Harrisburg Renews Push to Pass Zoning Code

June 19, 2014 | by Lawrance Binda

Undeveloped sites, such as this Front Street lot in a newly created “Riverfront District,” would be impacted by Harrisburg’s proposed new zoning code.

Harrisburg has revived a long-dormant effort to re-haul its aged zoning code, with a final City Council vote slated for next month.

The flurry of action represents an abrupt change for the city. Four years ago, the city’s Planning Bureau submitted the new code to council, which then bottled it up in committee and never voted on it. After making several small changes, the Papenfuse administration recently re-introduced the draft code for consideration.

“The existing zoning code is too outdated and must immediately be updated,” said Joyce Davis, communications director for Mayor Eric Papenfuse. “[The mayor] believes at least a transitional zoning code is needed as the city goes through the comprehensive planning process.”

Council held a committee hearing on the proposed code on June 5. At that meeting, some businesses and residents expressed concern over how the new code treats matters like private parking businesses and transitional housing.

The city now will conduct two public input sessions. The first is slated for June 25 at 5:30 p.m. at the Camp Curtin YMCA, 2135 N. 6th St. The second will take place June 26 at the Boys & Girls Club at 1227 Berryhill St.

A final council vote is slated for the July 8 legislative session.

The effort to revamp the city’s zoning code began about five years ago in an effort to streamline and simplify a code that had become overly complex and even obsolete, according to the city. Over the years, the code, originally passed in 1950, had grown to include 27 base zoning districts and six overlay districts. The new code includes just nine base districts and four overlay districts.

There has been some opposition to the new code, which makes considerable changes to how Harrisburg zones the city for housing and business. Several critics have said the city has the process backwards, that it should pass a new comprehensive plan before a new zoning code.

Davis, though, said that amendments can be added later “if deficiencies surface after the comprehensive planning process is complete.”

In one significant change, a new Riverfront District would be created along much of Front Street and along State Street to the Capitol. The district is more restrictive than existing zoning in terms of use, signage and parking in an effort to minimize impacts and preserve the character of the area. It also would cap new building height at 45 feet and, in many cases, increase setbacks.

Click here to read the draft zoning code and see maps of Harrisburg’s existing and proposed zones.

County Tourism Bureau to Fund “Summer in the City” Promotional Campaign

June 13, 2014 | by Paul Barker

Top Flight Media’s Darren Smith at Friday’s press conference in city hall. At right, a rendering of a campaign poster at a city bus stop.

The Dauphin County regional tourism bureau has budgeted close to $100,000 for Harrisburg’s “Summer in the City” promotional campaign, an all-out effort to market the city’s summer cultural offerings on billboards, buses and the Web, city officials announced Friday.

The campaign, which will launch on June 23, will highlight such events as the “Harrisburg Independence Weekend Walkaround,” a three-day program of festivities scheduled for the July 4 weekend. The full program, which can be viewed at Stayandplayhbg.com, includes free concerts in city parks, “family fun” festivals, a martial arts tournament and a reading of the Declaration of Independence.

Mary Smith, president of the Hershey Harrisburg Regional Visitors Bureau, joined Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse at a press conference Friday morning in city hall to announce the campaign, which will be promoted on area billboards as well as on each bus in Capital Area Transit’s 80-bus fleet.

Bob Philbin, a spokesman for CAT and the city’s former chief of operations under Mayor Linda Thompson, said CAT buses were estimated to produce 3.5 million impressions over the course of the campaign. If the campaign runs through Labor Day, Sept. 1, that figure would amount to 50,000 impressions per day.

The visitors bureau hired Top Flight Media, an advertising agency headquartered on Lindle Road, to design the campaign. Darren Smith, Top Flight’s senior vice president, said Friday that this is Top Flight’s fourth year working with the bureau, and that his company sought to “over-deliver” on the city’s marketing needs.

Funding for the marketing campaign comes from the county’s hotel tax, a levy on overnight lodging that was raised from 3 percent to 5 percent in 2008. According to county ordinance, a portion of hotel tax revenues—about 13 percent—is to be spent on “appropriate and reasonable marketing and promotional expenses” for tourism in Harrisburg, though there’s some complexity in who gets to do the spending.

Of the 13 percent of hotel taxes earmarked for marketing Harrisburg, most of it—around 8 percent—is paid directly to the Harrisburg treasurer. The other 5 percent is distributed to the Hershey Harrisburg Regional Visitors Bureau, which is Dauphin County’s designated tourism promotion agency. The bureau also gets 20 percent of total hotel tax revenue for county-wide tourism promotion.

Since 2011, total hotel tax revenues have come in between $9 and $10 million, according to figures provided by the county treasurer. Based on the allocation formula, the amount sent to the visitors bureau explicitly for spending on city tourism should have been just below half-a-million dollars each year—$445,000 in 2011, $450,000 in 2012, and $485,000 in 2013.

Rick Dunlap, the bureau’s public relations director, said it was hard to say what the bureau actually spent to market the city in those years. City and regional tourism often overlap, as when someone books a night at the Hilton downtown and then visits Hersheypark the next day, Dunlap said. But between media tours, sales missions and other promotions, he felt confident that the bureau had spent an amount “up to and exceeding” the revenues slated for city promotion.

