two-year stint in Thailand, teaching scuba diving. Visiting family for Christmas one year, the two linked up on Tinder and were amazed at how gratifying it was to have shared history. “You don't meet people in San Diego who know what the Great Allentown Fair is,” Nic says.
The two work from home: Nic is North American Sales Director for a Swedish acoustical plaster company, while Megan is a doula and yoga instructor. She recently trained in myofascial release therapy, a kind of self-massage she can tutor clients in to help work out tight muscles. It feels amazing.
“My first job was at Easton Yoga when I was 15 years old,” Megan says. “I didn't even know what an avocado was. I remember people being like, ‘Yoga? What are you doing? That must be a cult.'” Now, the Valley offers activities like barre and Muay Thai, and is more than welcoming to yoga expertise or Nic's specialties: samurai sword, jiu-jitsu and aikido, which he offers lessons in locally. They came back to be close to family, but have found fertile ground to grow professionally.
Cost of living had been exorbitant in San Diego, and even though they loved scuba diving with sea lions and octopi and bopping down to Tijuana, they found clearer water in Bethlehem's spring-fed Dutch Springs. “They have buses, boats, trains, planes; all sorts of things are sunken, and they're all dive-friendly,” Nic says. “You can swim through a school bus.”
The lush green of summer in Pennsylvania was a welcome change from ocean and desert terrain. “It was almost overwhelming,” Nic says, “driving down 78 with green everywhere, assaulting you with its beauty.”
Socially, too, they say Allentown is refreshingly earnest. “Everyone's excited to be here,” Megan says. In their parents' generation, people seemed bent on leaving the city for a suburban lifestyle with the corporate homogeneity of the mall as their shopping hub. Now, many young people are more interested in supporting locally owned businesses they can walk to.
Organic everything feels like the default in California, and that's tough for a foodie to leave behind for an area where that's harder to find. Their freezer is stocked with grass-fed meats from Hershberger's in Sellersville and their apartment building is served by Local Food Market LV, an enterprise delivering fare from local farms ordered online.
With restaurants like The Dime—“on the record, best cheeseburger in the Lehigh Valley,” says Megan—or Nic's favorite menswear store, assembly88, Allentown is providing its people with the modern lifestyle that young professionals want, and keeping traditions like the Amish breakfast at the Farmers' Market that takes Megan back to her childhood.
“We want to invest in Downtown Allentown,” Megan says. “People have taken so much initiative already—you just have to plug into it.”
Their Wish List: Every downtown is a bit of a food desert, its denizens crying out for a grocery store. The ideal: hubs for local and organic groceries, like the long-awaited Bethlehem Food Co-Op.
Learn About LINC
Moving to a new town is never easy, especially for someone with a family and its attendant needs. For those employed by LINC's clients, though, there's a welcome wagon to ease the transition. Started in May of 2015, Lehigh Valley Inter-Regional Networking & Connecting Consortium (LINC) steps in for businesses who've hired in from out of town and helps connect those hires with the resources to start building a life here.
More than half of LINC's clients are moving here with a partner, and 25 percent of those partners are also looking for work, so the Partner Career Services program strives to make sure that partner can settle in, too. With LINC's help, these folks are finding jobs 39 percent faster than the national average. Social and professional networking is also facilitated through LINC, whether it be casual introductions or fun events.
From 38 clients in its first year, LINC grew to work with 128 in 2018, and doubled its stable of volunteer ambassadors from 10 or 15 to 30 people ready to show a new face or family the ropes.
From imparting the definition and function of a Wawa, to finding a language tutor, to pinpointing the best store for a certain ingredient, LINC takes the wide-eyed wandering out of relocation to make sure these much-needed skilled workers and their families feel good about coming to the Lehigh Valley—and staying.
484.719.0017 | linc-lv.com
Michael & Margaret
Michael and Margaret Renneisen were living in Margaret's native northern Louisiana before moving to Allentown three years ago. For Michael, it was a return to his home state. He grew up in Media, just an hour and a half away, but whether from a Philly suburb or the Deep South, neither came in knowing much at all about the Lehigh Valley.
