Greater Harrisburg's Community Magazine
Rendering of the current vacant lot (left) and the medical marijuana dispensary (right).
Two contentious building projects are closer to breaking ground after their development plans were approved on Tuesday night by Harrisburg City Council.
City Council approved the land use plans for both a medical marijuana dispensary on Allison Hill and an AutoZone store in Uptown Harrisburg.
The dispensary generated the most criticism by council members, who passed the building plan by a slim 4-3 margin, with council members Ausha Green, Danielle Bowers and Shamaine Daniels voting against it.
Members who voted in favor stressed they did so not because they support the dispensary at 137 S. 17th St., but because the building plan itself met all city requirements, which was the issue at stake.
“The project is in compliance with all the city laws and regulations,” said Councilman Dave Madsen.
A company called WH RE LLC plans to build a 3,000-square-foot medical marijuana retail store directly across the street from Hamilton Health Center on what now is an empty lot.
About a year ago, the state Department of Health awarded a dispensary license to Local Dispensaries, a related company. City Council has no authority over licensing but had to approve the land use plan for the building.
Following the meeting, Green said that she voted against the plan to “send a message” that she was unhappy with a process that, she said, didn’t include neighborhood residents or take their concerns into account.
“I would like to see more community input even before the application gets to the state,” she said.
With the approval, WH RE LLC hopes to break ground on the facility in spring and estimates a four-month-long construction process, opening next autumn.
“I’m hoping the company will be good neighbors to the residents in the Allison Hill area,” said Bowers.
On Tuesday, council also approved the land development plan for AutoZone, a Memphis-based auto parts chain, to construct a new retail store at the corner of Maclay and N. 7th streets.
Some council members, as well as the city Planning Bureau, had objected to AutoZone’s original proposal for an access point off of N. 7th Street, saying it would create safety issues.
Since a hearing on the project two weeks ago, AutoZone had agreed to eliminate that driveway, leaving two others—one off of Maclay Street and the other from Peffer Street, Madsen said.
“We had multiple discussions regarding this resolution with the applicant,” he said.
Before it can break ground, AutoZone needs to return to council to have several streets vacated on the four-parcel, 1.13-acre site.
AutoZone made its original proposal to locate on the property, now owned by the Vartan Group, about 16 months ago. It is proposing a $935,280 project consisting of a 6,816-square-foot store and 37 off-street parking spaces.
Harrisburg City Council on Tuesday night
Harrisburg has passed a 2020 budget that spends more money on police salaries and debt reduction but does not raise taxes.
City Council on Tuesday night approved Mayor Eric Papenfuse’s proposed spending plan with no changes.
“I think this is a sign that the government is working well together,” Papenfuse said, following the meeting. “We worked very hard to be collaborative in the process.”
Councilman Ben Allatt, chair of the council’s budget and finance committee, concurred that this year’s budget process was a smooth one.
“We had a lively discussion [during the budget hearings],” he said. “I think there’s general agreement about the budget priorities going forward.”
Council voted 6-1 to approve the budget, with a lone “no” vote by council member Shamaine Daniels.
The proposed 2020 budget, which contains no city property tax increase for a seventh straight year, totals $120 million, which includes a $74.3 million general fund, a $17.5 million neighborhood services fund and a $15.3 million debt service fund.
In contrast, the city’s 2019 budget totals nearly $110 million, which includes a $70.8 million general fund, a $20.6 million neighborhood services fund and a $9.8 million debt service fund.
Papenfuse expects the city to run a 2019 surplus of about $1 million. He has attributed the surplus mostly to earned income taxes and business taxes that exceeded expectations, which indicates a healthy jobs climate in the city.
The city will use much of that surplus to increase salaries for police officers, with the hope that a pay boost will help the Police Bureau, which has long struggled with retention, keep its young officers.
In fact, on Tuesday, City Council also approved a new, six-year collective bargaining agreement with the police union to affirm the new pay schedule.
Under the agreement, the entry-level salary for a police officer will remain the same at almost $49,000 a year. However, an officer would be able to move up in pay quickly, so that officers, in year six, would be able to earn as much as $70,000—some $6,000 more than previously.
In all, the city hopes to add 10 to 15 officers to the force, bringing the personnel count to a budgeted 153 officers.
The police union contract didn’t expire for another year. However, the city opened it up early to create the new salary regimen.
“That will hopefully provide an improved retention for our police force,” Allatt said. “The long-term benefit will be good for the city.”
The budget also adds four firefighter positions, mostly paid for by reductions in overtime for existing staff. That would bring the Fire Bureau complement in 2020 to 86 total personnel, plus command staff.
