With spring finally upon us, city residents’ thoughts turn to better days ahead after a particularly long, cold and snowy winter. In a similar way, the city itself is poised to emerge from a half-century-long “winter” of misguided urban planning and destructive transportation infrastructure with several upcoming projects that will reverse many of the mistakes made during the 1950s and give way to better days ahead.
Starting shortly, much of Front Street, historically Harrisburg’s most important road, will get a makeover with the addition of a bike lane, repaving, curb improvements and, most significantly, a reduction from three to two lanes of vehicle traffic. Then, perhaps in the next couple of years,N. 2nd Street will return to two-way traffic from Forster to Division streets. Both plans, approved by PennDOT and promoted by Mayor Papenfuse, are long overdue transportation improvements that have been talked about since the 1970s.
Most immediately, both changes will improve safety for residents and visitors alike by slowing vehicular traffic and encouraging pedestrians and bicycles. The Susquehanna River, physically divided from the city by not one, but two, three-lane “highways” running through residential neighborhoods, will be reconnected to those neighborhoods that border it. Property values and the overall condition of the Midtown and Uptown neighborhoods will improve as the highways shrink in favor of the original residential streets and traffic patterns. Currently, property values for similar-sized homes on 2nd Street are about one-third less between Forster and Division, where traffic is one-way, compared to properties north of Division Street, where traffic is two-way; no one really wants to live next to a three-lane highway, and market prices reflect that.
From an economic development perspective, the change could add tens of millions of dollars in increased value over the coming decade. From a civic perspective, the change is priceless.
Meanwhile, commuter traffic into and out of the downtown will experience slower traffic moving north to I-81. I personally take these streets several times a day from my downtown office to my home near Italian Lake and look forward to a more leisurely commute instead of the frantic current pace. Some traffic that uses these streets to go through the city as a route to somewhere outside of it will no doubt find alternative routes, to the benefit of all.
Just as important as the immediate practical impacts on safety, economic development and beautification is the profound symbolic and philosophical impact of these changes. They signal nothing less than the city beginning to reclaim itself as the central place in the region while simultaneously shaking off a mid-century view of cities as places to leave a quickly as possible, as reflected in their transportation infrastructure.
To understand the broader contextual impact, one must first understand why these streets were changed from their original two-way nature in 1956 by then-Mayor Nolan Ziegler. While the stated reason was “easing congestion,” ironically, Ziegler’s inspiration came not from local residents but from his traffic engineer Eugene Simms, a transplant from New York City. And those ideas had their roots in the ideas of an urban planner who had reinvisioned the nature of cities themselves.
Ziegler and Simms, it turns out, were mere applicants of the ascendant urban design and planning philosophy of the 1950s, known broadly as Modernism. One of the chief architects and leading proponents of Modernism (and perhaps its most destructively influential one) was the architect and city planner Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris, better known as Le Corbusier. The Swiss-French Le Corbusier envisioned a clean and modern city that separated where people work and live. And he placed great value upon speeding the flow of traffic through cities with the creation of multi-lane superhighways.
Although offered as a solution to restore cities that were no doubt neglected and tired in many ways after the Great Depression and Second World War, Le Corbusier’s planning ideas actually caused great harm and have been largely rejected today by New Urbanism and a more mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly view of urban areas. Even at the time, Jane Jacobs, a prominent critic, pointed out in her book, “The Death and Life of Great American Cities,” that the Modernist view was profoundly at odds with the essential nature of cities that requires density, sidewalks and walkability, multiple overlapping uses and the mixing and mingling of people of all natures in order to achieve vibrancy and their full potential.
Put plainly, cities should be built and function foremost for their residents and visitors, not for commuters driving through. A vibrant city that is a great place to live, work and play will attract residents, businesses and visitors. As we’ve learned and as has been borne out in many cities, the ease of getting in and out is secondary, if relevant at all. Anyone who has been to Manhattan realizes that it is not easy or fast to drive in or through. That hardly limits the multitude of visitors, residents and workers who choose to live and visit one of the greatest cities in the world. Of course, this reality isn’t limited to New York. Nearly all great urban centers have traffic and congestion, but people want to live and visit them nonetheless.
So too Harrisburg, in order to realize its full potential, must function first and foremost to the benefit of its residents, not for the ease of entering or leaving. The fact that this has not been the case for more than 60 years is ironic on at least two levels. First, if Harrisburg were vibrant and aesthetically pleasing, more people from the surrounding area would want to live, work and visit, not just pass through. Secondly, when Harrisburg regains its place as the vibrant heart of central PA, the city and all of the region will benefit from a vibrant core. The racing in and out results in the worst of all worlds for both urban and suburban residents.
Most importantly, though, the coming change reflects an improvement in the very civic nature of Harrisburg. With three-lane super-highways racing up and down its best real estate, Harrisburg can never be thought of as anything more than a place to go through on the way to some other, “better” place. However, with restored residential neighborhoods and lovely homes and businesses along the Susquehanna, Harrisburg can once again be the best destination and address for those who choose to live and work in the region, just as it was a century ago. The few extra minutes to arrive and depart—if you must—will be well worth the effort.
In 1956, a mistaken philosophy was thrust upon Harrisburg, and it ripped apart several of its best neighborhoods, helping to hasten its decline in the name of progress. Long after the philosophy crumbled under its own weight, Harrisburg has been living with its consequences and enduring legacy. We are now on the cusp of a major restoration for our neighborhoods, for our city and for our own self-determination and civic pride. It can’t come soon enough.
J. Alex Hartzler is publisher of TheBurg.
