Tag Archives: harrisburg

Hometown Tourist: Approach Harrisburg with fresh eyes, a sense of adventure.

March 30, 2018 | by Sydney L. Kyler

It seems like every other weekend brings a new road closure to Harrisburg. Predictable weekend maneuvers down 2nd Street can no longer be taken for granted.

And, more often than not, you’re forced to find an alternate route because the city is making way for community events at an unprecedented frequency and scale.

For decades, Artsfest and Kipona have served as the bookends of summer for the greater Harrisburg area. For two holiday weekends, these cornerstones of community celebration draw the focus to our region and showcase the city’s architectural and natural beauty.

More recently, winter events have taken center stage. Christmas at Italian Lake hosted by the Bethesda Mission brought a Christmas market and carriage rides to Uptown. The city’s Ice and Fire Festival transformed a downtown block of 2nd Street into an ice skating rink.

Runners and walkers regularly lace up and take to the pavement through the YMCA race series and a packed schedule of walks and runs, raising funds for a diverse set of worthwhile causes.

Not to mention the HBG Flea, SoMa block parties, home tours, local theater events, music festivals, 3^rd in the Burg, Gallery Walk and a host of others too numerous to list.

Harrisburg is not without its challenges, but we can confidently strike boredom from the list. If you allow it, the city will easily fill your calendar.

If you have shied away from attending these events in the city, perhaps it’s for practical reasons. Parking may not be ideal—you might have to walk a block or two farther than you’d like. The weather isn’t 75 degrees and sunny. You don’t know who else will be there.

Now, think about the last time a vacation or weekend trip took you to another city with time to explore. If there were similar opportunities to engage with an unfamiliar community, did you allow the same apprehension to stop you? Or did you approach the new place with a tourist’s sense of curiosity and spontaneity?

When you have the opportunity, look at Harrisburg through the eyes of a tourist. Allow curiosity to lead you into the city. And welcome the detours that divert automobiles in favor of foot traffic.

If you’re open to it, you’ll feel the same energy and excitement at Harrisburg’s events as you would in your travels anywhere else. You can engage your senses, taking in visual beauty, fresh flavors and local chatter. We allow ourselves to romanticize these notions when strolling in a favorite vacation spot, but to escape into our own community may not always come as naturally. And we might not be as willing to forgive minor inconveniences in order to have these experiences in our hometown.

Temporarily viewing our community from the perspective of a visitor allows us to shrug off our typical assumptions about Harrisburg and leaves us open to the steady stream of opportunities to gather within it. Simply attending a community event is a contribution in itself, requiring an investment of time and attention. Organizers vie for your attendance because the success of these events depends on it.

When you’re finished reading, flip to the events calendar in the back of this issue, and you’re guaranteed to find an occasion that will pique your interest. Sharpen the focus of your tourist lens, get energized by the potential of the experience and attend. Feel the sublime energy of enjoying together, reconnect with a facet of the arts that you’ve always loved, be inspired by stampedes of runners and walkers, or contribute to a cause that moves you.

Becoming involved in the planning and execution of these events adds another dimension of meaning to them. Assuming a volunteer role quickly lends an appreciation for the logistics, forethought and coordination required to produce the sense of community that attendees seek. The few hours spent at a registration table, a water stand or an information booth generate a connection to people who care about the community and who give their time to serve it. These are the unexpected places where lifelong friendships are formed and nurtured.

If you already engage with the organizations that present events for the community, you probably can’t imagine the city without the richness they bring to your life. The relationships you’ve built through your work, the growth you’ve witnessed in those who have recently discovered service, and the life these events bring to our community drive you to continue.

There are some for whom service and leadership appear to come naturally—maybe they’re born extroverts, or it has been ingrained in them from the time they were in grade school. For those who feel like they’re on the outside looking in, it may seem like there isn’t a need to participate. “They already have enough people.” “I have nothing novel to contribute.”

Ask any of the organizers of these events if they need volunteers, and the overwhelming majority will tell you they can always use more help.

A rich tapestry of diverse and meaningful experiences in service awaits you in Harrisburg. The first step is simply to choose an event and attend.

From there, who knows? What you begin as a tourist, you just might finish as a tour guide.

Sydney L. Kyler is chief operating officer for Enders, a community publisher for TheBurg.

Harrisburg Freezes Over: Free downtown parking to begin next week.

March 27, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse this morning announced the imminent arrival of free “happy hour” parking in much of downtown.

Spring is in the air, and free parking is on the horizon for much of Harrisburg’s downtown.

Parking within the boundaries of the Harrisburg Downtown Improvement District (HDID) will be free after 5 p.m. starting next Monday, April 2, Mayor Eric Papenfuse announced this morning. The free rate will be in effect for a one-year trial period.

Papenfuse stressed this morning that the deal would only apply to metered spots between State and Mulberry streets. Rates will still be enforced at city garages and metered parking spots outside of that zone.

A map of downtown Harrisburg’s coming free parking zone after 5 p.m.

Papenfuse hopes that the targeted elimination of evening parking enforcement will bring more patrons to downtown businesses. Harrisburg City Council approved the deal this month after restaurant owners complained that the current $2 per hour evening parking rate hurt their business revenues.

The policy change comes after Harrisburg entered a “Memorandum of Understanding” with the Dauphin County Commissioners and HDID to offset meter costs from 5 to 7 p.m. for meters within the business zone. Harrisburg and Dauphin County will contribute $110,000 each and HDID will kick in $50,000, bringing the total cost of the subsidy to $270,000.

That money will be paid to SP+ and Standard Parking, the entities that took control of Harrisburg’s municipal parking system as part of a debt restructuring plan in 2014. The $270,000 sum represents the total revenue SP+ has collected from meters and enforcement fines between 5 and 7 p.m. in the HDID zone.