Council also approved a resolution on Tuesday that will amend the city’s agreement with its bond insurer, Ambac Assurance Corp.
Under the agreement, the city will prepay $5 million in debt using its substantial reserve funds. With Harrisburg pre-paying, Ambac has agreed to a “multiplier” that would actually reduce city debt by $6.9 million, Papenfuse has said. He also said he would like to refinance existing general obligation debt that extends through 2022 at a lower interest rate.
The budget contained several other notable provisions.
First, the city and the school district have reached an agreement to split the cost of two school resource officers. The district’s SRO program expired in 2009 when funding dried up and was never renewed.
Papenfuse also is proposing renovating the first floor of the MLK city government center. Money for that work would come from federal Community Development Block Grant funds.
For 2020, the city is focusing on five capital improvement projects. These include:
These debt reduction and capital improvement measures will tap into the city’s substantial budget reserve balance, which now sits at about $24 million, saved up over the last several years. At the end of 2020, the city expects to draw down the reserve to about $15.6 million, Allatt said.
Forster Street in Harrisburg, 4 p.m. on Tuesday
The stories came to me on Facebook, through Twitter, via email and in person.
Last week, I told a harrowing story of nearly getting flattened while walking across Forster Street, Harrisburg’s dangerous mini-highway posing as a neighborhood street.
Apparently, this experience is not unique to me, as story after story poured in from people relating their own perilous journeys across Forster’s eight travel and parking lanes.
“This is the story of my life,” said one Facebook poster. “I’ve escaped getting hit by centimeters along Forster.”
Another wrote, “My husband’s office is on the corner of Forster and 2nd. Can’t tell you how many accidents he’s witnessed over the past 20 years. It’s a drag strip.”
Another reader, a bicyclist, decried the hazard at the foot of the Harvey Taylor Bridge, while several others mentioned nearly getting run over by cars speeding and running lights. Some told of actual accidents, both as pedestrians and motorists.
“I cross Forster every day,” one reader wrote. “It’s a crapshoot. State workers in a hurry just to get to the next red light will run you over and not think twice.”
I could go on and on and on, but you get the point.
Readers also had no end of suggestions over how to improve safety on Forster: better signage, reduced speeds, enforcement, an elevated pedestrian crossing. And, in past editorials, I’ve mentioned differentiated paving, bump-outs and a road diet, among other ideas.
But there seems to be one entity with no ideas—or at least no inclination to do anything about this menace. That’s the owner of the road, the only one that can improve safety on Forster Street and, for that matter, State Street—the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
Speaking with fellow city residents over the weekend, I mentioned that road infrastructure is a curious thing.
At a fixed point in time, let’s say the 1950s, perhaps it made sense to plow through a city neighborhood, lay down acres of asphalt and give our lives over to the automobile. After all, weren’t we all going to rocket to work in our jet-engine cars?
But, since then, things have changed. People want to live in cities again, including in Harrisburg, but they’re stuck in a weird time warp, with decisions made by people of another time and another way of thinking. Over 70 years, society has changed and advanced, but our road infrastructure hasn’t.
Certainly, city residents are willing to make reasonable accommodations for vehicles. Most own cars themselves. But they don’t want to be dominated or victimized by them either. They also want to be able to walk and bike and skateboard and scooter in a city with a more integrated transportation structure–and to do so safely. People shouldn’t have to fear for their lives just because they want to cross between Midtown and downtown Harrisburg.
Bizarrely, PennDOT, headquartered on Forster Street, can witness what’s happening right outside their offices. They literally can look out their building’s windows and see cars speeding and running lights, and sometimes crashing, on the vast, overbuilt asphalt expanse, as well as watch people running for their lives trying to cross it.
It is time for PennDOT to abandon its ‘50s-era obsession with moving traffic as fast as possible and adapt to the new urban reality. In cities, in Harrisburg, there must be a better, more equal and safer balance between auto and human.
Lawrance Binda is co-publisher/editor-in-chief of TheBurg.
New Year’s Eve in downtown Harrisburg includes a strawberry drop and fireworks. Photo: Explore HBG
Fireworks and the annual strawberry drop will ring in the New Year in downtown Harrisburg, as the calendar turns to 2020.
As in recent years, Market Square will be the center of activities for the city celebration.
Downtown, the fun begins at 9 p.m. with “Countdown to Kid-Night” activities inside the MLK City Government Center at 10 N. 2nd St. The free events include crafts, a balloon drop and a milk-and-cookies toast.
At 10 p.m., a DJ will set up outside for music and dancing, in preparation for the midnight drop of the giant strawberry from the top of the Hilton Harrisburg, followed by fireworks.