Dunlap also said, however, that the absence of any formal marketing campaign made it difficult to provide a solid figure on spending. Prior to the administration of Harrisburg’s former mayor, Linda Thompson, marketing campaigns were typically brainstormed by a subcommittee of city and bureau representatives. In fact, the county ordinance provides for approval of such a spending plan by the regional visitors bureau in relation to city marketing dollars.

But a meeting between bureau representatives and Mayor Thompson, which took place early in her term, had indicated that her administration either had little time or little interest in a regional tourism plan, Dunlap said. “The past administration had quite a focus on keeping water out of their boat,” he said, referring to the city’s fiscal crisis. “There was less engagement from a tourism aspect.”

Attempts to reach Thompson for comment Friday were unsuccessful.

Fire Bureau Receives Training Grant

June 13, 2014 | by Lawrance Binda

The Harrisburg Bureau of Fire has been awarded a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Assistance to Firefighters Grant of $114,840.

The grant will provide for advanced training and education of firefighters and fire officers in the bureau, Acting Chief Brian Enterline said today.

“This grant was successfully obtained due to the collaboration and dedication of the city’s grants manager and some young brilliant firefighters and fire officers that are eager to rebuild the Bureau of Fire,” Enterline said.

He added that, over the coming year, firefighters and fire officers will attend classes to provide advanced knowledge, skills and abilities in areas such as technical rescue, nationally certified fire officer and firefighter safety programs.

“These classes are essential for keeping our firefighters safe and expanding their knowledge in many aspects of firefighting,” Enterline stated.

The primary goal of the grant is to meet the emergency response needs of fire departments and nonaffiliated emergency medical service organizations. Since 2001, the grant has helped firefighters and other first responders obtain needed equipment, protective gear, emergency vehicles, training and other resources to help protect the public and emergency personnel from fire and related hazards.

Broad Street Market Hires New Interim Manager

June 6, 2014 | by Paul Barker

The Broad Street Market.

The Broad Street Market has hired Ashlee O. Dugan, a member of the market corporation’s board and the founder of a local food-recovery organization, as its newest full-time interim manager, market board members confirmed Friday.

Dugan, who will assume her role on June 18, will be leaving her current job at the Pennsylvania Downtown Center, where she worked as a membership and marketing coordinator. She will be replacing Len Cobosco, from the Camp Hill accounting firm Carey Associates, who came on as an interim manager in June of 2013.

Cobosco will remain employed by the market as a part-time financial manager, board members confirmed.

Officially, Dugan said Friday, the position is transitional, since the market’s operations and organizational structure are still under review by the Broad Street Market Task Force, which Mayor Eric Papenfuse appointed shortly after his inauguration in January. The market may open the search for a permanent manager again following the task force’s recommendations, she said.

Amy Hill, a volunteer board member doing public relations outreach for the market, noted Friday that Dugan has a “legacy connection” to the market. Dugan’s great-grandfather, Gilbert S. Miller, operated a butcher stand at the market from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s.

“She’s just such a dynamic young lady. She represents the best the market has to offer,” Hill said. “It’s exactly what the market needs right now.”

Jonathan Bowser, president of the market’s board, applauded Dugan’s hire, noting her “extensive background” in agriculture, food systems and urban revitalization. “She has a diverse skill set that is much needed at the Broad Street Market,” he said.

Dugan is also familiar with the market’s operations. Her wife, Erin, is the manager at Harvest, a sustainable farmer’s co-op in the market’s brick building. Dugan was also one of three founders of the Broad Street Market Alliance, which publicized a proposal last October for an overhaul of the market’s management and operations. The alliance, whose other founding members were Josh Kesler and Julia James, still maintains an active website where that proposal can be viewed.

Kesler, also a market board member, is the developer of the Millworks building next door to the market, soon to be home to artists’ studios, a beer garden and a farm-to-table restaurant.

For the past two weeks, Dugan has worked part-time for the market as a social media consultant, following the expiration of the market’s contract with tla Communications, a public relations firm owned by today’s the day Harrisburg founder Tara Leo Auchey.

Dugan is also the founder of The Greenhouse, an organization she created in August of 2012 with the goal of locating and saving food that might otherwise go to waste.

The Greenhouse’s mission, according to its Facebook page, is “transforming Harrisburg, Pennsylvania from a food desert into a food oasis by recovering food that would have otherwise been wasted, preserving it in healthy and creative ways and then distributing it to the community.”

For more about the Broad Street Market’s history and the efforts of the task force, read our full-length feature in the April issue of TheBurg.

The packed first public meeting of the Broad Street Market Task Force, held at the market’s stone building in March.

Theater in Bloom: Once, June was a sleepy month on the local stage. No more.

May 30, 2014 | by Barbara Trainin Blank

Do know the song “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over?”

It could refer to theater in central Pennsylvania, where seasons are longer and busier than ever.

This month proves the rule. Among the highlights: a historical drama (with romance), a romantic comedy, and an original production paying homage to the capital region—on stage at Reservoir Park (Gamut Theatre Group’s Harrisburg Shakespeare Festival), Theatre Harrisburg and Open Stage of Harrisburg, respectively.

Love and Duty

Ancient Rome and Egypt form the backdrop for the annual Shakespeare in the Park production, which this year is “Antony and Cleopatra.” The play, directed by Karen Ruch, continues through June 14.

It’s debatable whether Cleopatra—who had been romantically involved with her mentor, Julius Caesar, and might still be grieving for him—was in love with Mark Antony or merely “playing” him. Ruch essentially leaves that for the actors to decipher.

