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Travels in Beer: Harrisburg, Bavarian breweries collaborate, innovate–and you can taste the result.

September 28, 2018 | by M. Diane McCormick

Sure, you know pilsner. It’s that watery stuff stocked in beer coolers every Super Bowl Sunday, right?

Think again. When University of the Sciences beer professor Matthew Farber walks into a brewpub, he orders a pilsner as a test “because it’s a simple, clean, difficult-to-master style.”

“Because it’s so simple and clean, it becomes very elegant,” said Farber, director of the Philadelphia school’s brewing science certificate program. “Any flaws or problems are very apparent. To make it well means that a brewer has really good control of his or her process and raw materials.”

Now, a flavorful pilsner and an Oktoberfest beer steeped in Bavarian tradition are on tap in Midtown Harrisburg, while a 160-year-old German brewery prepares to launch an IPA to a cautiously curious market back home. All are products of a two-way collaboration between the Millworks Brewery and Keesmann Brewery of Bamberg, Germany.

It all started with Millworks owner Joshua Kesler.

Ancestry-wise, Kesler is typically American—“a little bit of this and a little bit of that,” he said.

He studied German in college because Spanish was booked up. Or because German was later in the morning. Whichever, he made it an avocation for the chance to “engage with people in their mother tongue. That was the one I picked, and I’m sticking with it.”

Through a friend in Germany, Kesler met Stefan Keesmann, owner of Keesmann Brewery in northern Bavaria. Kesler (German translation: “cheesemaker”) suggested a brewing and cooking collaboration to Stefan and his son Lukas Keesmann (also “cheesemaker”). The Keesmanns had entertained similar thoughts.

Thus, Stefan and Lukas Keesmann came to Harrisburg for a consultation in early July. Kesler and Millworks brewmaster Jeffrey Musselman returned the favor and ventured to Germany later in the summer.

The Millworks’ first resulting pour was its “Collaboration Pilsner,” a delicious take on the classic lager that’s dreamy with the kale salad, the cheeseburger and probably anything else on the Millworks’ menu. Musselman, 10 years in the business, said he increasingly appreciates a “well-made, simple beer, and that’s the way the Germans approach their beers.”

Putting a Millworks spin on a classic German pilsner included dry hopping a newish German hops called mandarina Bavaria, for a “marriage between an old-school pilsner but also using a hop variety that’s relatively new and more pleasing to the modern American craft drinker,” Musselman said.

The German purity law, the Reinheitsgebot, decrees that only beverages brewed with barley (or wheat), yeast, water and hops can be called “beer.” A malty imperial stout tastes nice, the Keesmanns told Kesler and Musselman, but it’s not beer.

“If you drop a cherry in it, you can’t call it beer,” said Kesler.

Musselman certainly loves the American arms race for the craziest tap in town, but his Germany visit affirmed the Millworks philosophy of beer as social catalyst.

“Beer over there is not seen as a luxury item,” Musselman said. “It’s part of their daily routine. It’s part of living a good life. That was the really cool thing I took home from the trip. It was neat to see people just enjoying a beer with friends at a beer garden and hanging out and talking and enjoying the good life.”

Traditional as Possible

American beer is deeply rooted in German traditions and techniques, brought to the New World by early immigrants.

By the mid-19th century, the city of Lancaster earned the nickname “Little Munich” for its profusion of breweries catering to German-Americans thirsty for home-style lagers instead of English ales.

Prohibition and post-World War II industry consolidation severed many of those ties.

Today’s American brewers can learn a thing or two from their German counterparts, said Farber. The United States is poised to reach 7,000 breweries this year, with two opening per day since 2012, and an emphasis on quality is now sharing priority with the rush to innovate.

“There’s such great attention to the technical aspects of brewing in Germany,” Farber said.

That combination of German tradition and American innovation now is also on tap at the Millworks, which recently released its Oktoberfest, a beer actually closer to a German springtime marzen.

A true German Oktoberfest beer is a light-colored lager, but Americans expect autumn color. Musselman said it’s “malt-forward” for “those bready, caramel notes.” All ingredients, including the hops, are German, hewing to a brew “as traditional as possible and also appealing to the American demographic.”

“When I have a sip of that beer, it immediately transports me to southern Germany,” Kesler said. “I start looking for the closest wurst I can find.”

Germany’s beer culture is “baked into their way of life,” he added. “It’s not that someone’s a beer drinker. Everyone’s a beer drinker.”

Both Ways

In Germany, new beers encounter skepticism, and yet, brewers must innovate incrementally to differentiate in a market where all brewers make the same products with the same ingredients, under the same rules.

Younger Germans are “picking up this IPA bug” in their travels, Kesler said, and American craft brewers are making inroads in the market. So the Keesmanns weren’t cautious about collaborating, but they were taking a risk. They approached the collaboration “trying to figure out what type of American-style microbrew would resonate with their very traditional customer base,” Kesler said.

The Keesmanns told Musselman they wanted to brew an IPA. The resulting New England IPA will reach German stores and restaurants next April. Juicy in taste and hazy in appearance, it allows Keesmann to reach that younger demographic while hewing to German brewing traditions.

And because Keesmann Brewery, like the Millworks, is food-oriented, the collaboration brings new dishes to each establishment, Kesler said. German dishes on the fall menu pairing with Millworks’ Oktoberfest include a schweinshaxe.

And that means?

“I hate to say it out loud, because it doesn’t sound great, but it’s pork knuckle,” Kesler said. “It’s this fantastic presentation of a huge hock. It’s pork tender with crispy skin on the outside. It feeds two people. It’s fun to pick away at while you’re drinking a big beer.”

And what else would the Millworks offer on the culinary side but smoked brisket? The Keesmanns and their families loved their taste of the Millworks specialty, and next year, chef Lance Smith will travel to Keesmann Brewery, guiding setup of an “American-style barbecue blowout in their beer garden.”

That visit also will go both ways, as the Keesmanns return to Harrisburg in March to help create a to-be-determined beer. Aiming for release with the Millworks’ rooftop beer garden opening on May 1, Kesler welcomes suggestions for the new beer’s style.

Farber knows of just a few other intercontinental collaborations, one being between the 2SP Brewing Co., in Delaware County, Pa., and a brewery in Japan, where there are “some interesting trends.” He also noted that Sierra Nevada collaborated with the world’s longest-operating brewery, the Bavarian Weihenstephan, to produce its Braupakt hefeweissbier.

The Millworks-Keesmann collaboration is “a great idea,” he said. “Innovation meets tradition.”

Musselman and Kesler hope to make the initiative a regular effort, with each team regularly crossing the ocean to swap brewing and culinary notes. Musselman, for one, is wondering about his hefeweizen, declared good by the Keesmanns, but not a true German hefeweizen.

“There absolutely is a lot to learn to really dial these beers into the German tradition,” he said.

The Millworks is located at 340 Verbeke St., Harrisburg. For more information, visit www.millworksharrisburg.com.

Start Here Now: The ripple effect of volunteering.

September 28, 2018 | by Jamie Mowery Lewis

When I was 10 years old, a 7-year-old boy named Rayshaun spent the summer at our home through the Fresh Air Fund.

The Fresh Air Fund allows children from New York City’s low-income communities to enjoy summer experiences in the countryside through visits with volunteer host families. Sean Combs, better known as “P Diddy,” recently revealed on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” that he participated in the Fresh Air Fund as a child. In Lancaster, Pa., Diddy said, he milked cows, picked berries and got a chance to appreciate life outside of the hustle and bustle of the city.

“It really teaches you how to just relate with each other,” he said.

The first summer Rayshaun spent with my family, he had never played in grass before, and he thought the floor was more comfortable than a bed. Through the next several years, he learned to swim, fish, play baseball, hit a golf ball but, most importantly, be a kid. We would spend our summers making new memories together, working on reading and writing skills, as well as just sharing a stable family environment. Rayshaun is now 22 years old, a college graduate and an important member of our family.

Recently, I attended the opening retreat for Leadership Harrisburg Area Class of 2019.

During the retreat, we discussed servant leadership, color-code personality assessments, community service and nonprofits in our area. We also talked about our region as a whole by reviewing county information from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2012-16 “American Community Survey” five-year estimates.