Papenfuse said that Monday, April 2, also marks the start of the second business quarter, which will allow SP+, HDID and the local government entities to track the effectiveness of free parking on business revenues. Members of City Council have said that they will only renew the deal next year if it carries a clear economic development incentive.

Harrisburg police search for suspect in bar shooting.

March 26, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

Capt. Gabe Olivera at tonight’s press conference.

A suspect in a weekend bar shooting remains at large after allegedly killing one person on early Saturday morning, Harrisburg police announced tonight.

Charles Williams, 39, is being charged with homicide following a shooting at Double D’s Bar on S. 19^th Street on Saturday, according to Capt. Gabe Olivera, chief information officer for the Harrisburg Police Bureau. Williams remained at large as of Monday evening.

Harrisburg police previously named two persons of interest in the case. Olivera reported tonight that police have questioned both people and decided not to bring charges against them.

Olivera said that security camera footage from Double D’s bar was instrumental in identifying a suspect and will be used in prosecution.

According to Olivera, Harrisburg Police received reports of shots fired at Double D’s bar at 1:51 a.m. on Saturday morning. Upon arrival, they found Jawan Washington, 20, shot outside the bar. He was pronounced dead at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

Olivera asked anyone with information regarding Williams’ whereabouts to report them to the Harrisburg Police Bureau through its crime portal.

Community Comment: TheBurg unfairly overlooks Steve Reed’s many accomplishments.

February 21, 2018 | by James Heckman

Whitaker Center in downtown Harrisburg, cited by the letter-writer as one of former Mayor Steve Reed’s many achievements.

I enjoy The Burg and appreciate both your professional standards and ethics, and the constructive intentions underlying your work with it.

That being said, I must ask you to consider more thoroughly your statements re: Steve Reed’s tenure as mayor and its aftermath noted in your February article, “The Next Phase.” (“The Next Phase: Harrisburg Breaks with ‘City Discontented,'” February 2018). I have no horse in this race–I don’t really know him and have nothing to gain or lose by sending you this. It’s just a matter of fairness.

Your comments were the latest of many proclamations of the kind–i.e. writing off his 28-year tenure in condemnation. It is not fair. I’ve seen few balanced views of this subject in the rolling bandwagon, not to say stampede, of criticism of him and his tenure.

This inertial chorus completely overlooks the tremendous transformation of the city that he accomplished, as well as the incredible devotion to the city exhibited in his 16-hour days, seven days a week for 28 years. And it must be said that there is no possible rational contention that he was doing it for personal gain.

Yes, there are very legitimate questions about financial management, especially the mystifying incinerator deal, but it is a disservice not only to him but to history, the truth and balanced reporting to ignore his accomplishments.

I don’t know if you were around in 1980, but I would consider that, not 2011-13 cited in your article, as the city’s nadir. I grew up in Allison Hill in the 50s and early 60s near Reservoir Park, a fantastic time and place to grow up in. I left town and moved elsewhere in the world for many years, coming back in 1980 to find a city that not a soul in the region considered anything but a hopeless basket case. Into this miasma of despair Reed walked.

His vision was astonishing (yes, even while not batting 1.000) and his more visible accomplishments equally so, considering the starting point. The Hilton, City Island, Harrisburg University, the Whitaker Center, Restaurant Row and development of Second Street from a dangerous gauntlet to a thriving commercial district, and no doubt others I am missing were beyond unthinkable when he started. And yes, these all do involve the central commercial district. I am less knowledgeable about changes elsewhere in the city, like Allison Hill and Uptown.

But much more important than these was the psychological transformation of the city that he affected, from a universal perception of a lost cause to a place of energy, progress, potential and investment where people, suburban families even!, came for enjoyment.

The city is paying a price now for the financial “mismanagement.” I put that in quotes because, while it is technically correct, I sometimes wonder if it was deliberate, a considered decision in often no-good-choices circumstances, that it would be worth the future cost if it could lift the city out of its grave.

In short, despite the errors (not bad faith intentions) and seemingly counterproductive decisions visible in retrospect, the very arguable view is that he began and, in fact, assured Harrisburg’s resurrection, and the city now has a chance–the “Next Phase” in your article–because of him. The pejorative commentary also chooses not to recognize the selfless and total dedication to the city that more than anything defines his tenure.

Please consider this a letter to the editor for printing in The Burg. I believe it is more in accordance with the laudable standards of your magazine than the unbalanced commentary on this subject so often seen in the region’s media.

Thank you for your good work in advancing our community.

Jim Heckman
Wayne Township (Halifax area)

Move In Day: First MulDer Square house sold, ready for new owners.

February 15, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse, joined by other local officials, prepares to cut the ribbon to the first renovated house in MulDer Square.

A family on Hummel Street will get the keys to their new house today, but their path to homeownership wasn’t a typical one.

The purchase of a newly renovated home at 243 Hummel St. marks the first sale in a long-term community development project that aims to raise property values in and attract private developers to Allison Hill’s MulDer Square. Overall, more than $20 million is expected to flow into the area in the coming years.

“This is the rebirth of the MulDer Square neighborhood,” Mayor Eric Papenfuse said at a press conference this morning, just hours before the sale was scheduled to close.

Papenfuse noted that the $70,000 sales price of the home was almost twice the median value of other single-family properties in the neighborhood. He said that the buyer, a woman with two children, qualified for homeownership assistance programs through the city and Dauphin County.

The family’s mortgage will be less than $500 per month, and they will pay only $45 in property taxes each year thanks to Harrisburg’s LERTA tax abatement program.

The goal of these programs is to make homeownership affordable to low- and moderate-income families, officials said. Gary Lenker, executive director of Tri-County HDC, said that families must make at least 80 percent of the city’s median family income to qualify for HDC’s homebuyer programs. The median is currently $53,800 for a family of three, he said.

Lenker and Papenfuse said that the Hummel Street property was dilapidated when it was acquired by Tri-County HDC, but not as severely blighted as other parcels on the street. Tri-County HDC gut-renovated the four-bedroom, 1.5-bath home and plans to give the same treatment to three more single-family units on the street this year.

