Talk:Hazleton, Pennsylvania

Looking for info on the Maria SS Delle Grazie Society, possibly centered at the Church of the Most Precious Blood, in Hazleton, PA. Any info appreciated, please reply to this board.

Hazleton Trivia
Isn't Hazleton the highest incorporated city in the entire state of Pennsylvania?

Please comment on this here.

I believe it is but can't verify. Very few incorporated cities east of Denver are 1700 ft. above sea level, so it may be one of the highest east of the Rockies period (though I doubt it is THE highest). Indeed, very little land at all in the east is that high to begin with, let alone built-up land.--Hairymon 01:29, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

I grew up there, we would all ways say it was. Hairymon, all you need is to look at a typographic map and it will confirm that fact. Its not the highest "west of the Rockies". It is for Pennsylvania,and that is the statement. Ill check the maps but if i remember its 1879 feet above sea level. I'll get back to you on that. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.206.179.199 (talk) 08:35, 18 October 2016 (UTC)

Not totally sure, but I think that Freeland may be the highest above sea level (in Luzerne County, at least). AbeNMS92 (talk) 13:22, 25 March 2021 (UTC)

Primerica and MLM
I agree from my experience with them that Primerica is an MLM scheme (and a shame that Citibank is a part of it), but I still think it is POV to say that here (or at least makes it not look like an "encyclopedia" article). It may make better sense to not mention it at all, though I left it in without the MLM reference. --Hairymon 01:26, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Criticism of Hazleton
I think something about this website should be included: www.nosantaforhazleton.com. This seems to be a scathing commentary on their stance against illegal immigration. Churchymcgee 16:53, 21 December 2006 (UTC)


 * I don't like how CNN and the media depicted Hazleton "mishandling" illegal immigrants, compared to how African-American voters are oppressed in Selma, Alabama of the 1960's, and the social stigma against a rebelling mostly Gay Castro district in San Francisco of the 1980's. Hazleton is a town in need of immigrants, laborers and a younger population, as well an available lower cost of housing and previously a reputation as a racially tolerant community. And suburban life is always in need for cheap labor to work in citizens' homes, lawns, service jobs and janitoral work, and where else to find it?

Today, liberals who support lawbreakers, not hard-working people (most are here legally and gained citizenship status) want to paint a sick picture of Hazleton as full of white hicks, rednecks, neo-Nazis, klansmen or nativists who don't want people with "green cards, brown skin, Spanish names or Mayan features". But the town's first Hispanic people came in the 1920's and 30s to supply factory labor, most from Mexico and Puerto Rico, and their descendants are "Americanized" or intermarried white Anglo citizens. But they recently learn to defend themselves from being targeted by nativists who noticed an "American looks like an illegal immigrant", instead as a US citizen... because he/she is of Mexican/Puerto Rican or any Latino descent are treated harshly.

I find it Amazing the article failed to note most Hazleton residents are descendants of immigrants from places like Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, the Slovaks, Yugoslavs, Greeks and Hungarians in the late 1800's and early part of 20th century. And there are thousands of African-Americans, many Asian immigrants arrived in town and a small Jewish population who came in defense of illegal immigration (and not all Jews are pro-illegal immigrant, but the local Jewish community compared the Latino struggle with theirs). And every ethnic group in Hazleton is complaining about illegal immigration too.

Are we in Hazleton turning into a chauvinist community who want to simply arrest or intern people like we're one big detention camp or deportation center? No...but illegal immigration is something we must do to curtail or stop as a whole, but Hazleton residents aren't sure how to deal with a town becoming a "miniature Latin American country" (sorry to say this, but the very Latino business strip on Wyoming street is why Hazleton is nicknamed the "Hispanic capital of East Coast") and they now wanting to pass laws to harass and discriminate people who "may be here illegally" puts us in a bad direction. 209.247.21.247 13:46, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

This should be added in the article somewhere (from the Standard Speaker):

For the past year, this is how the story was told in the national news: Hazleton, a “former coal town” of about 23,000, had a declining population until around 2001.

Then new Latino immigrants began arriving, opening businesses, starting families and filling vacant homes. More people were on the streets, the school district’s enrollment surged and, many believe, so did crime. When Mayor Lou Barletta’s ordinance targeting illegal immigrants garnered national headlines, “30,000” somehow replaced “23,000” in the well-worn phrase used to describe most cities and towns in northeastern Pennsylvania. Regardless of one’s position on the issue, Hazleton’s growing population was something on which everyone seemed to agree. Except for the U.S. Census Bureau, that is. In its official estimate of every municipality in the country, released last month, Hazleton is still losing population faster than most places in the area, down about 1,000 residents from the 23,329 counted in 2000. While not “disappointed or excited by that information,” Barletta clearly disagrees. “This is just the U.S. Census estimation; they would have no way of knowing what our population is, just like we have no way of knowing,” he said. “These estimations are not accurate, I don’t believe.” As it turns out, a sudden surge of new immigrants is difficult to account for in the formula used for the estimations, census demographer Greg Harper said. The bureau calculates the estimates using 2000 census trends, building permits issued and IRS tax returns. But many new Latino residents started moving to the city in greater numbers after 2000. These arriving residents were more likely to fill vacant homes with larger families than Hazleton’s small, 2.2-people per average household size in 2000. And if there is, in fact, a sizable illegal immigrant population in Hazleton, some may not file tax returns. “If there’s been a big shift in the distribution of the immigrant population since 2000, it would have a hard time picking that up in the estimates,” Harper said. Hazleton’s population — and what percentage of it is here illegally — was debated at length during the federal trial in March to decide the constitutionality of Hazleton’s ordinance. A demographer testifying for the city estimated the illegal immigrant population is somewhere around 1,000 to 3,000, assuming the total population is 30,000. Attorney Witold “Vic” Walczak, of the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the groups suing the city, said the latest census numbers are another example of Hazleton being too loose with facts. Many have expected the decision in the case to come from U.S. District Judge James M. Munley sometime in July. “The mayor has said he doesn’t really care about data; he just knows,” Walczak said. “I think it is another reflection of why data is important, especially when setting policy.” Nonetheless, the unofficial estimate is apparently so entrenched in people’s minds, a Google search for the words “Hazleton” and “30,000” produces more than 76,000 links for Web sites ranging in ideology from the ACLU to Americans for Legal Immigration. “I don’t think there is any question we’ve experienced population growth,” Barletta said. “I don’t think anyone here would disagree.”[]

