Tag Archives: harrisburg

City Beautiful Re-Boot: Concerned residents are trying to revive the movement that transformed Harrisburg. Can they succeed?

April 15, 2013 | by Dan Webster and Lawrance Binda

Last January, a large group of residents gathered in the ballroom of the Harrisburg Civic Club, the stately, Tudor-style mansion nestled within Riverfront Park.

The hundred or so people hailed from a cross-section of the city: politicians, historic preservationists, developers, environmentalists, along with a smattering of concerned citizens.

They were called together on that blustery mid-winter night to consider a grand proposal, one that, if successful, might play a vital role in reviving a city plagued for so long by neglect, misplaced priorities, under-investment, malfeasance and just plain bad luck.

They called their movement City Beautiful 2.0, recalling the original City Beautiful movement of more than a century ago. That ambitious project turned Harrisburg from a filthy, unplanned backwater into a modern city with clean water, a functioning sewage system, paved roads and beautiful parks.

But that was then.

Today, century-old pipes rot beneath the pavement. Sinkholes are swallowing streets. Reservoir Park, Riverfront Park and Italian Lake are all desperately in need of basic maintenance and repair. The graceful river walk, which magnificently combined flood control and beauty, is being reclaimed by the Susquehanna.

Given its financial crisis, can Harrisburg restore this legacy our forebears graciously left us, much less address the new challenges of the 21^st century? And, if so, can these well-intentioned citizens really do enough to make a difference?

A Movement Re-launched

It was entirely appropriate that the first meeting of City Beautiful 2.0 was held in one of the few buildings in the city that remains standing on the west side of Front Street.

Before the original City Beautiful movement, which began in 1900, Riverfront Park was incomplete. It was pockmarked with houses, shacks, docks, boat liveries, coal dredging and logging outfits and filthy, waste-strewn mud, all descending into a river choked with industrial and human waste. One of the top priorities of City Beautiful was to clean up the park and the river, providing an uninterrupted stretch of green and walkways from Shipoke to the city line.

City Beautiful leaders Mira Lloyd Dock and J. Horace McFarland, along with the young reformist mayor Vance McCormick, led a team of vast ambitions. In a short period of time, alliances were formed, arms twisted, funds raised and a large municipal bond floated.

Over the ensuing years, a complex, multi-faceted plan was launched and largely realized. Work began quickly, but it took more than two decades before the final pieces of the project, such as the creation of manicured Sunken Gardens, were in place. At the end, Harrisburg was transformed, a little jewel of a city with what seemed like a boundless future.

The group that met in the Civic Club last January, and again in February at HACC Midtown 2, frequently recalled that glorious past in a hope to restore and build upon it.

Facilitated by John Campbell, executive director of the Historic Harrisburg Association, and Jeb Stuart, the project consultant, the speeches, slide show and visioning sessions were small steps forward into awakening a conceptual outlook for conservation and sustainability projects within the city.

Campbell believes that this group serves a number of purposes, the first as a clearinghouse of sorts. In the future, project leaders will be able to go to the City Beautiful 2.0 website and identify similar initiatives others are working on to prevent redundancy and promote collaboration, he said.

Another noble goal: “to make sure this group is reflective of the city” through geographical, socioeconomic, race and gender lines. “Our next hurdle is making sure everyone is at the table, and we know that it won’t be a successful movement” without that type of participation, said Campbell.

Then there’s Stuart’s project, which is to begin the application process so the park system in Harrisburg can receive historical recognition on a national and statewide scale. The hope here is to allow places like Riverfront and Reservoir parks and Wildwood and Italian lakes to receive funding, activating “the religion of the movement; understanding what the City Beautiful movement was and how Harrisburg was the catalyst for a national City Beautiful movement,” said Campbell.

Erica Bryce, owner of City House Bed & Breakfast located along N. Front Street, attended the meeting and believes, “Cities, in general, need to be clean, green and safe. I think we [citizens] can tackle the clean and green here” and “clearly someone needs to step up.”

No doubt, but Harrisburg’s needs may be too great for even the most dedicated volunteers. Perhaps the greatest obstacle is this: the city’s financial crisis has made the local government almost a non-actor in this project, a vast difference from the original City Beautiful effort.

As city Councilman Bruce Weber told the 2.0 attendees, monies for parks have been slashed, and the funds that are available have gone to recreational programs. In addition, the Public Works Department now is charged with the maintenance of city parks, which has never been its primary responsibility. Worse yet, the city, in default on both its incinerator and general obligation bonds, has been cut off from the financial markets.

That’s the bad news. The good is that there already are numerous groups that have taken up the burden of trying to make Harrisburg a better, cleaner place. Perhaps City Beautiful 2.0 can learn from and build upon the efforts of these groups, which have accomplished much with little local government involvement.

What Works Now

Indeed, civic groups abound in Harrisburg that have committees or missions dedicated to environmental stewardship.