“Clearly, Cleopatra knew how to navigate the powers of Rome,” she said. “After Antony’s death, she tries to make a play for the next emperor, Octavius, but doesn’t succeed.”

Shakespeare’s play touches more generally on what makes a relationship work—or not. The lovers die by their own hands in the end—two mature adults, not the young, impulsive Romeo and Juliet.

Ultimately, for the director, “Antony and Cleopatra” concerns the conflict between love and duty and contrasting Roman and Egyptian values.

“Their relationship was not legitimate according to Roman law,” Ruch explained. “The Romans were notorious for promiscuity, but then moved on. Antony disappeared into the relationship and, thus, became less Roman.”

Philip Weaver and Francesca Amendolia portray the star-crossed lovers. Jeff Luttermoser is Octavius, and Thomas Weaver is Enobarbus.

Red Hot

Theatre Harrisburg’s final production of the season is “The Last of the Red Hot Lovers,” running from June 13 to 22 and staged by Robert Campbell in his directorial debut with the community theater.

“One thing I like about the play is that it’s a Neil Simon brand of comedy, uniquely funny but grounded in real people behaving like real people,” he said. “There are surprises, because the people don’t fit any formula.”

Campbell also admires “Red Hot Lovers” as one of those works in which the director can “get out of the way.” “In a Simon play, it’s all there,” he said. “No need to conceptualize.”

“Red Hot Lovers” is like a collection of one acts, unified by the attempt of the nice-but-nerdy Barney (played by Richard Johnson) “to do a not-nice thing”—commit adultery, said Campbell. “He wants to do something sexy, hot and exciting. Looking for excitement is something most people can identify with.”

Each of the three acts focuses on a different (and distinctive) woman Barney considers—portrayed by Lydia Graeff, Chelsea Day and Lisa Weitzman. “Deep down, he thinks he should, but really doesn’t want to,” Campbell said. “So, there’s self-sabotaging”—especially if you consider where he takes the women.

Set in the late-‘60s, “Red Hot Lovers” ends on a “sweet note,” as Barney reaches to call—well, we won’t give that away either.

Home Story

Though the “official” season of Open Stage of Harrisburg ends in May, June has, for several years, been devoted to a standalone original production. For the third year in a row, the theater is presenting “Stories from Home,” a tribute to the region.

Running from June 19 to 29, this year’s edition focuses on the 8th Ward of Harrisburg, as well as Steelton and Paxtang—the latter celebrating its 250th anniversary.

“The 8th Ward was like the Lower East Side of Harrisburg,” said Anne Alsedek, who directs “Stories from Home” and writes the scripts with an assist from her casts. “It drew a mixed population of African Americans, Jews and Irish, who then moved on. Beth El AME and other churches and synagogues were born there. The tenements were torn down to make way for an expanding Capitol complex.”

There’s other rich history. People may not know that, when Lincoln was making his whistle stop in Harrisburg, the Pinkerton Agency received a tip that there would be an assassination attempt on his life. “Thanks to the coachman of Simon Cameron, an African-American former slave who was a member of Bethel AME, the president was spirited out of the city by night, in disguise,” said Alsedek, Open Stage’s education director.

“Stories from Home” recalls less palatable aspects of history as well, including the tale of the Paxton Boys, frontiersmen along the Susquehanna who formed a vigilante group. They retaliated in 1763 against local Native Americans in the aftermath of the French and Indian War and are known for murdering 20 Susquehannock Indians in events collectively called the Conestoga Massacre. “This is alluded to in the novel ‘A Light in the Forest’ and the film version,” Alsedek noted.

The ensemble cast includes John Bailey, Nina Beesley and Ferris Evans in their Open Stage debuts, as well as Aaron Bomar, Jeremy Patterson, J. C. Payne and Cassandra Potter. Yoleidy Rosario is the stage manager.

“’Stories from Home’ is fortunate to have developed a partnership this year with the three Dauphin County commissioners—Jeff Haste, George Hartwick III and Mike Pries—who are lending financial support and co-presenting,” Alsedek added. “We had always hoped the productions would move beyond Harrisburg.”

More Great Theater

There are many other productions this month—too many to detail here. But the highlights include:

Allenberry Playhouse, “Ladies Night in a Turkish Bath,” a farce, through June 15, followed by the musical “42nd Street,” June 18 to July 20.
Dreamwrights Youth and Family Theatre, “My Favorite Year,” a comedy based on the movie, June 26 to 29.
Ephrata Performing Arts Center, “Agnes of God,” psychological thriller, June 12 to 28.
The Fulton Theatre’s evergreen musical “Les Miserables,” June 3 to 29.
Gretna Theatre’s “Tribute to the Four Seasons,” June 12 to 15, followed by Lerner and Loewe’s “Camelot,” June 19 to 29.
Little Theatre of Mechanicsburg, “Reefer Madness,” a musical, June 6 to 21.
Oyster Mill Playhouse, “Jeeves in Bloom,” a comedy, June 6 to 22.
York Little Theatre, mega-hit musical “Gypsy,” June 20 to 29.

Peeking into next month, be sure to check out the Carlisle Theatre Company’s take on the musical comedy, “Once Upon a Mattress,” July 3 to 6.

Fabric of a Life: Over three decades, Paul Foltz has sewn together a singular career, one costume at a time.