Tri-County has also demolished blighted properties, including five fire-ravaged townhomes. The organization expects to level that empty lot and prime it as a site for future building.

Papenfuse said that filling in vacant lots and rehabilitating existing structures will “change the fundamental perception of the neighborhood.” In time, he also hopes that a more robust real estate market will draw private developers into the neighborhood.

“In a few years, this should be a wonderful neighborhood in which to live and walk to work,” Papenfuse said.

Residents, for their part, are happy to see visible change to the neighborhood.

“It makes us feel good that we’re seeing the progress of our efforts,” said Shirley Blanton, a Tri-County HDC board member who lives on Berryhill Street.

The investments in MulDer Square are part of a multi-partner community development project that began in 2016. That year, PennDOT made $14 million in improvements to the Mulberry Street Bridge, which connects Mulberry Street in Allison Hill to 4^th street in downtown Harrisburg.

In addition to the city and Tri-County HDC, the Harrisburg Housing Authority, Brethren Housing Corp., Harrisburg Redevelopment Authority, Tri-County Community Action and Capital Region Water have all pledged to rehabilitate properties and infrastructure in the neighborhood.

The Next Phase: Harrisburg breaks with “City Discontented.”

January 31, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda

Illustration by Rich Hauck

In the late 1890s, Harry and Louisa Orth, both in their 50s, lived in a four-bedroom house on Briggs Street in Harrisburg’s downtown district.

The couple, 34 years married, had three children, but only one survived—Carrie, a 29-year-old schoolteacher who still lived with them.

Harry was a “pattern-maker,” likely creating industrial patterns, and both his parents had emigrated from Germany. Their next-door neighbors, in an attached house sharing a baker’s alley, were the Floyds: husband M.A., wife Janet, daughter Edna and son Allen.

This information comes from Harrisburg’s 1900 city directory, a fascinating snapshot of time at the turn of the 20th century in the rapidly growing industrial city.

I reflect upon this tiny patch of Harrisburg because I now own and live in the Orth’s house, and I sometimes look at my surroundings and think to myself that these were the same floors and walls and stairs, even doors, that the Orth family walked on and leaned against and opened and closed.

In his book, “City Contented, City Discontented,” the late journalist and historian Paul Beers divided Harrisburg into two great epochs.

“City Contented” was the Harrisburg that the Orths knew. They were lucky enough not only to live in Beers’ happy phase, but, arguably, at peak contentment. Theirs was an expanding Harrisburg, a city about half-developed but rapidly building out its remaining vacant land, especially Uptown and on Allison Hill.

The city’s steel factories churned out bars and beams and its railroads carried them away to distant places. Scores of smaller factories produced everything from hats and books to fabric and beer. Moreover, the City Beautiful movement was about to take hold, helping to smooth out the roughest edges of unregulated capitalism.

More recent owners of my house—and there have been six over just the past 20 years—have not been so lucky.

Beers began his “City Discontented” phase with Harrisburg’s post-war decline, the result of de-industrialization, white flight, disinvestment, racial tensions, the 1972 flood and inept attempts to deal with all of the above. He ended his essays in the mid-1980s, the city in the grip of discontentment and Beers skeptical that the sorrow would end anytime soon.

In that, he was right.

During Steve Reed’s seven terms as mayor, some thought that the pendulum had begun to swing back, but that proved to be a false hope. As the city collapsed financially following decades of reckless public spending, it quickly returned to the grip not only of discontentment but of deep depression.

For cities, it gets no worse than financial collapse. Think New York in the 1970s or Washington, D.C., in the 1990s. However, in both these cases, insolvency represented the low point and, though you couldn’t know it at the time, both cities were poised for dramatic reversals once fiscal sanity was restored and confidence built back.

So, what now for Harrisburg? If Beers were still alive today, how would he feel? Would he believe that a new era had started—maybe “City Semi-Contented” or “City Re-Contented?”

Personally, I’m cautiously optimistic that the 2011-13 period was Harrisburg’s nadir, as it hit bottom after 60 years of desertion, neglect, crisis, mismanagement and false promise, or, in Beers’ more general term, discontent.

We are seeing clear signs of revival, with a general rebuilding and re-peopling of downtown and Midtown, capped off by Harrisburg University’s plan to construct the tallest building in the city. And, importantly, this is happening privately, from the bottom up, without the local government acting as the economy’s planner, prime mover and creative accountant.

So, I’m pretty confident that Beers’ “City Discontented” phase has ended. But to what exactly, I can’t say.

I do hope that, in a hundred years time, the future owners of a certain house on Briggs Street will think to themselves, “That guy back in 2018 was lucky. He lived through the start of something special.”

My desire now is to be there long enough to see this new era evolve, take its measure, and, in the spirit of Beers, give it a fitting name.

To learn about your own house and about Harrisburg history, visit digitalharrisburg.com.

Lawrance Binda is editor in chief of TheBurg.

To Protect and Preserve: Historic black cemeteries are top priorities for preservationists, caretakers.

January 31, 2018 | by M. Diane McCormick

Midland Cemetery

Richard Baker’s grave tells you his tale.

Born a slave in Shippensburg in the 1790s. Freed at age 28 under Pennsylvania’s “Gradual Abolition of Slavery” law. Barber, minister and prominent member of the community. His right to vote, assured when he was freed, was stripped away in the 1830s and restored when he lived to see passage of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments after the Civil War.

Dr. Steven Burg shares the story at Baker’s gravesite in downtown Shippensburg’s Locust Grove Cemetery.

“People always imagine slavery as something that happened far away and happened in the South,” said Burg, chair of Shippensburg University’s Department of History and Philosophy. “To be standing in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, at the grave of a man who was born a slave and lived 28 years of his life as a slave in Pennsylvania, especially for young people, forces them to rethink what is slavery, what is freedom, what is the community where I live?”