Even though I grew up in this area, seeing some of the statistics still shocked me. As I mentioned, my family was involved with the Fresh Air Fund, which helps children in New York City. However, when you look at the statistics, the poverty rate is lower in New York City than in Harrisburg. In New York, 20.3 percent of people live in poverty, while poverty affects 31.7 percent of people in Harrisburg. Also, 36.2 percent of New York residents over the age of 25 have a bachelor’s degree or higher, which is double the education level of Harrisburg residents.

Helping children and communities anywhere is important, and we loved our experience with the Fresh Air Fund, but what about places right outside of our own windows?

Research shows that, while over 90 percent of us want to volunteer, only 1 out of 4 Americans actually do. Studies also show that children whose parents volunteer were significantly more likely to do so themselves. From my personal experience, I have valued volunteering because my parents wove it into our lives. They never directly said, “You have to volunteer.” But watching them live with the desire to help others was very influential in my life.

We have all heard the excuses before: “I’m not sure how to get involved,” or, “I don’t have the time.”

My advice would be to just start here now. My employer, Gunn-Mowery, LLC, has an “Upside of Giving” committee. In the past few months alone, we have donated shoes to a local school, spent a day organizing clothes at Dress for Success, painted rooms at the Methodist Home for Children, volunteered at the Special Olympics, painted faces at the Girls on the Run 5K and cooked a meal at the Ronald McDonald house. Those are just a few examples of volunteer opportunities, and there are so many others.

My late grandfather, Sen. Hal Mowery, was a state leader, well-respected businessman, diligent advocate for children, education, healthcare and business and an exemplary, community-minded citizen. He often used the quote from Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

I urge you to go alone, get your friends together or assemble a small group from work. Even better, make it a family outing and expose your children to volunteerism at a young age. Just as a simple action has the ability to alter society, a single volunteer can help improve our community. Start here now.

Jamie Mowery Lewis is a marketing executive for Gunn-Mowery, LLC, a community publisher for TheBurg.

September News Digest

September 28, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda and Lizzy Hardison

HMAC Files Chapter 11

A month after a sexual assault allegation engulfed the House of Music, Arts & Culture (HMAC) in a social media maelstrom, its owners filed for bankruptcy and plan to sell their business.

HMAC (formerly the Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center) will continue its normal operations as its owners restructure debt obligations to more than three dozen creditors, said John Traynor, who owns HMAC with his husband, Gary Bartlett, and two other partners.

Their company, Bartlett, Traynor & London LLC, last month filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. They believe that they have a buyer for the business, according to the filing documents. HMAC listed more than $5 million in total assets, chief among them the sprawling, historic building at 1110 N. 3rd St.

Traynor hopes to transition to new management and ownership by 2019.

“This allows us to reorganize, take a breath, and work with creditors,” Traynor said. “I think HMAC could use a fresh start, and Chapter 11 will help facilitate that.”

Traynor and his partners have developed HMAC for a decade and, in 2009, opened the first phase, Stage on Herr, a bar and concert venue. In all, they’ve since spent millions of dollars renovating the 34,000-square-foot property, which served as the city’s Jewish Community Center starting in 1924 and later housed Harrisburg’s Police Athletic League.

Today, HMAC is comprised of three separate performance venues, as well as a full-service bar and kitchen. It hosts shows by local and national performance artists, corporate events, weddings and community gatherings.

Renovated Playgrounds Reopen

Summer break may be over, but playtime is just beginning in Harrisburg.

Mayor Eric Papenfuse last month cut the ribbon on the newly renovated Cloverly Heights Playground, one of four play areas that were recently revamped with new equipment and green infrastructure.

After being closed all summer, playgrounds at Cloverly Heights, Norwood and Holly streets, Penn and Sayford streets and Royal Terrace are opening to the public.

The four sites have been outfitted with all-new play amenities, and each one has unique features, Papenfuse said.

Three of the sites also have storm water management enhancements thanks to Capital Region Water.

“Our parks are the city’s greatest assets,” Papenfuse said. “I’m glad we’re bringing all of our playgrounds up to the level that our community would like to see.”

The city will complete renovations at a fifth playground, at 4th and Dauphin streets, next year.

The citywide playground renovations were part of a $2 million partnership among Harrisburg, Capital Region Water, Impact Harrisburg, the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the state Department of Community and Economic Development.

The ribbon cutting represented the culmination of a project three years in the making. The five playground sites were first targeted for renovations in 2015, but renovations stalled while the city pursued funding and collected public input.

Another Purchase for Harristown

A downtown Harrisburg building project has changed significantly, as a developer now has plans to purchase and renovate the building next door.

Harristown Enterprises expects to close this fall on the purchase of 17 S. Market Sq., currently the home of the SkarlatosZonarich law firm, said Harristown CEO Brad Jones. A full renovation of the century-old, 33,809-square-foot building will follow.

“We’re still evaluating the uses of that building,” Jones said. “We think it’s going to become a mixed-used project.”

Last year, Harristown bought the neighboring building, a small, dilapidated, early 19th-century office and retail building at 21 S. 2^nd St., which notably once housed the Coronet restaurant.

It razed that building, with expectations to construct a new office building and attach it internally to the SkarlatosZonarich property. However, according to Jones, the plan changed after continuing discussions with the law firm.

“As we began to talk more, they indicated they were more interested in selling the building,” Jones said.

As a result, SkarlatosZonarich now will sell their Market Square building to Harristown and relocate to the Bowman Tower in Strawberry Square, which is also owned by Harristown.

In January, the firm’s 35 employees will move into about 11,000 square feet of office space, about double their current footprint, following a $1 million renovation, Jones said. After the relocation, Strawberry Square will have an office vacancy rate of only about 5 percent, he said.

Jones said that plans are still in flux for the redevelopment project at Market Square, but he expects a mixed use of residential, office and retail, with residential more likely for 17 S. Market Sq. and office more likely for 21 S. 2nd St.

Parker Departs City

A senior Harrisburg official left her post last month to work in the private sector.

Jackie Parker, who has headed the city’s Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) since 2014, left her position to take a job with a medical marijuana company, she told TheBurg.

Parker joined the city administration when Mayor Eric Papenfuse took office in 2014. She previously served as the mayor of Lebanon, Pa., and as deputy secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.

As the city’s DCED director, Parker was the point person for economic development projects, Papenfuse said. She managed employees in the bureaus of housing, planning, business development and parks and recreation.

Papenfuse said today that he does not plan to replace Parker. The mayor announced a city hall hiring freeze in June, but he also hopes to reorganize DCED in the wake of Parker’s departure.

He expects to prepare a reorganization plan ahead of his 2019 budget presentation in November.

“She’s been a wonderful, committed leader for the city,” Papenfuse said. “I think she’s irreplaceable.”

Trash Billing Proposal Revived

Unpaid trash fees are costing Harrisburg an average of $200,000 a month—a problem that city Treasurer Dan Miller thinks can be fixed by billing residents once a year for disposal services.

Miller proposed an annual trash billing structure earlier this year as part of an overhaul of Harrisburg’s sanitation laws. But City Council nixed the measure, saying it would stress the cash flow of low-income and fixed-income residents.

The city currently bills residents $32 a month for trash collection. It also has a monopoly on commercial accounts in the city.

Miller appeared before council last month to renew the case for annual billing. He’s proposing that Harrisburg include a line item for trash fees on every property’s annual real estate tax bill, which is mailed out in January. The trash collection fee would be subject to the same 2 percent, 60-day discount period as the real estate tax.

The city currently has a 98-percent collection rate on its real estate taxes. Miller hopes that trash fee collections would increase by streamlining the two bills into one. It would also save an estimated $100,000 a year in mailing costs.

Collecting up-front payments is key, Miller said, since the treasurer’s office doesn’t have many means to pursue delinquent accounts.

According to Miller, Harrisburg lost enforcement authority over delinquent trash bills when it restructured under the Harrisburg Strong Plan, the financial recovery plan it adopted in 2013.

Before the Strong Plan, Harrisburg had an in-house collections arm in its Operations Revenue Department (ORD). When the department could not collect bills from delinquent accounts, it could turn off the water at those properties to spur a payment.

But the Strong Plan dissolved the ORD and transferred Harrisburg’s water assets to Capital Region Water. As a result, the city lost the ability to terminate water services at delinquent properties.

“People discovered that, if they didn’t pay their bill, their trash was still collected and nothing else happened,” Miller said. “Maybe their bill went up [from interest], but nobody was doing anything about it.”