Chris Fegley, Community Action Commission’s (CAC) Neighborhood Revitalization Manager, has been on a vocational and civic mission in South Allison Hill. As part of CAC’s five-year strategic plan, he is required to interview residents regarding the state of their neighborhoods. The biggest concern he found was trash and the deteriorating condition of homes.

“As of Jan. 1, we’ve collected over 15 tons of trash” with collaboration from the State Probationary Office, Messiah College and Habitat for Humanity,” he said. “We’re financed through public-private grants received through Wells Fargo and DCED (state Department of Community and Economic Development), so as to not take any money away from the local tax base.”

Harrisburg Young Professionals (HYP) has had long-standing commitments to conservation projects. Since 1998, HYP has maintained the Forster Street median in alliance with PENNDOT and the Department of General Services, ensuring that best practices went into the construction and planting processes.

Catherine Hoover, vice president of HYP’s Beautification Committee, said that the project is “integral to the history” of the organization. HYP, she said, has continued to make strides in this area, particularly in the new median installation along State Street, which includes native, low-maintenance plants, bringing a much needed face-lift to the landscape leading up to the entrance of the Capitol building.

Many more noteworthy landscaping and beautification projects exist around the Capital region: Rotary Club of Harrisburg’s planting of 100 trees along the river front about two years ago; Green Urban Initiative’s aggressive expansion of community garden plots in the Midtown and Uptown neighborhoods; and the Joshua Farm, Harrisburg’s only urban farm, which is planted on Edison Elementary School’s former athletic field.

Each of these projects highlights the due diligence and hard work necessary to improve even a slice of Harrisburg’s landscape. Without exception, all have cultivated community partners to ensure procedural liability, build capacity and improve funding opportunities. In addition, they all sourced funding in creative ways through foundations, private corporations and public grants. Lastly, they’ve all either required or will require vast short- and long-term volunteer sweat equity to re-plant, maintain and improve upon their plots and pick-ups.

Take Joshua Farm. Started in 2005, founder Kirsten Reinford received approval from the school district to lease the S. 18^th Street lot. Early funding came from a number of foundations: M&T Bank, Lowe’s and the Joshua Group, the umbrella organization the farm sits under. Reinford works with colleges, Boy Scout troops, local high schools, church groups and others to assist in overall maintenance. She also understands that sustainability projects require progress, and expansion outside the fenced walls of Joshua Farm occurred for the first time just three years ago on an Elmerton Avenue plot granted to the farm by the Department of Agriculture. On a personal level, she is deeply committed, with the vision and the mettle to see this important project thrive through collaboration, sustainable funding and labor sources, both paid and unpaid.

These are a few takeaways that City Beautiful 2.0 will need to incorporate into its framework to fulfill its vision. Whether or not the group has the will or persuasion to bring the leaders of the aforementioned projects to the table—to consult, recount their narratives and add substance—will be a colossal task, one that Campbell recognizes.

“I think if we [City Beautiful 2.0] achieve nothing else in the next five years but to bring everyone to the table and break down the barriers of everything that exists, I think we’ve achieved something great…the dialogue that hasn’t happened on a centralized scale that needs to happen,” he said.

In a speech entitled “The Great Civic Awakening,” City Beautiful organizer J. Horace MacFarland said “that self-respect comes to a community when it has roused to a sense of its civic sins and has methodistically shown by repentance a desire for regeneration.”

In another time, this spiritual call to renewal was what Harrisburg needed. Today, we may need something more—things like collaboration between groups, an examination of what has worked and creative ways of raising funds. To be even somewhat successful, City Beautiful 2.0 will need an integration of wisdom, savvy and sustained dedication. Perhaps then this fledgling movement, born of idealistic vision and practical need, can gain true momentum.

Next article in this series: What can City Beautiful 2.0 learn from other town/city greening initiatives?

Take the Field: The crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd . . . it’s time for baseball!

April 15, 2013 | by Lawrance Binda

The grass is cut, the lines are striped and a young, starry-eyed hurler is about to throw the first heater of the new season.

Or . . . the beer is flowing, the grill is fired up and friends are talking and laughing at the newly redesigned First Base Plaza.

Or . . . it’s bobblehead night, the Cowboy Monkeys are in town and the fireworks are about to shoot off.

Maybe you attend a Harrisburg Senators game for the baseball—or for the socializing—or for the family-friendly promotions. Regardless, the long winter is finally done, and the home team is set to take the field against the Bowie Baysox on Thursday, April 4.

Like many of you, I hike across the Walnut Street Bridge for all three reasons, though, as a baseball fan, I tend to focus on the balls and strikes.

Over the past few seasons, baseball nerds like me have been in heaven, as some of the best young prospects in a generation have made their way through Metro Bank Park. So, what could possibly beat watching potential Hall of Famers like Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper in the infancy of their careers?

How about watching potential stars like Anthony Rendon or Brian Goodwin?

Fortunately, the Washington Nationals farm system remains stocked with players on their way up to the big leagues, and their substantial talents will be on display for at least some of the year on City Island.