May 30, 2014 | by Lori M. Myers

Paul Foltz may not think of himself as a multi-tasker, but what else can you call someone who can sit at a sewing machine and stitch together a vest with perfection while conversing about sequins and silk with an interviewer?

Of course, all of this is second nature to Foltz, who has served as costumer for more than 30 years at Theatre Harrisburg. And, if numbers are of any consequence, he estimates he has costumed more than 500 shows. The glitter, the glamour, the fittings—Foltz has seen it all. And he has no fashion background. His training is completely in costume design.

And, yes, there is a difference.

“Although the principles of good design are the same, a costume designer has to be much more involved in creating a cohesive look within the confines of a given production and in collaboration with the other show designers and the director,” says Foltz, a native of Steelton who now lives in Carlisle. “Fashion, especially today, is dictated by the season, trend and color forecasts, as well as by the customer profile that is to be your target market.”

It was during high school that Foltz began doing costumes and was involved in a summer theater group about to perform the musical “Camelot.” Wardrobe was running behind schedule, and Foltz had asked what he could do to help. He was taught the basics of operating a sewing machine and piecing out a garment. The rest, as they say, is history.

“I have a continuous fascination with the past and how they created things—art, architecture, furniture, accessories, jewelry as well as clothing,” Foltz says. “That moved into an appreciation of the great designers of the various eras and the styles of the various decades.”

Foltz loves the period shows, those plays taking place in, say, the 19^th century, depicting an era of manners when the clothing was grand and formal and fun. He loves getting involved in the detail that a show like “The Importance of Being Earnest” demanded when he costumed it for HACC. For shows like this, there are also undergarments and corsets to consider, and let’s not forget the beading. No easy task.

“My best work has to be the small-scale period shows where I can really dig in and create pieces that look correct, function well and are an asset to the production,” he says. “Notice that I didn’t say the most beautiful. The best costume is the one that works in the show, and sometimes they can be pretty out there, but they are just right for the production.”

One Theatre Harrisburg production that is at the top of Foltz’s list of favorites is “The Lion in Winter,” a play set in 12^th-century England for which he built everything from the underwear to the shoes. Others that Foltz has enjoyed costuming include “The Secret Garden,” “Curtains,” “Once Upon A Mattress” and some Gilbert and Sullivan productions.

On average, costuming a full-scale musical costs $4,000, while a play is half that amount. Character shoes, a simple style of shoe worn by actors for dance and performance, costs $45 to $70.

At this writing, Foltz was working on creating and gathering costumes for Theatre Harrisburg’s upcoming production of “Sweeney Todd,” which ran through May 11. It required, in Foltz’s words, apparel that was “old, ratty, dirty and dingy.” Yet, it still had to have style and reflect the play’s time period and location.

Along with Theatre Harrisburg and HACC, Foltz has costumed shows at Washington College in Maryland.

“There are very few theaters in the area that I haven’t designed for or who haven’t borrowed some of my costumes to use in their own productions, of which I am very glad,” he says. “It is good to know that what I am doing is of value and use to other theaters, as well as to Theatre Harrisburg.”

Wishing on Star City: Amid his dreams, rapper Capeesh strives to create a career, a life.

May 30, 2014 | by Paul Barker

The recording studio of the rapper Gabe Killian, who also goes by the stage name Capeesh, is located in a peeling gray apartment block on N. 6^th Street, just past the defunct Camp Curtin BBQ. You go up some dirty stairs past a stained-glass window—“Stained glass, stained streets, stained everything,” Killian says—and arrive at a surprisingly ample apartment, where the studio sits off a brown-carpeted corridor. There’s a crib in one corner for Killian’s 10-month-old son Ryden, named for the Japanese god of lightning, and some posters on the wall, including one for the Beatles, Killian’s favorite band. A black skull on a table commemorates the studio’s nickname, the Headquarters. (It evolved from another nickname, “Head Hunta,” that Killian used for a former roommate who is one of his producers.)

On a drizzly Tuesday in late April, one of his days off from selling cell phones at a Camp Hill store, Killian was in front of a computer monitor in the Headquarters, cycling through songs. Killian, 26, is skinny, with a buzz cut and deep-set, shadowed eyes; he wore a black hoodie and jeans and sat in a wicker chair. He put on a track he recorded for a mixtape in 2011. Hip-hop mixtapes, typically used for promotional rather than commercial purposes, often contain a medley of originals and remixes of popular songs. On the track in question, Killian raps over the B.o.B. song “Airplanes,” which begins with a chorus by the rock singer Hayley Williams. Then Capeesh comes in:

Where to start, how ‘bout where I left off,

Made a bet on life, and I guessed wrong,

I guess y’all just wouldn’t understand,

How come nothing ever went according to the plan?

As the song played, Ryden, standing up in his crib, started bouncing on his knees. “This one’s probably my favorite song off the mixtape because it’s the only one that I actually put my personal feelings into,” Killian said. He reflected on how his style of rapping had changed in the years since. He used to put more animation into his voice, thinking that would make it “sound more ‘hype,’ more energetic.” Now his rapping voice was closer to his speaking voice—deeper, more relaxed and sounding more like him.

But it had also been a while since he’d released any new material. The “Airplanes” remix was part of a three-mixtape series, “The Conference Room,” “The Press Conference” and “The Confiscation,” which Killian had completed in 2012. The titles represented a three-stage plan of attack—a conference room is for drafting a business plan, a press conference is for taking it public, and the “confiscation” was the stage of taking over, he told me. Rappers don’t usually do three mixtapes in a year, but it was a time of intense productivity for Killian, who had just gotten out of prison. “I was just like, ‘You know what? I just wasted a bunch of time doing nothing, and I’m ready to roll,’” he said.