So Noted

Knead Bar Pies opened last month inside of Zeroday Brewing Co., 250 Reily St., Harrisburg. This is the second location for Knead, which also has a stand in the Broad Street Market, serving a different style of pizza. Pending approval of a liquor license transfer, Knead is planning a third location, Knead Slice Shop, at N. 3rd and Boas streets, a storefront long occupied by Mercado’s Pizzeria.

Paxton Ministries and Monarch Development Group last month broke ground on Paxton Place, an affordable senior housing development at 1100 S. 20th St., Harrisburg. The $8.6 million development, featuring a 37-unit apartment building, should be completed in fall 2019.

Penn State Health last month appointed Deborah A. Berini as president of the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. Berini most recently served as chief operating officer at the University of Texas Medical Branch Health System. She replaces Alan Brechbill, who has assumed the role of executive vice president for hospital operations for Penn State Health.

Salvation Army of Harrisburg last month broke ground on it new regional headquarters located at S. 29th Street and Rudy Road. When complete, the 39,000-square-foot facility will house the Salvation Army’s education and human services programs, which reach more than 18,000 adults and children in Dauphin, Perry and Cumberland counties.

Stash Vintage and The Midtown Dandy are teaming up to open a vintage clothing store in downtown Harrisburg, they announced last month. The two retailers will move into the storefront at 11 S. 3rd St. later this fall once improvements are made to the space, which is owned by Harristown Enterprises.

Changing Hands

Allison St., 1506: S. Maurer to J. Davison, $71,000

Boas St., 213: B. Wagner to L. & S. Godinez, $105,900

Brookwood St., 2466: Carrodo LLC to PA Deals LLC, $45,000

Conoy St., 110: M. & S. McLees to H. Peyrot, $153,000

Crescent St., 332½: Dynaspek Holdings LLC to K. Stoute, $50,000

Croyden Rd., 2981: J. Arvelo to Leonard J. Dobson Family Limited Partnership, $30,401

Cumberland St., 113: J. Townsend to J. Calla, $173,000

Derry St., 1603½: S. Vielle to R. Garcia, $37,000

Emerald St., 219: D Jay Investments LLC to M. Goldthwait, $31,600

Fulton St., 1713: A. Beck to M. Fagan, $125,000

Graham St., 310: N. Lindemyer to V. Arrington, $99,000

Green St., 1704: B. & C. Hansen to Z. Houseal, $209,900

Green St., 1914: L. Copus to K. Bogard, $194,900

Green St., 2316: Skye Holdings LLC to U&N Properties, $35,000

Holly St., 1844: V. Rivas to F. Eras, $40,000

Hunter St., 1610: M. Toro to P. Anandan, $44,000

Kensington St., 2044: PTSH Properties LLC to K. Cardona, $33,500

Kensington St., 2225: D. & S. Fenton and Harrisburg Property Management Group to F. Sisic, $54,000

Lewis St., 210: B. & C. Zandieh to T. Keller, $67,000

Logan St., 2329: I. Mirambeaux to D. Reyes-Martinez, $35,000

Maclay St., 332: JTA Consulting Group LLC to D. Jolley, $70,000

Market St., 2018: US Bank NA Trustee & Ocwen Loan Servicing LLC to C. Ovalles, $40,767

North St., 214: A. Lawson to J. Hunt & K. Lambert, $129,000

Norwood St., 920: J. & R. Lowery to J. Arocho, $91,180

N. 2^nd St., 901 & 903: W. & J. Hobbie to WG PA Holdings LLC & B. Golper, $365,000

N. 2^nd St., 909: C. Simmons to C. Adam, $165,000

N. 2^nd St., 1223: B. Jones to A. Holt & S. Hayes, $153,000

N. 2^nd St., 2425: S. & M. Hwang to A. Waltz, $168,000

N. 2^nd St., 3008: H. & K. Bey to S. & R. Bogash, $234,900

N. 2^nd St., 3209: Benchmarq Holdings LLC to H. & L. Robinson, $109,900

N. 3^rd St., 1628: C. Frater to Heinly Homes LLC, $100,000

N. 3^rd St., 1640: V. Jenkins to Heinly Homes LLC, $76,500

N. 3^rd St., 1806: HBG Rents LLC to C. Shokes, $242,000

N. 3^rd St., 3020: D. Porter to PA Deals LLC, $32,000

N. 4^th St., 2410: PA Deals LLC to K. Moulds, $70,000

N. 5^th St., 2251: K. Rolston to B. Kerstetter, $210,000

N. 5^th St., 3118: Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. to Willowscott Investments LLC, $34,000

N. 5^th St., 3132: K. Hall to Willowscott Investments LLC, $62,000

N. 6^th St., 2947: Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. Trustee to D. Wenger, $61,425

N. 6^th St., 2987: C. De la Riva to E. & P. Grier, $125,000

N. 6^th St., 3151: A. Banks to E. Crawford, $69,900

N. 14^th St., 1116: Just Sold Another One LLC to Gator Management Group LLC, $31,000

N. 16^th St., 1326, 1328: W. Washington to F. Johnson, $95,000

N. Front St., 1525, Unit 212: D. Taylor to R. Viti & T. Luckenbaugh, $149,550

N. Front St., 1525, Unit 510: M. & L. Paszak to H. Evren & M. Saygin, $99,900

N. Front St., 2833: N. & P. West to A. & G. Shahbaz, $289,000

N. Front St., 3207: Remus Real Estate to 3207 N. Front St LLC, $390,000

Parkway Blvd., 2513: A. Maiga to A. Buglione, $30,000

Penn St., 1508: M. Parmer to C. Bury, $137,900

Penn St., 1608: R. Viti & T. Luckenbaugh to D. Hooker & B. Lister, $165,000

Penn St., 2117: JLP Holdings LLC to Wells Fargo Bank NA, $34,518

Penn St., 2233: J. Thomas to T. & R. Kenney, $109,900

Radnor St., 249: Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. to M. Chappelle, $115,620

Rudy Rd., 2339: Good Deal Properties LLC to W. MacMichael, $39,500

Rumson Dr., 2786: J. & K. Cabezas to PA Deals LLC, $40,000

S. 13^th St., 435: SWM Properties LLC to F. & P. Harden, $70,000

S. 13^th St., 1496: A. Roberts to DPM Development LLC, $41,500

S. 14^th St., 1402: D. & E. Stanton to City of Harrisburg, $41,000

S. 14^th St., 1431: R. Epps to City of Harrisburg, $57,000

S. 14^th St., 1434: W. Collins to City of Harrisburg, $45,000

S. 14^th St., 1456: G. Bullock & L. Gratkowski to City Harrisburg, $56,000

S. 16^th St., 17: D. Springer to W. Cherelus, $33,000

S. 18^th St., 1319: K. Shemory to J. Nguyen & T. Pham, $100,000

S. 27^th St., 634: S. Moore to D. Mateo, $50,000

S. 27^th St., 731: S. & M. Pandolfi to P. Menanga & J. Bidjeke, $135,000

S. Front St., 557: K. Stennett to K. Tatum, $128,000

State St., 1717: A. & R. Sharp to M. Demonda, $130,000

State St., 1823: C. & N. Bickel to M. Butler, $69,917

Susquenhanna St., 1730: Signature Rehab Services LLC to G. Harris, $111,200

Swatara St., 1905: H. Abukaffaya to A. Grove-Erazo, $37,000

Vine St., 119: W. Zutell to Wild Patch LLC, $80,000

Walnut St., 104: C. Hinson to MIV Properties LLC, $85,000

Walnut St., 1854-1860: T. Van, H. Van & T. Vo to H. Van, $85,000

Woodbine St., 236: M. Elganzoory to Lambar LLC, $34,000

Wyeth St., 1409: D. & M. Myers to H. Swanson, $117,000

Harrisburg property sales for August 2018, greater than $30,000. Source: Dauphin County. Data is assumed to be accurate.

Burg View: Let Them Vote

September 25, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda

The Pennsylvania Capitol

Earlier today, a joint House committee held a hearing, one in which Harrisburg’s very future is at stake.

That’s no exaggeration.

PA House bill 2557 would allow Harrisburg to keep its current taxation levels, thus allowing it to exit Act 47, the state’s program for financially distressed municipalities.

