How does Harrisburg look to the rest of the world?
Until recently, that question might have seemed silly, as the city, despite its status as Pennsylvania’s capital, is a place that normally gets little attention from outsiders.
But these aren’t normal times.
Due to its financial crisis, Harrisburg has been visited by news crews from many nations–French, German, and British journalists all have been seen walking N.2nd Street. The Arabic language network, al-Jazeera, stopped by in October.
Just last month, a three-person television news crew from Japan spent several days in Harrisburg–going to places even most Harrisburgers don’t.
So, to repeat the question: How does Harrisburg look to the rest of the world?
The city came as a surprise to the visiting Japanese crew– for both good and bad.
The good first: Harrisburg is far more than a financial crisis and a failed incinerator, a one-dimensional view that people may glean from news accounts.
They found a place that is vibrant, interesting and, in places, very beautiful.
“I was surprised to see that the city is still working despite the financial condition,” said Ayuko Hirano, a reporter with Tokyo-based NTV international, a major Japanese broadcasting company. “Even though the city (government) isn’t able to help very much, people are still investing here.”
That view was fostered by J. Alex Hartzler, who took the visitors to see the work that his company WCI Partners, has done to rapidly transform Olde Uptown from blighted neighborhood to charming community of restored homes.
He also showed them the revival of downtown, including the new office building that WCI is constructing on the prominent block of 2nd and State streets.
“I wanted them to see what it’s really like here– that people like it here and feel safe here,” Hartzler said.
Hartzler explained the history of the city– that Harrisburg, like most American cities following World War II, suffered from de-industrialization, loss of jobs and toxic race relations. That today, despite its finances, the city is far more dynamic and has much better prospects than it did 30 or 40 years ago.
Still, there was no hiding the bad, such as the poverty in some neighborhoods. The journalists were particularly saddened by the many empty lots and fields where houses and businesses once stood, especially in the Uptown and South Allison Hill neighborhoods.
“The abandoned areas here were really surprising to me,” said Hirano. “Nobody’s there.”
The news crew is typically stationed in Washington D.C., which has its own problems with poverty and race relations.
Producer Tomoko Horie cited a difference. In Harrisburg, she said, the classes and races seem to interact more.
“In D.C., there’s an invisible fence between the well-to-do areas and the abandoned areas,” she said. “Here, you don’t have that fence.”
As such, they were easily able to find and interview homeless people, in addition to the well-off, the power, the working class and even the young activists of Occupy Harrisburg. The result will be a 5-minute segment on their news station in early January.
“We often focus on the American financial and economic situation,” said Hirano. “With this piece, we want to show Japanese viewers an example of one American city.”
