Illustration by Rich Hauck
Soon after I moved to Harrisburg, I went to the annual Pride parade to take a few pictures to post to TheBurg’s Facebook page.
Stationing myself along the route, I was surprised to see a familiar face marching at the head of the parade: then-Gov. Ed Rendell.
I liked this for two reasons. First, it showed his support for central PA’s LGBTQ+ community, and, secondly, it showed his eagerness to get involved in such a local event.
Here was the governor of the commonwealth walking casually down Front Street, taking time from his Saturday to be part of this fun, colorful, joyous and very Harrisburg happening and, from what I could tell, enjoying every minute of it.
I would soon learn that, for Rendell, this was nothing new. A gregarious, old-time pol, he loved shaking hands and kissing babies, as they say. On any given day, you might find him anywhere around Harrisburg, from a local restaurant to an arts event to a stroll around the neighborhood.
Rendell’s buttoned-down successor, Tom Corbett, didn’t have as strong of a local presence, but he still made Harrisburg his home, living with his family in the stately Governor’s Residence. Not so Gov. Tom Wolf, who, right from the start, made a show of commuting each day in his Jeep between his Capitol office and his house in York County.
You might like Wolf—you might not—but there’s little argument that he’s been a ghostlike presence in the capital city, even more so after the pandemic hit.
We now have a new governor-elect, Josh Shapiro, who takes office in January. With that, I’m hoping for a renewed relationship between the commonwealth’s chief executive and our shared home of Harrisburg.
For the past eight years, I’ve found passing by the Governor’s Residence to be a dismal experience—the lights are out and, literally, no one’s home.
So, my first hope is that Shapiro enlivens what’s been a sprawling dead zone at the corner of Front, Maclay and N. 2nd streets—invigorates it with meetings, visitors, social events and just by people living there. At one time, the residence hosted art exhibits, outdoor receptions and many other parties and gatherings. In contrast, for the past few years, I’ve witnessed little more there than bored security guards, leaf-blowing gardeners and lots of squirrels.
Having said this, I also hope that Shapiro doesn’t cloister himself within the mansion. Harrisburg has a long history of hosting governors, their families and their entourages. Shapiro may never be as social as the extroverted Rendell, but it would be great to see our governor out and about the city once more.
Moreover, I hope for good—and better—relations between the state and city governments.
Too often, the state’s approach has been a one-way street—it took what it wanted from its host city and, otherwise, just sort of neglected it. A Jeep-commuting governor was simply the latest, most manifest sign that Harrisburg was a place for state workers to drive through, not spend time in.
In short order, Shapiro could take a number of actions that would signal a fresh start between commonwealth and capital.
1. A liaison. The state needs to communicate and coordinate better with the city. A positive first step—designating a specific person who can meet regularly with the mayor and other local officials. We need to avoid absurd situations like the one a few years back when PennDOT drew up plans to double I-83, taking Harrisburg houses, businesses and taxable land, without first getting local officials on board.
2. Workforce. The governor needs to set a plan to get state workers back to the office, at least part time. I realize that times have changed, and many employees may opt for a hybrid office/home work situation. But a solid plan is needed, as Wolf’s on-again/off-again return to the office hasn’t served anyone well.
3. Stormwater fees. Gov. Shapiro should make sure that the state pays its share of the local stormwater fee, which, so far, it’s refused to do to the tune of $387,000 a year. In Harrisburg, state facilities are major sources of polluted runoff into area waterways, including the Susquehanna River. The commonwealth cannot claim to be a good environmental steward and continue to refuse to pay this fee, which everyone else must, to upgrade our outmoded sewer infrastructure.
4. PennDOT secretary. The PA Department of Transportation needs new leadership that doesn’t view widening roads as its answer to almost everything. It may be tough to change the engrained auto-centric mentality at PennDOT, but we need an agency that cares just as much about transit, bicycles, pedestrians and other modes of transport, aside from one person in one car. Longer term, I urge the new PennDOT leadership to right-size its roads in terms of what’s needed for the 2020s, not the 1950s. Harrisburg’s state-owned roads are too wide, too fast and too dangerous. They’re vastly overbuilt for the existing traffic volume and are detrimental to the city’s welfare—its people, its safety, its economy.
With that, I warmly welcome our newest neighbor, Harrisburg resident Gov. Josh Shapiro. As attorney general for the past eight years, he’s surely familiar with the capital city. But now he’s in a prime position to help make it even better.
Lawrance Binda is co-publisher and editor-in-chief of TheBurg.
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