The Week that Was: News and features around Harrisburg

January 17, 2020 | by Lawrance Binda

A model unit in Harristown’s new BenMar building.

The weather may have been crazy this past week, but the news overall was surprisingly subdued. Still, this warm/cold week produced some interesting stories and, if you missed one, we have our coverage recapped below.

Art knows no boundaries, and even a river can’t run through it. So says our fine arts writer, who visited two recent exhibit openings on the West Shore. He offers all the artsy details in his semi-monthly blog.

Cameron and Mulberry Street intersection in Harrisburg has been causing headaches all week for area motorists, as PennDOT has been conducting work on the Mulberry Street Bridge. Click here to find out what all the fuss was about.

Harristown has begun signing leases for three downtown buildings as it prepares to debut more than 80 new apartments in downtown Harrisburg. Find out where these apartments are and all the other important details in our online feature story.

Home sales in the Harrisburg area are on the rise, as are prices. The Greater Harrisburg Association of Realtors this week released its latest statistics, and we have a county-by-county breakdown of the numbers.

Homelessness affects many families in our area, and a new play gives voice to the stories of homeless children. Discover how this fascinating narrative came about, with young people playing an essential role in the telling of these stories.

Liz Moore is a novelist who’s made a name writing compelling books that weave together fiction and the gritty real world. The author will appear this weekend in Harrisburg, her third visit here. We have the details in our online story.

MLK Day of Service is almost upon us, with numerous activities planned for Monday. Read our feature story to learn the highlights of the day and how several Midtown businesses are joining forces to help those in need.

Sara Bozich hopes it doesn’t snow this weekend, as there are so many things going on around Harrisburg. Before you head out, check out her long list of activities and events, including Friday’s 3rd in the Burg.

The Red Boat has docked on Reily Street in Harrisburg, serving Vietnamese cuisine with many creative twists. Read our feature story to discover what to expect when you get on board.

Tomboys Barbershop recently opened in downtown Harrisburg, fulfilling a dream for a local woman who long had her eye on the space. Read her fascinating story from our January magazine.

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Midtown businesses team up to help others during MLK Day of Service

January 16, 2020 | by Maddie Conley

Many businesses along the 1000-block of N. 3rd Street in Harrisburg will offer free and discounted food, items and services during MLK Day of Service on Monday.

For one day, a Harrisburg ice cream shop will be scooping hot food instead of cold.

Businesses on the 1000-block of N. 3rd Street are teaming up this MLK Day to provide food, blankets and clothing items to those in need in their community.

Along with Urban Churn, Gifted Hands Barber Studio, Pastorante and Keystone Diner are collecting donations in order to participate in a day of service.

“There are people that don’t have anything,” Gifted Hands owner Mike Payne said. “I don’t like that.”

The barbershop will be giving out blankets, hats and socks, as well as soup and $10 haircuts. They will have resources with information on housing and after school programs as well. Other involved businesses will be serving food. Community members can stop by any of the locations from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The idea came through a conversation between Gifted Hands’ Manager Keisha Ordaz and Adam Brackbill, owner of Urban Churn.

“We want to collaborate our ideas so we can continue to make it a community barbershop,” Ordaz said.

Neighboring businesses such as Central Pennsylvania Buy and Sell, District Bar and Lounge and Mahatam Mini Mart are donating, as well.

“Businesses have a responsibility not just to make money, but to give back,” Brackbill said. “It shows you’re a part of the community.”

Gifted Hands and Urban Churn hope to continue this day of service in the coming years, including more businesses in the Midtown area.

“If all the businesses get together, there’s nothing that can stop us,” Ordaz said.

All of the businesses are located on the 1000-block of N. 3rd St., Harrisburg. For more information on the 2020 MLK Day of Service, read our recent feature story.

Weekend Roundup with Sara Bozich

January 16, 2020 | by Sara Bozich

Happy Weekend!

sip @ soma brings North Country Brewing to downtown Harrisburg TONIGHT and tomorrow! (Both 6 p.m. slots are full; 8 p.m. seatings have availability.)