“We’re looking really good this year,” said Senators Manager Matt LeCroy, adding that the team is rich with Major League prospects. “This is probably the youngest group of players in Harrisburg for a long time.”

Youth, speed, ambition—these qualities should keep the baseball exciting through the year and, with a little luck, into another post-season.

In addition, Harrisburg always benefits from its proximity to D.C., which means that we often see genuine Major League players on rehab assignments from injuries. Do you think that, years from now, I’ll still be telling the story of how I saw Strasburg playing in Harrisburg after elbow surgery? You bet I will.

But maybe you’re not in it primarily for the action on the field. That’s fine with team President Kevin Kulp, who has spent the off-season planning ever-better ways to attract folks who don’t attend primarily for the baseball.

A few years ago, Metro Bank Park underwent a significant upgrade. Now, Kulp is tweaking the plan, this year redesigning the First Base Plaza, the area behind the stands along first base.

The plaza now has a stage, an open-air grill and new tables, umbrellas and landscaping. Some of the most popular concession stands, formerly beneath the stands, will relocate to this area.

Kulp expects the plaza to be a new place for people to meet and socialize, enjoy a freshly grilled hot dog and a beer, and where bands will perform before games—sometimes even during play.

“In the off-season, we did a lot of meeting and discussing what works and what doesn’t, so we can make the experience new and different and more exciting,” said Kulp.

For families, the Senators’ promotions are always a big part of the experience. Kulp said the team will hold more promotional events this year than ever before. Almost every game will feature a reason (other than the baseball, of course) to visit the stadium.

Bobbleheads, T-shirts, posters, jerseys—giveaways will be held throughout the year, many times per month. Do you prefer your promotions on the livelier side? On 16 nights, fireworks will cap off the evening. Come July, the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders will shimmy into the stadium and, yes, boys and girls, the Cowboy Monkeys will be back, riding bareback on a few doggies.

Plan now for an exciting year at the stadium. And, if you see me, say hi. I’ll be the guy actually watching the game.

For more information on what’s in store for this season and to order tickets, visit www.senatorsbaseball.com.

Magnificence, in a Bridge: Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Bridge: an inspiring entry to the Capitol.

April 15, 2013 | by Jason Wilson

The Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Bridge is a magnificent engineering achievement, an inspiring piece of Art Deco architecture—and a well-traveled and functioning thoroughfare.

It was originally conceived in 1919 as a tribute to Pennsylvanians who fought in World War I. By the time it was dedicated on August 22, 1930, almost $4 million was provided to construct a memorial to all Pennsylvania veterans.

The bridge, commonly called the “State Street” bridge, was proposed by architect Arnold Brunner as part of the overall Capitol complex. It was designed and executed by architects Gehron and Ross and built by general contractors Charles Strayer of Harrisburg and the James McGraw Co. of Philadelphia.

The grand bridge is long and wide. It measures 2,657-feet, 6-inches long and originally carried a roadway 56-feet wide with 12-foot sidewalks, giving it a total width of approximately 81 feet. In the 1950s, the road was widened, and the sidewalks narrowed, changing the original dimensions.

The bridge contains 17 segmented arches, is made of reinforced concrete and is faced in Indiana limestone. The memorial at the western approach contains two monumental stone pylons each 145-feet high and 16-by-25 feet at the base.

The pylons are topped by two massive Art Deco-style eagles representing the Union, one symbolic of the Army and the other of the Navy. The pylons and other sculpture, including bas relief tanks, cannon, battleships and other armaments, were produced by famed sculptor Lee Lawrie.

A “Memorial Museum” was planned for the plaza underneath the western approach and was to contain the names of all Pennsylvania veterans of World War I, but the onset of the Great Depression prevented further state expenditures on the bridge. The museum was to contain artifacts and “trophies” of all wars involving Pennsylvanians.

The bridge has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1988 and was listed as a National Historic Landmark on March 11, 2013, along with all of the Pennsylvania State Capitol complex.

Jason Wilson is a research historian for the Capitol Preservation Committee.

Drums and a Dream: Fred Griggs has already been to the Grammys–and his music career has just begun.

April 15, 2013 | by Jeffrey Allen Federowicz

From the West Shore to the West Coast, drummer Fred Griggs has enthralled and impressed audiences and seasoned musicians with his fiercely passionate way of performing jazz-infused music, with a style many drummers spend a lifetime trying to achieve.

In fact, Griggs, a senior at Carlisle High School, already has found success that most drummers seldom experience, including performing at numerous pre- and post-Grammy Award functions in Los Angeles this past February.

“I’m always thinking about music. When I am at school or at home, everything is about music. I’m not the type to sit around and play video games or watch TV. If I’m not playing the drums, I’m learning about them or thinking about them and ways to become a better musician,” Griggs said after he returned home from a jubilant and impressive journey to the West Coast as the only drummer in the national and highly prestigious Grammy Jazz Camp band for 2013.

