Illustration by Rich Hauck.
My last few columns have been, in technical journalism jargon, a bummer.
Over the past few months, I’ve written about COVID this and COVID that—how the virus has harmed Harrisburg’s small businesses and restaurants, as well as the awful effect it’s had on our collective well-being.
Like many of you, I’m now looking beyond this year, which soon will come to its merciful end. And, with that, I’m hoping that 2021 will be a year of recovery as we gradually regain some sense of normalcy.
Having said that—our communal COVID experience hasn’t been entirely worthless. As a country and a community, we’ve experimented with new ways of doing things, which we never would have considered absent this pandemic.
Sure, I’d like to feed most of the “new ways” straight into the shredder. I will dance gleefully around the bonfire watching my collection of facemasks burn, and nothing will make me happier than deleting my Zoom app. But a few of our experiments and adaptations have genuine merit, and I hope we retain them even after we’re again granted the high honor of sitting at a bar.
To maybe no reader’s surprise, street dining is the No. 1 item on my “let’s keep doing this” list.
Harrisburg began shutting down downtown streets for al fresco dining in June, extending it three times as “Saturday Nights in the City,” born out of desperation for our struggling restaurants, proved to be popular.
I expected plenty of pushback from the auto-addicted and maybe even traffic jams on surrounding blocks, but there was actually little of either. Instead, the traffic-free streets turned into one big, happy party, with humans gathering to talk, laugh and chow down, taking back the city from our motorized masters.
Last month, TheBurg featured a painting of outdoors dining at Mangia Qui/Rubicon, showing North Street closed down. Seeing the cover, several people told me that this made Harrisburg look less like, well, Harrisburg, and more like a European street or square.
I think it’s fair to say that, without the pandemic, this radical social experiment never would have happened. Shut down Harrisburg streets? Surely, you’ve lost your damn mind, man!
Likewise, I believe that Harrisburg should take some of its neglected, forlorn alleys, lay down pavers, put in plants and turn them into attractive pedestrian walkways. Many cities have done this successfully and, let’s face it, almost anything would be an improvement over how those alleys look now—and what they’re often used for.
The second item on my “let’s keep it” list also touches upon the good old automobile. The pandemic demonstrated that many of us are able to work remotely—perhaps even more efficiently sometimes.
One-hundred-percent remote work may not be possible or desirable. But 50%, 25%? A white-collar city like Harrisburg, thick with office workers, would seem a perfect fit for a more mixed work environment.
This flexibility might offer greater work/life balance to our daily army of suburban commuters, but it would also help return the city to its residents. With less traffic, we could narrow State Street, narrow Forster Street and scratch the ridiculous I-83 widening—maybe even reduce the downtown portions of 2nd and Front streets to two lanes. I’m getting all flustered just thinking about it.
But then what happens to Harrisburg’s office buildings? Many would still be in use, since they’re largely state-owned or leased. But others could be transformed to apartments, a trend that Harristown already has pioneered. Even before COVID hit, residential, not office, space was the hot commodity downtown. And less traffic and more green space would make the center city an even more desirable place to live.
Indeed, for much of human history, there was little distinction between living space and workspace. Then the automobile came along, and suddenly we had discrete places to live, work and play, with the car shuffling us between them.
Due to COVID, we seem to be returning to the old way of doing things.
I immediately can think of two friends—one in Midtown, the other in Shipoke—who both used to commute to jobs in Hershey. Since the pandemic hit, they’ve telecommuted from their Harrisburg homes and love their new, car-free lifestyles. Neither expects to ever return to the commuting grind.
I’ve read that rural areas might emerge as winners when people can live wherever they want, remote from their jobs. Perhaps. But a small, inexpensive city like Harrisburg might also have a competitive advantage, especially among people who also value walkability and easy access to urban amenities
To the COVID-weary, I say—take heart! All year long, we’ve endured one massive dump of lemons. It’s nearly time to make the mother of all lemonades.
Lawrance Binda is co-publisher/editor-in-chief of TheBurg.
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