Here's the thing. Hazleton has always been so mean to people. I mean, i was Irish in an Italian neigborhood and they really discriminated against me when I was young. Most of my fellow students from bishop Hafey 1980, have left the area. The best and brightest were not wanted, only those who super-conformed to the culture.

When you create a vacuum, you have an influx from somewhere. And that influx came from the illegal immigrant population. Perhaps, if they had not rejected so many wonderful people, Hazleton would now have new businesses, educated people, and diversity.70.44.209.8 00:50, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Erm...this is not a discussion forum. I will not object or agree with your POVs despite that I grew up north of Hazleton almost all of my life. But we do not need just negative views of that city in the article. Pieuvre (talk) 10:55, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

I find it interesting that there is only a single mention of the Mafia, which owned the town's mayors and police force and controlled the town for so many years in the 1940s through the 1970s, perhaps longer. It kept big corporations, who did not want to expose their employees to that environment, out of town. The Philadelphia Inquirer did a lengthy detailed expose on Hazleton in the 1970s, calling it "Mob City". Perhaps someone can find it and add it to the wiki entry. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.191.1.165 (talk) 14:12, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Hazleton --- 1945-1963
Hazleton was a great town to grow up in, even though it did have a Mafia influence. With the Mafia there was none of the drugs and killings that are going on now. The Mafia, whose children I went through school with were very nice people. They keep Hazleton a very good city to grow up in, True they owned the city politicians, but heck being a politician is not an honorable profession anyway.There is probably more dirt on most politicians than on most Mafia. I left Hazleton in 63,to go in the Marines, where I spent a career. I mainly left because at that time, there were no jobs. Can-Do was comming on line, I put many dimes in the "LunchPails for CAN-DO" and I see now ther are three industrial parks. Part of my family still lives there and will till they die even though they complain about all the drugs and killings. When I was growing up we were taught Hazleton was the highest city in PA. Also,its nickname was "Pennsylvania's Air Conditioned City". Many people had license plates with that slogan on it. Was there a few weeks ago, down town looks like Hiroshima did in 1945. Wyoming St, looked like drug haven, it was sad to me to see such a nice city, now looking like the barrios of the third world countries. Even though I haven't lived there in years, it still is near and dear to my heart. When Hurricane Hazle gave us a visit, it basically closed down the deep shaft mineing, and the strip mining got even bigger. I High School, we used to joke, "If the Russians ever came to bomb us, they would take one look, and say we'd already been bombed and keep on going". Hazletonian forever, just can't live there. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dawson springs (talk • contribs) 17:01, 15 October 2011 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20071010223637/http://www.hazletoncando.com/population.asp to http://www.hazletoncando.com/population.asp
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070322055321/http://www.smalltowndefenders.com/public/node/6 to http://www.smalltowndefenders.com/public/node/6
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070322055321/http://www.smalltowndefenders.com/public/node/6 to http://www.smalltowndefenders.com/public/node/6
 * Added tag to http://www.smalltowndefenders.com/090806/2006-19%20_Official%20English.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20130114183233/http://www.aclupa.org/downloads/HazeltonComplaint.pdf to http://www.aclupa.org/downloads/HazeltonComplaint.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20130114115312/http://www.aclupa.org/downloads/hzamendedcomplaint1.pdf to http://www.aclupa.org/downloads/hzamendedcomplaint1.pdf
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20071010223637/http://www.hazletoncando.com/population.asp to http://www.hazletoncando.com/population.asp
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070601171559/http://hazletonarea.net/ to http://hazletonarea.net/
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20060822204937/http://www.aclupa.org/legal/legaldocket/challengetohazletonimmigra.htm to http://www.aclupa.org/legal/legaldocket/challengetohazletonimmigra.htm

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Name
Why is it called Hazleton? Is it named after someone / somewhere? Or after hazels? Or something else? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.136.225.189 (talk) 15:22, 9 December 2017 (UTC)
 * The history section of the article provides a good explanation. EricEnfermero (Talk) 15:25, 9 December 2017 (UTC)