Selected as one of 32 high school musicians and the only drummer from across the nation, the honor came with a bevy of perks, such as a free trip to Los Angeles in February, where the band spent a week among music superstars, red carpet events and all the glitter and glamour that is Hollywood.

Not bad for a guy yet to turn 18.

“Being part of the band was a huge honor for me and a really cool experience. It was amazing to work with so many talented young musicians from across the country and have the opportunity to perform at the different events,” Griggs said. “It was also cool to have the chance to see so many talented musicians and jazz legends and hear them perform. It was truly an experience I will never forget.”

The program, operated by the Grammy Foundation, was established in 1989 to encourage and reward the nation’s best young musicians. This year, students hailed from 15 states; Griggs was the only Pennsylvanian chosen.

Previous participants over the years have included Grammy-nominated singer Brandon Heath, two-time Grammy-nominated pianist Gerald Clayton, New York Philharmonic bassist David Grossman and saxophonist Jonathan Ragonese, a Harrisburg-area native who participated in 2007.

For Griggs and his fellow band mates, the trip to Los Angeles was a hectic and amazing experience. The band had only a couple of days to rehearse before they were scheduled to perform at the University of Southern California. Another gig included a jazz concert at a noted restaurant, followed by a visit to a music mecca—Capital Studios and Mastering in Hollywood, where the band took a spin at making a recording.

And, of course, the group attended the star-studded Grammy Awards show at the Staples Center, where they had the opportunity to rub elbows with the biggest names in the industry.

“It was so cool to attend the Grammys and see all the musicians and the crowds that gathered out front of the Staples Center.” Griggs said. “We saw so many major musicians. It was an unreal experience.”

The experience and all his success come back to three main factors: the support of family and friends, a commitment to learn and pure talent.

“When Fred first started with me, he was a very talented drummer for his age,” said Lancaster-based drum instructor, Paul Gallello. “Over the past three-and-a-half years, he has become a very talented drummer … period. His technique and musicality transcend any age or grade-related qualifications.”

Griggs noted that his main goal since 10^th grade was trying to land a spot in the band, a challenge he met with hours of practicing every day.

“Drumming is my life. That’s it. I love this and, now that I have gotten back from the Grammys, I have been busy getting ready to apply for college, where I want to study jazz music and someday teach at a conservatory,” said Griggs, the son of Josephine and the late Les Griggs, who bought him his first drum kit in the fourth grade.

Already, Griggs has played at numerous events across the area. He’s gigged at Central Pennsylvania Friends of Jazz concerts and with some of the best names in music, including the acclaimed jazz pianist, Steve Rudolph.

“Fred has an amazing commitment to jazz and its history. For someone his age, Fred is an excellent drummer and can play in many different styles of jazz,” said Rudolph.

What the future holds for Fred has yet to be written as he starts the next chapter in his life and heads off to college. One thing is certain: his journey will be one filled with music and jazz.

“For me, jazz is a way to convey any emotions I might have from sadness or joy. I love how the music is always changing, always evolving and never the same,” Griggs said. “The improvisational part of jazz and how it is so unexpected is what attracts me and keeps me interested. Music really is my life.”

Trash Talk: With a little personal responsibility, we can have a clean city.

April 15, 2013 | by Sandra Reid

When I started on City Council a year ago, I was the only newly elected member. We were millions of dollars in debt and under state receivership, and the city was wrapped in litigation. Crime rates were steadily rising, and the trash on the streets was like a metaphor for a city that had lost all hope.

I was happy to be appointed the chairperson of public works because this gave me an opportunity to focus on something that had been on my radar long before I ran for office. Several years ago, I had a neighbor tell me that, “If I wanted to live in a clean neighborhood, I should move to the suburbs.” It was that statement that drives me and makes me want to do everything I can do to improve the quality of life for our residents.

As I worked for the past year, I began to learn everything I could about trash collection, enforcement, underlying problems and how it had gotten so out of control. At every level of government, I was told that I would not be able to get the trash picked up until I changed the mindset of the residents, so I started there. I hosted a town hall meeting on trash and drove around and wrote up codes and trash violations, peeling back the layers of the onion until I came up with a solution.

I broke the problem down to three main categories: personal responsibility, slum landlords and outsiders using our city as their personal dump.

I believe that personal responsibility is the first step in resolving the larger problems. I truly believe that, if your neighborhood does not look like a dump, the slum landlords and illegal dumpers won’t dump there. I came up with four simple steps to a better neighborhood to give residents a set of tools. If everyone did their part, our neighborhoods would begin to look less like a war zone and someplace we want to live in.

1. Trash cans and recycling bins: Know when to put them out, know when to take them in.

Trash bags must be placed in trashcans for obvious reasons. It keeps rodents and other animals out of the trash, and the bags won’t tear and make a big mess when sanitation comes to collect. They should be put out the night before collection and secured back in your yard after collection. Do not leave them in the alley or on the sidewalks or outside your fence. Also, please remember—recycling reduces the amount of trash that is burned and placed in our landfills.

