Someone paid my area of PA a visit, then proceeded to fan the embers of a decades long class spat between the west shore (where he made a campaign stop, suburban, upscale area...) and the east shore (home of our capital city which is pretty diverse) via Twitter:
Less than 24 hours after Donald Trump spoke to an adoring central Pennsylvania crowd, he insulted Harrisburg while campaigning at his next stop.
Trump said Harrisburg "looked like a war zone" from his plane, according to reporters covering his speech in Virginia.
http://www.pennlive.com/news/2016/08/trump_insults_harrisburg_a_day.html
Is our capital city perfect? No. Like any medium to large city, there's bad areas with crime. There's parts of the city affected by severe poverty. The city school system is terrible. The city has been suffering from years of mismanagement. Slowly, sometimes glacially but slowly, things are trying to improve.
But there's plenty of good things about Harrisburg. The riverfront is beautiful, you see plenty of people on the water in summer, jogging down Front Street, etc. Hosted events on said Riverfront like Kipona, Pride, and Jazz Fest draw decent crowds from both sides of the river. Midtown is flourishing with new restaurants and small businesses all the time - younger (some could say Hipsterish) people are living in that area and the community college has a satellite campus there that's top notch.
Whitaker Center along with the PA State Museum are great places to visit.
The Farm Show Complex is always having something going on, aside from its flagship attraction every January.
City Island is a great place to hang out with friends and family, maybe even see a Senators game.
The suburbanite base that Trump courted yesterday will lap this up. There's always been a "Harrisburg is trash/I never go across the river/I lock my car doors as I go across the bridge" stereotype about the city from a vocal segment of west shore residents for as long as I can remember.
If I had to choose between living in Harrisburg or York City, I'd choose a place in a nice part of Harrisburg like Midtown. It's more interesting than York which just seems blah.
I don't see a war zone when I drive through Harrisburg (because let's face it, I don't fly), I see a struggling, imperfect, city that could use some positive news for a change instead of being constantly shit upon by the very people who live across the river yet refuse to go there (until the Farm Show/Auto Show/Gun Show comes around, ironically) along with some blowhard with a toupee who DOESN'T EVEN LIVE IN THE MID-STATE.
The fuck outta here Donald Trump, and don't let the door hit you in the ass.