Aside from the city celebration, many restaurants and other venues are holding special New Year’s activities and menus.
“There are a number of New Year’s Eve events happening in the city,” said Mayor Eric Papenfuse. “From Gamut Theatre’s ‘Countdown to Noon’ family event to the Great Gatsby party at Rubicon featuring dining specials and performances, there is plenty of fun for all ages.”
For those driving in, the Market Square parking garage will offer a discounted parking rate of $10 from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m. Also, attendees can use the ParkMobile app to get up to four hours of free street parking using the “LUVHBG” code. Street parking also will be free after 5 p.m.
Motorists should be aware that, beginning at 6 p.m., 2nd Street from Chestnut Street to Walnut Street will be closed. Traffic will be permitted to enter the Market Square garage or detour west onto Blackberry Street if exiting the garage. Market Street from Front to 2nd streets also will be closed, in addition to 2nd Street from Market to Walnut streets.
“I would like to give special thanks to our title sponsor, Visit Hershey & Harrisburg,” Papenfuse said. “Without their support, we would not be able to put together this wonderful New Year’s Eve celebration.”
To learn more about New Year’s Eve activities in Harrisburg, visit ExploreHbg.com/NYE.
The entrance to the current State Museum exhibit.
Some of the best holiday gifts arrive early.
This one arrived right before Thanksgiving, and now the people of Harrisburg have the holiday season to open the big red bow. It is a wondrous package to be enjoyed by all. In honor of the 100th anniversary in 2020 of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote, the State Museum proudly unveiled “Picturing a More Perfect Union: Violet Oakley’s Mural Studies for the Pennsylvania Senate Chamber 1911-1919.”
Anyone who has toured the Capitol building is well familiar with the stunning murals Violet Oakley completed over a span of almost a quarter of a century. The sheer magnitude of her life’s crowning achievement has been seen by thousands of visitors in thrall to the beauty in word and picture from her brush. They are a testament to an artist and a woman of high ideals and lofty hopes for a world where peace would reign. The story of how the Capitol’s murals came to be under Oakley’s vision is a story of destiny and fate. Lightning does strike the same place twice.
It was the “Golden Age” of illustration. Her contemporaries, artists of inordinate skill, like her instructor at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Howard Pyle, and world-renowned muralist, Edwin Austin Abbey, both were slated to decorate the walls and ceilings of the Pennsylvania State Capitol. Abbey had just completed four lunette murals under the dome of the Capitol Rotunda and one painting for the Senate Chamber when diagnosed with cancer. Pyle, pegged to take his place, died in Europe before even starting.
Oakley, the first female to receive a government mural commission, had already completed the panels for the Governor’s Reception Room five years earlier. Thus, undertaking the Senate Chamber murals fell to her. She called the new commission, “The need to pick up the threads and weave again,” finding it both a burden and a blessing. Her painstaking planning and detailed execution, as seen in her sketches, come alive in the dense and richly textured exhibit.
The main panel that opens the exhibit makes for a dramatic beginning with an overlaid photograph of Oakley and a full color rendering of the “Unity” mural. It creates the sensation of a book cover as one enters a portal going back in time to the artist’s studio and viewing her sketches firsthand.
The span of history the exhibit encompasses predates the passage of the 19th Amendment, which does not get ratified until months after Oakley’s completion of the Senate Chamber murals. This tumultuous era entails the war that shook the world, The Great War (World War I 1914-18). The United States entered it in its final year, dashing all hope for Oakley’s vision of world peace. Her feminism and vocal advocacy for peace formed the cornerstone for her murals, which embraced Quaker ideals that come across both through William Penn’s vision and those of Oakley’s. She was an artist of great conviction and was highly attuned to human suffering throughout history by all peoples.
If any one mural speaks volumes regarding her views it is “Unity,” the pinnacle of her work. The frieze is majestic in size and scope, running 46 feet long and nine feet high. In the exhibit, it is represented as a mural composite image. Three separate sketches take the viewer from its inception to its natural end incorporating gouache, watercolor, graphite and ink on paper and pastel and chalk on paper. Perhaps the apex of the exhibit is a tape recording made in 1955 accompanied by visual text to Oakley’s voice when she returned to the State Capitol to discuss her murals. Hearing her words today resonates even more deeply, given the state of our world. Oakley was and still is revered as a unique voice in championing women’s rights, a pioneer for other women no matter their field, as professional status was difficult to attain in a world dominated by a male hierarchy.