Since the mixtapes, though, he’d gotten more precious about his releases. His next step was an album, which, unlike the mixtapes, would be composed entirely of original tracks. You only get one shot at a debut album, he thought, and he wanted it to be as close to perfect as possible. The demands of fatherhood were also slowing him down. Some days, even when he didn’t have Ryden (he and his ex-girlfriend share custody), he would come home from work planning to record and find he didn’t have the energy. Nonetheless, he believed in his heart that he was meant to be a rapper and, seasoned by past experience with the industry, he’d sketched out a rough marketing plan for when the songs were ready. “The passion’s definitely there, but, not being able to pull it out of me whenever I want to, I just feel drained a lot of the times,” he said. “And that’s hard. But a little bit of success can change all that. You know what I mean?”

Killian grew up in Edgemont, a neighborhood north of the East Harrisburg Cemetery, along Route 22. His family was musical; his mother is a music teacher, his brother plays in a band in Boston, his cousin is an opera singer in New York. His parents were also religious and ran a strict household, but the neighborhood was urban. As Killian puts it, “Everything my parents tried to protect me from was at my neighbor’s house.” As rap music was increasingly coming into style, he became attracted to it, in part because he wasn’t allowed to listen to it.

Killian’s earliest influences were gangsta rap—“dark, angry, violent music.” Perhaps predictably for a white rapper of his generation, he was most strongly influenced by Eminem, although he wasn’t impressed the first time he heard him. “He sounded like an annoying white dude,” he told me. Over time, however, he became enamored with Eminem’s wordplay. You can feel the influence in songs like “Star City,” whose lines are packed with internal rhymes and double-entendres. (The title comes from a nickname for Harrisburg.) The chorus, in a quick 10 words, glances past the title, the city’s area code and Killian’s record label—“EnV,” short for Envisioned Entertainment—finally landing on a pun: “Star City, seven-seventeen, me and my team gettin’ EnV green.” Then comes the first verse:

Star City, letterman, varsity

Liquor store on every corner, Bar City

Rappers everywhere you look, Barz City

You know I make ‘em get the point, archery

Like a lot of rap music, Killian’s songs often have a combative undercurrent, with lyrics directed at enemies, real or imagined. “Every time I hear ya shit I click the next song,” he raps in “Star City.” To Killian, these lyrics represent a competitive spirit that defines the genre. The thing that first inspired him to write rap was a friend telling him he shouldn’t bother, because Killian would never be as good as he was. “I wrote some stuff, and the next day I rapped at him, and all his friends were like, ‘Ohh! You got beat by a white boy!’” He likes to compare rapping to entering the ring for a fight. “I’m not an arrogant person, but when it comes to music and rhyming, I do feel like a boxer would never go into a boxing ring expecting to lose,” he said. “Why would a rapper go out there expecting to be second best?”

When Killian was 21, he got pulled over for a traffic stop and was told he had an outstanding warrant for transporting cocaine. The incident had taken place a couple of years prior, when he was 18; in his telling, he was set up to carry the drugs by a friend who was working with an undercover police officer. Prosecutors offered to reduce the charges in exchange for his cooperation setting up other friends, but Killian refused. He wound up doing six months, initially at the Dauphin County prison and later on work release. “It sucked,” he said. “It sucked.” After graduating high school, he had studied at HACC to become an elementary school teacher, a career path he subsequently had to abandon. But, he said, he still hopes his work will impact young people someday. “I love kids,” he told me. “I figure kids learn more from music than they do from their teachers.”

In part, his continuing interest in education stems from his concerns about society. Alongside his songs’ preoccupations with nightlife, women and sparring with other rappers, Killian also has an abiding interest in politics and the news, which he often expresses on his Facebook page. A frequent theme is the idea that the mainstream media conceal the truth about the world. “You could call me a conspiracy theorist,” he told me. “I don’t like to call it ‘conspiracy,’ because the only conspiracy is the cover-up that there is one. But I do a lot of research.”

This interest, in my view anyway, is behind some of his most provocative lyrics. In one 2012 track, “Accepted Ignorance,” he raps about subliminal messaging in pop culture: “Don’t you know that a subliminal’s intended for you / You be pretending that the message didn’t get you to do / What it was sent there to do.” The YouTube video for the song consists of a single still image, a photo of George Orwell’s “1984,” opened to the page with the three Party slogans from the walls of the Ministry of Truth:

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

On a recent, mild Monday night, around 10 p.m., a patchy early crowd milled around the bar at Midtown’s Stage on Herr. A life-sized crucifix, covered in a skin of coins, hung on stage right, while a projector flashed karaoke lyrics on a nearby wall. Killian strolled in and took a seat at the corner of the bar. “Man, this shit is dead in here,” he said, surveying the crowd. On stage, a youngish man began an enthusiastic, if not always pitch-perfect, rendition of Donna Summer’s “Oh Billy Please.”

“This guy is terrible,” Killian said, smiling. “But the thing is, he doesn’t care, and I respect that.” When the song finished, he laughed, said “Good job,” and gave the singer a high-five as he bounded off the stage.