If the bill passes, Harrisburg’s decade-long fiscal nightmare would effectively end, and the city could move on confidently toward a brighter future, building on its long, slow redevelopment.

If the bill fails—who knows? The city’s financial storm could continue for another three years, when the state forces Harrisburg out of Act 47 for good.

At that point, the options are grim. The state has proposed vast increases in city property taxes. Harrisburg countered with a commuter tax. Neither option is acceptable or likely to pass. The city also could slash services, though anyone who lives here can tell you that service levels are already too low.

Harrisburg could even end up back in state receivership or do what it failed to do eight years ago—declare bankruptcy. In other words, the city likely would be plunged back into financial crisis.

Meanwhile, a solution—retaining the status quo—is profoundly logical and at hand. The House bill would permit exactly that, so those who work in Harrisburg (residents and commuters alike) would continue to pay an extra $100 a year in local services tax over what’s currently allowed under state law for third-class cities.

Yes, that’s the prevailing issue—an extra $2 a week from workers to help the city pay for supporting and servicing some 50,000 commuters, which doubles Harrisburg’s population each day. One hundred bucks a year so police show up when you call them, so EMTs arrive when your car crashes, so roads are cleared of snow so you can reach your office, so restaurants are inspected, etc., etc.

The bill also would allow the city to keep its 2-percent earned income tax rate, which mostly affects just Harrisburg residents, while nixing any proposal for a dedicated commuter tax.

This solution has been in place for the past few years, and it seems to be working well.

Moreover, it’s the solution favored by most of our area’s representatives, including two Republicans who represent many of the region’s commuters, Sen. John DiSanto and Rep. Greg Rothman. Gov. Tom Wolf also supports the bill.

They all well remember the dark days of 2010-12, when the city, stripped of its workforce and effectively bankrupt, seemed incapable of performing even the most basic municipal functions, when the city’s very survival was at issue.

But time is of the essence. The legislature is in session for only seven more days, giving a limited window for the bill to come up for a vote.

Therefore, we urge Speaker Mike Turzai to allow a vote on House bill 2557.

We understand that he doesn’t like the bill and, if so, he can and should vote against it. But one man, however powerful, should not single-handedly determine the fate of a city so distant from his own Allegheny County home, thwarting the wishes of the local community here and the will of the legislature as a whole.

For the sake of Harrisburg, House bill 2557 must be allowed to come up for a vote.

Lawrance Binda is editor-in-chief of TheBurg.

My City Was Gone: How redlining helped segregate, blight Harrisburg.

August 31, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

Growing up on Harrisburg’s 6th Street in the 1930s and ‘40s, Calobe Jackson Jr.’s favorite sandwich was capicola on rye bread. He’d procure the meat, a spicy, cured pork sausage, from Nick’s Italian American store on 6th and Herr—just a block from his family home on Cumberland. The bread came from Strohman’s Jewish Deli, just a block north.

“It was a busy, multi-ethnic neighborhood,” said Jackson, an African-American man who was born in 1930. Though he was a child of the Great Depression, Jackson recalls a neighborhood bustling with small businesses, including Jack’s Hotel, which his father, Calobe Jackson Sr., opened in 1946.

Today, the blocks of 6th Street where Jackson grew up show little of the vibrancy he knew as a boy. Only one neighborhood institution, Jackson House restaurant, still stands. City directories show that businesses started closing in the 1950s, and the number of vacant storefronts and housing units rose steadily through the 1970s and ‘80s. The neighborhood’s proximity to the Capitol Complex and the Broad Street Market likely saved it from the same fate as the northern stretch of 6th Street, where entire blocks languish as patches of grass and concrete.

Ken Frew, a lifelong Harrisburg resident and local historian, grew up hearing stories of 6th Street from his mother. He summarized the changing fortunes of Harrisburg’s longest corridor.

“It was a jumping place,” he said. “Now, it’s been decimated.”

Many factors contributed to divestment in Harrisburg and the flight of wealth to the suburbs after World War II. Among them was a federal effort that segregated neighborhoods in the name of rebuilding the national housing market. Engineered by the federal government and enforced by local realtors, banks and government officials, these policies cut urban neighborhoods off from access to capital, initiating a cycle of divestment and decay that remains visible to this day.

Today, the practice of government agencies denying service to certain neighborhoods is called redlining—a term first coined by community groups in Chicago, referring literally to the red lines that lenders and insurance providers drew around areas they would not service. Redlined neighborhoods—those occupied by African Americans or by integrated, multi-ethnic populations—became unsuitable sites for home loans or business financing. Residents who could afford to leave these areas often did; those who stayed saw once-thriving areas falter around them. According to the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, 74 percent of neighborhoods that were redlined eight decades ago are considered low-to-moderate income today.

The 6th Street corridor from Forster to Maclay streets, which was redlined by appraisers in the 1930s, is a prime example. Jackson’s father was denied a mortgage there in 1945 for Jack’s Hotel, even though he already owned a home and a small business. The neighborhood today has a 33-percent poverty rate, according to census data. Almost half its families make less than $35,000 per year.

Best to Worst

The federal agency that pioneered redlining was the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC), one of the dozens of “alphabet soup” organizations created under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal program. When HOLC was founded in 1933, the country was facing unprecedented levels of home foreclosures on top of a paltry homeownership rate. A previous federal campaign, begun almost two decades earlier to promote home buying among the working and middle class, had accomplished little by the time Roosevelt took office. Few families could scrape together the 50-percent down payment required on most homes or commit to the standard five- to seven-year loan repayment schedule.

The nation’s housing crisis worsened during the Great Depression. Many families that owned property could no longer make loan payments, and those that aspired to homeownership now had fewer assets. It was in this climate that the federal government created HOLC, which aimed to stabilize the nation’s housing market by issuing low-interest, long-term loans to homeowners in danger of defaulting. At the same time, the Federal Housing Agency (FHA), another New Deal organization, began granting loans to first-time homebuyers.

The FHA adopted lending guidelines that were explicitly racist. Its appraisal standards included a white-only requirement, and its 1935 “Underwriting Manual” warned that allowing races to mix in neighborhoods led to “instability and a reduction in home value.” But the most infamous relics of racial home policy we have today come from HOLC, which created America’s first formal system for assessing lending risk.

With help from local real estate agents and insurance brokers, HOLC representatives dispersed across the country to rank neighborhoods on a scale of best to worst. Their “City Survey” program produced detailed reports for 239 American cities, along with security maps that assigned each neighborhood a grade on a four-letter scale. Neighborhoods that had high concentrations of African Americans were deemed “hazardous” lending zones and got a “D” rating. On security maps, these neighborhoods were colored red. “Definitely declining” neighborhoods got a “C” grade and were shaded yellow; “static,” B-rate neighborhoods were colored blue, and the “best,” A-grade areas, were colored green. The resulting maps are a striking, visual manifestation of a racist national policy agenda.

Legal historian Richard Rothstein writes in his book, “The Color of Law,” that risk designations had nothing to do with social class or credit-worthiness and everything to do with segregation. A neighborhood with African-American residents, for instance, couldn’t escape redlining “even if it was a solid, middle-class neighborhood of single-family homes.” But they weren’t the only ones who suffered under HOLC’s appraisals. Since the federal government hoped to jumpstart the construction industry with new homebuilding, neighborhoods with old, densely zoned housing also got “hazardous” ratings. Areas with multi-ethnic populations—like the one where Jackson grew up—or large numbers of recent immigrants, particularly European Jews, were also redlined.

Redlining maps have resurfaced in recent years as scholars, urban planners and policy makers place new scrutiny on segregation patterns in American cities. More than 100 HOLC maps, including those for Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, are available in an online database hosted by the University of Richmond. Last year, Bernardo Michael, a professor of history at Messiah College, set out to find one for Harrisburg.

An Old Suspicion

Michael, whose scholarship centers on South Asian history, developed an interest in American social history while leading a civil rights tour for Messiah’s Office of Diversity Affairs. The project made Michael wonder about the more prosaic, lived realities of minority communities in central Pennsylvania. With help from Messiah students, he began plumbing local archives to learn how segregation limited mobility and residential choices for people of color.

“One of the things that became clear to me talking to residents in Harrisburg was that racial segregation was very strong and communities were divided on the grounds of color,” Michael said. “Communities of color lived in anxiety-ridden environments and were anxious about many things—where would they eat as they traveled, what neighborhoods were welcoming and open.”

