ARTICLE
This has been an exciting, stressful and exhilarating two weeks. I moved into a new home and am extremely excited for my daughter Christina and her husband Jeff to move into my old house and raise my granddaughters in the home she grew up in. Chrissy has lived in Manhattan and parts of North Jersey, but apparently she missed the Lehigh Valley. Even though she’s lived in some of the most exciting cosmopolitan hot spots, she always yearned to move back to the Lehigh Valley. To add to the wonderful chaos and moving disruption, my daughter Alex and her husband Casey brought a beautiful baby girl into this world last week. She, too, recently moved back home after living in the Philadelphia region. What’s going on here? It’s clear to me that young people are coming back to the Lehigh Valley after exploring major metropolitan areas. While the dream of leaving home and moving to the “Big City” is a great exploration for many young people, for some reason the Lehigh Valley calls you back. I’m not saying this is the case for everyone, but more and more, I see young people moving back. Quite simply, this is a great place to live. The Valley calls us back for a lot of really good reasons. It calls us back because it’s affordable. It calls us back because it’s filled with good people. It calls us back because our Main Streets are vibrant, for the most part. It calls us back because when you come to an intersection, someone waves for you to go first. It’s called courtesy, and thankfully we are still hanging onto a fair amount of it. It calls you back because our quality of life has skyrocketed. Every week, you have your pick of arenas, ballparks, running paths, movie theaters, concerts, restaurants, church festivals and large activities to chose from. You no longer have to travel to be entertained. It’s all here. Name an act, we got it. A recent Morning Call article noted that the Lehigh Valley is getting younger and more diverse. For example, in Lehigh County, those who identified as non-Hispanic white shrank in population by 6.4 percent, while those who identified as black increased 8.9 percent, Asians increased 9.1 percent and Hispanics increased 16.3 percent. And, the median age has dropped from 39.4 to 38.8 — making Lehigh County the fifth youngest in Pennsylvania. I see these changing demographics in the Chamber’s Young Professionals Council. I see it in our Hispanic Chamber and the African-American Business Leaders Council. There are so many impressive, community-loving, young and minority future leaders in this Valley. I get to meet them and see the potential they bring to the table. The potential they’ll bring to our future Valley. But we must encourage and allow them to emerge as the leaders and visionaries we will need to continue this great run we’re on. They will show that “Times They Are a Changin’,” and the resource of our bright, young, minority community will not be wasted. The door of both participation and leadership is wide open. This diverse and inclusive future community will be black, white, Asian, Latino, female and gay. Working together, side-by-side, we will make this Lehigh Valley region even greater than any of us ever envisioned! Tony Iannelli is president and CEO of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce. He can be reached at tonyi@lehighvalleychamber.org. Read the original article here.
This has been an exciting, stressful and exhilarating two weeks. I moved into a new home and am extremely excited for my daughter Christina and her husband Jeff to move into my old house and raise my granddaughters in the home she grew up in. Chrissy has lived in Manhattan and parts of North Jersey, but apparently she missed the Lehigh Valley. Even though she’s lived in some of the most exciting cosmopolitan hot spots, she always yearned to move back to the Lehigh Valley. To add to the wonderful chaos and moving disruption, my daughter Alex and her husband Casey brought a beautiful baby girl into this world last week. She, too, recently moved back home after living in the Philadelphia region.
What’s going on here?
It’s clear to me that young people are coming back to the Lehigh Valley after exploring major metropolitan areas. While the dream of leaving home and moving to the “Big City” is a great exploration for many young people, for some reason the Lehigh Valley calls you back. I’m not saying this is the case for everyone, but more and more, I see young people moving back. Quite simply, this is a great place to live.
The Valley calls us back for a lot of really good reasons. It calls us back because it’s affordable. It calls us back because it’s filled with good people. It calls us back because our Main Streets are vibrant, for the most part. It calls us back because when you come to an intersection, someone waves for you to go first. It’s called courtesy, and thankfully we are still hanging onto a fair amount of it. It calls you back because our quality of life has skyrocketed. Every week, you have your pick of arenas, ballparks, running paths, movie theaters, concerts, restaurants, church festivals and large activities to chose from. You no longer have to travel to be entertained. It’s all here. Name an act, we got it.
A recent Morning Call article noted that the Lehigh Valley is getting younger and more diverse. For example, in Lehigh County, those who identified as non-Hispanic white shrank in population by 6.4 percent, while those who identified as black increased 8.9 percent, Asians increased 9.1 percent and Hispanics increased 16.3 percent. And, the median age has dropped from 39.4 to 38.8 — making Lehigh County the fifth youngest in Pennsylvania. I see these changing demographics in the Chamber’s Young Professionals Council. I see it in our Hispanic Chamber and the African-American Business Leaders Council. There are so many impressive, community-loving, young and minority future leaders in this Valley. I get to meet them and see the potential they bring to the table. The potential they’ll bring to our future Valley. But we must encourage and allow them to emerge as the leaders and visionaries we will need to continue this great run we’re on. They will show that “Times They Are a Changin’,” and the resource of our bright, young, minority community will not be wasted. The door of both participation and leadership is wide open. This diverse and inclusive future community will be black, white, Asian, Latino, female and gay.
Working together, side-by-side, we will make this Lehigh Valley region even greater than any of us ever envisioned!
Tony Iannelli is president and CEO of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce. He can be reached at tonyi@lehighvalleychamber.org.
Read the original article here.