Killian is a regular at Stage on Herr. Sometimes, he goes to rap, through a kind of karaoke loophole—he picks out a favorite artist’s track, then raps his own lyrics over it. “That way the audience is watching you, and not the words,” he said. On other occasions he goes to, as he puts it, “prospect.” “There’s some real talent that comes through here,” he told me. One of his recent tracks, “Are You Gonna Love Me,” features a refrain by Veela, a local EDM singer whom he first heard at a karaoke night. (The song includes one of the better demonstrations of Killian’s internal rhymes: “I’ve considered getting the scissors, and cutting her off, I’m distant and bitter, / ‘Cause I envisioned a winner, not blizzards in winter, with splintering timbers, and miserable dinners.”)

After a few songs, Killian stepped outside for a cigarette. He sat on the steps in front of the bar, reflecting on Harrisburg’s music scene. In his view, despite plenty of “raw, undiscovered talent” in the city, the absence of any blockbuster successes has left local artists without much to aspire to. “It’s a genuine lack of belief in people, because it’s never been done before,” he said. He’d been rapping for 13 years, and he was frustrated at times by the feeling of diminishing returns: showing up at the same stages, circulating songs through the same social media networks for likes and shares. In 2011, he invested in a radio campaign for his song “Can’t Do It”—$1,600 for 8 weeks on 2,000 stations. The experience disillusioned him somewhat. “That made me realize that everything in the industry, no matter what industry you’re in, is all about money,” he said. (He simultaneously made a music video for the song and posted it on YouTube, where it garnered more than 30,000 views.)

Not long ago, he wrote a song he can really only use for promotional purposes, because the beat isn’t his. Called “Mona Lisa,” it features his lyrics over an instrumental track by Ryan Lewis, the musical partner of the rapper Macklemore, from their 2012 album “The Heist.” The piece is a five-minute tour of Killian’s range, crossing from languid stanzas close to plain speech to rapid successions of rhymes to repetitive, crowd-revving choruses. He rapped it for me the day he showed me his studio. By then he’d recorded it 15 or so times, always in one take, the way he records every song. But he had yet to produce a version he was happy with.

The piece is a kind of artist’s statement, building to a pledge to recommit his life to music: “I married the game, and here I am renewing the vows,” he raps. He named it “Mona Lisa,” he said, because he thought it was his masterpiece, and because he felt the song, like the painting, gave the feeling of a blank stare. Towards the end, he brushes off people who would drag him down—“enemies tryna befriend me,” “emcees tryin’ to offend me.” Then he makes a breathless promise:

I’ma spit it out til I’m empty

Yeah, spit it out til I’m empty

I’ma spit it out til I’m empty

Yeah, spit it out til I’m empty

A couple of weeks later, he finished the recording. “I’m ready to give y’all what I consider a masterpiece,” he wrote on Facebook. “But only if y’all want to hear it.” He asked people to “Like” his status to indicate their support. More than 60 people obliged, and he released the track the next day.

Capeesh will be performing in Reservoir Park on Aug. 23, as part of the 3^rd Annual Harrisburg Music Festival. For more information, or to hear his music, visit Capeesh’s YouTube channel.

FutureBurg: The world of tomorrow—today!

May 30, 2014 | by Lawrance Binda

What will the future look like?

Recently, New York Times columnist Gail Collins considered that question as she looked back with bemusement to the 1964 World’s Fair, which opened 50 years ago this spring.

It was a hopeful time, she wrote, and many exhibits celebrated American ingenuity and technical can-do. There was a “Tent of Tomorrow,” a “Carousel of Progress” and a “Futurama” exhibit.

The World’s Fair postulated that America’s great cities would be even greater, just different. Architecture would be sleek and soaring; cars would fly; moving walkways would connect buildings.

It didn’t pan out that way.

In truth, the die already had been cast for the rapid decline of the American city. Since the 1940s, government policies had favored the suburban cul-de-sac over the urban neighborhood; the car over mass transit; the highway over the block. By 1964, these patterns were well established, and once-teeming cities were emptying out fast.

I read this column while sitting in the middle of one of the cities most devastated by post-industrial decline, Harrisburg. I was eating lunch in Yellow Bird Café in Midtown when I picked up a copy of the Times, which someone had left in the lounge area near the entrance of the cozy eatery.

Out the window, I saw the open lots across 3^rd Street. A hundred years ago, these three large blocks contained dozens of Victorian-era buildings, most commercial—stores, bars, eateries—that made up the heart of Midtown across from the Broad Street Market. After the war, business slowed then slowed more. One by one, the shops closed, with the buildings falling to ruin. Over time, the city razed the properties.

Today, the first empty field is owned by Radnor, Pa.-based Kidder Wilkes LP, which bought it in 2005 and has done nothing with it except mow the grass. Several people own parts of the second. The third is a city parking lot, where the only structure is a big trash dumpster.

No flying machines. No jetpacks. No pneumatic tubes. Nothing but for some squirrels, a few birds, a pile of dumped gravel and a collection of litter.

That’s the city of the present.

But, peering out at this bleak scene, I suddenly felt myself caught in a time warp. I was reading about the past while sitting amid the sad present—but I had a strange sense that I was staring at a much better future.

Marked Improvement

By design, I’m neither an optimist nor a pessimist. I consider myself a realist. So, to me, here’s the reality of where we stand.

It’s not good. It’s not bad, either. Harrisburg is a city in transition.