Michael knew that the nation’s redlining practices must have left an imprint in Harrisburg. Unable to find a HOLC security map for the city, he made an inquiry at the National Archives in College Park, Md. It yielded a scan of a 1930s-era map of Harrisburg, rendered in a patchwork of green, blue, red and yellow.

According to Michael, the map “was confirming an old suspicion.”

“Local authorities and the federal government were heavily involved in setting up structures that limited the movements of communities of color,” he said.

He added that, as a result, people of color “found themselves confined to what we now call the inner city not by choice, but by circumstance.”

One crucial circumstance was the inability of black homebuyers to secure FHA mortgages in highly rated suburban areas. The exclusion of African Americans from the national housing market was a frequent topic of derision in the black press. No digital archives of Harrisburg’s historic black papers exist, but a 1954 wire report from the Pittsburgh Courier illustrates the injustice of “the serious housing problem confronting American Negroes which, in effect, hems them into the least desirable areas of our cities.” Lamenting increased congestion and crime in many cities, the writer contends that “white people seeking to escape such an environment find few obstacles and desert such areas in large numbers, leaving them to those unable to escape: Negroes, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and the like, who would in equal proportion prefer to move, if they could rent or buy in the new FHA-financed suburban settlements.” The FHA did not reform its racist lending policies until passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968.

Urban renewal movements that began in the 1970s and intensified in the 2000s did save some redlined neighborhoods from abject ruin. Harrisburg’s downtown business district was redlined in the 1930s, but now boasts restaurants, retail and a growing number of new, upscale apartments. HOLC appraisers warned that Front Street was “definitely declining;” recent years have seen new commercial and residential tenants move into many of its historic mansions. Shipoke, which got a “D” rating from HOLC, today is home to some of Harrisburg’s most expensive, historic properties.

But the same housing policies that devalued cities across the country insulated Harrisburg from meaningful investment for decades. Only two areas in the whole city—Bellevue Park and Riverside, an Uptown neighborhood bordering Susquehanna Township—were considered a lender’s “best” bet for investments. Every other corner of the city was deemed stagnant, declining or outright dangerous territory for those in the mortgage business.

Today, Harrisburg has a 31-percent poverty rate, and some neighborhoods with the highest rates of poverty—Uptown north of Maclay, South Allison Hill and the corner of Harrisburg south of 1-83—were all redlined starting in the 1930s. When the federal government announced, in 2017, a new program to spur development in low-income census tracts, it anointed six tracts in Harrisburg as “qualified opportunity zones.” They align almost perfectly with neighborhoods that were redlined by HOLC.

As many scholars have pointed out, these D-rated areas also became convenient locations for the infrastructure that suburban, white homeowners didn’t want in their own backyards. Harrisburg’s low-income and public housing complexes, including Hall Manor and the Howard Day Homes, sit today in areas that were redlined. The Harrisburg incinerator, once a major emitter of pollutants, found its home in a “hazardous” neighborhood in 1969.

Long, Hard Look

Even though the federal government didn’t have a hand in every home loan that was made in Harrisburg, their segregationist policies shaped the national lending economy. According to Frew and Jackson, the risk assessments in Harrisburg reflect a long-term, local planning agenda that sought to accelerate movement into suburbs.

Take, for instance, HOLC’s redlining of many of Harrisburg’s commercial corridors. In addition to 6th Street, which was a bustling business district, Derry Street and Market Street in Allison Hill were outlined in red on HOLC’s security map, even though Derry Street cuts through desirable neighborhoods shaded in blue. The area between South and Chestnut streets—what is now the downtown business district—is striped red and yellow. These business areas buzzed with grocers, record stores, tailors and laundromats in the 1930s, but they represented a model of commercial retail that was on the decline across America.

Starting in the 1950s, American retail shifted from downtown streets to suburban malls. Harrisburg’s first mall, Kline Village, was built in 1951. As Jackson said, the appraisers drawing Harrisburg’s security map “probably anticipated the fact that people were going to stop shopping downtown.”

Compounding the retail migration to the suburbs was the movement, starting in the 1950s, to reroute major city streets with one-way traffic patterns. Under the pressure of political boss Harvey Taylor, city officials launched an all-out war on traffic congestion. They reduced parking lanes and converted 2nd and Front streets to one-way, multilane thoroughfares. It became easier than ever for drivers to pass through Harrisburg without ever exiting their automobiles.

“The plan was to get people out of the city as quickly as possible,” Jackson said. “When people got off from work, they went out of the city, stopped shopping. When they made Market Street one way, that was the end of downtown. The one-way streets made it difficult for people to maneuver.”

Reading the map as a portend of urban planning trends that came to pass in Harrisburg shows how government policy directly influenced local development, subsidizing suburbs at the expense of city neighborhoods and the people who inhabited them.

Another project looming over Harrisburg at that time was the Capitol Complex expansion. This began in the 1900s with the demolition of the Old Eighth Ward, an African-American and immigrant neighborhood that came to be known as Harrisburg’s “tenderloin” district. The Capitol Complex expansion continued into the 1930s and ‘40s, consuming even more property along Forster and 7th streets.

HOLC redlined those areas, possibly because local leaders had already earmarked them for a state expansion, Frew and Jackson said. It’s just one example of how appraisers with colored pencils helped ensure the planning agendas of Harrisburg’s political class.

“The people who made this had to look far ahead to see what’s going on,” Frew said. “It’s like somebody looked into the future at the city of Harrisburg and came up with these areas because they knew they would have a Capitol expansion, and they knew the downtown area was going to change because of street patterns and malls.”

Today, urban renewal efforts aim to redress some of the deprivations in Harrisburg’s most struggling neighborhoods. City Council doubled Harrisburg’s budget to demolish blighted buildings this year. Vacant storefronts in Allison Hill, Midtown and downtown Harrisburg are finding new lives as brewpubs, retail outlets and restaurants. Some redlined neighborhoods, such as the MulDer Square improvement district in South Allison Hill, are the site of targeted, city-led revitalization efforts.

But there’s work yet to be done. And Michael, the professor, thinks it should start with a long, hard look at Harrisburg’s history. The research project at Messiah called “Spaces of Fear” led to a partnership with Harrisburg University. Their collaborative project, “Digital Harrisburg,” aims to digitize historical census data and create interactive, historical maps of the city. Student researchers also continue to find prime materials, such as racially restrictive covenants, that testify to the history of discriminatory housing in the region. The goal, Michael said, is to create an archival database with policy implications.

“Most of the planning by my generation was clueless about the past,” Michael said. “We are not just going to the past for the past itself, but for how the past informs the present and tells us what we need to do to think about the future. And equality and inclusion are going to play an important role in that.”

Explore more about redlining in Harrisburg and other online historical resources at www.digitalharrisburg.com.

And the Walls Fell Down: Harrisburg needs people to love it, not blight it.

August 31, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda

Illustration by Rich Hauck.

Within a span of about two blocks, two very different stories are unfolding in downtown Harrisburg.

At first glance, they don’t seem so different.

On one street, a pair of dilapidated, century-old buildings barely stands, empty, graffiti-ridden, forsaken. On the other street, there’s another pair of attached buildings, also long-abandoned, marred and falling down.

The difference?

One pair should be with us for another century; the other is about to be wiped off the map.

Until recently, you would have been wise to bet against any of these buildings surviving.

Near the state Capitol, most people probably had already lost hope for the two small, mid-19th century clapboard-and-brick buildings at the corner of North and Susquehanna streets. They had been empty, boarded-up, for some 30 years, even while the block revived around them.

The Harrisburg Redevelopment Authority took possession of the buildings back in 2007, sparking some thought that they might be saved. However, it was a false hope. No redevelopment followed. Eventually, the roofs caved in, and even the ever-optimistic community group, Capitol Area Neighbors, beseeched the authority to do something about its mess—even if it meant demolishing the buildings, which seemed beyond saving.

But, in fact, they could be saved.

In 2014, an attorney named Matt Krupp moved in just across the alley and, for the next four years, walked past these buildings every day. Finally, fed up living across the street from blight, he approached the Redevelopment Authority and, with a partner, made an offer of $34,300 for the wrecks—which was about $34,299 more than they were worth.

“I just got tired of looking at them,” Krupp told me.