Plus, it’s 3rd in the Burg!

Will it or won’t it? Snow, that is. Sort of holds the future of my weekend. I have plans to take Bo to see Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood at Hershey Theatre on Saturday. Plus, that night is the GK Team dinner. Of course, if snow happens, none of that likely does.

Otherwise (and maybe entirely), a chill weekend for us, and that’s a-OK by me.

What are you doing this weekend?

(more…)

Novelist Liz Moore slated to return to Harrisburg for book talk, signing

January 14, 2020 | by Yaasmeen Piper

Author Liz Moore

Kensington, Philadelphia: a place that straddles the line between the Lower Northeast and North Philly.

It’s the home to a large black, Hispanic and Polish American population and, more recently, an area marked by gentrification. Kensington is also one of the neighborhoods within Philadelphia that was hit hardest by America’s opioid epidemic.

This Friday, for 3rd in the Burg, Liz Moore returns to Midtown Scholar’s stage to read from her latest novel, “Long Bright River,” which dives into both the opioid epidemic and its effect on Kensington.

The book tells a fictional account of sisters Michaela “Mickey” and Kacey Fitzpatrick. The two are inseparable, almost like one another’s shadows, but they eventually become estranged due to one sister’s addiction. Mickey becomes a police officer who patrols Kensington, the same neighborhood where her sister works in the sex trade to fuel her addiction.

Kacey goes missing around the same time that women in the area are being murdered. So, Mickey takes it upon herself to solve the murders and find her sister.

“Most of the research [for the book] was organic,” Moore said. “I was there anyway, in the neighborhood for other reasons and other projects. So, a lot of it was just absorbing what was going on around me.”

Moore lived in Philly for a decade, and, in 2009, started a photojournalism project in Kensington, which turned into a long period visiting the area and writing nonfiction and fiction pieces about the area. She got to know more people in the community through volunteering, teaching a free writing workshop at a day shelter and just talking to people.

“As a writer of fiction, I often draw from my own life to a certain extent, but I’m also very aware of my outsider status in Kensington, which is important to point out,” she said. “I’m not from there, I didn’t grow up there. I think it’s more of, I found it an interesting place.”

Most of the research for her book came through absorbing her surroundings in Kensington. However, she also interviewed addiction counselors and people who suffered from addiction and spoke with family members of people with addiction, police officers and other people in the community. Almost everyone she talked to had some sort of connection to the opioid epidemic, whether they themselves had an addiction or had an addicted family or friend.

“My hope is that [this book] allows readers to be all the characters—characters who are suffering from addiction, characters who have lost someone from addiction,” Moore said. “Both are very very difficult positions to be in. I hope this book puts a face on something that we read a lot about in the news.”

This is Moore’s third time visiting Midtown Scholar. In 2017, she read from her then-latest novel “The Unseen World” and, in 2019, returned to moderate an event with novelist Téa Obreht.

On Friday, Moore will share a bit about her inspiration behind “Long Bright River,” do a reading and hold a Q&A session, as well as sign copies of her book.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Liz Moore back to the Scholar. She already has many devoted fans and readers here in Harrisburg. So, it’s especially exciting when she comes out with a new book,” said Alex Brubaker, manager at Midtown Scholar. “‘Long Bright River’ has so much anticipatory buzz behind it from booksellers, book clubs and reviewers that’s so well deserved. It truly is one of the must-read crime novels of the year.”

See Liz Moore this Friday, Jan. 17, at 7 p.m. at Midtown Scholar Bookstore, 1302 N. 3rd St., Harrisburg. For more information visit www.midtownscholar.com/featured-events. For more information on Moore, check out her website at https://www.lizmoore.net.

Harristown wraps up 3 downtown apartment projects, begins leasing process

January 13, 2020 | by Lawrance Binda

The interior of an apartment at the BenMar building at 116 Pine St.

