What fun is another bus station?

An online business journal called KeystoneEdge just posted a story about all the cool things cities are doing with their dilapidated train stations.

“All Aboard: Urban train stations redeveloped as neighborhood amenities,” is the headline.

It features stations in Philadelphia and Harrisburg and other cities. Of course, they have trains going through them.

But I have often wondered about why Reading turned its cool old train station into just another bus station, with a block-size BARTA bus station a block away, and whale-sized sections of Penn Street reserved for BARTA buses.

I strongly support public transportation and am sincerely glad a spectacular historic public building in Reading was lovingly restored. But couldn’t it have been turned into something more fun than a bus station? Was this part of a plan? Was it the best use of the space? BARTA said it needed more capacity.

Making the place a bus station was likely the only way to wrangle the $5 million from the state and federal bureaucrats for any sort of project. Otherwise, the building would simply have continued to decay, like other city landmarks.

“The station, at Seventh and Franklin streets, was built in 1929 as a hub for the Reading Railroad's rail and bus services. But the last train left in 1981, and the station hasn't been used since,” the Reading Eagle reports.

According to the KeystoneEdge article:

In 2011, a public space called The Porch opened at 30^th Street Station in Philadelphia. The University City District, an organization dedicated to revitalizing the surrounding neighborhood, got involved and installed plants, tables and chairs, and set up space for events like a farmers' market, outdoor concerts, fitness classes and even mini golf.

During the first summer, almost 25,000 people visited the space. UCD surveyed the space every hour to determine how The Porch was being used. The group wanted to demonstrate that there's a huge demand to justify future investments.

“The idea of a train station as a community gathering place has also had an impact across the state. In the capital, the iconic brick-front Harrisburg Transportation Center has undergone a decades-long renovation. Since 1983, $7.68 million has been invested in the station (which serves Amtrak and bus traffic).

“In Philadelphia's Mt. Airy neighborhood, Allens Lane Station houses High Point Cafe, a charming space that lures passengers and locals in for fresh coffee and house-made baked goods.

“And in Elkins Park, a suburban neighborhood north of the city, a transit-oriented development philosophy has led to renovation of the beautiful train station. Reimagined as ‘Elkins Central,’ the space serves as a community gathering place for concerts, meetings and classes.”

Is this the opinion of everybody at BCTV?

Is there an issue with tourism in Berks County?

The takeaway from the first part of the Reading Eagle’s three-part project on tourism (known in the industry as a megaturd) is that Berks tourism Czarina Crystal Seitz could do her job better with more money.

Now, everybody who’s a boss would like to have more money and hire more people. That’s not news. The Eagle falls for this regularly – the DA needs more ADAs, the police chief needs more police officers, the codes office needs more enforcers … .

The problem is the Eagle reporters haven’t been trained to control interviews. They just show up, mention the topic and write down what the (short list) of officials tell them. News stories are boring unless they clearly identify an issue that's important to people. What's the issue with tourism in Berks?

If Crystal needs more money to put Berks on the map, why didn’t the reporter follow up and ask county and state politicians why they are not supplying more money to the tourism bureau?

Why not ask the tourism bureau how it measures its success, and check those data next year? Are numbers going up or down?

Funny that the GoggleWorks arts center in Reading wasn’t mentioned as a major attraction in the list across the top of the spread Sunday, which did include Maple Grove Raceway and Cabela’s.

And the arts center – the most remarkable attraction in Reading – isn’t mentioned at all in the Monday edition, (which gets even vaguer as to thesis, as many Eagle three-part series do in their second and third days.)

I have spoken to Reading residents who have never been to the GoggleWorks, never heard of the GoggleWorks, or thought you had to pay to get in. How about informing the locals about what’s in the city?

Has the place been abandoned? Look at what visitors – local or not – see when they enter the GoggleWorks from Third Street. Why hasn’t this major destination been cleaned up?

Back to attracting tourists -- "Some (who??) think the county would benefit from a large convention center,” the Eagle reports. But it doesn’t mention that the GreaterReading Expo Center has closed.

“The Greater Reading Expo Center is one of the largest suburban exhibition centers on the East Coast, with over 30 interior rooms, 250,000 square feet of exhibition space on one floor, and more than 3,000 free, on-site parking spaces available for the convenience of visitors and guests,” its website still says. And it's history.

And the story didn’t mention that a giant convention center is one idea behind the under-construction hotel on Penn Street.

Comments are a big part of local journalism

Local journalism must engage the locals, so they have reasons to read the news.

One way to do that is by allowing comments. On any news site, the comments often inform me better than the reporting.

Sure, some of the threads quickly devolve into mindlessness. But on most stories on most regional news sites I looked at for this post, the comments were mostly thoughtful, provocative, informative and worthwhile.

