Washington, D.C., is in a celebratory mood—and why shouldn’t it be?
Last month, the city shouted loudly, “We are back!” as it honored people and organizations that helped turn once-beleaguered city around, neighborhood by neighborhood, block by block. I lived in Washington for many years, long enough to witness a city in a tailspin, devastated by racial animus, crime, crack and horrible leadership. After several false recoveries, an enduring renaissance finally began to take root about 15 years ago.
When I read of D.C.’s celebration of its comeback, I couldn’t help but think of my home now, Harrisburg. So much here reminds me of Washington of the early to mid-1990s. Yes, there’s the bad: an insolvent, dysfunctional local government, an imposed receivership, sniping for political gain, slumlords, blight, crime. But there’s also the good and lots of it—people who have committed themselves to Harrisburg, who have bought homes here and made investments and built businesses here. In fact, that’s what the party in Washington was about. It feted the activists who stayed committed to D.C. in the bad times, people who held the line and tried to move forward, despite urban devastation, an unsupportive, small- minded media and relentless pressure from others to flee to the suburbs.
So, in 15 years time, who will Harrisburg invite to its re-coming out party? My guess is that room will be packed. Here’s what I foresee: developers who the took big risks on troubled neighborhoods; preservationists who helped breathe new life into historic buildings; artists who seeded the city with their creativity; people who made Harrisburg a better place to raise a child; shopkeepers who brought high-quality goods and services; restaurateurs who fed us and attracted outsiders in; politicians and media that sought to unite, not divide, us. It also will include, I hope, people we don’t know yet. Those who helped wrestle Allison Hill from the clutches of slumlords; the cops who walk beats throughout the city; the folks who found ways—and the money—to restore Harrisburg’s decrepit physical infrastructure.
In D.C., the honorees included both those who sustained neighborhoods in the roughest times and those who took it from there. It was a hard slog, a grinding house-by-house, block-by-block effort that required constant effort, with often slow, halting progress, over many years.
Washington, of course, still has its problems, as will Harrisburg, even when things are much better. But D.C. seems to have reached a tipping point, a virtuous cycle of positive reinforcement, one that this city can set its sights on.
Harrisburg can aim for a day when newcomers arrive and see a wonderful, restored, urban place with close-knit, self-sustaining neighborhoods, quaint shops and world-class restaurants—and assume it was always like this.