Shreveport, where Margaret had attended medical school while Michael worked as a lawyer, is a much hotter, flatter place, and the two were excited to be migrating north. Michael moved up ahead of Margaret and bought a house within sight of the Allentown Farmers' Market, knowing his wife would approve of the well-maintained old brick house and its cozy radiators.
“When I arranged to meet the realtor over at the Farmers' Market, I wasn't expecting much,” Michael says. “I had been to a lot of farmers' markets where it's literally a truck or two, some tables and a couple heads of lettuce.”
Little did he know that the soft pretzels he'd loved growing up and had even shipped from Philadelphia to the pretzel desert of Louisiana were now right on his doorstep, along with a panoply of treats. “It reminds me of Reading Terminal Market. It's great. They have every form of pretzel you can imagine, and I definitely take advantage of every one.”
Shreveport does boast an annual Mudbug Madness Festival celebrating the noble crayfish, but the Valley appears to bristle with festivals and events almost without pause. In their first year here, they tried to hit all the big festivals. “It was like being in heaven,” Michael says.
You've heard of “Southern hospitality”? Margaret had heard the opposite about cold Northerners reluctant to give one another so much as the time of day. “I was really shocked, when we moved here, how friendly people are. They're just very welcoming, which was a nice and unexpected thing to run into.
“It's nice to have access to music and be able to get out of the house, hang out somewhere with people to meet,” she adds. Her residency at Lehigh Valley Hospital will finally wrap up this summer, setting her free to relearn the art of leisure. “The last couple of years, I've had so little time to do anything besides work, it's hard to remember what I like to do!”
Starting from scratch in a new place, Michael was enjoying so much immigration work at South Bethlehem's Hispanic Center that he decided to open his own practice. Lehigh Immigration has been a terrific success since 2017, though the current administration continues to make Michael's job harder. “Every month I'd say it can't get any worse, and then it does.” But compared to the divisive nature of litigation, practicing immigration law is a much more rewarding side to be on.
Michael's father called it, back when they were looking at houses together: “You know, you might want to settle down here.” Three years on and their family includes not only a small dog, Eden (fluffy, brazen and one-eyed), but an adventurous baby girl, Joanna. When Margaret's schedule relaxes, a renaissance of exploration will begin for the whole family.
Their Wish List: Why can't we have a train that runs to New York City and Philadelphia? Oh, reasons? OK. But a train would be amazing!
Learn About the LVEDC
The Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC) is devoted to recruiting employers to the area as well as helping existing businesses grow. Their research tells a story of healthy expansion, and it's fueling a new marketing campaign to help get the word out.
Only 18 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties grew in population since the 2010 census, and two of those 18 were Lehigh and Northampton counties. Lehigh County grew almost 5 percent in a seven-year period, making it the third fastest-growing in the state. It's also third highest in net migration, a measure of how many people are moving in versus out.
In the last five years, 26,000 Valley jobs were added. Our most popular industries: health care, manufacturing, distribution and e-commerce. In a survey of more than 300 Valley employers last year, 89 percent told the LVEDC that they planned to hire in the next 12 months, and they're counting on skilled workers to make their businesses successful. Even more than operating costs, this is the factor determining where companies choose to locate.
With that in mind, LVEDC tracks one age group in particular, the highly employable 18-to-34s that make up most of an active workforce. The Lehigh Valley trends young with around 30 percent in that age range, compared to Pennsylvania's 22 percent average. That group has increased in the Lehigh Valley by 5.1 percent in the last five years, but LVEDC's research shows that prime working-age people (21–49) from other places know almost nothing about the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton area.
A new marketing campaign from LVEDC is targeting this obliviousness, sharing the stories of companies and residents of the Lehigh Valley far and wide to increase awareness of what it's like to live and work here. “Made Possible in Lehigh Valley” uses data and analysis from both inside and outside the region to paint a clear and enticing picture of the opportunity and effort making the Lehigh Valley such a great place to live.
610.266.6775 | lehighvalley.org