I wish I could once again read comments on Reading Eagle articles. I want to hear more opinions about issues and events in Berks County. But the Berks County newspaper has dropped the feature.

Most local news organizations allow readers to comment. Some post the number of comments they get, proud of the measurable interaction with their readers.

These journalistic enterprises invite reader comments:

• Allentown Morning Call
• Lancaster Intelligencer Journal
• Pennlive.com (Harrisburg)
• Pittsburgh Post Gazette
• Scranton Times
• Philly.com
• Pottsville Republican
• Daily Local News
• Pottstown Mercury
• WFMZ

On Oct 27, Reading Eagle Editor Harry Deitz wrote:

“Online access provides an opportunity for constant dialogue regarding stories and issues. One thing that won't change on our site is our effort to keep that conversation civil.”

I e-mailed Adam Richter, the newspaper’s online editor, to ask about the paper’s comment policy, but he hasn’t replied.

The York Dispatch and Erie are using Twitter and Facebook for feedback.

“We invite comments on the GoErie Facebook page and the GoErie Twitter feed. The company is currently reviewing its online comment policy for other platforms,” Liz Allen, public editor at Erie Times-News and www.GoErie.com, wrote me in an e-mail.

York has a page to explain how to comment and its new policy.

“We are testing a new article commenting system in an effort to improve the quality of the discussion experience. To comment on an article, you must log in to Facebook or one of its registration partners: AOL, Yahoo and Hotmail. You then can choose to share the comment with your friends.”

“Q. Why did you make the switch to Facebook commenting?

“A. Commenting tends to be more robust and useful when commenters are easily identifiable.”

What’s more interesting?

We learned that no government employees will show up at your house to remove a dead animal, though we didn't learn why anybody would think government employees should.

And how Berks officials paid more than $1 million for sullied road salt.

But we haven’t learned anything from the Reading Eagle about what I’d bet readers are even more interested in – who are these guys the police say set Ashley Kline on fire while she was alive?

Did they go to school around here? How did they meet? Were they ever in trouble before? What was the relationship between the families? Were there any signs that there were alleged monsters in our midst?

Not a word on this in Sunday’s or Monday’s edition.

Here’s a glimpse into defendant Ryan M. Schannauer’s self-image.

Each young man has a criminal record. When did Adam Lynch last get out of jail?

Important facts are missing in Reading Eagle stories

What awful reporting Friday in the Reading Eagle about the 16 drug arrests in Reading. 

The paper doesn’t even say what kind of drugs were involved. Wait a minute, were any drugs even involved? It’s not clear. Were people arrested just because they wanted to buy drugs? Heroin or pot? Why not ask the police what’s going on? Maybe the headline should have been “City cops arrest 16 on drug charges; no drugs involved.”

Are Eagle reporters ever asked to go beyond the formula of another drug-bust story and think about the public ramifications? Would they ever ask the police chief (who is accessible and helpful in my experience) to explain the city's “war on drugs” strategy? 

Is the paper -- and its readers -- satisfied with getting this kind of sparse information from the crimefighters?

Lots of arrests, new people in the criminal-justice system perhaps – but what was the crime?

Why not ask the people with uniforms and guns to account for their actions? Or is it too simple -- “police=good, drug users=bad”-- to explain to readers?

Heroin is a lot different than pot. Perhaps Berks County’s news monopoly is stuck in the “reefer madness” days when all drugs are equally pernicious, so the public doesn’t need to know what substance is involved. 

And what about the story that state AuditorGeneral Eugene DePasquale was visiting Reading to speak about the Reading School District.

Want to go see him?

The paper fails to say when or where he spoke.

“Friday, he'll share his concerns with the Reading community.

“DePasquale will be in town to speak publicly about the district's progress in implementing the 17 recommendations included in an audit of the district that was unveiled in May.”

Subscribe to the Reading Eagle – it’s a civic duty

I lifted this from the Washington Post. It’s part of a column, “Democracy needs dogged local journalism,” by Rachel Maddow about how Chris Christie et al. harassed reporters.

Our democracy depends on local journalism, whether it’s a beat reporter slogging through yet another underattended local commission meeting, or a state political reporter with enough of an ear to the ground to know where the governor might be when he isn’t where he says he is, or a traffic columnist who’s nobody’s fool.

It’s annoying to pay for information — I know. But if you don’t subscribe to your local paper or pony up to get behind its online paywall, who’s going to pay reporters to cover the news where you live? 

A free press isn’t that kind of “free.” An accountable democracy doesn’t work without real information, gathered from the ground up, about people in power, everywhere.

Be inspired by the beleaguered but unintimidated reporters of Chris Christie’s New Jersey: Whatever your partisan affiliation, or lack thereof, subscribe to your local paper today. It’s an act of civic virtue.

Murder victim deserves story of her life, not just her death

The Lancaster newspaper takes a step further than the Reading Eagle in covering the murder of a 23-year-old Robesonia woman, Ashley Kline, whose body was found Sunday in Lancaster County. 