Now, some old-timers might say that Harrisburg has been a city in transition forever, and they’d have a point. As I’ve written before, my late friend Ronn Fink, the long-time owner of the Bare Wall Gallery, had that opinion and didn’t hesitate to share it with me. Near the end of his life, he clearly was jaded by the struggle, by Harrisburg’s frustrating two-steps-forward, almost-two steps back routine.

That said: If you could time-lapse the city over 40 years, you would see marked improvement from the 1970s low point, when people were fleeing and downtown closed down after dark. Since then, Harrisburg has tried to put itself back together piece by painstaking piece.

So, glancing out the window of Yellow Bird, yes, I saw three large, empty lots. But, in the distance, on the fourth lot, I could see the last surviving building on that long stretch between N. 3^rd and 6^th streets—the Stokes Millworks building.

Currently, that sprawling former factory, which had fallen into dilapidation, is undergoing a complete renovation and, later this year, will reopen as a farm-to-table restaurant with art space and a beer garden. The artist studios, in fact, have been pre-rented for months already, with demand far outstripping supply.

Down the street, the new Susquehanna Art Museum is rising, and, a few doors from there, Emma Newman recently opened her new salon. Across the street, both a creamery and a brewery are being carved out of the long-empty space at the rear of Midtown Cinema, itself recently upgraded.

These are all substantial businesses run by committed and veteran entrepreneurs, who are making huge investments to bring Harrisburg something more, something better, and to get people into the city. Unlike some past efforts, they’re not wobbly operations built on a framework of hope and bounced checks, something that Ronn had repeatedly seen—and had come to expect whenever a new business opened.

Moreover, this time around, the government isn’t taking the lead. For decades, former Mayor Steve Reed tried to conjure money into existence to fund his favored projects in an economic development strategy based on a bizarre blend of centralized planning and magical realism. The merits of that approach are now being weighed by a grand jury in Pittsburgh.

Leaning Forward

To me, the evidence points to a city slowly reassembling itself after a near-breakdown. The investments—and others not mentioned above—would not be made unless these businesspeople saw Harrisburg as a good place to open.

Furthermore, success breeds success. That’s why I had an eerie sense of gazing at a hopeful future. If these enterprises work, Midtown Harrisburg—the heart of the city—would become more of a destination for foodies and art lovers and beer geeks and tourists. Why would it stop there?

Ultimately, the fate of Harrisburg’s comeback depends on demand. Right now, a few businesspeople are leaning forward, taking considerable risk on major projects amid the fields and battered buildings of Midtown. Once customer demand is established, others will follow. Over the past couple of decades, early entrepreneurs have paved the way for the more risk-averse in cities across America.

So, Harrisburg may never get its googie buildings, underwater hotels or robot waitresses. But, in the course of a few blocks, its about to get a new museum, restaurants, an art center, a brewery and more. Staring out across 3^rd Street, I felt that to be a pretty strong case for optimism.

Lawrance Binda is editor-in-chief of TheBurg.

Italian Disneyland: If you can’t make it to Italy, there’s always Eataly.

May 30, 2014 | by Rosemary Ruggieri Baer

From the first time I heard about the place they call Eataly, I wanted to go there. I have no “bucket list” in my life other than being close to my little family, with good health and happiness for all. But a New York Times description of this Italian Disneyland in New York convinced me I definitely had to visit before the great gondola takes me away.

Eataly, owned by famed chefs and restaurant owners Mario Batali, Lidia Bastianich and her son, Joe Bastianich, is located close to the quaint shopping districts of Chelsea and Soho. I had the privilege to visit Eataly in late April, a place that New York magazine referred to as an “Italian temple.” If not that, it is an Italian superstore for sure, and I couldn’t believe my eyes.

We entered at the “vegetable end” of the store, and it was love at first sight. There were artichokes as large as softballs, but little ones too, green and purple, that I wanted to grab and cook on the spot. There was every fresh herb and salad green you can imagine. Fresh chickpeas in a pod were a surprise, as were the much loved and hard to find porcini mushrooms at $60 a pound (well, if I only bought a few…).

Next, we entered the condiment and bakery area. The pastries, so beautifully arranged in the case, were restaurant quality. I grabbed some Sicilian orange marmalade from shelves that held jellies, preserves and honey of every variety. By this time, I thought I was perhaps in heaven and hoping that our friends would be patient with my euphoria. I lost track of my husband for a while (he was seeking out the espresso bar), but it didn’t matter. I was making my way through cases of cheeses I had never heard of along with wheels of Parmesan Reggiano at least two feet in diameter stacked on the floor. I bought a small pyramid of goat cheese dusted with fennel pollen for my son and daughter-in-law, as well as a container of creamy burrata (soft mozzarella with a center of clotted cream). I was amazed to see fresh mozzarella being made in a mozzarella lab and, well, that kind of takes “fresh” to a new level.

The highlight of my visit to Eataly was the fresh pasta, which is made every day. White and spinach tagliatelle, wide pappardelle noodles, and fat ravioli all called to me. But I bought some agnolotti, little filled pastas much like tortellini stuffed with beef, lamb and veal. My husband had these for lunch in the pasta/pizza restaurant, one of the many food venues to choose from.

The bread bakery was amazing—crusty Italian loaves of every shape and type. We learned that Eataly makes anywhere from 2,500 to 5,000 loaves of bread a day. Large squares of focaccia were topped with olives, onions, peppers, mushrooms, anchovies and tomato sauce, all of which could also be grabbed for lunch.