And that, says a cadre of Pennsylvania historic preservationists, makes cemeteries “ground zero” for weaving more threads of African-American life into the tapestry of American history. They are partnering with the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office to implement a $30,000, two-year National Park Service grant to study Pennsylvania’s historic African-American sites.

The grant supports a project providing historical context to churches, schools, cemeteries and fraternal buildings, reports the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission. But Burg and two other grant partners representing the Pennsylvania Hallowed Grounds Project—Barbara Barksdale of Steelton and Brenda Barrett of Harrisburg—really want to talk about cemeteries.

Much of the built environment where African Americans lived their lives and contributed to communities has disappeared, but cemeteries “allow us to show that we’re part of the fabric of the United States,” said Barksdale. “Most people don’t look at us as contributors when, in fact, we are the blood, sweat and tears of America.”

Thorny Issues

Barksdale is legendary for leading the transformation of Steelton’s Midland Cemetery from an overgrown lot to serene hilltop resting place for her grandfather, Buffalo Soldiers, U.S. Colored Troops and Negro Leagues legend Herbert “Rap” Dixon,” the first African American ever to hit a home run in Yankee Stadium.

Barksdale’s work led her to found the PA Hallowed Grounds Project, which convenes caretakers of African-American burial grounds statewide to share resources and tell their stories.

Barrett has held high-level state and federal preservation posts, and, as current board member and a committee chair for US/ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites), evaluates places worldwide for World Heritage Site designation.

African-American cemeteries deserve National Register of Historic Places status, Barrett said, but the criteria for inclusion can be insurmountable. The nation’s abundance of cemeteries prompted the National Park Service, administrator of the National Register, to determine that they “ordinarily” don’t deserve listing unless they have architectural or design significance, “and that’s not the case with African-American cemeteries.”

“We have the wooden headstones,” said Barksdale. “We have the markers that are chiseled in by someone in the family. We have a lot of graves that don’t even have markers because people couldn’t afford it.”

Which leaves African-American cemeteries vulnerable to destructive forces. Barksdale has seen the U.S. Postal Service install a mailbox over grave sites. In Carlisle, a cemetery was turned into a “park” by the simple act of removing headstones. The resting places of many Buffalo Soldiers are known because the U.S. government issued official headstones in the late 1800s. This created a boon for historic preservationists but also a smokescreen for at least one developer who exhumed three Buffalo Soldiers for reburial at Indiantown Gap National Cemetery while conveniently overlooking other likely graves underfoot.

In the early 2000s, state efforts cataloged 42 Pennsylvania USCT cemeteries—a big step on the way to broader recognition—but they ground to a halt with Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration in 2010, said Barrett. Today’s grant project builds on what remains and tackles the “thorny issues” confronting cemetery caretakers seeking National Register status, she said.

The funds can support such purposes as putting cemeteries on state mapping systems, helping caretakers build their capacities for education and submitting National Register applications, and “getting people engaged in identification, interpretation, education and eventually stewardship” of cemeteries.

“The goal is to set up a framework so properties can be inventoried, documented and nominated to the National Register, so we don’t have a culture of ‘no’ but a good, reasoned argument why these cemeteries should be recognized and seen as important,” said Barrett. “It’s not just listing in the National Register. That’s important, but when that post office box comes along, or that highway, we need to be able to say this is important. If it’s not evaluated, it may not be preserved.”

Sense of Place

Burg noted that National Register listing is “no guarantee” of a site’s protection.

“But there’s definitely a greater value and a greater consideration before destroying those kinds of resources,” he said.

Within a broader discussion of revising National Register criteria to reflect growing understanding of African-American cemeteries’ significance, the grant project helps caretakers “not just tell the local story but put it in a larger context,” he said.

That’s consequential because National Register applications require placement of nominated sites within the broader trends of their eras. For time- and resource-strapped caretakers, the larger context to accompany their meticulously researched local stories can be “something they don’t have at hand.”

“If we do this right, people will be able to take what they know about their local site, plug in this broader story and context and have the majority of the nomination completed,” Burg said.

Using that context-meld, the project should yield test nominations in a submission process that winds through PHMC and the Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Office on its way to National Park Service consideration. Burg’s students are working on a nomination for the restored Locust Grove Cemetery, the final resting place of Shippensburg’s Richard Baker, in what Burg hopes will be “at least one of the test cases.”

Cemeteries revive the stories and contributions of African Americans in some surprising places, said Barrett and Barksdale. African Americans lived in rural areas, working in long-gone or now-diminished industries, like charcoal making and logging, before migrating to large cities in search of jobs, neighborhoods that would house them, and restaurants that would serve them.

“There was a little town called Little Washington in Perry County,” said Barksdale. “Cumberland County had one of the largest populations of African Americans until the turn of the 20th century.”

Cemeteries document eras when segregation wasn’t the norm, and they myth-bust in this age when “people get caught up in what they hear because they don’t bother to research or read,” said Barksdale.

“There was integration of schools in the 1800s right here in this region,” she said. “Because people are stuck in that separation mode and what they think they know, they don’t know how to reintegrate themselves. The cemeteries allow you to expose that.”

People might appreciate the importance of history in the abstract, but they are likelier to connect “when it applies directly to their family, their community, their neighborhood,” said Burg.

“Cemeteries are important places where you can bring people and physically connect them to that sense of history, that sense of place, the diversity and richness of African-American history that a lot of people don’t realize, especially in small towns, is woven into these places,” he said. “If we choose not to protect and preserve these places, the only physical sites that tell the story of African-American history in Pennsylvania may be wiped off the map.”

To learn more, read Brenda Barrett’s blog on the PA Hallowed Grounds Project, “A Landscape of Hope,” at www.livinglandscapeobserver.net. And read about PA Hallowed Grounds at www.housedivided.dickinson.edu.

How to Heal: At Samara, mothers, fathers learn to become parents.