What a concept – they talked to somebody who knew her. The Eagle, as usual, would rather avoid any possibility of offense rather than seeking the truth. 

Contrary to the first rule of journalism, the major news media in Berks County routinely puts the needs of its sources before those of its readers. The Eagle seems to pride itself on making every story about crime and tragedy as formulaic and devoid of any human element as possible, relying on nothing more than police sources. 

To tell the story of a tragedy like Kline's, you have to go further and take the painful step of reaching out to the family. In my experience, most grieving relatives are happy to let the public know about their loved one, to move the emphasis of the senseless death away from the crime details. 

Some journalists carefully profile murder victims to underscore the community’s horrible losses. 

Teenage murders in London
Homicide Watch D.C.
The Homicide Report

Here’s what Ashley’s aunt told the Lancaster paper: 

Kline left her father's home that night without taking an overnight bag, her cellphone charger or her laptop, according to her aunt, Penny Monteleone. 

"She said she was going to a girlfriend's (house) and never returned home," Monteleone said Monday afternoon. "She was always good about letting her dad know where she was." 

On Monday, Kline's family was concerned and awaiting further details. "I hope I'm wrong, but it appears that there has been foul play," Monteleone said. 

Monteleone said she last saw her niece on Christmas, when she hosted Ashley Kline and other relatives. "Ashley and I spend a lot of time together," she said. Monteleone said the past several days have been "devastating." 

"We have been playing investigators around the clock," she said. "We are sick with worry." 

"The Klines are a very Christian, loving family and they don't deserve this. Ashley's an inspiration to everyone who knows her. She's just a little too trusting, and there are sick people who prey on that."

Which board members interfered in Reading schools?

The Reading School Board’s dysfunction is the biggest news in Berks County, and I’m glad to see that local leaders are finally giving it public attention.

On Sunday, Berks County business overlords took out a full page ad in the Reading Eagle, encouraging the Reading School Board to hire the BCIU to help manage the district.

"Past failures of governance and leadership in the district have imperiled the future of nearly 25 percent of Berks County's children and threaten to undermine our regional economy."

The same day, the Eagle’s Sunday editorial also urged the school board to use the BCIU.

And in a letter to the editor just under that, the leaders of the five colleges in Berks made the same plea.

It’s great to hear such powerful voices from all over Berks County publicly pull together for improvement in the biggest and neediest district, whose students have faced not only the burdens of poverty but also years of incompetent leadership.

Let’s hope the BCIU can help.

Remember that the last white-knight administrators were quickly run out. The state brought former Superintendent Drue Miles and his team to Reading under a state program to match experienced administrators with troubled districts. The school board abruptly fired eight of them.

It’s a new board now. The Reading Eagle should help make sure toxic board members don’t ever again ruin things for the district’s 18,000 students.

After he was fired, Miles told the Eagle that some board members didn't like that he questioned how the district has been operating.

"We questioned things that they don't want questioned," he said.

But no one has ever identified which board members interfere in schools and resent questions about their behavior.

Who are “some board members”? Who violates the clear rules of conduct?

The local newspaper should chase the story and identify the elected officials for their misdeeds and hold them accountable.

The public needs to know so they never get elected again.

Don't ignore Reading residents in plans to encourage business

Why don’t Reading leaders invest in the people who live in the city?

It seems the economic development strategy in Reading has been to try to lure people from far away, with projects such as the GoggleWorks arts center, GoggleWorks apartments, hockey games, oldies concerts, fancy restaurants, and luxury hotels.

I am no urban-planning expert, but it doesn’t seem to be working. Businesses are not flocking to bask in the allure of these high-price projects. Quiznos, across the street from the downtown arena, closed in November after 10 years. At the other end of town, the retail space around the IMAX movie theater remains empty.

But wait! There is economic development going on!

For example, the Reading Eagle newspaper had a story about Jing Zhang, 40, who opened a second Chinese restaurant in Reading, the Reading China Buffet at Eighth and Oley streets.

"This has become a really popular shopping area with a lot of traffic," Zhang said. "It's not like it was before when the buildings were empty. … With two Spanish supermarkets nearby, I saw a great opportunity here."

What sparked the commercial revival in the former outlet neighborhood -- including a taqueria and daycare -- was something built for people who live nearby – a supermarket.

Developer Alan Shuman started the project in January 2008 on what had been a parking lot.

Downtown Reading pulses with people walking and vehicles cruising through all day. Why not try to help some local entrepreneurs develop some businesses for them?

Is it good that Reading School Board members are resigning?

Why did Yvonne Stroman retire from the Reading School Board?

The Reading Eagle said Stroman was not immediately available for comment.