The State Museum of Pennsylvania, under a triumvirate of historians and curators, mounted this magnificent, multi-faceted exhibit. Preeminent Oakley scholar, Dr. Patricia Likos Ricci, provided expert advice for the exhibit. She has studied Oakley for more than 40 years and also is an art historian and professor at Elizabethtown College. Dr. Curtis Miner, the State Museum’s senior curator of history and Amy Hammond, fine arts curator, collaborated on the collections shown. Ricci interviewed Oakley’s life partner, Edith Emerson, who provided instrumental background to the thought process and attention to detail that Oakley brought to life in her sketches. Ricci was responsible in large part for bringing the Oakley sketches to the museum for inclusion. Beyond the art academics is the exhibit’s designer, Meghann Dekan, who transferred the Senate Chamber murals to wood panels framing the exhibit. They provide exact duplication to those Oakley executed in the Senate Chamber. Dekan orchestrated the constructs of the walls as well as the interpretive materials that accompany the exhibit.
The museum’s treasure of this exhibit is yours for the asking, a gift for all to be savored and enjoyed to its fullest. I cannot think of a better season to carry out Violet Oakley’s underlying wish for world peace. May you have the warmest of holidays.
“Picturing a More Perfect Union: Violet Oakley’s Mural Studies for the Pennsylvania Senate Chamber, 1911-1919,” runs through April 26 at the State Museum of Pennsylvania, 300 North St., Harrisburg. For more information, visit their website.
Do you see what I see? Naturally, I’m referring to all of the stories that we published in the past week. In case holiday shopping caused you to miss some of our coverage, we have our weekly recap below.
Christian Life Assembly is a local church with a lot of talent. For 32 years, the Camp Hill congregation has mounted a grand holiday production, including this year’s “Christmas Wonderland” musical. Click here to find out what—and who—is on stage.
Cornerstone Coffeehouse is celebrating its silver anniversary as a gathering place and destination for the West Shore community. In our magazine feature, discover the story behind the popular café, as well as how the owners plan to celebrate.
East Uptown Front Porch Project aims to improve the look of N. 6th Street in Harrisburg. In the meantime, the group is raising money for the springtime porch renovation project. Find out more about this impressive community effort from our online story.
Elementary Coffee Co. has a brand-new retail space in the city’s Capitol district. Have you been there yet? Our magazine feature tells the story of a dedicated entrepreneur, talented roaster and a great cup of coffee.
Flying J Truckstop is something of an institution around Carlisle. But did you know that there’s a hidden homeless problem centered around the truck stop? Read our feature story to find out about the issue and the people who are trying to help.
Home sales slipped but prices generally rose in the Harrisburg area last month. The Greater Harrisburg Association of Realtors came out with its monthly sales report, which showed something of a mixed bag for November. Our online story has the numbers.
Joe and Holly O’Connor were back in town last week for a reading from Joe’s newly published book of poetry. Appropriately, the reading was held at One Good Woman, which Holly founded and ran for many years. Our arts blogger was there to delight in the verse and the company.
Midtown Cinema will undergo a major upgrade starting in February, the cinema has announced. Harrisburg’s arthouse theater is getting a new façade, new outdoor space, interior renovations and a general refresh. Click here to learn more and see a rendering of the new exterior.
Sara Bozich sent out the official message: we’re entering peak Christmas season around Harrisburg. Find out what she’s doing—and you can do—this weekend with her long list of events and activities.
TheBurg’s editor nearly got mowed down crossing dangerous Forster Street in Harrisburg this past week. Fortunately, he lived to tell the tale in a blog post, which includes some choice words for PennDOT.
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Forster Street in Harrisburg (file photo)
On Thursday morning, I nearly bought the farm. Met my maker. Cashed in my chips.
And it happened in a cruelly fitting way for a guy who espouses pedestrian rights and has repeatedly slammed PennDOT for doing nothing to improve its insanely dangerous streets in Harrisburg. I nearly croaked crossing Forster Street.
I live on one side of Forster—the six-lane state highway masquerading as a neighborhood road—and work on the other. So, every day, I Frogger across the street, hoping it won’t be my last day on this blue earth. On Thursday, it nearly was.
I was in the crosswalk, crossing with the green light. A motorist, coming the opposite way on Green Street, drove legally through the light but then made a quick left onto Forster, turning directly into me as I crossed the street.
As the driver turned, I expected she would yield, or at least go around me, but she actually sped up into the turn. I dove forward onto the pavement and missed getting hit by the front of her car by a mere fraction. She slammed on her brakes.
As I lay there in the middle of the road, she rolled down her window and asked me if I was OK.
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “I didn’t see you.”
Evidently, she was looking the other way, towards the traffic flying off the bridge and screaming up Forster Street. She didn’t bother to see if any pedestrians were crossing in front of her before making the left-hand turn.