Harristown Enterprises has largely completed the renovation of three downtown buildings, bringing more than 80 new apartments onto Harrisburg’s housing market.

The city-based company has begun leasing the Fox on Washington, a boutique building with eight units, as well as the BenMar, two adjoining buildings that total 74 units.

“We’re very excited to have reached this important point,” said CEO Brad Jones.

Tenants have already begun to move into the Fox on Washington, a 114-year-old brick building on the corner of S. 2nd and Washington streets in Shipoke.

That 1906 building, originally the Fox Hotel, had long housed Santanna’s Seafood House, with apartments upstairs, but had been empty for decades before Harristown purchased it from UPMC Pinnacle in 2018.

The entire building has now been converted to apartments, with two, two-bedroom and six, one-bedroom units.

The BenMar at 116 Pine St.

On the other side of downtown, Harristown has begun to sign leases for a project on Pine Street that it calls the BenMar Apartments, as BenMar was the original name of one of the buildings.

That project consists of two adjoining, mid-century office buildings that Harristown converted to a mix of one- and two-bedroom residential units. This project began about a year ago.

A unit at the BenMar at 124 Pine St.

The larger of the two buildings is at 116 Pine St., with 49 apartments in a mid-century modern architectural style. The building next door at 124 Pine St., with 25 apartments, has been renovated with a modern farmhouse look. Both buildings date from the mid-1950s.

Rents for all three of the buildings range from $1,050 to $1,475 a month depending upon the size of the units and number of bedrooms and bathrooms.

Harristown plans several open houses so that prospective tenants can view the two BenMar buildings. They will be held on successive Saturdays, Jan. 18 and 25 and Feb. 1.

With these buildings, Harristown has delivered some 150 new apartments downtown over the last few years, mostly converting old, rundown office buildings into residential space. It now is seeking final city approval for another residential project, with plans to convert an office building at 17 S. 2nd St. into 30 new, market-rate units.

For more information on these apartment buildings, visit www.hbgrealty.net.

Home sales, prices increase across the Harrisburg area

January 13, 2020 | by Lawrance Binda

A row of houses near the state Capitol in Harrisburg.

Home sales and prices both increased in December, as the residential market continued to be strong in the Harrisburg area.

For the three-county region, home sales jumped 15.4 percent compared to the year-ago period, while the median sales price increased 3.6 percent, according to the Greater Harrisburg Association of Realtors (GHAR).

In Dauphin County, residential sales rose to 273 units compared to 238 in December 2018, while the median sales price increased to $166,900 from $165,000, said GHAR.

Cumberland County saw sales go up to 283 units versus 234 a year ago as the median price rose to $215,000 compared to $207,900. In Perry County, sales dipped in December to 21 units from 28 units in the prior year, while the median sales price rose to $182,500 from $161,450, stated GHAR.

Throughout the region, the average days on the market fell considerably, down 8.3 percent from the year-ago period, GHAR said.

Bob’s Art Blog: The Wild West (Shore)

January 12, 2020 | by Bob MacGinnes

Part 1: “Untamed Color at CALC”

There is a distinct difference between fine art and fun art—exactly three letters (“i,” “e” and “u”). “I” is for imagination, “e” is for energy, and “u” is for you—audience appreciation.

Carlisle Art Learning Center (CALC) provided all three at opening night festivities this past Friday. The G.B. Stuart Gallery downstairs presented 33 works by local artists who passed muster for entry into the juried show, “On Thin Ice.” Meanwhile, the Upstairs Gallery addressed a social issue tackled by art anthropologist Carrie Breschi and a cadre of art colleagues.

The title for this blog sounds like it might be an ad for L’Oreal but it’s not—it tackles a more serious subject. “What I have, they used to call the blues,” crooned Karen Carpenter back in 1971.

