The sycamore trees are barren, the Farm Show is upon us, and the Harrisburg beaver has bedded down for the winter. That can only mean one thing. It’s time for my annual review of Harrisburg news stories, a tradition eagerly anticipated each year by at least two of my friends (or so they tell me).
10. Housing Headway
For my annual top 10 list, I have a custom: start with something positive before lowering the boom. In my view, progress made on one of the city’s most intractable challenges—homelessness—is noteworthy. In August, “A Miracle Community” opened in south Harrisburg, offering displaced occupants of “tent city” a more organized, less chaotic place to stay. Moreover, three nearby housing projects hopefully will offer additional, more substantive housing. Despite the progress, this issue isn’t going away anytime soon. Some former “tent city” occupants didn’t move to the new location but onto city streets, creating issues there, especially downtown. Also, there’s simply not enough transitional or permanent housing being built to end the crisis anytime soon.
9. Money Matters
In TheBurg, we write many stories about local budgets: city, county, schools. However, federal and state fiscal policy are typically outside our coverage zone. Not in 2025. Tariff hikes, federal program cuts and budget impasses all offered fodder for a yearlong stream of stories of how national and state policy affected people here in central Pa. Along the way, we interviewed coffee sellers, shop owners, food providers, small businesses, school officials and others directly impacted by the uncertainty, delay and policy shifts. They reported a grab bag of bad outcomes, including price hikes, increased costs, layoffs, hunger and turning away those in need, almost as if, said one person, our own elected officials are conspiring against us.
8. Receiving End
Some things, they say, end not with a bang but a whimper. Such was the case with the Harrisburg School District receivership, which came to a quiet close. Back in 2019, the dysfunctional district was placed under state control, with two receivers running the system for the next six years. The receivership didn’t prove to be a panacea, but the district seemed to run more smoothly than before (granted, a low bar). Then, in June, the receivership expired, with power returning to the elected school board. All in, I’d give the receivership a grade of “B.” Finances and operations stabilized, but student performance continued to lag. Also, both receivers punted on the fate of the old William Penn High School, kicking that can further down the road.
7. Highway to Heck
Back in November 2018, our astute city reporter broke some important news—PennDOT had sketched out a plan to double the width of I-83 running through Harrisburg. Outraged, city officials pushed back, not able to kill the project, but getting it scaled back somewhat. Condemnations and clearings followed before construction finally began about two years ago. But it wasn’t until 2025 that the dust and debris really hit the fan, the year marked by constant demos, detours, closures and gridlock. The city’s largest homeless encampment even became collateral damage, as PennDOT took the land for its project. Indeed, every week seemed to have some I-83-related news, which I expect will continue until the expansion is completed sometime in the 25th century.
6. Fretful Fests
In recent years, Harrisburg’s annual waterfront festivals haven’t been the carefree events they should be, with several serious incidents involving fights and reports (and rumors) of gunfire. For a while, it appeared that we’d make it through 2025 with no major problems, but, unfortunately, that suddenly changed. In the last few minutes of the summer’s last festival, Kipona, a woman in a minivan swerved around a barrier blocking traffic and drove through the heart of closed-off Front Street, seriously injuring several people. A York Haven woman, Elizabeth Ann Bohrer, was arrested at the scene and charged with numerous offenses, including aggravated assault. And, once again, a dark shadow was cast upon what should have been a joyful celebration.
5. More Affordable
A new market-rate apartment building hasn’t been built in Harrisburg in, I don’t know, decades? Fortunately, that doesn’t apply to affordable housing projects, which have popped up all over the city in recent years. In fact, 2025 was a busy year for both groundbreakings and ribbon-cuttings for such projects as Bethel Village, Woodward Lofts and the Savoy, together adding hundreds of affordable units. Some projects even received a share of $8 million in federal grants doled out by the city in October, in addition to other subsidies and assistance. There was even good news for arguably the most troubled affordable development in the city—Governor’s Square—which went into receivership and took the first steps toward rehabilitation.
4. Mayoral Minded
What happens if they hold an election and no one comes? That was my question following Harrisburg’s mayoral primary, which drew only about 5,000 voters. On the Democratic side, the incumbent, Wanda Williams, edged to renomination by just 80 votes over her closest rival, city Treasurer Dan Miller. Miller, though, got enough write-in votes for the Republican nod, marking the fourth straight Harrisburg mayoral election in which a candidate lost in the primary but ran in the general election anyway. In that race, Miller turned up the heat, running a more focused, energetic campaign. Residents responded, and Miller received far greater voter support. However, so did Williams, who proved that it’s tough to beat an incumbent, a Democrat, and, frankly, Wanda Williams, in a citywide campaign.
3. State Security
I’ve long thought that one of the (many) quirks of life here is how estranged the state of Pennsylvania is from its own seat of government—the city of Harrisburg. Having said that, every so often the two converge in a profound way. April 13 was a startling example, as a man scaled the fence to the Governor’s Residence and firebombed part of the building, putting Harrisburg in the national spotlight for several days. A deeply troubled Penbrook resident, Cody Balmer, soon turned himself in, pleaded guilty and, later, was sentenced to decades in prison. The tragedy also cast an eye on the rather lax security at the residence, which, as of this writing, remained in a prolonged, ugly state of safety-focused construction.
2. Market Rate
For the past two years, the Broad Street Market fire, and its aftermath, has been my No. 1 news story in Harrisburg. This year, I’ve moved it down a notch, as the dire state of the downtown eclipsed the dire state of the market. There was even some good news. After more than two years post-fire, work finally began to restore and rebuild the brick market building. On the downside, the price kept escalating. In late September, City Council reallocated $14.4 million for the project, with the cost now estimated at about $23 million—and that was before the mid-December collapse of a large part of an exterior wall. In addition, the city still wasn’t certain how much it’ll eventually recover in an insurance payout, leaving the total financial impact unknown.
1. Downtown Doldrums
I’ll put this as bluntly as I can: downtown Harrisburg is in crisis. Remote work, especially among state workers, has emptied office buildings, deserted streets and slammed small businesses. The governor seems reluctant to order workers back to the office, and the city has shown scant leadership addressing the disaster. Despite this, there were some green shoots of hope, as Harristown continued its decade-long series of office-to-residential conversions, and nightlife impresario Justin Browning debuted a major music venue. Meanwhile, the Harrisburg Regional Chamber and CREDC, the city and state legislators are teaming on a downtown redevelopment plan, which, I hope, will be major, positive news in 2026.
In the end, I’d call 2025 a mixed bag. For every snippet of good news (affordable housing), there was some bad (another empty storefront). My hope is that, a year from now, I can report a nearly completed market building, more affordable and market-rate housing and solid progress for the downtown. Harrisburg, can you turn my frown upside down?
Lawrance Binda is publisher and editor of TheBurg.
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