January 31, 2018 | by Phyllis Zimmerman

For Basil Talib, coming to Samara was like meeting “relatives I never knew I had.”

“When you get there, it’s like a holiday,” said Talib, of Harrisburg, who started attending Samara’s intensive parenting sessions in Harrisburg six years ago. “Everyone is so cheerful. They don’t judge you. They’ve been like a family.”

Samara: The Center for Individual and Family Growth is a nonprofit agency in Harrisburg founded in 2008 by Executive Director Pamela Haddad, a former child protective services worker in Lehigh County.

Clients are referred to Samara through the Dauphin County child welfare system, court and probation systems, other non-profit agencies and the community. A separate therapeutic visitation program assists families of children placed outside of the home through the Dauphin County welfare system.

“Our families have experienced a tremendous amount of trauma,” explained Haddad. “We work with parents who have come through foster families or intact families with trauma. Our goal with parents is to form safe, respectful relationships.”

In other words, Samara is a therapeutic base for parents who are having difficulty parenting, as well as their children. Often, it’s a carry-over situation caused by a lack of nurturing in the parents’ own childhoods.

Cathy Bacon was referred to Samara’s therapeutic visitation program in 2015 after her youngest child, then 3, was placed in foster care. She and her son met up in Samara’s homelike setting, where she utilized skills learned in Samara’s intensive parenting program. Bacon said her mother gave her “a work history and love” while she was growing up, but her father wasn’t around.

“Samara helped keep you calm and taught you parenting skills,” Bacon noted.

Bacon’s young son was returned to her home 18 months later, but she continues attending the center’s parenting groups today.

“I like Samara,” she said. “It’s comfortable and friendly.”

Harder Time

Haddad’s extensive field experience includes a stint as a parent educator/project coordinator for Cobys Family Services in Lancaster County from 1996 to 2001. During this time, she conducted a parenting course for community parents, foster parents and court-mandated parents referred by Lancaster County Children and Youth.

“When I was doing child investigations, I never met parents who didn’t love their children, but they didn’t know how to heal their families,” Haddad observed. “In 1996, when I was working in Lancaster County, I wrote a curriculum to help parents walk through their childhood.”

At that time, Haddad developed what would become a pilot program for Samara in collaboration with her mother, Jean Heigel. Heigel, her daughter’s mentor, worked for many years with foster children and at-risk families in Lancaster County, all while researching and writing volumes of curricula and teaching materials in the field.

“I found that lots of kids from foster homes were physically or sexually abused or bounced around 20 times to different homes,” Haddad noted. “If the kids don’t behave, some parents will return them. People who go through the system like that have a much harder time parenting their own children.”

Samara’s intensive parenting sessions includes a nurturing activity in which participants take turns giving each other compliments.

“Some people cry because they never heard nice things said about them before,” Haddad recounted.

Safe Haven

Talib lost his mother when he was 5, leaving him with a “dictator” father “who was never a role model,” he recalled.

He felt even more alone after his sister died early in life of natural causes.

“I grew up rough in Brooklyn,” he said. “I came fresh off the streets into a negative environment.”

He won’t say when or how much time he spent in prison because he doesn’t want to “try to think negative and put dates on it.”

Instead, he focuses on how being in prison renewed his appreciation of life. Becoming a father also caused Talib to reevaluate his priorities.

“When I had my kids, I started to man up,” he said. “I started to understand more about God.”

Today, Talib is a single father of two boys, ages 6 and 7, “doing it by myself.” He’s attended almost every parent session at Samara for the past six years, bringing his boys along for children’s sessions. He’s also a published poet, a literary advocate and a self-described activist, receiving the MLK Drum Major Award, a service award, from President Barack Obama in 2016.

“Samara has been like a safe haven for me,” Talib reflected. “It’s a positive attitude. Not only do I learn there, I teach. I give back because I know what it’s like not to have a mother and father. You can’t spell community without unity.”

Olivia Moore also started attending Samara’s intensive parent classes six years ago after voluntarily reaching out to Dauphin County Children and Youth for help with her son’s truancy issues. Although Samara no longer offered the truancy classes recommended by the county agency, Moore discovered much more there.

“I said, ‘Wow, is there anything else there?’” she said. “I went to the intensive parenting classes and never stopped going. You learn something new every time there.”

In fact, Moore learned so much at Samara that she later pursued leadership training and became a class instructor. Her son, now 19, enrolled in the Job Corps and became a certified auto mechanic.

“Once I took the (Samara) classes, I rebuilt my relationship with my son,” Moore said. “I think it’s about nurturing. Samara is very nurturing. They believe in people. I didn’t have that when I was growing up. My son would have ended up in the judicial system without Samara.”

To learn more about Samara, visit www.samarafamily.org.

January News Digest

January 31, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda and Lizzy Hardison

Comprehensive Plan Draft Criticized, Defended

Harrisburg’s draft comprehensive plan faced a cool reception from business leaders and city administrators last month, as the city Planning Commission hosted its first hearing on the document following a months-long dispute between the city and the plan’s author.

During a hearing in City Council chambers, members of the business community said the plan stepped on the toes of property owners and private developers. They feared that the proposals for land use would restrict investment in the city.

Private citizens and representatives from neighborhood associations were more supportive. Those who spoke out commended the plan’s goals to connect parks and neighborhoods and to redesign roadways for pedestrians and cyclists.

The plan, developed by the Harrisburg-based Office of Planning and Architecture, aims to guide development and urban planning in the city for the next 20 years. The project was delayed more than a year after OPA’s principal, Bret Peters, feuded with the city about compensation, deadlines and proposals in the plan.

Mayor Eric Papenfuse wants the Planning Commission to discard the consultant’s draft entirely and adopt a new draft written by the city’s Planning Bureau. He said their in-house plan includes many of the best ideas from Peters’ draft, but is less specific and ideological.

“[Peters’] plan is a recipe for disaster,” Papenfuse said. “It’s unworkable and unsalvageable.”

