Is Scranton the New Peoria?

Travel Blog  •  Joanna Kakissis  •  10.22.08 | 10:50 AM ET

imageAt the very least, Peoria’s got to be a little jealous, since Scranton is the locale for the wildly popular series The Office and perhaps the most visible campaign stop in the most exciting presidential race in recent memory. Joe Biden grew up in this working-class town, but all the candidates have wooed the city, which, the the Wall Street Journal reports, one local described as “the poster-boy for small-town, blue-collar America.”

Scranton has become the new symbol for small-town America, but the former industrial-star-turned-“armpit of Pennsylvania” is blossoming again. Its population is increasing, its downtown is undergoing a major face-lift and trendy restaurants, hotels and wine bars are opening. Tourism is increasing, too, thanks in part to “Office” fans.

Who cares if Dunder-Mifflin is a fake company? A store devoted to it opens in Scranton later this month. 

Related on World Hum:
* The 2008 U.S. Presidential Candidates Travel Scorecard

Photo by joeshlabotnik via Flickr (Creative Commons).

Tags: North America, United States

Joanna Kakissis's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Washington Post, among other publications. A contributor to the World Hum blog, she's currently a Ted Scripps fellow in environmental journalism at the University of Colorado in Boulder.


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