2. Personal property maintenance: Sweep when we sweep.

You should follow the city’s lead. When we sweep the streets twice a month, you should also sweep around your entire property—from the front curb to the rear curb at the alley and everything in between, including your porches and steps. Remember that when the city sweeps, you sweep.

3. Neighborhood cleanup: Together we can make a difference.

Neighborhood cleanups build relationships between neighbors and allow for churches and other organizations to support the community. Most importantly, it gives you and your children a vested interest in the cleanliness of your neighborhood. If the residents don’t take ownership of the trash in their neighborhoods, volunteers can clean it up, but it won’t stay clean. Remember: our goal is not just to clean up but permanently change the way our neighborhoods look.

4. Don’t illegal dump: If you see it, say it.

Not all illegal dumping is done in dark alleys in the middle of the night. You know that, when you see your neighbor put out that couch or mattress, it is illegal. It’s not tattling. You live here, and that mattress or couch is not biodegradable. We all have to do our part. In addition, don’t let landlords empty trash on the sidewalks when they evict their tenants. Reporting illegal dumping helps the police track down the offenders.

These four steps will help get us started, but I believe that, in order to get the city clean, we are going to need help from everyone. This is why I have established the “I believe we can keep Harrisburg clean fund.”

The concept is neighbors helping neighbors. There are two ways to donate. You can drop off trash bags, trashcans, rakes, brooms and gloves to help our residents get their neighborhoods clean. If residents and organizations do not want to go out and purchase these items, they can make a monetary donation to the fund. We then will purchase them for residents.

We are the capital of Pennsylvania, and we are more than the sum of the trash on our streets. I believe that we are our brother’s keeper, and we are only as strong as our weakest link. If we don’t work together, we may never solve this problem.

To contribute to the fund, equipment donations can be made at the Harrisburg City Government Center, City Council office. Monetary donations should be addressed to the Harrisburg City Treasurer, with the “I believe we can keep Harrisburg clean fund” in the memo section. The City Government Center is located at 10 N. 2nd St., Harrisburg Pa. 17101.

Flooding Crime: Some cities have battled crime by targeting hotspots. Can financially strapped Harrisburg do the same?

April 15, 2013 | by Reggie Sheffield

Kathy Jackson grew up on Curtin Street in the 1970s. Life took her to Oklahoma. In 2009 she returned. While the street and most of the houses were still there, her neighborhood was gone. According to Jackson, crack cocaine had taken its place.

“This is very depressing as a resident,” Jackson said after a community meeting in February held Uptown at the Wesley Union AME Church to discuss the city’s application for a $1 million federal anti-crime and blight grant. “It was a culture shock for me when I came home.”

Crime in Harrisburg has become more than just a worry for city officials or a topic of conversation over Sunday night dinner. In some areas of the city, the sounds of gunshots have become as common and excusable as the sound of an unanswered car alarm. What once made some city residents jump and flinch now produces only resigned, barely audible sighs. “Not again,” is the thought bubble inside shaking, frowning heads.

As of mid-March, this city of about 50,000 had seen its fifth homicide. Harrisburg has little money to spend on public safety thanks to a $340 million debt on its failed incinerator and a structural deficit estimated at $10 million per year. During the weekend of Feb. 16 to 17 alone, Harrisburg saw three unrelated homicides. During the weekend of March 9 to 10, South Allison Hill saw a homicide and then a shooting in the same area.

What options do cash-strapped city officials have? Criminologists have long studied what’s known as “hot spot” policing, where available resources are focused on specific high-crime areas. As a result of one of many studies discussed in a recent New York Times article, police and criminologists have credited hot spot policing with reducing crime in New York City by a whopping 75 percent over the past two decades—even with a 15 percent reduction in the city’s police force. But what is not clear to researchers is how this also translated into a one-third drop in the prison population and millions saved annually on prison costs.

Regardless, what is clear jumps out:

“Rates of murder, rape, grand larceny, robbery and assault declined significantly faster in precincts with hot-spot policing than in those without it,” the article said, referring to a study conducted by New York University political scientist Dennis C. Smith.

Recently, Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson initiated a “Neighborhood Safe Zones” program where problem blocks are literally cordoned off in an attempt to isolate and eradicate crime. Based on the Baltimore Police Department’s Community Safe Zone Project that began in 2005, it couples enhanced foot patrols, social service resources, community-based reach-out programs and a multitude of relevant city departments, including Code Enforcement to represent the city’s latest approach to fighting crime.

Thompson said that the police department did not fare well under either the city’s financial recovery plan (the department has a 2013 budget of almost $17.1 million) or the prolonged City Council fight over declaring bankruptcy, losing 30 officers in the process. Thompson said that the city should regain 15 cops by July and that several of them are strictly slated for street patrol.

“It gives a sense of security to people. It allows our cops to get out there and build relationships. It allows them to build these relationships so people are willing to be of help to them and give them inside information about a crime and help prevent a crime. I am a staunch proponent of having officers work the street,” Thompson said, adding that the Safe Zones program uses existing policing funds at no additional cost to taxpayers.