Other business professionals offered more specific criticisms.

Attorney Charles Courtney spoke on behalf of his client, Adam Meinstein, who owns the former U.S. Postal Service building at 813 Market St. The draft comprehensive plan recommends dividing that property between commercial, residential and business uses. Courtney said that the specificity of the plan limited his client’s discretion for how to develop the property.

“We need to have a broader view,” Courtney said. “If and when that property is developed, all the stakeholders will want to work together and not have it hamstrung by language in the comprehensive plan.”

Kevin Kulp, president of the Harrisburg Senators, said that the plan would be catastrophic for businesses on City Island. It calls for the elimination of all surface parking on City Island and for parking to be relocated to a garage on the island and overflow lots in downtown Harrisburg.

“We don’t have enough parking as it is, and we need every bit of it,” Kulp said.

Geoffrey Knight, director of the city’s Planning Bureau, said that the plan Harrisburg adopts needs to guide development, not direct it. If an owner did not want to develop a property according to a mandate in the comprehensive plan, Knight said, the owner would have to seek a waiver from the Planning Commission, which is the first body to consider land use proposals.

Some residents came out in support. Joyce Gamble, leader of Camp Curtin Community Neighbors United, said her organization supported the plan and hoped to work with the city to shepherd it to approval. Zach Monnier, a North Street resident, said he appreciated proposals that would make renters stakeholders in their neighborhoods.

Peters later rejected the charge that he did not prioritize private business interests in his draft. Raising the aggregate real estate values in Harrisburg is central to the plan, he said, and will benefit property owners as well as residents. He also said that Harrisburg needed the kind of specific planning that made many attendees at the meeting balk.

“Laissez faire real estate and planning have been practiced in this city for 50 years, and it hasn’t worked,” Peters said.

Planning Commission members will consider the input from the meeting when they convene on Feb. 5.

Mayor’s Aide Loses Job

A senior mayoral aide who was found liable in civil court for threatening an Allison Hill resident is no longer employed with the city.

Communications Director Joyce Davis confirmed last month that Karl Singleton, former senior advisor to Mayor Eric Papenfuse, has not been employed with the city since Papenfuse learned about the court ruling. Davis could not say whether Singleton had resigned or been fired.

In December, Singleton appeared before Magisterial District Justice David O’Leary for a hearing on a civil suit filed last July by Allison Hill resident Timothy Rowbottom. Rowbottom said in court that Singleton threatened his life during a heated argument on May 9, a week before the primary municipal elections, following a debate between mayoral primary candidates at the Hilton Harrisburg.

“I’m from Hall Manor, you should be scared of me,” Singleton allegedly told Rowbottom, referring to Harrisburg’s largest public housing complex, according to the court ruling. “I know where you live; I can have you taken out.”

Rowbottom, who campaigned for Papenfuse challenger Jennie Jenkins during the mayoral primary, allegedly made racist remarks to Singleton prior to the argument. He admitted to calling Singleton “a sorry excuse for a black man” and that he (Rowbottom) “is blacker than [Singleton] ever will be,” stated the court ruling.

O’Leary found Singleton liable for making malicious threats. The judge also said that Singleton’s political position compounded his liability.

Since Rowbottom admitted in court that he was unapologetic for his racially inflammatory remarks and claimed he was unafraid of Singleton, O’Leary only awarded the plaintiff nominal damages.

Davis said she was unaware of any plans to replace Singleton, whose position was incidentally reduced to part-time in January. Papenfuse said during budget hearings in December that the recent addition of a full-time business advisor to his cabinet reduced the need for a full-time aide.

City Officials Sworn In

Harrisburg officials invoked a spirit of optimism and cooperation last month, as the city swore in its returning mayor and most of City Council.

In city hall, newly inaugurated District Justice Hanif Johnson administered the oath of office to Mayor Eric Papenfuse, Treasurer Dan Miller and council members Wanda Williams, Shamaine Daniels, Ben Allatt, Dave Madsen and Ausha Green.

At the ceremony, Papenfuse cited the progress Harrisburg has made during his first term following the financial crisis that nearly bankrupted the city and sent it into state receivership.

“Today, Harrisburg is not a symbol of failure,” he said. “In Pennsylvania and throughout the nation, Harrisburg is a glowing symbol of renaissance and renewal.”

He credited his fellow elected officials, city workers and residents for “the optimism and hope that is so palpable on our streets today.”

“Yes, we have achieved a lot working together these past four years, but much work lies ahead,” he said.

Following the ceremony, City Council held a brief reorganization meeting, unanimously re-electing Williams as council president. Allatt took over as vice president by a 4-3 vote over Councilman Westburn Majors. Daniels, who served previously as vice president, was not re-nominated.

Williams said that, for 2018, her principal goal is ensuring the construction of the police substation on Allison Hill. The city plans to raise a 1,600-square-foot modular building on S. 15^thStreet, with a planned opening in the late summer. Completion of the city’s comprehensive plan is another priority, she said.

Brewpub RFP Issued

Have you always dreamt of running your own brewpub? If so, you may want to give Harristown a call.

Harristown Enterprises last month issued a request for proposals (RFP) as it seeks a qualified entrepreneur to open a brewpub or full-service restaurant in a large space on Market Street long occupied by the Gingerbread Man.

CEO Brad Jones said Harristown went this route after several potential deals fell through for the space.

“We really want to get the word out,” Jones said. “We think there are a lot of people out there who will find this to be a really attractive deal.”

The 6,000-square-foot space, part of Strawberry Square in downtown Harrisburg, has been empty since the Gingerbread Man closed down in 2014.

The RFP lists several criteria:

Brewery or distillery with a full-service restaurant or a brewpub or restaurant with a liquor license
A lease of at least seven years
Operations seven days a week

Harristown plans to charge $10.50 per square foot of rentable space for the first year and is offering to help defray the cost of the build-out. If interested, Harristown requires a business plan, resumes and financial information by Feb. 5.

