I will probably never live in a city like Allentown, Pennsylvania again. Allentown has an incredibly interesting history. Allentown has the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen, and will ever see again in my life. Allentown has welcomed me with open arms and I never looked back on that decision. But I never would have ended up in Allentown had I been told about it before I was accepted to Muhlenberg College.
I remember being in my senior year of high school and people who were going to schools in New York City, Philadelphia and Baltimore talking about how they would have to get used to living in tough city when all we had known as a group was a fairly white, middle class rural-suburban childhood. We talked about how they would be more crime at college. Girls shouldn't walk alone at night on campus. Should we all go buy pepper spray?
I joked because I was simply going to Allentown, Pennsylvania, and all I had seen of it from visiting Muhlenberg was fairly nice houses owned by fairly wealthy families in a fairly safe-looking town. Then, I did a little more research and was surprised by what I found.
Fact: Allentown is the third most populated city in the state of Pennsylvania. There is a fairly high crime rate in the city of Allentown. The public school system is not well spoken of. The majority of people in the city are people of a Latino heritage. Many of them recently immigrated to this country. Because of this as well as most of the major businesses failing in the city about 40 years ago, the city is socioeconomically struggling and has been for awhile.
This surprised me. It had seemed so safe, so rich, and so white.
Fact: None of these things made Allentown a worse city. Allentown does have a high crime rate, but if it didn't have several college campuses in it, the crime rate would be significantly lower. The school system is struggling against a government that favors wealthy white citizens as opposed to those who constantly are being accused of being illegal immigrants.
As a student at Muhlenberg I was encouraged to go to the "safe" places of Allentown. A few grocery stores, a few restaurants, Target, etc. I didn't go into "real" Allentown, the city where not everyone is white and wealthy, until my junior year.
Allentown is an amazing city. It's full of culture, it's full of beauty, and it's full of people. I feel safe in Allentown; it's my home and if people feel unsafe there they shouldn't be going to the school that claims it is part of Allentown. Allentown is beautiful. I love it, and I hope other people will too.