In early August, police barricaded Jackson’s Curtin Street after residents complained of constant gunfire. Jackson, daughter of the late Edith I. Jackson, a well-known Uptown community activist who died in 2009, applauds the city’s effort and says that, initially anyhow, the tactic worked very well.

“Absolutely,” she said enthusiastically. “What it did was it flushed them out and made them more visible.”

But then the barricades came down, and the police presence faded.

“No, it doesn’t matter how many police you put in there. It’s not going to help,” Jackson said. “They’re just going to go from one neighborhood to the next. It’s not going to solve the problem.” Jackson said she would welcome additional attention paid to issues such as education, employment and mental health.

Harrisburg police recently opened two community policing centers, one in Hall Manor in Allison Hill and another on S. 15^th Street, in its ongoing attempt to make the department even more visible and more accessible.

Keeping enough cops on the job is difficult, said Harrisburg Police Chief Pierre Ritter. The department is now down to about 144 officers, he explained, a decline from around 180 just a couple of years ago.

Drops in personnel have resulted in a conundrum, Ritter said. The city would like to apply for grants to hire more officers, but those grants require basic staffing level requirements that are much higher—in one instance around 250—than the numbers Harrisburg currently has. Many police forces nationwide are in the same boat, Ritter said.

“So you can say, ‘We want to hire X amount of officers on a grant, but you have to maintain the number of officers you have here in order to pay for those officers that are being supplemented by the grant.’ It’s not as easy as ‘Yeah, let’s get some grant money and hire 10 officers’ and then we’re good to go,” Ritter said.

Last August, a coalition of neighboring municipalities, including the state police, joined city cops in patrolling crime hot spots. Going forward, however, Harrisburg may have more trouble getting the state police to boost its depleted force. In February, State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan told the state House Appropriations Committee that his resources were stretched thin due to expanding obligations in the state’s expansive rural geography.

A 2011 study by University of Wisconsin professor Steven N. Durlauf and Carnegie Mellon professor Daniel Nagin concluded that increased police street presence is a more effective deterrent on crime than longer prison sentences. Durlauf and Nagin went on to suggest that, like the results found in the New York study, police on the street reduce crime and the number of prisoners taxpayers must provide for. In turn, that should free up money to fund more police patrols.

More locally, The Philadelphia Foot Patrol Experiment, a Temple University study done on hot spot policing in collaboration with the Philadelphia Police Department, showed initial reductions in criminal activity (referred to as “displacement”), but an eventual return of crime after the close of the experiment—that is, the departure of the patrols.

“The displacement uncovered had decayed during the three months after the experiment, and it is theoretically plausible that previously displaced offenders returned to the original target areas causing inverse displacement,” researchers found.

Foot patrols are best used as part of “a variety of policing paradigms” researchers said, and they suggested ways to incorporate them beyond strictly law enforcement-based strategies.

But researchers warned that these statistics came with a caveat: stop and frisk incidents (identified in the paper as “pedestrian field interviews”) increased by “about 64 percent.”

“While this extra activity likely aided deterrence, police commanders should be conscious of the potential harm to police-community relations in targeted areas, and consider other tactics if this is a concern,” they said.

Ron Tilley is the program director of the Brethren Community Ministries, a Hummel Street ministry devoted to promoting peaceful solutions to violence. In 2009, Tilley helped bring Fugitive Safe Surrender to Harrisburg. In four short days, 1,200 fugitives surrendered, clearing 5,700 warrants. A similar program in St. Louis took a staggering 1,300 guns off the street between 1994 and 1997.

“This could be a peaceful way to take guns off the streets and out of the hands of juveniles,” Tilley said.

Tilley wears another hat as the organizer for Heeding God’s Call Harrisburg, a coalition of congregations from numerous faith backgrounds dedicated to saving lives by ending gun violence in Harrisburg. Heeding God’s Call far too frequently holds vigils for victims of gun violence.

“There’s a lot of suffering, both sets of families, perpetrators and victims,” he said.

Last February, Nate DeMuro and his girlfriend were mugged Uptown. Robbed on the street at gunpoint at around 9:30 on a Thursday night. No one was injured, he said.

“For lack of a better description, it was a rather polite robbery,” he said.

The assailant took their phones and his girlfriend’s purse for its cash and then split. After a minute or two, the pair followed his path looking for their phones. Within half a block, a police officer coincidentally drove by. “Unfortunately he got away.”

That wasn’t DeMuro’s only brush with crime. He said he also broke up the mugging of a woman. He generally gives the Harrisburg police high marks but still wants to see the city conduct more routine foot patrols.

“If we had that, people would feel safer, they would come out,” DeMuro said.

He credits police with taking the time to get to know local residents, but is under the impression that there just aren’t enough police to get the job done.

What would DeMuro do if he were chief of police? “If I was him, I’d probably be out in the neighborhoods more. You got to get to know these people. You want to know the little old lady that lives there in that little house. The town is just too small. Everybody knows everybody one way or the other,” he said.