Well, at least she apologized.
“Yeah, I know you didn’t see me,” I said back.
I told her I was all right. I just had a few scrapes on the hand I used to break my fall. My right wrist was slightly sprained, and my shoulder ached a bit.
I then decided to use this scary experience to editorialize on the subject, to try to make a good from something bad.
First, in Pennsylvania, by law, pedestrians always have the right of way.
Sure, I know that sometimes pedestrians act recklessly—I’ve seen it. But, in the battle between a 4,000-pound hunk of speeding steel and a 150-pound pile of flesh, metal will beat flesh every time. In a city, drivers must always assume that pedestrians are behind every parked car, around every corner and crossing every street, because often they are.
Secondly, well, PennDOT, it’s been a long time since I criticized your ludicrously dangerous roads in Harrisburg. I even held my pen last month when, sitting in a City Council meeting, I learned that you had rejected the city’s plan to improve safety on State Street in Allison Hill (aka, the most dangerous stretch of road in the country).
Smoke was coming out of my ears as city officials told council members that PennDOT was, once again, putting commuter speed over pedestrian safety. I restrained myself because, hell, my six or seven previous screams into the great abyss of the Keystone Building have gone nowhere.
But, as they say in the movies—now, it’s personal.
As I’ve said many times before, it’s way past time for PennDOT to use the many tools at its disposal to slow down traffic, improve safety at its intersections, skinny up its roads, enforce its traffic laws and understand that Harrisburg is a crowded city, not some weirdly engineered lane off of I-83, inconveniently occupied by human beings.
Waiting at Front or Forster streets, I’ve gotten into the habit of halting a few extra seconds before crossing because, inevitably, a car will race through an intersection or speed through a red light. Often, I’ll mumble under my breath, “Well, I’m glad someone (me) was paying attention.”
Yes, drivers need to better heed that bag of bones crossing the street. But PennDOT has an ethical and fiduciary duty to ensure that its roads are as safe as possible. Its poor road design, non-existent enforcement, excessive speed limits and lack of traffic-calming measures actually encourage reckless driving in this city.
In Harrisburg–on Front, Forster and State streets–the state is profoundly failing in its fundamental responsibility to keep its people safe. They know about these safety problems, yet sit on their hands. Sometimes I wonder: Do they even care? Do they understand that human safety is more important than traffic speed?
Lawrance Binda is editor-in-chief of TheBurg.
Porches along N. 6th Street
Some are small, consisting of just a few steps and a front door. Others are more grand, with a swing or a couple of chairs.
No matter what it looks like, the front porch is like the cover of a book.
One group of Harrisburg residents is looking to redesign these covers to make a better story for the Uptown neighborhood.
The East Uptown Front Porch Project is a grassroots organization of local realtors, business owners and neighbors with a mission of restoring community to a section of the city that, they believe, has been overlooked. They’re starting with the front porch.
“Uptown is in pretty rough shape and hasn’t received any attention from any group in a significant way in a while,” said founder Beck Joyner.
The group is starting by renovating 23 homeowners’ front porches on N. 6th Street, which Joyner sees as the main corridor through Uptown. Some homes may need contractors to fix up roofs or other structural problems, while others may only need new paint and furniture, but they’re prepared for it all.
Joyner was inspired by the Allison Hill MulDer Square project, a community development program to provide affordable housing in the neighborhood. But while that project had the resources of the city and an established nonprofit behind it, the Front Porch Project is relying heavily on volunteers such as churches and community groups for support.
“This is a big deal in bringing a sense of pride to the community,” said volunteer Kamilo Bryan, co-owner of ZTK Improvements LLC.
Bryan decided to get involved with the initiative not only because of his expertise in home improvements, but because Uptown is his home.
“It’s where I live,” he said. “It’s where my granddad lives; it’s where my father lives.”
Joyner and Bryan hope the project encourages homeownership in a neighborhood that can often be transient. However, Bryan noted the importance he finds in keeping the demographics similar in the neighborhood, as well.
While the improvements are free to homeowners, Joyner only asked one thing of them—to spend time on their front porches. This, she said, will be a start in fostering a sense of community in Uptown and will “pull people together.”
“The front porch is a start,” Bryan said.
The improvements will begin in April, but in the meantime, the East Uptown Front Porch Project team is applying for grants and finding partners and donations.
The team doesn’t plan to stop at 6th Street either. They hope to extend their reach to other sections of Uptown in the future.
“The goal is to really have a quick, visible win to inspire community,” Joyner said.
For more information, visit The East Uptown Front Porch Project’s Facebook page.