Along with Karen McCree, she’s the second long-term member to abruptly resign with little explanation in the last month. Voters re-elected Stroman in November.The district serves 18,000 children and has a budget of $214 million, paid for by city, state and federal taxpayers. 

Over and over, reports blame poor leadership for fiscal and academic problems. The local media should better educate the public about what’s going on in the giant district.

According to the Eagle, Board President Rebecca Acosta said Stroman’s resignation e-mail “cites Stroman's role as executive director of a local nonprofit organization as the reason for her departure.”

Where is Stroman an executive director?

Her LinkedIn profile says she is director of community Programs at Community Prevention Partnership.

Community Prevention Partnership (which community they are trying to prevent, I don’t know) doesn’t list her on its website.

Was she one of the longtime board members that opponents excoriated at a candidates' forum in October?

They claim some school board members use the positions for prestige and power, not to promote education.

Questions the Eagle could ask:

• What prompted this shake up?
• Why did the two resign?
• Were they persuaded?
• If claims about their behavior are true, why haven’t toxic school board members been voted out in elections?
• What role do Reading’s political parties play in who gets to be a school board candidate?
• Why haven’t better candidates been selected to run?

The community deserves to know who is responsible for its public school system’s collapse so the same thing never happens again.

Berks County needs better journalism!

Why did Reading miss out on economic-revitalization program?

Why did the state reject Reading’s application for an economic-development program called a CRIZ? The Reading Eagle – the local paper we depend on to explain this stuff to us – hasn’t worked too hard to find out.

Maybe nobody in Berks cares. More boring economic-development blather … .

If you are interested, five cities – Bethlehem, Erie, Lancaster, Reading and York – were eligible. Bethlehem and Lancaster won, the state announced Dec. 30.

Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan said the CRIZ will foster $350 million to $400 million in new development in his city. “This is a game-changer."

The program is designed to spur new growth in cities that have struggled to attract development, revive downtowns and create jobs – sounds like Reading, for sure. State and local taxes collected in the CRIZ would be used to repay debt on loans geared to stimulate economic development projects in the zone.

  

The Eagle pulled for the designation. “If need carries any weight in the selection process, Reading should be one of those chosen,” said an editorial Dec. 8.

But since the city was rejected, the local newspaper doesn’t seem to be working too hard to find out why. No story has quoted anybody at the deciding agencies about it.

In contrast, reporters at the newspaper in York, another city that applied for a CRIZ, worked hard to explain why that city lost out.

On Dec. 6, the York Dispatch submitted a right-to-know request to the state for copies of all cities' CRIZ applications. On Dec. 13, the state invoked a 30-day extension to fulfill the request, giving the state until Jan. 12 to respond. In early December, York officials released the city's application in response to a right-to-know request from the Dispatch.

Now, that’s journalism in the public interest!

York’s and Erie’s applications were rejected because of mistakes in the application, York reporters discovered.

State Sen. Lisa Boscola told the Allentown Morning Call that Reading needed the CRIZ more.

“But Bethlehem was chosen because its projects are shovel-ready," she said. "Bethlehem's application was just too good to deny.”

In the meantime, Steve Kratz, a spokesman with the state Department of Community and Economic Development, told me a little about Reading’s application in an e-mail after I contacted his office about the decision.

“Reading's application was properly submitted, but was not as strong as the others,” he wrote. The winners “outlined several feasible projects … deemed most viable by the review committee,” he wrote. “The applications also best met the requirements of the program guidelines.”

Why is the Reading Eagle so heavy on Christianity?

I’m worried about how thick the Reading Eagle is with God – the Christian one. I’m worried the people who call the shots at Berks County’s media monopoly are not following one of the Society of Professional Journalists’ ethical tenets:

“[Journalists should] examine their own cultural values and avoid imposing those values on others.”

Even though a third of Americans reject biologic evolution, the issue is settled for most educated people. The Eagle is fascinated with the debate, though. On Tuesday, the Eagle ran two letters to the editor attacking evolution and one defending evolution.

“People are in denial because to accept the truth means they have to abide by the law of God,” one letter writer says.

“Everlasting life may be found by knowing the only true God, and the one who sent forth Jesus Christ,” writes another.

Many of the scant letters-to-the-editors the Eagle publishes are about Christian faith.

Does the Eagle post anywhere on its website its policy for how it chooses the letters it publishes ? The policies of such an important public institution as the local newspaper should be public.

The “daily thought” on page B2 was about forming a relationship with God.

Look at the “Religion” section on the paper’s website and every story is about a Christian.

In his column Dec. 29, editor Harry Deitz says the death of a young girl of cancer prompted him to spend more time in prayer and may lead people to ask why God would let an innocent child get such a disease.

I’m not against anybody accepting Christian superstition to help explain the tough problems of life. But Berks County has many Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, atheists and other non-Christians.

The Eagle should spend its precious news space and staff time covering issues important to all Berks Countians.