It occurs every year at the time of the winter solstice around Dec. 21, when the sun does not rise above the horizon. Sounds ominous, right? In reality, it affects about 10 million Americans annually, myself among them. The culprit is Seasonal Affective Disorder, otherwise known as SAD. For millennials affected with SAD, picture the normally bright, sunny, smiling emoji looking pale and wan. I use both adjectives to make a point. With one spin of the color spectrum at “Untamed Color,” not only does its color return to that golden hue, but it is flashing a big thumbs up.

Breschi, co-founder of the organization and education center/gallery, has hand-selected an aggregate of artists—Allen, Oakes, Reed, Rook and Stone. This CALC consortium sounds like a crack team of lawyers but, in truth, they are SAD-busters. Breschi and team know full well that the bleak days of winter take their toll on the human psyche. “Untamed Color” is truly a call to arms for an optic approach to mood brightening. The artists have created an installation in which color runs riot in an interactive gallery designed to chase Ol’ Man Winter out for good.

The “Untamed Colors” arcade of art features Cathy Stone’s “Paint-ULUM,” a whirligig push and paint pinioned by a paintbrush tripod, so that patrons can create their own radial rhombus (pictured). Supervised on opening night by Lanik Minaya, the ever-spinning mechanism never tired, indefatigably illustrious, taking on a life of its own. Artist Aron Rook took the high road to fantasy with her fine art, “Allegro,” an acrylic-on-wood panel in sumptuous shades of sherbet (it made me wistful for flora and fauna in a sauna). Somehow she agreed. We must be from the same school of fish.

Thomas Oakes’ “Time to Play,” a multi-colored playground, incorporated spinning wheels, movable magnets and an interactive galaxy designed for fun. All were created from found objects, including cast-off storage bin baskets. Deb Allen’s “Wild Spots” has a polka-dotted pup (think of a playful Dalmatian whose pigmentation portrays every color imaginable), capturing your heart as a plush toy personified. She was joined by Breschi making “Joie’ de Vivre” streamers splendid of paint-dripped splatters. Breschi continued her art in a colorful corner with multiple casts of her hands holding a rainbow of sponge balls in “Carpe Diem,” urging others to seize the day and chase the blues away. Carol Reed’s “Random Acts” integrates mellow yellow and outrageous orange with singing suns and lit lanterns, as well as an orange-netted divan for sitting on and sipping an Orange Crush.

CALC’s exhibiting artists for “Untamed Color”

If all of that doesn’t work somehow, in extreme cases, perhaps broad-spectrum light therapy is needed to allow the skin to produce vitamin D, since this vitamin deficiency triggers cases of SAD. As for me, I have now graduated from light therapy to “write therapy,” and it seems to be working.

“Untamed Color” runs through Feb. 1, with a special interactive “Make, Shake and Take Day” on Jan. 25, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., free to the public, and children especially are invited to participate in this color extravaganza. For more information, visit www.carlislearts.org.

Part II: (The After Party at) Metropolis: “A Wintry Mix 5”

Pulling up outside Metropolis Collective, an art crowd had filtered out the front lobby’s door, taking a break from the music while, inside, the buzz was heady with art that had escaped from the walls. Twenty artists, exploring the limits of normalcy, pushed that notion off the ledge in this latest exhibit.

All artists represented share a similar point of view, advancing the idea that art makes its own rules. It was opening night for “A Wintry Mix 5” at Metropolis in Mechanicsburg. A major draw was the appearance and art of local legends, Zack Rudy and Garrick Dorsett, aka the Huckle Buckle Boys (HBB). Call their brand outsider art, raw art, marginal art, whatever—it is truly their own. When art spills out of the imagination onto the canvas and it is unlike anything else seen before, it doesn’t need a copyright because the works themselves are truly identifiable, as are the artists’ fingerprints—no two alike. Rudy and Dorsett fit that category, and their art is categorically channeled: chaotic and calm at the same time. Their paintings portray portals to vistas vast and varied.

