Biden’s agitprop version of the city might be a bit outdated — Scranton now counts higher education and hospitals among its largest employers — but many people in the city are thrilled to hear a national figure speaking about the region with pride, and not mockery.
In a city with a median annual income of about $40,000 and spiking Covid-19 case counts, the national exposure is a welcome bit of good news. And though Donald Trump tried repeatedly to question the legitimacy of Biden’s connection to the area, some people here feel that only backfired on the president.
“When Trump started coming after Biden, as far as saying, ‘Oh, you’re not really from here,’ people took that personally,” said Amber Viola, the HR director for the City of Scranton and a Biden delegate at the party’s primary convention. “You’re not going to talk bad about somebody from Scranton when you’re not even from here.”
Mini celebrations popped up throughout the city of 77,000 as the day wore on: A dance party broke out in front of The Bog, a popular downtown bar; and a small group stood in the courthouse square proudly waving an American flag. It’s a much different scene from the weeks leading up to the election, when the lawns in the county seemed equally split between Trump and Biden signs. But according to 40-year-old Russ Caspe, that was more a reflection of Trumpworld’s fervency than the candidate’s popularity. “The Trump supporters are louder,” he said. “The whole shy Trump supporter thing, I didn’t see it. There was a lot of Biden support in 2020 that I did not see.”
You certainly saw that support on Saturday on North Washington Avenue, as cars drove through the street blaring their horns and Bruce Springsteen’s voice echoed out of a neighbor’s speaker. At one point, a car came to a crawl and a woman leaned out the passenger’s side window to shout her love for the president-elect. A moment later, she was wrapped in the embrace of another Biden voter. Everyone standing in the vicinity shouted their approval.
“Four years ago, it just felt a little scary,” said 19-year-old Mardan Daurilas, a student at Marywood who was among those celebrating outside Biden’s boyhood home. “I didn’t really feel that much community like I do right now. I’ve been here for maybe an hour or two hours, and I’m starting conversations with people I’ve never met.
“Not all of our problems are automatically solved,” he added. “But, this is a step in the right direction.”