This autumn, about six months after buying the pair, Krupp expects to finish the restoration and rebuild, turning the buildings into several apartments and a snug commercial space.

He doesn’t expect to make much money off of the project, but he doesn’t think he’ll lose any either, as he plans to hold for the long-term. The real benefit, he said, has been the elimination of an eyesore and vermin and squatters and the dangers posed by a tumbledown building, along with the ability to improve his neighborhood and return these two historic structures to Harrisburg’s built environment.

The six-month restoration begs the question of why these buildings were left to rot in the first place. Why did the prior owner board up and abandon them—and why did the Redevelopment Authority, the owner for 11 years, similarly do nothing, letting them deteriorate to the point of near collapse?

The North Street project also brings into sharp relief the second half of my story. Just two blocks away, at N. 2nd and Liberty streets, a rather similar situation has been unfolding, but one headed for a very different ending.

At that corner, there’s another pair of small, attached buildings. An attorney from Hershey, now retired, bought them some 35 years ago and, for many years, rented out a few apartments and some shop space there. According to neighbors, they’ve been boarded up for more than a decade.

They’re not quite as old or as decrepit as the North Street properties, but they’re still in bad shape, with broken windows, boarded-up back ends and a distinct lean.

Recently, the owner’s son, representing his elderly father, asked the Harrisburg Architectural Review Board to allow him to raze the buildings. HARB members were clearly upset and torn, but, in the end, voted to permit the demolition.

Since that meeting, I’ve thought often about these two situations, which are so similar yet are ending so differently. Why was one pair of buildings saved, yet the other was not? To me, the juxtaposition is striking.

In the end, the North Street properties found a person who cared. It took the better part of three decades but someone finally stepped forward to save them. Krupp is invested in his community, even serving the thankless role of president of Capitol Area Neighbors. Also, living literally across the street, he had a strong motivation to take on the project and then the ability, teaming up with a business partner, to make it happen.

In contrast, the 2nd Street properties lacked an advocate. The owner’s son told me that his dad was well intentioned, but, well, time just passed. He stopped coming into Harrisburg for work, and the buildings’ condition grew worse and worse. Eventually, even simple maintenance, like snow removal, wasn’t done.

Neighbors said that people repeatedly made offers to buy the increasingly decrepit buildings, but their overtures were rebuffed. The owner’s son said he didn’t understand why his dad held onto the properties, but that now he wants them taken down.

Harrisburg hasn’t yet reached the point of attracting much outside investment. Building inventory remains high, and property appreciation is anemic. So, there’s little to entice developers to come into the city to fix the historic housing stock or build new based solely on return on investment—which is the logical standard for a for-profit developer.

Therefore, the city needs caretakers. It needs people who will buy a house, fix it up and live in it, knowing it may take awhile to recover their investment. It needs investors who will renovate, rent and hold, as it may take years to turn a profit. It needs people who care about Harrisburg to step up boldly.

Here’s what Harrisburg does not need: flippers, slumlords and neglectful owners—all of which are in plentiful supply. (Note to would-be flippers: think twice and then think again—in Harrisburg, this is where the dumb money goes.)

Several local developers have told me that, despite common “wisdom,” it’s very tough to make money in real estate in Harrisburg. I’ve found that to be true—decent renovations of historic properties are expensive and resale prices, plus fees, often don’t cover those costs.

One day, perhaps, the economics will improve enough so that outside developers with deep pockets will be attracted into the city. That’s when we’ll see Harrisburg undergo more widespread redevelopment. Until then, it’s up to people like you and me who care about this place, are already invested it and are in it for more than the lure of a quick buck.

Lawrance Binda is editor-in-chief of TheBurg.

August News Digest

August 31, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda and Lizzy Hardison

Exit Plan Released

The commonwealth last month released Harrisburg’s newest Act 47 exit plan, which calls for maintaining the city’s current Local Services Tax (LST) and Earned Income Tax (EIT) rates through 2020, as the city concurrently seeks special taxing provisions from the state legislature.

Harrisburg’s Act 47 coordinator had to craft an exit plan based on current state law, which would require Harrisburg to relinquish some of its taxing authority when it leaves Act 47 in three years. The city currently collects $11.8 million in annual revenue from heightened LST and EIT rates permitted under Act 47.

The report encourages Harrisburg officials to continue lobbying for the right to levy those current tax rates indefinitely.

To that end, it offers a four-year budget strategy that would give Harrisburg time to continue its lobbying effort. It would allow the city to maintain its status quo tax rates and expenditures through 2020.

If the city does not secure a legislative victory by 2021, DCED would revise the budget projections in the exit plan and would ask the city to change its revenue structure and cut spending.

If state laws have not changed by 2021, the coordinator recommends that Harrisburg lower its EIT to 1.5 percent, reduce its spending, and begin using its fund balance to reduce any budget deficits.

In 2022, the city would have to reduce its EIT to 1 percent and its LST to $52 per year.

The plan also outlines initiatives that the city can undertake to curb spending and increase revenues while it implements the four-year budget strategy.

They include asking more tax-exempt organizations to make payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs), performing a cost analysis of its union and non-union represented personnel expenditures, and limiting enhancements in its future collective bargaining agreements.

DCED also recommends that the city study its split-rate property tax structure and consider moving to a single-rate system. The report says that the split-rate system benefits homesteads at the expense of landowners.

“As revitalization and property improvements continue within the City, the City’s split rate millage is not fully capitalizing on the growth—the county and school district are,” the report reads.

Councilman Ben Allatt said that the revised exit plan was a marked improvement over the first draft, which suggested huge property tax hikes in excess of 100 percent.

“We’re headed in a much better direction than the initial exit plan,” he said. “I think the strategy is to not force the city to make all these crazy decisions in a 30-day period without the state acting. Because the fact is that if we want to resolve our long-term financial situation, then we need to compel the state to act.”

DCED must now hold a public hearing on the revised exit plan.

Teachers Asked to Return Pay

The Harrisburg School District made a big accounting error when it offered dozens of teachers inflated salaries in 2016, and administrators are now asking them to pay some of it back.

Two years after it violated a collective bargaining agreement by hiring 65 teachers at the wrong salary level, the school district is asking them to take a pay cut and give back the wages they were overpaid.

The recouped wages would total almost $500,000, with individual teachers accountable for amounts ranging from $600 to $12,000, according to Harrisburg Education Association leaders.

HEA says the offer violates the contracts of the teachers being asked to take a pay cut and insults 79 longtime teachers who are currently being underpaid. They fear it will lead more teachers to resign from the district.

“It’s ridiculous,” said union President Jody Barksdale. “We’re in a position where we will lose dedicated people because of the lack of promise. When you say you’ll pay someone a certain amount of money, they budget their life around that amount of money.”

HEA filed a grievance against the district in 2016, asking administrators to either reduce the new teacher salaries or promote HEA teachers who had been frozen on the salary schedule. They put forth a $320,000 proposal to bring 79 underpaid employees up to their rightful pay grade, Barksdale said.

Now, the district is fulfilling one of their requests. They’ll cut the new salaries to match HEA pay levels, but they want the teachers they overpaid to give back their wages.

The proposal would bring in half-a-million dollars for the district, even though administrators set aside $1.9 million for the grievance settlement in the 2018-19 budget that was approved by the board in June.

Barksdale said that HEA wants underpaid teachers to be brought up to step instead. She also said the whole fiasco could have been avoided if the district’s Human Resources Department had worked with them in 2016.

“Our counsel tried to explain the language in the bargaining agreement to new personnel in the HR office,” Barksdale said. “It’s like they didn’t believe us or trust us.”

A visibly frustrated Barksdale said that the district’s administration is driving away talented teachers and hurting children.

“The only way this district will move forward is if the district sits down and has honest, transparent conversations with us,” Barksdale said.

Bridge Work Ahead

Harrisburg drivers should brace themselves for some short-term pain, as PennDOT is replacing a small, but well-traveled bridge over Paxton Creek.

Preliminary work began last month to remove and replace the rust-marred Herr Street Bridge that passes over the creek between N. Cameron and N. 9th streets near the Subway Café. That portion of Herr Street averages more than 12,300 vehicles a day, according to the state Department of Transportation.

In August, work began with single-lane restrictions, as crews drove in micro-pilings to prepare for the actual replacement of the 98-year-old single-span, steel-girder bridge.