“Just a Bird Being a Bird” by Zack Rudy and Garrick Dorsett (The Huckle Buckle Boys)

The team of owner Richard Reilly and gallery director Hannah Dobek divided and conquered with Reilly, a rock-and-roller himself, overseeing the stage of rock-e-teers, while Dobek did double-duty as hostess and artist-in-residence. They have assembled an army of auteurs loaded with their own arsenal of art. Without Dobek’s influence holding sway at Metropolis, the underpinnings of multiple mediums (music, art, entertainment) may break loose from their moorings and create a murky miasma that runs pell-mell over the streets of Mechanicsburg.

Dorsett and Rudy enlisted early on in the concept of their art armory, unleashing their own brand of subversive subterranean art for the collective. In the latest show, “A Wintry Mix,” they demonstrate a force that even the “Star Wars” storm troopers can’t repel. Dobek co-opts a milieu darkly Lynchian with her subtly subversive studies of the seamy underbelly of a Main Street America that has gone looking for itself in the rearview mirror. Evening highlights were HBB’s, “Just A Bird Being a Bird,” Nicole Dube’s “The Red Mistake” (a doppelganger of Bonnie Parker from Bonnie and Clyde fame dressed with a red beret) and Mark May’s “Boxed.” Reilly was ever-present as the evening’s entertainment hit overdrive and high-energy rock pulsed from the rear stage, set on a cavernous causeway, allowing Johnny 5 and The Flyin’ Helos to land their band, which experienced liftoff all night long.

“The Red Mistake” by Nicole Dube

Metropolis is a city unto itself, where characters come and go, passing through the turnstiles of time, some more comfortable climbing up walls as paintings and some just as onlookers to a scene from a movie that is playing in their minds. For an insider’s view to outsider art, check out the vibe at Metropolis. You just might expand your mind and your mien.

“A Wintry Mix” runs through Feb. 21 at Metropolis Collective, 17 W. Main St., Mechanicsburg. For more information, visit www.metropoliscollective.com.

The Week that Was: News and features around Harrisburg

January 10, 2020 | by Lawrance Binda

Newly hatched chicks strut their fluff at the PA Farm Show.

It was almost like the holidays never happened, as everyone settled back into their old routines this past week. Here at TheBurg, we had five full days of news reporting, and, boy, are we tired. In case a Farm Show food coma caused you to miss any of our coverage, we have it all recapped right here.

Art had a good year in Harrisburg in 2019. So says our fine arts writer in his look back at the past 12 months. Take a blast into the recent past with his year-in-review blog.

Capital Region Water soon will have a new home, as the water/sewer authority has bought an office building on Front Street in Uptown Harrisburg. Find out the details of their move and what that may mean for customers from our online story.

Harrisburg swore into office three returning City Council members, as well as the city treasurer. Afterwards, council held a reorganization meeting to elect a president, who indicated her priorities for the next two years. Our online news story has all the details.

Harrisburg police held their annual swearing in and promotion ceremony this past week at Whitaker Center. We got a first look at the newest recruits, in addition to the many veterans taking on more senior posts. Get glimpse at the pomp and the circumstance in our news story.

Midtown Cinema passed an important milestone on its way to a major improvement project. Our story tells what happened and offers an updated timeline for the construction.

No Shave November finally concluded last week, with Harrisburg police scraping off two months worth of fuzz. Find out why they hung up their razors for eight weeks from our online story. Hint: It was for a good cause.

PA Farm Show has many attractions, but we chose to write about chickens this week. The chick hatchery is always a highlight of the show, and this year was no exception. So, we paid it a visit for our online story.

Qualified Opportunity Zones were touted as a new way to drive investment into poorer communities, including those in Harrisburg. Our January feature story takes a hard look to see if anything has developed.

Queen’s BBQ & Southern Cuisine isn’t technically open for business yet, but they are welcoming people who want to sample their food. Find out the details of what the owners plan to do in our most-read story of the week.

Salvation Army last year moved into a brand-new and much larger facility near the Harrisburg city line. Our magazine feature explains why the move was made and takes a peek into the new building.