Reggie Sheffield is a freelance journalist in Harrisburg. He is reachable at [email protected].

Community Corner: Notable events from March

March 16, 2013 | by Admin

The Five Hundred Men Reading

March 1: To celebrate Read Across America and Dr. Seuss’ Birthday, Ron Claiborne of ABC’s Good Morning America will read to students at Steelton-Highspire Elementary School, capping off a weeklong series of reading to students in schools throughout the area. The event will run 7:30 to 11:30 a.m.

Seedling Sale

March 1-22: The Dauphin County Conservation District is conducting its annual Spring Seedling Sale, offering residents the opportunity to beautify their properties and improve the environment by planting trees and shrubs. For more information or to order, visit www.dauphincd.org or call the district office at 717-921-8298. Orders must be pre-paid and received by the office no later than March 22. Orders may be picked up at the district’s office 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on April 11 and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on April 12.

Pennsylvania Home Show

March 2-10: The annual show includes more than 375 exhibitors of home building, remodeling and home improvement products and professionals. Through March 10 at the State Farm Show Complex. For more, call 717-232-5595.

Uplifting Athletes’ 2^nd Annual Gridiron Gala

March 2: Help “White-Out Rare Diseases” at this black tie-optional event, which will feature an all-you-can-eat “gourmet tailgate,” open bar, games, silent auction, live entertainment and former college football stars from the Penn State chapter. Starts at 7 p.m. in Strawberry Square. Tickets are available at www.upligtingathletes.org/gridirongala. Call 717-737-7900 for more info.

Founder’s Ball

March 2: The Central Pennsylvania Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce’s 2013 Annual Meeting and Dinner will be held 6 to 11 p.m. at the Hershey Lodge. The keynote speaker is Justin G. Nelson, and Erica Lyn Everest will provide the entertainment. For more information, go to www.cpglcc.org or e-mail [email protected].

Maple Sugar Festival

March 3: Taste real maple syrup on ice cream and shop for delicious products at this free event at Fort Hunter Park, noon to 4 p.m. Learn how to tap a tree and watch the art of spile making.

Juried Art Auction, Habitat for Humanity

March 8: The 8^th Annual Juried Art Auction, featuring local artists, starts at 6 p.m. at the Hershey Country Club. Proceeds support ending poverty housing in Harrisburg.

Coming to HBG: Hot bands warm a chilly month.

March 16, 2013 | by Dan Webster

March Music Madness tips off in Harrisburg this month, with an 11-band lineup series called Winterfest.

Vetour Productions will be presenting tunes on both stages at Appalachian Brewing Company, featuring the precocious upstarts, The Flower Garden, and the more rootsy, bluegrass band, the Coal Town Rounders. Others who will share the stage over the course of the evening are: the Incubus-inspired sounds of Minshara, Taillights, Colors, Vegas Under Lights, Spotted Atrocious, Feed Your Ego, Crobot and That Girl—a wonderful array of band names and sounds.

Makespace, the ever-dynamic creative entity, has become the dandy of intimate indie venues in Harrisburg. This month, it proves it by bringing in Wooden Wand, the stage name for the mercurial James Jackson Toth.

Toth has never boxed himself in by genre or generation, but Pitchfork describes his new album, “Blood Oaths of the New Blues,” “as affording songs ripped from the headlines or rescued from personal journeys [the] necessary empathy and intimacy” they deserve. The opener, a two-song medley “No Bed for Beatle Wand/Days This Long,” is a question-driven one that seems an appropriate balance to the closer, “No Debts,” which is a clear admission of a life ending without questions, but rather, with contentment. This concert will be like watching a fine story telling, one imbued with honesty and imagination.

At the end of the month, The Corty Byron Band plays at Stage on Herr. The eponymous front man started gigging his way around central Pennsylvania at the age of 16 with his former group, The Green Onions. Following this stint, he took his talents out to Southern California. Byron clearly has an immense respect for Hendrix, found in his song “I Am,” but his skills span the rock ‘n’ roll spectrum, from the simple traveling man ballad, “Mississippi Moan,” to the harmonica-driven “Leavin’ Love.”

This jack-of-all-trades impresses on all fronts, and he will deliver on his chameleonic material. Don’t be shy about coming to this one early, too. The Kyle Morgan Band opens with its honky-tonk balladry; Morgan is a lyricist with impeccable writing and guitar skills, and should not be missed.

Take your pick of the mercurial this March. In this bracket, you’re not going to choose a loser.

Winterfest, March 3, Abbey Bar at Appalachian Brewing Co., 50 N. Cameron St., Harrisburg. Starts at 7:30 p.m.

Wooden Wand, March 9, MakeSpace, 1916 N. 3^rd St., Harrisburg. Starts at 8 p.m.

The Corty Byron Band, March 30, HMAC Stage on Herr, 268 Herr St., Harrisburg.