“We feel the downtown is underserved for breweries,” Jones said. “That’s the one thing we’re missing.”

U.S. Marshal Killed

A deputy U.S. marshal was killed and a York City police officer wounded last month after gunfire erupted in an Allison Hill residence, where members of a federal fugitive task force went to serve a warrant to a Harrisburg woman.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Christopher David Hill, 45, of York County, an 11-year veteran of the Marshals Service, was killed in the gun battle.

Kevin Sturgis of Philadelphia, who opened fire at the officers, later succumbed to gunshot wounds, said law enforcement officials. The subject of the warrant, Shayla Lynette Towles Pierce, was taken into custody at the scene, charged with making terroristic threats with a weapon, officials said.

According to U.S. Attorney David J. Freed, officers in the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force arrived at the residence in the 1800-block of Mulberry Street just after 6 a.m. to serve Pierce an arrest warrant. After they announced their presence and entered, they apprehended her on the second floor of the dwelling.

After placing Pierce in handcuffs, Freed said, gunfire erupted from the second floor of the residence. Hill and York City police officer Kyle Pitts were both struck. Hill died of his wounds at UPMC Pinnacle Hospital, Freed said. Pitts underwent surgery and is expected to fully recover.

Sturgis fled to the first floor of the building and exited through the front door while firing his weapon, officials said. Officers returned fire and killed him.

School Board Vacancy

The Harrisburg school district is accepting applications for a vacancy on the school board.

Board member Matthew Krupp resigned his seat last month after assuming the elected office of Dauphin County prothonotary.

Applicants have until mid-February to submit their applications. The successful candidate will serve out the remainder of Krupp’s four-year term.

For more information, visit the school district’s website.

Major Gift for SAM

The Susquehanna Art Museum last month announced a $2 million donation from local art collectors, Marty and Tom Philips.

As a result of the donation, the museum building, located in Midtown Harrisburg, has been renamed the Susquehanna Art Museum at the Marty and Tom Philips Family Art Center. The gift is contingent on SAM raising at least $1 million in matching funds over the next two years.

In addition, SAM last month announced naming gifts from the S. Wilson and Grace M. Pollock Foundation, which will lend its name to the Education Center Gallery, and Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr LLP, which will have its name above the museum’s entry portico.

So Noted

2K Networking announced a change of ownership last month, as Josh Hinkle, former director of business development, acquired the Harrisburg-based technology company. He took over from former CEO Glenn Pepo, who will stay on as a consultant.

Barley Snyder, which has locations throughout central and eastern Pennsylvania, last month opened its newest office in downtown Harrisburg. The office is staffed with 10 attorneys formerly of Rhoads & Sinon and is located in that firm’s former space at the M&T Bank building.

RSR Realtors last month named Jamie Berrier as president of the Lemoyne-based real estate company. She succeeds Greg Rothman, who will remain as a partner and board chairman, the company said. Moreover, RSR named Jim Koury as CEO, Garrett Rothman as vice president and broker of record and Bill Rothman as treasurer.

Smith Land & Improvement Corp., headquartered in Camp Hill, announced last month that Richard E. Jordan III, formerly chief operating officer, is now president and CEO. He replaced his father, Richard E. Jordan II, who will retain the role of chairman of the board.

The Foundation for Enhancing Communities (TFEC) announced last month the availability of more than 120 scholarship funds available to Pennsylvania students administered by its organization. For more information about scholarship opportunities or to apply, visit www.tfec.org.

Vista, a provider of autism services in eight counties in central PA, last month appointed Kirsten Yurich as chief executive officer. In this role, Yurich, previously the organization’s chief clinical officer, will oversee all operations of the Vista School, the Vista Foundation and Vista Adult Services.

Changing Hands

Balm St., 57: K. & R. Thames to C. & S. Epps, $50,000

Boas St., 318: M. Webb to C. Hughes, $144,000

Boas St., 1815: Harrisburg Rentals LLC to S. Henry, $64,000

Chestnut St., 2014 & 2015 Zarker St.: R. & B. Cielinski to T. Smallwood, $33,500

Croyden Rd., 2962: J. & R. Harle to M. Cabrera, $48,000

Cumberland St., 121: L. Williams to J. & K. Bowser, $59,000

Derry St., 1525: J. Rissler to M. & A. Mekhaiel, $40,000

Derry St., 2641: L. Knoll to E. Chandler, $79,900

Dunkle St., 631: B. Drake to A. Eubanks, $64,900

Emerald St., 521: N. Clelan to C. Gibbs, $84,900

Green St., 1509: R. Stare to A. & K. Tyson, $95,500

Green St., 1936: D. Marquette to G. Tsambas, $210,000

Green St., 2106: J. Evans to Segue Systems LLC, $39,010

Greenwood St., 2506: N. Hanna & J. Parisi to T. Davis & J. Martinez, $99,000

Hanna St., 106: S. Fahey to D. Frank, $174,000

Herr St., 1933: Bajwa & Rana LLC to N. & M. Gill, $250,000

Julia St., 1945: J. & S. Pagliaro to Kanta Estates LP, $230,000

Kelker St., 622: PA Deals LLC to End Properties LLC, $54,000

Lenox St., 1935: J. & K. Alvarez to B. McKinley, $72,500

Lewis St., 308: A. Dittman to C. Engvall & A. Bryant, $112,000

Lewis St., 322: J. Chelgren to K. Franklin, $60,000

Logan St., 2417: W. Blackway to Y. Aquayo & I. Class, $41,000

Market St., 810, 812 & 900 and 12, 21 & 23 N. 9^th St., and 24 & 26 N. 10^th St.: 812 Market Street LLC & Twenty Lake Holdings to 812 Market Inc. & L&B Realty Advisers LLP, $1,600,000

