by Steve Reinbrecht

Wow! So far in 2017, about 20 counties have joined the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] agency’s “287(g)” program to cooperate with federal immigration agents.

Although Berks County Sheriff Eric Weaknecht said in March that he wanted to join, our county is not on the latest list.

Berks is home to tens of thousands of Latinos, immigrants of all sorts, and Trump supporters – plus a world-infamous ICE child-detention center -- so you would think our community newspaper, the Reading Eagle, would follow the story.

The idea behind 287(g) is that if people don’t have documents, local deputies would keep them in jail, after they would normally be released, until ICE can show up. 

Although that seems reasonable to some, others criticize the idea. They argue that having local police involved in immigration enforcement will discourage vulnerable people, such as beaten wives and other crime victims, from seeking police help. Others say it violates the Constitution by detaining people without cause.

And some say they are breaking the law and should have their lives torn apart, forgetting that the United States has a proud history of overturning such unreasonable but steadfast laws – like those permitting slavery, or prohibiting women from owning property, or men from having sex with men, or white men from marrying black women, or lately, smoking pot. 

Don’t be afraid to come to work, Berks County mushroom executive tells worker

by Steve Reinbrecht

A Berks County mushroom-farm executive told employees Thursday morning to not be afraid to come to work despite rumors of federal immigration efforts in the area.

The company leader spoke at a meeting at the company’s plant in Muhlenberg Township.

The boss lamented that the company has recently lost three work days – a “day without immigrants” protest Feb. 16, a snow day March 14, and Wednesday.

That’s when many mushroom pickers did not show up because of the rumors of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement efforts.

One said, “I’d rather miss a day of work than go with ICE.”

The executive told workers that company officials would know beforehand of any immigration raids planned at the farm.

I couldn’t reach company officials, and really, what would they say?

Why would workers be afraid to come to work if they had proper documents?

How will coal comeback affect Berks County?

by Steve Reinbrecht

President Tweet said Tuesday that he is ending the federal government’s war on coal.

What will the revived industry look like in Berks County?

There are no mines in Berks.

1953 Ford Crown Victoria

But they used to burn traincarsful of coal, smack dab in the middle of the county. The Titus Generating Station, a coal-fired power station, started burning coal to turn turbines to produce electricity in 1953.

The 225-megawatt plant in Cumru Township closed in 2014 because of the high cost of keeping it compliant with new environmental regulations, the Reading Eagle reported.

NRG Energy, of Princeton, N.J., owns the 233-acre property, next to the Schuylkill River and railroad tracks.

But despite the president’s call for a revival of the black-gold mineral, NRG Energy has no plans “whatsoever” to resume using coal to make electricity at the Titus Generating station, David Gaier, a spokesman for NRG Energy, told me Thursday.

The plant can still produce electricity with smaller turbines powered by natural gas or oil when called on by the regional grid, Gaier said.

That’s how other power plants in Berks are producing electricity – with oil or gas, not coal.

For example, the Dynegy plant in Ontelaunee Township, powered by natural gas, has a capacity of 567 megawatts, twice Titus' capacity. And a Canadian company, EmberClear, has built a 450-MW natural gas plant in Birdsboro.

In any case, the demise of coal burning at Titus is good for local air quality, especially east of the plant, in the path of prevailing wind.

In 2005, the latest data I could find, Titus belched out 935 tons of particulates smaller than 10 microns, and 818 tons of particulates smaller than 2.5 microns – the really killer nano-grit that gets lodged deep in your lungs. In 2007, the plant emitted 1.2 million tons of carbon dioxide.

President Tweet’s scheme won’t do much for economic development in Pennsylvania.

In 2015, the coal industry employed 6,633 people in Pennsylvania [“includes all employees engaged in production, preparation, processing, development, maintenance, repair shop, or yard work at mining operations, including office workers”].

That was down about 16 percent from 2014, when the industry employed 7,938, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

For comparison, about 125,000 public teachers work in Pennsylvania.

Coal was historically important in the region, especially north of Reading, but production has declined.

