Illustration by Rich Hauck.
We get visitors.
Nearly six years ago, TheBurg moved into very visible space on N. 3rd Street in Harrisburg and, since then, we’ve had people, every day, stream into our office.
Some are attracted by the merch displayed in our storefront window. Some come in to praise or complain or just say hi. Some folks tell us their life story.
Recently, a woman walked in to buy a sweatshirt and, in the process, said that she and her husband had moved up from the Tampa area to retire in Harrisburg. I thought to myself, “Doesn’t it usually work the other way around?”
Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised. Last year, U.S. News & World Report named Harrisburg the No. 1 place to retire in the United States. Yes, in the whole U.S. of A. Take that, Florida!
Now, our visitor didn’t come to Harrisburg because of that report, but, talking with her, she cited several of the attributes mentioned by U.S. News: affordability, walkability, easy access to the outdoors and larger metros.
The chilly, gloomy winter weather didn’t seem to bother her.
She chose to rent in the 1500 Condominiums, but other large buildings in Harrisburg also have become retiree havens. I know of several empty-nesters who have sold their houses and downsized to live in places like Riverview Manor and the Parkway, giving them easy access to restaurants, the waterfront, theaters, etc.
These buildings are not specifically meant for senior living, but they have become magnets for the over-65 set.
The problem, though, is that there simply are not enough of these buildings. Harrisburg city has few large apartment/condo buildings and not a single market-rate building explicitly designed for seniors.
Contrast that, if you will, with Lancaster, where Willow Valley Communities is erecting a 20-story, modern-style building smack-dab in the heart of the city. Soon, a couple hundred seniors will be strolling around downtown Lancaster, spending their disposable income in its restaurants, shops, galleries and farmers market.
Have developers heard that Harrisburg is now ranked No. 1 in the nation for retirees, while Lancaster has dropped to a lowly No. 3? If not, they read it here first.
About a decade ago, I wrote a column saying that Harrisburg should stop trying to be something it’s not. It’s not a museum mecca and never will be. It has some nice attractions, but isn’t a tourist hotspot either. Once an industrial city, those days are long gone. And while a state capital, Harrisburg oddly isn’t really a political town—even less so after COVID.
As I said all those years ago, Harrisburg is a walkable small city with great urban neighborhoods, situated on a beautiful river and geographically blessed near larger metros. That’s the destiny it should embrace.
In other words, a growing population—and the small businesses and enterprises that support it—is its destiny, not industry or tourists or state workers. Harrisburg should do what it can to attract residents who want an urban lifestyle at a fraction of the cost and congestion of its larger East Coast peers.
To me, that means narrowing and right-sizing busy streets to make the city even more livable. It means cracking down on a predatory army of slumlords and improving the housing stock. It means making streets safer, more attractive and more pedestrian-friendly. It may mean up-zoning and encouraging density in places like downtown and Uptown.
Another big blessing: Harrisburg has thousands of empty tracts of land where this development can occur. Heck, there are three large, underused surface parking lots just on my small, Capitol-area street. Half-empty office buildings, post-pandemic, present another opportunity.
Recently, the Washington Post lauded the success that Cleveland, Ohio, has had transforming a former transit hub into an urban “living room” full of people, not exhaust-belching cars and buses.
The strategy was threefold: Cleveland focused its efforts on a compact area downtown to build density. It created an attractive “public square” with green spaces, pedestrian areas and recreational amenities. It then offered incentives to developers to build there.
In response, since 2016, five nearby office towers have been converted to apartments, bringing in over 1,000 new residents. And, to serve this population, new restaurants, cafés, bars and shops have opened.
There’s no reason something similar can’t happen in Harrisburg. Sure, Cleveland is much larger, but it’s like Harrisburg in some key ways—a post-industrial city with a huge population loss and a downtown that’s seen better days.
The ways it’s dissimilar are also notable, as they’re almost all to Harrisburg’s advantage. Harrisburg’s location, walkability, Victorian-era neighborhoods and temperate climate are all huge pluses.
Most importantly, Harrisburg is a compact, well-located city that already is attracting young professionals, telecommuters, retirees and urban dwellers from larger, more expensive cities. It has some buzz and a running start. A lack of decent housing, though, both affordable and market rate, is dampening the city’s potential and its growth.
Back in 2013, I called Harrisburg, “a little jewel of a place perfectly sited on a grand river.” I further said that, “To succeed, Harrisburg must do small city well.” I continue to believe that this is Harrisburg’s superpower and the key to its future.
Lawrance Binda is publisher and editor of TheBurg.
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