The fish and meat cases almost took my breath away. I began thinking that maybe those tiny clams would be just fine during the long car ride home. I was happy to leave the sea urchins right there, but it was hard to walk by the lovely pink veal shanks that were just waiting to become osso bucco. And who knew one could choose different types of prosciutto based on the number of months aged?

Finally, I lost myself in the olive oil library, where bottles were lined up like soldiers according to the various regions in Italy. I bought three small bottles of Ligurian oil from northern Italy and lemon oil from Sicily. It was hard to choose.

My basket was full after an hour, and I knew I couldn’t begin to buy everything I wanted. So we ended our adventure with lunch: pasta, pizza and a cool white Orvieto wine in the pasta venue, Eataly’s most popular place to eat.

Is there a downside to Eataly? Well, we were told it can get terribly crowded, often with 45-minute wait times to eat. A late Sunday morning visit was a good choice as crowds were manageable. Eataly is also expensive. We now can get good olive oils and imported pasta right here. But to me, it was a fantastic experience and lots of fun. If you are an Italian food junkie and are planning a trip to the Big Apple, forget the fake purses on Houston Street and drop into Eataly!

Eataly is located at 200 5^th Ave., New York, www.eataly.com.

Lessons in Money, Life: With the Nubians, you’ll learn a lot more than how to pick a decent stock.

May 30, 2014 | by Wendy Jackson-Dowe

Allow me to introduce you to a group of dynamic, well-seasoned ladies—oh, and one gentleman—who have quietly and successfully been running an investment club in Harrisburg for more than 10 years.

Until the addition of the lone gentleman in the club, the group was affectionately known as “The Nubian Ladies.” They are now known as The Nubians—natives or inhabitants of Nubia (an ancient region of northeastern Africa).

Now, let me give you a bit of a historical perspective.

For the majority of our history in America as black women, talk of investing, purchasing stock, reading the stock pages was largely unheard of. Black women were busy being “the help,” with little time to care for their own families and households. Yes, money was made, but very little, and every cent of it was used to exist, not prosper.

Well, that certainly has changed, granted from the countless sacrifices and unyielding determination to improve our socioeconomic status. However, let’s be clear: the ebb and flow of contemporary life has stagnated conversations on the importance of financial literacy for many in our urban communities.

Recently, I had the immense pleasure to speak with a founding member of the Nubian Ladies, Mrs. Phyllis Britton.

Mrs. Britton was born in Uptown Harrisburg in 1936 and attended Edison and John Harris, graduating in 1954. After high school, she graduated from Cheyney University and earned her master’s degree in Special Education and Supervision from Bloomsburg University. She then taught in the Harrisburg public school system for 42 years.

None of the investment club members had formal training in investing or financial services. They did, though, attend college, many obtaining their master’s degrees, and two became members of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. In other words, they are all self-taught in the area of investing.

Mrs. Britton said she was inspired to start the club by the wise words instilled by her grandmother, who always said that you should own something. She also recalls a workbook The Patriot-News ran in the 1960s, when she was teaching at John Harris. It gave children lessons by using imaginary money to invest.

Years later, when a fellow church member mentioned she was interested in starting an investment club, it was a no-brainer for Mrs. Britton.

The 15 original members drew up the bylaws and began to read Carolyn Brown’s book, “The Millionaires Club.”

“This was a good jumping off point for us,” said Mrs. Britton. “When we began, our members ranged in age from 40 to 68. We didn’t make much money at first, but now it’s paying dividends.”

The club has a president, vice president, recording secretary, corresponding secretary, financial secretary and treasurer. Members had their first meeting at a local library and still meet there. Meetings last about an hour.

“Everyone is given a specific stock to report on,” said Mrs. Britton. “We follow that stock and bring our information to the meeting. Our reports are due quarterly. We research the stocks we have, as well as new ones to consider.”

The group’s portfolio consists of 13 stocks, including retailer Dollar Tree, which was an early investment for the club and has, over time, proven to be one of the more successful buys.

“We are now in search of the next Dollar Tree!” said Mrs. Britton.

The year is capped off by a June dinner for all members before they take a much-needed summer break in July and August.

The social aspect of the club, in fact, is a big part of it.

“We call it an investment club, but it may be a social club as well,” she said. “We love our meetings and always look forward to them. We enjoy our meetings because we have common interests of family, education, self-reliance and pride.”

The group tries to keep membership to around 15 people, which is large enough to ensure a well-functioning club, but still is manageable. Prospective members must have some computer knowledge, a strong willingness to read, the ability to get along with members and the means to pay the monthly $25 contribution.

What advice does this veteran investor have for younger people?

“Start saving early!” she said without hesitation. “There is something more important than material things. Young people spend too much money on material things that lose value. Those of us who are older must pass these values down to our children and grandchildren. We hold on to our stocks—you just can’t sell at the first dip. Have patience.”

Interested in your own investment club? Mrs. Britton suggests checking out www.betterinvesting.org as a starting point, as well as seeking the advice of a certified professional.

My visit with Mrs. Britton took me back to those years as a child sitting around my older “kinfolk” listening to their stories with big eyes, just soaking everything in. I treasure those times and now have another story to add to my “treasure chest” of memories and life lessons.

Thank you Mrs. Britton and all the members, past and present, of The Nubians. Oh, did I mention that my mom is a founding member too? Thanks Mom… I’m so proud of you!

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