[PRCo] Re: New York Times Streetcar Article

[John Swindler]

Hi Rich
 
Fred doesn't ride the rt. 8 nor rt. 13 buses on occasion to see what is happening to Harrisburg outside the downtown area.  Nor does he have occasion to walk up to the Broad st. Market to see how that residential area has been cleared.  If nothing else, at least many of the empty houses have been leveled.  
 
The downtown area is getting some more construction on Market St and up by the Keystone Building.  But this sort of thing has been going on every so often since the 1970s, and probably earlier.  State government has provided white collar jobs - its the blue collar jobs that have evaporated, as Fred notes.  The sidewalks still get rolled up at 5:15 in Harrisburg.  It seems like a deserted town when I catch the later 5:35 bus.
 
Ascending?  It varys, just like so many other US towns.  
 
John
 
 
 
> From: fwschneider at comcast.net> Subject: [PRCo] Re: New York Times Streetcar Article> Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:37:38 -0400> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org> > Rich,> > I need to take you to Passage of India restaurant and introduce you > to Lena and Vishnu Shenoy, the owners.> > http://www.passagetoindiapa.com/> > There is also several great Italian places downtown.> > Harrisburg was probably at its worst in the 1970s and 1980s. It's > star is ascending. The worst blow, just like Pittsburgh, was when > Bethlehem Steel faltered in Steelton in the 1980s. There is a > replacement steel company but it does not employ nearly the number of > people that Bethlehem had.> > Please also notice that when I am throwing out employment data, I'm > tossing around metropolitan statistical area data and not cities. > By definition an MSA is either a city of 50,000 people or more or a > city with a prescribed population density (that last clause was > inserted in 1990 or 2000 when we would have lost places like > Harrisburg that were shrinking under 50,000 and we reduced the core > city to a 10,000 to 50,000 range). The county surrounding the core > city is automatically included. Lancaster County, Pennsylvania is > automatically included because Lancaster City is over 50,000. > Philadelphia County is automatically included with Philadelphia City, > in that case because they are co-terminus. Beyond that, a requisite > number of people from surrounding counties must commute into the core > county for work to add them to the MSA. We have since tweaked the > commuting patterns from 15% to 25% in recent years. We look first > for the largest county with 25% and add it. Then we look for the > next county that has 25% or more of its population commuting to work > in the first two counties. Then we hunt for a county that has 25% > or more of its people working in the first three counties, and so on > until we run out of counties that qualify.> > Some states publish county and city data. Pennsylvania does. But > those data or not readily available on line so I don't look for it to > make comparisons with other capitals. So I can only look at Albany > or Cheyenne or Philadelphia or Richmond as MSAs and not as cities. > By the same token, I can not easily look at Williamsburg, Virginia as > a city. I have to look at it as part of Norfolk - Newport News - > Hampton.> > Is that fair? That depends on who you talk to. I remember one > character from the Chamber of Commerce in Port Jervis PA who argued > with me that he could not understand why his city was included in the > Middletown NY MSA / New York City CMSA. The lunacy or logic of it > simply escaped his brain. But the fool attended the conferences in > Washington when OMB reclassified Pike County PA into that area. He > understood. He just believed his county was more important by > itself. He simply wasn't willing to admit that 65% of the workers > in his area actually crossed the Delaware River and went into New > Jersey and New York states to work and there was no way you were > going to convince him. If you want a lot of heavy reading, the link > below goes to the Federal Register. You can read all about it. But > I don't expect anyone to do it.> > http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg/metroareas122700.pdf> > But at least now you know why Allegheny, Butler, Washington, Beaver, > Fayette and Westmoreland counties are all part of the Pittsburgh MSA > or labor market.> > On Aug 20, 2008, at 10:03 AM, Derrick J Brashear wrote:> > > On Tue, 19 Aug 2008, Richard Allman wrote:> >> >> what about our great state capital city? Unless I'm missing > >> something, it's> >> still a dump. A few years ago the Inquirer ran an article entitled > >> something> >> like "Harrisburg:Is this any place to have a state capital?" and > >> subtitled> >> "not even a nice place to visit" (as oppposed to places that are > >> nowhere to> >> > Harrisburg seems not bad to me; It certainly has more ethnic food, for> > instance, than other larger cities I've been to. There are > > recreational> > opportunities. The big thing for me would have been that because of > > its> > size, a dearth of the sort of touring musical acts coming that I'd > > like to> > see. But that's an issue in Pittsburgh too.> >> > In some respects "it depends where in the city you are"> >> >> > 
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