Then, on Sept. 7, weather permitting, Herr Street, between Cameron and N. 7th streets, will close entirely for as many as 10 days so that crews can remove the existing bridge, replace it with a precast concrete superstructure and rebuild the roadway.

A detour will route motorists around the work zone using Cameron, Maclay and N. 7th streets, said PennDOT.

Atglen, Pa.-based J.D. Eckman is performing the design and construction work under a $3.2 million contract, which includes building the precast superstructure in a nearby lot along Herr Street.

PennDOT said that it expects the entire project, which also includes utility, pavement and signage work, to be finished by mid-October.

State Grant for Office Building

A new downtown Harrisburg office building is a bit closer to reality, as the 2nd Street project last month received a $1 million state grant.

Gov. Tom Wolf’s office announced that Second Street Associates, a partnership headed up by Harristown Development, will receive the funds through the state’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP), which aids projects deemed economically, culturally or historically important.

The money will go towards constructing a new, six-story office building at 21 S. 2nd Street, with retail on the ground floor, along with the rehabilitation of the historic, six-story structure next door at 17 S. 2nd St., which houses the SkarlatosZonarich law firm. The two buildings then would be joined inside to form a single, interconnected structure.

“I am proud to support the construction of this new office and retail tower in downtown Harrisburg,” Wolf said in a statement. “This investment supports the efforts of the region to create more jobs, bolster shopping and retail opportunities, and will strengthen the city’s tax base and local economy.”

Last year, Harristown bought and then razed the dilapidated, three-story, 19th-century structure that once housed the Coronet Restaurant. The building had been largely empty since a fire destroyed the restaurant several decades ago.

Harristown had requested $3 million for the building project. Most RACP applicants are denied funding and, when granted, awards typically are significantly lower than amounts requested.

So far, in the 2018 round of funding, the only other RACP award in Dauphin County has gone to the city of Harrisburg, a $2 million grant to begin the Paxton Creek reclamation project. In 2017, the Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center (HMAC) received $1 million to complete its build out, the Salvation Army Harrisburg received $500,000 for its new building on Rudy Road and Hershey Towne Square received $750,000 towards a three-story parking garage.

So Noted

Harrisburg University last month introduced the 15 full-scholarship members of its new varsity e-sports team and unveiled their uniform, logo and team name, The Storm. The season begins this month with competition in the team-based, multiplayer game, Overwatch, and continues next semester with the games League of Legends and Hearthstone.

Higher Information Group last month announced that it had acquired Pennsylvania Telephone Products Co. The Harrisburg-based business-to-business company said that PTP would be folded into its IT division.

Lola Lawson was appointed last month to the Harrisburg school board, filling a seat vacated by Tyrell Spradley, who resigned after just four months. The board voted 5-3 to appoint Lawson, a school board veteran, during a contentious, crowded meeting at which many residents supported other candidates for the seat.

Changing Hands

Brookwood St., 2200: K. Reinoso to F. DeJesus, $62,500

Camp St., 633: Amtwo Investors LLC to J. Addison, $44,900

Chestnut St., 316: G. & M. Peck to D. Pedroza, $117,000

Derry St., 2436: M. & I. Collins to B. Wolfe, $75,000

Derry St., 2615: S. Mejia to S. Salleb & M. Aiz, $42,500

Green St., 801: Bricker Boys Partnership to Capitol River LLC, $264,900

Forster St., 217 & 222 Briggs St.: G. Rothman c/o RSR Realtors to M. Three Properties, $525,000

Green St., 1729: A. Toberman to P. Lee & S. Willard, $145,000

Green St., 1830: J. Becknauld to Berlin Group LLC, $76,000

Green St., 2345: J. Chirdon to J. Marsh, $83,700

Green St., 3236: D. Conner to C. Devaney, $71,500

Harris St., 212: R. Evanchak to G. Rhone, $138,000

Harris St., 235: M. Barrette to T. Kline, $80,900

Harris St., 429: S. Rao to McClellan Development Group LLC, $76,000

Herr St., 315: J. Montgomery to P. Shaughnessy, $124,500

Holly St., 1837: Skye Holdings LLC to E. Torres, $30,000

Hudson St., 1256: M. Shatto to Marsico Realty LLC, $105,000

Kelker St., 236: D. Zurick to E. Strobel & M. Bragers, $185,500

Kensington St., 2213: P. Flores to S. & A. Popoola, $63,500

Kensington St., 2266: D. Selvey to A. Tilghman, $66,240

Kittatinny St., 1215: A. & R. Apa to S&P Property Holdings LLC, $285,000

Maclay St., 318: Skye Holdings LLC to A. Nebbou & C. Myers, $30,000

Market St., 1920: G. Norman to F. Grooms, $99,000

Nagle St., 123: K. Snyder & C. Kaufman to L. & C. Jerome, $152,500

N. 2^nd St., 1829: M. Nolt to E. & G. Stailey, $134,900

N. 2^nd St., 1935: R. & A. Apa to G. & J. Geiges, $70,000

N. 2^nd St., 2904: F. & B. Pinto to J. Hamley & M. Nolt, $315,000

N. 2^nd St., 3007: A. Harris to E. Kotz & S. Wissler, $168,000

N. 3^rd St., 1700, L57: J. Cody to PA Deals LLC, $63,500

N. 3^rd St., 2201 & 2205: A. & R. Apa to S&P Property Holdings LLC, $275,000

N. 3^rd St., 2333: R. Oberton Sr. to 2333 N. 3^rd Street LLC, $115,000

N. 4^th St., 2225: P. Yoder & E. Murphy-Yoder to 2225 4^th LLC, $45,000

N. 5^th St., 2403: Skye Holdings LLC to A. Nebbou & C. Myers, $34,900

N. 5^th St., 2409: 2409 N. 5^th St. LLC to Harrisburg Homes Investment LLC, $31,480

N. 5^th St., 2605: 42 5^th St. LLC to Harrisburg Homes Investment LLC, $37,690

N. 14^th St., 1216: L. Dodd to S. Mejia, $30,000

N. 15^th St., 1625: C. Cade to Ma Ambashakti LLC, $30,000

N. Front St., 1525, Unit 406: Z. Fogel to J. Davis, $98,900

N. Front St., 2837, Unit 201: R. & L. Barry to H. Witte, $128,750

Penn St., 1622: S. Simon to E. & J. Mallory, $102,000

Penn St., 2232: N. & J. Weaver to T. Cook, $53,000

Pennwood Rd., 3207: C. Gaither to M. Katzman, $125,000

Pine St., 224: Pennsylvania Retailers to PSREU LLC, $110,000

Race St., 604: S. Cairns to A. Heinzel, $165,000

Reel St., 2605: J. Clark to A. Winter, $42,599

Reily St., 255: E. Harman to R. Wodele, $142,500

S. 13^th St., 333: Eastern Mennonite Mission to Herman International Ministries, $132,000

S. 14^th St., 1400: M. Vargas to City of Harrisburg, $59,000

S. 14^th St., 1405: M. Allsup to City of Harrisburg, $39,000

S. 17^th St., 1111: Federal National Mortgage Assoc. to V. Ceballos, $40,000

S. 19^th St., 1117: C. Runne to F. Payero, $93,000

S. 20^th St., 25: P. Morton to C. Arnold, $55,000

S. 20^th St., 631: F. & R. Rivera to E. & D. Cortes, $92,000

S. 20^th St., 1226: W. & M. Branche to W. & J. Venable, $143,900

S. 22^nd St., 713: A. Sahovic to EGG Gourmet Solutions LLC, $820,000

S. 25^th St., 725: K. Brown to G. & L. Davis, $130,000

S. 25^th St., 729: 729 25^th Street LLC to Y. Suero & N. Richard, $183,000

S. Cameron St., 1327: E. & R. Kehr to J. Swigart, $44,500

S. Front St., 811: Bank of New York Mellon Trustee & NationStar Mortgage LLC to R. Shokes Jr., $52,000

State St., 1502: R. & A. Sharp to S. Kochis, $73,820

Burg View: PennDOT must act to improve HBG road safety–today

August 14, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda

And, like a recurring nightmare, it happened again.

The loud bang, the emergency lights, the crushed vehicles.

On Tuesday morning, the scream of sirens wailed near my house then suddenly stopped. For those of us who live in this part of downtown Harrisburg, this halting sound typically means only one thing—yet another accident on Forster Street.