One Tough Year: A new school board member reflects on his first year in office.

March 16, 2013 | by Brendan Murray

It has now been more than a year since the school board has taken office. I have loved being able to serve the community in this fashion, but it has come with many highs and lows.

The board was put in one of the worst situations one can ever experience as newly elected members. We had to make deep cuts to a school district that had already had closed five schools and let go more than 300 teachers.

This was a very tough task. How do you explain to a community that had to cut its pre-K program a year earlier that now we can’t afford kindergarten or a sports program that was the source of so much pride? After all the cuts were made, I felt that we didn’t need a tax increase so I voted no, because I believed there were still areas that could have been cut.

Another problem facing the board was the revolving door of members. It seemed that we were always down a member. This left the board in a state of flux. Decision-making was made harder because of the lack of understanding between board members.

The great moments always involved being able to interact with the students. The part of school board meetings I looked forward to most was when students received awards or acknowledgments for the good works they have done. Rewarding the students is a great way to set an example for younger children.

As an avid sports fan, I got great joy out of watching our young men turn around a great football tradition. Becoming a band booster allowed me to understand why this community has so much pride in its musical tradition. Attending concerts that showed off our students’ great talent for the arts is something I will continue to do long after I have left the board.

There is one moment I hold above all else—graduation, the culmination of so many years of hard work to get students to this one goal. Nothing gave me more happiness as a board member than to be able to shake their hands as they received their diplomas.

Graduation is the end result that I wish for all of our students. However, in too many cases, our students are not reaching it. We have to be realistic about how big the district’s task is. Turning it around will be a monumental objective. We cannot run from it. We need to dive in and take this challenge on headfirst. We must succeed because it is our future that depends on it.

We have accomplished some of the things that I believe will lead us in the right direction. The comprehensive plan laid out by Dr. Knight-Burney, our superintendent, is a very good start. I do understand that Rome wasn’t built in a day, but I believe we can do more. That is why I wanted to put a focus on mentoring. Our community, especially the young professionals, needs to see the connection between the school district and bringing Harrisburg back to prominence.

The connection needs to be forged between people just like me and the district to show how important the school district really is to someone who is single and has no children in the district. They need to see that the money they spend on education is not just another tax. It is very important to the future. The one way this can happen is by getting them involved in the mentoring of these students.

This is why I urge my fellow 20- to 30-somethings to join the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. We need to stop pointing fingers in the community to show where the problem comes from. It comes from all of us. I know this is a bitter pill to take, but it is the truth. We have been pointing fingers for more than 30 years, and it hasn’t changed anything.

Not so long ago in the history of Harrisburg, people used to look to us as one of the better places to get an education. I firmly believe we can get back there if we make the commitment as a community to make the right choices. Democracy is predicated on an educated electorate. The future of our city depends on students receiving the best education they can receive. That should be our mutual goal.

Brendan Murray is a member of the Harrisburg School Board.

Garden-Ho!: With controversy behind and spring ahead, Green Urban Initiative looks forward to the new growing season.

March 15, 2013 | by Jason Zubler

It’s been several months since the demise of the community garden located at N. 6^th and Curtin Streets, and constructed by Green Urban Initiative (GUI) last spring. Since then, we’ve taken a step back to evaluate what went wrong, ramp up fundraising efforts and, most importantly, revisit the mission behind our community garden program. We’ve emerged from this time of reflection more focused and committed than ever to assist community members with the development of garden space within their neighborhoods.

GUI’s goal, through its community vegetable garden program, is to empower and provide assistance to urban residents interested in growing their own food. While the benefits to self-food production are many, those benefits are compounded even further when neighbors have the opportunity to grow their food alongside each other within their communities. Unfortunately, many barriers exist to the development and success of these community gardens.

In an effort to overcome these barriers, we’ve developed a garden partnership program in which communities and neighborhood organizations can request assistance with the development of gardens. The application for this program will be accessible through our website (www.greenurban.org) in the near future. Through the program, GUI will review the applications and offer support to projects based on available resources. GUI is able to provide assistance with materials, volunteers, education, plot management and land use agreements in exchange for a few committed members of the community.

We’ve been working hard over these last few months to rebound from a difficult situation, and we sincerely appreciate all of the overwhelming support that we’ve received both financially and through words of encouragement. However, we still need your help to continue to assist urban gardens in Harrisburg.

We have big plans for 2013, including a goal to develop two additional community gardens, but, in order to meet this goal, we need to keep the support rolling. We have several fundraising opportunities planned for the coming months, including a half-price happy hour event at Suba through the month of March and yet another benefit at The Abbey Bar soon to be announced. If you’d like to make a direct contribution, please visit our website for more details. In addition, if you’re interested in bringing garden space to your community and would like some assistance, please check out the partnership application on our website or email us at [email protected] for more information.

Stay tuned for additional opportunities to get involved this spring, and thank you for your continued support!

Jason Zubler is president of Green Urban Initiative. More information about the organization can be found at www.greenurban.org.

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