Sara Bozich is gearing up for the final days of the 2020 PA Farm Show. But she says there’s plenty to do this weekend around Harrisburg even if you never step foot into grand exposition space. Check out her weekly list of events and activities here.

Do you receive TheBurg Daily, our daily digest of news and events delivered right to your email inbox? If not, subscribe here!

Expect slower traffic, delays due to Mulberry Street Bridge work

January 10, 2020 | by Lawrance Binda

This map shows where traffic will be affected this week due to bridge work.

Traffic will slow down later this week at the busy intersection of Cameron and Mulberry streets in Harrisburg, as the state Department of Transportation undertakes façade work on the Mulberry Street Bridge.

According to PennDOT, a crew needs to remove concrete from beneath the arch spanning Cameron Street and from the top of the bridge piers along 10th Street westbound, as well as the two-way ramp from Mulberry Street to Cameron Street.

A recent bridge inspection showed that some sections of the concrete façade were loosening, necessitating the removal of a small section of the concrete.

“Although the concrete is not in danger of falling, the department is removing it as a precautionary measure,” according to a statement from PennDOT. “The removal of this concrete will not adversely impact the condition of the bridge.”

A crane will be used to access the work sites from the Mulberry Street Bridge, PennDOT said.

As a result, Mulberry Street will be reduced to a single lane, and Cameron Street will be reduced to single lanes in both directions from Tuesday, Jan. 14, to Thursday, Jan. 16, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Also, left turns from Cameron Street northbound onto 10th Street westbound will be prohibited during work hours.

Flaggers will be used to provide traffic control, stated PennDOT.

Farm Show Notes: Chicks, ready for their close up

January 9, 2020 | by Maddie Conley

Hatchlings scamper around the chick display at the PA Farm Show.

If you’re mourning the loss of a PA Farm Show favorite—the duckling slide exhibit—don’t worry. There are some new yellow, feathery babies to ‘ooh’ and ‘aww’ at.

At the new Bell & Evans display, you can learn about the company and its products, while also seeing for yourself their chick hatching process.

“The chicks are really the star here,” Executive Vice President Margo Sechler said. “But it’s good to see consumers get excited about quality products.”

Bell and Evans is a local, family-owned company based in Fredericksburg (Lebanon County) that focuses on creating organic and antibiotic free products by using humane treatment towards their chickens throughout the entire process. This includes their work in the hatchery, at the near 150 family-owned Bell & Evans farms and all the way to the consumer’s table.

“We’ve always tried to be the pioneer and the leader in the industry,” Sechler said.

She explained that, as far as they know, they are the first company in the world with an organic hatchery. This means the eggs are not injected with antibiotics and the chicks have access to feed and water as soon as they are born rather than waiting a few days, as is common practice among other companies.

“You need to have a healthy environment that’s stress free,” Sechler said.

In the Bell & Evans Farm Show display, visitors can see the three-step process of the eggs resting in the incubator, the chicks hatching and the newborns toddling around and feeding. While visitors get a glimpse into the process, they are seeing only a fraction of it. Bell & Evans hatches over 1 million chicks each week.

“It’s adorable, I love it,” said Emily Myers of Reading. “We [Myers and her husband] want to have a farm someday, and it’s important to see the whole process.”

Not only does Bell & Evans let you see the beginning steps of the farming process, but they have plenty of the end result to taste at the Farm Show, as well. In the food court, they are serving their classic chicken tenders along with a new item, Parmesan-breaded chicken meatballs. All of their food items are organic.

“There is a big demand for organic,” Sechler said. “People are asking such great questions. They want to know where their food comes from.”

Their chicken products can be found all across the country in Whole Foods, Wegmans and Giant Food Stores.

The Bell & Evans PA Farm Show display is located behind the food court in the Expo Hall. For more information or to take the Bell & Evans virtual tour, visit www.bellandevans.com.

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Happy Weekend!

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