Sometimes, it’s 3^rd and Forster, sometimes Green and Forster. But, most frequently, it’s Front and Forster, right at the foot of the Harvey Taylor Bridge, the result either of an illegal left-hand turn or, more often, speeding motorists trying to beat the light at the intersection. You can see the result in the accompanying photo above, taken by our reporter Yaasmeen Piper.

Over the years, we’ve taken pictures like this countless times, though this one is perhaps more vivid than most.

We’ve also written stories and editorials, pleading with the state Department of Transportation, which owns both Front and Forster streets, to do something about the clear and immediate danger to motorists and pedestrians.

Over the years, we’ve suggested simple, low-cost solutions like better signage, a lower speed limit, flashing lights and a speed strip to slow down motorists screaming off the bridge then losing a bad bet with the changing light. As a pedestrian, I personally have almost been hit there several times.

In addition, in order to calm down the raceway that is Front Street, we’ve suggested an additional traffic light, more enforcement, differentiated pavement, or, at the very least, better signage. Passing by the state Capitol, I’ve often wanted to take those yellow “pedestrian crossing” signs, meant to protect our delicate state lawmakers from almost no traffic at all, and move them into the new crosswalks on Front Street, where speeding cars nearly plough down pedestrians daily (and sometimes succeed).

To date, as far as we can tell, nothing substantive has been done.

How do I put this politely? It is far, far past time for PennDOT to get off its collective bureaucratic behind and take action. Right now. Today. Before another horrible crash and another heinous injury. Because, mark my words, the next terrible accident is not far off.

To date, the degree of apathy shown by PennDOT to its own state capital has been shocking. Up on State Street, another state road, four pedestrians and a bicyclist have been killed over just 20 months, making it, by one account, the most deadly stretch of road in the nation. In the nation.

Yes, PennDOT has joined the city in its Vision Zero pedestrian-safety initiative and, as we reported in this month’s magazine, a major study is underway examining the entire perilous stretch from Camp Hill to Allison Hill.

However, what do you do when you’re in charge of—responsible for—the most deadly segment of road in the country, as well as other, nearby streets that have proven profoundly dangerous? You don’t sit on your hands and patiently await the results of some study. You take action. You do what you can do today, using simple methods you know will make a difference, until you can implement larger, more permanent and more costly structural changes.

In Harrisburg, we have a serious crisis on our hands. It’s a crisis that cannot wait another moment to be solved. The galling part is that there are numerous ways to enhance safety along these dangerous streets, ways that any traffic engineer could rattle off in a few minutes, if only PennDOT would listen and implement them.

Lawrance Binda is editor-in-chief of TheBurg.

Faces & Places: Livability, design merge with “Art Is Architecture.”

August 7, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda

A part of the exhibit, “Art Is Architecture,” now on display in downtown Harrisburg.

If you have a keen eye, you may have spotted something curious while driving by the corner of N. 2^nd and Pine streets in downtown Harrisburg.

There, you’ll see a few large faces, alongside several beautifully rendered building interiors, in the windows of a rather nondescript, mid-century office building.

And you may have wondered: “What is this about?”

Well, it’s about architecture. And art.

Up on the building’s seventh floor, Chris Dawson Architect has its offices, and the firm’s namesake owner decided to use the empty storefront below to house a temporary art exhibit called “Architecture Is Art.”

“We hope to make people think about architecture a little differently, that there is an artistic side to it,” Dawson said. “When it’s done well, it really elevates the places where we live.”

As part of the exhibit inside, you’ll find numerous 2-D and 3-D representations of projects that Dawson’s firm has undertaken in its nine-year history, along with explanations of the work and related exhibits.

Some of the work might be familiar to you, such as Harristown’s F@TT apartment building, which sits atop the El Sol restaurant in downtown’s SoMa neighborhood, or the recently restored King Mansion on Front Street, space now occupied by K&W Engineers.

Chris Dawson stands before a stylized map of the Harrisburg area.

Dawson said that a confluence of factors led to him to turn the space into a short-term, summertime gallery. The storefront has been empty since Capitol Copy departed more than a year ago, and he wanted a fun project for his four summer interns. Meanwhile, his company soon will mark its 10^th anniversary, creating an occasion to reflect back on its work over its first decade in business.

But, mostly, he wanted visitors to see that architecture can be not only functional, but aesthetically pleasing, positively affecting those who live, work or visit it. So, he approached the building’s landlord, Select Capital, which endorsed the idea.

The building’s exterior previews the exhibit inside.

Dawson said that he also wanted to show off Harrisburg and the ways that great design can be incorporated into the city’s historic built environment.

“I think that Harrisburg is the most beautiful of the cities in our region,” he said. “I’m not saying there aren’t scars or things that need to be addressed, but Harrisburg is a gem architecturally. That’s why we’re here.”

Dawson’s firm might be here for the long-term, but the exhibit won’t be. After a soft opening last Friday, it will only be up through next week, giving visitors a limited window to see how, in recent years, some Harrisburg buildings have been able to combine the historic, the functional and the beautiful.

“We believe that good design is for everybody,” Dawson said. “We’d like to get people to think more about the importance of architecture.”

“Art Is Architecture” is located at 300 N. 2^nd St., Harrisburg, ground floor. The exhibit runs over the next two weeks, Tuesday through Friday, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., closing following 3^rd in the Burg, Aug. 17. Watch this video for a brief exhibit preview.

Music, food, hoops, games headline Harrisburg’s inaugural Weekender Fest.

July 31, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

Representatives from the city, the Harrisburg Housing Authority and event organizers announced the Weekender Fest on Tuesday.

Harrisburg revelers won’t have to wait until Labor Day to get their festival fix this year.

Mayor Eric Papenfuse and Councilman Cornelius Johnson on Tuesday announced the city’s first-ever Weekender Festival, which will be held Aug. 17 to 19 in Reservoir Park. The free event is jointly hosted by the Harrisburg Housing Authority, the city, Levels Ready Entertainment and The Singer’s Lounge.

The Weekender will bring together existing community events and organizations to showcase local talent in Harrisburg’s largest historical park, Johnson said.

“This is a prime example of how we can work with partners and use resources together to make something great for residents,” he said.

The festival will begin Friday, Aug. 17 with a community education and health fair at Hall Manor. Harrisburg Housing Authority will also host a barbecue with free food for the first 300 participants. Field games, a live DJ and an open mic will provide entertainment for families and children.

The Harrisburg Music Festival will kick off on Saturday with performances by Sa-Roc, Tobe Nwigwe, Zariya and DJ Diamond Kuts. Now in its seventh year, the festival, hosted by Levels Ready Entertainment, draws close to 1,000 people to Reservoir Park annually with free performances by national performing artists.

The Weekender will conclude on Sunday with an all-day basketball tournament hosted by Unity Hoops and performances by The Singers Lounge, a consortium of local soul singers. TSL hosts monthly showcases in different venues throughout the city, but their event at The Weekender will be free to the public.

Sunday’s performers include Zariya, a 14-year-old, award-winning singer songwriter, as well as a surprise guest.

Harrisburg has waived permitting fees for the event and will provide support staff throughout the weekend, Papenfuse said. Otherwise, all funds and in-kind donations for the festival were raised by the Harrisburg Housing Authority.

Entrance to The Weekender events is free, but attendees can obtain tickets online through Eventbrite. Oche Bridgeford, director of communications and compliance for the Harrisburg Housing Authority, said that electronic ticket-holders will receive last-minute updates about weather delays or lineup changes. Festival organizers have arranged alternative locations in case it rains, Bridgeford said.

Event organizers are preparing for 10,000 attendees over the course of the weekend. Johnson hopes that the festival will become an annual event.

In other local festival news, Dauphin County’s annual Cultural Festival has been moved indoors, due to the threat of rain on Friday. It now will be held at the Zembo Shrine, N. 3^rd and Division streets, from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., featuring a variety of food, music, dance and other entertainment.

The Weekender Festival will be held Aug. 17 to 19 at Reservoir Park, Harrisburg. For more information, visit www.weekenderhbg.eventbrite.com.

The Dauphin County Cultural Festival will be held this Friday, Aug. 3, at the Zembo Shrine Event Complex, 2801 N. 3^rd St., Harrisburg. For more information, visit www.dauphincounty.org.

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