Market St., 1301: J. & S. Kim to 80 Second Street LLC, $180,000

Nagle St., 121: D. Gadel to P. Donohoe & J. Augustine, $182,000

North St., 1721: D. Hawkins to R. Scott, $40,000

N. 2^nd St., 1813: E. Pettis & C. Barker to J. Bailey, $81,500

N. 2^nd St., 2141: D. Kumpf to T. & J. Perla, $117,500

N. 2^nd St., 2838: S. & B. Blank to Diamond Real Estate Solutions Inc., $90,000

N. 2^nd St., 3224: K. Petrich to B. Najia Property LLC, $39,000

N. 3^rd St., 512: Genex Properties to RLJG Inc., $80,000

N. 3^rd St., 1209: N. Riess to R. Abel, $129,000

N. 3^rd St., 1616: W. Taylor & C. Pimentel to T. Breitsprecher, $100,000

N. 6^th St., 2470 & 2472: F. & E. Karnouskos & Sixth Street Holdings LLC to Rivas Property Investments LLC, $80,000

N. 17^th St., 94: S&S Property Management to N. Booth, $34,000

N. Front St., 1525, unit 402: R. & R. Fried to S. Anthony, $205,000

Penn St., 1930: J. McSurdy & J. Lentini to T. Holderman, $157,400

Penn St., 2139: Central Penn Properties to PA Capital Area Investments LLC, $30,000

Pennwood Rd., 3210: J. Clark to A. & G. Powell, $117,500

Reily St., 313: Judy Fisher 2004 Trust to E. Krokonko, $77,000

Rose St., 925: D. Niles to R. Ritchie, $80,000

Rumson Dr., 281: G. Burdsal to J. Runyan, $72,000

Seneca St., 226: R. Ralls to I. Billington, $127,000

S. 2^nd St., 316: Diamond Real Estate Solutions LLC to A. Radford & N. Towne, $110,000

S. 13^th St., 14: H. & L. Grajales to B. Crews, $67,000

S. 14^th St., 1414: A. & G. Evans to City of Harrisburg, $55,000

S. 14^th St., 1416: G. Evans to City of Harrisburg, $51,500

S. 14^th St., 1429: J. Newhouse to City of Harrisburg, $45,000

S. 25^th St., 638: PA Deals LLC to Mid-Atlantic IRA James Eshelman IRA, $60,000

S. 26^th St., 734: Secretary of Housing & Urban Development and Information Systems Networks Corp. to J. Gilpatrick, $41,000

S. 29^th St., 526: Kusic Capital Group LLC to R. Morris & A. Courtney, $150,000

S. Front St., 629: Harrisburg PA Properties LLC to J. Snyder, $50,000

S. Front St., 709: D. Smith to L. Foster, $182,900

State St., 1730: Mussani & Co. LP to Next Generation TC FBO Akhter Parvez IRA, $60,750

State St., 1911: JP Homes Inc. to G. & E. Varghese, $34,000

Susquehanna St., 1637: Harrisburg Rentals LLC to S. Henry, $83,900

Susquehanna St., 1716: L. Caro to S. Goodman, $98,500

Valley Rd., 2317: M. Thomas to G. & K. Kooiker, $144,000

Walnut St., 401: M. Tamanini to B. Kowalczyk, $100,000

Yes, But: Council OKs apartment plan, but approval comes with a warning.

January 23, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

Harrisburg City Council at tonight’s meeting.

City Council tonight approved new apartments and office space for downtown Harrisburg, but not before one council member issued a warning to developers of future projects.

Speaking tonight before a vote on two projects proposed by Harristown Enterprises, council President Wanda Williams read a statement criticizing the recent spate of high-end apartment projects downtown, calling them a form of gentrification.

“Many buildings downtown are being renovated for upscale apartments,” Williams said. “I want them renovated for people with lower paying jobs.”

Harristown has spearheaded many of the apartment projects in the downtown neighborhood, including office-to-residential conversions on S. 3^rd Street and in Strawberry Square. Since 2016, it has added about 50 higher-end apartments in the area of 3^rd and Market streets.

One of the Harristown projects approved tonight will bring yet more housing to the downtown business district. The company plans to convert a vacant, turn-of-the-century office building at 221 N. 2nd St. to an apartment building with 12 one- and two-bedroom apartments and a 500-square-foot retail space.

Williams said she wants affordable housing projects downtown to keep pace with job growth in that area.

“I’m very in favor of developers investing in Harrisburg, but until we talk about having affordable housing for everyone–including cashiers and clerks who work in downtown bars and restaurants–in every neighborhood of our city, we have not done our jobs,” Williams said.

Following her statement, council voted unanimously to approve the projects. In addition to the residential conversion, Harristown received approval to construct a new, six-story office building at 21 S. 2nd St., the former site of the Coronet restaurant. Harristown razed that property to accommodate the new project, which will also feature retail space on the ground floor. Harristown is awaiting an anchor tenant before starting construction.

Council also passed a resolution tonight in support of a statewide, grassroots redistricting effort. An initiative led by Fair Districts PA seeks a constitutional mandate to create a non-partisan citizens commission to redraw legislative maps. Members from the Dauphin County chapter of Fair Districts PA asked council to support their legislation.

“This resolution would say that Harrisburg believes in fair redistricting,” said Jayne Buchwach, a city resident and member of the Dauphin County Fair Districts chapter. “Harrisburg was among the disenfranchised cities in Pennsylvania after redistricting in 2011.”

Chapter coordinator Jean Handley explained that Harrisburg was “cracked” during the 2011 redistricting process — meaning it was split between two congressional districts, thereby diluting the voting power of the largely Democratic city.

Most of Harrisburg lies in the state’s 4^th congressional district, which is currently represented by Republican Scott Perry. Republican Congressman Lou Bartletta represents South Harrisburg neighborhoods in the state’s 11^th congressional district.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the state’s congressional map “clearly, plainly and palpably” violates the state constitution. The legislature has until Feb. 9 to draw a new map.

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