In 2000, Pennsylvania produced about 64.8 million metric tons. Schuylkill County, directly north of Berks, produced about 1.1 million tons of that. 

In 2015, Pennsylvania produced 45 million tons, with Schuylkill producing 900,000 tons of that.

Here’s what the president said:

“The miners told me about the attacks on their jobs and their livelihoods.  They told me about the efforts to shut down their mines, their communities, and their very way of life.  I made them this promise:  We will put our miners back to work.  (Applause.)  We've already eliminated a devastating anti-coal regulation -- but that was just the beginning.

“Today, I'm taking bold action to follow through on that promise.  My administration is putting an end to the war on coal.  We're going to have clean coal -- really clean coal.  With today’s executive action, I am taking historic steps to lift the restrictions on American energy, to reverse government intrusion, and to cancel job-killing regulations.”

Berks sheriff deputies will get training to assist federal immigration officers

by Steve Reinbrecht

The Berks Sheriff Department will be the first in Pennsylvania to get federal training to help U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents detain undocumented immigrants under a program called 287(g).

Berks Sheriff Eric Weaknecht said he knows Berks needs better enforcement because so many undocumented immigrants are processed for felonies in the county booking center.

“Nothing’s being done with them” at the federal level, he said.

The 287(g) program allows a state or local law enforcement entity to enter into a partnership with ICE to receive “delegated authority for immigration enforcement within their jurisdictions.”

Of the 3,141 counties in the United States, 37 have signed up for the 287 (g) program, the latest on Feb.28, and none in Pennsylvania.

Weaknecht applied to the federal training program in 2009, but federal officials withdrew the funding.

Under the Trump administration, he expects funding to become available. Trump signed an executive order on immigration enforcement in January that encourages more local involvement for 287(g) training. Once trained, local officers are authorized to interview, arrest, and detain anybody who may be in violation of immigration laws.

Four deputies will get the 4-week training so that one trained deputy will be available around the clock, Weaknecht said. They will perform their normal duties until ICE officers request assistance, he said.

According to the ICE website, counties in these states are in the cooperative 287(g) program.

Alabama                   Nevada

Arizona                     New Jersey

Arkansas                  North Carolina

California                  Ohio

Florida                      Oklahoma

Georgia                    South Carolina

Maryland                  Texas

Massachusetts          Virginia

I’m not sure if the list is up-to-date. A woman who answered the phone at the ICE PR office didn’t know and told me to send an e-mail to “ICE media.”

Feds should enforce speed limits in Berks County

by Steve Reinbrecht 

Because of the clear danger that surrounds us all, the federal government should hire thousands of law-enforcement officers to crack down everywhere on drivers who exceed the speed limit.

With its self-proclaimed theme of Law and Order, how can the U.S. government – whose No. 1 priority is to keep us safe – continue to ignore the suffering and death caused by speeding drivers?

The National Safety Council estimates that in 2016, as many as 40,000 people died in motor vehicles crashes, many of which must have involved speeding drivers. I cringe from speeding drivers everywhere – and face it – when you see someone in an Audi, BMW, or Camaro, you can be sure they HAVE been speeding, even if they are not speeding now.

Some local police chiefs might oppose visits by federal officers, here to handle things and disrupt their communities. But then it would be time to get new crimefighters who have the gung-ho, compassion-be-damned attitude needed to get these criminals off our roads.

Don’t tell me that most speeding violators go only a bit above the limit and are otherwise overwhelmingly law-abiding. We are a nation based on the rule of law.

The liberal media will complain that my idea would be terribly expensive. They’d claim that properly enforcing the speed limit would expand government and that it would disrupt daily life for millions. And that it would make people in many communities further fear and hate police.

But don’t give me this liberal tripe about mercy for minor transgressors and improving nonsensical laws instead of enforcing them.

I don’t want any drivers who violate the speeding laws to ever feel safe, because newly hired and empowered federal agents could be around any corner. No law-breakers deserve amnesty.

It should be easier to find out about ICE detentions in Berks County

by Steve Reinbrecht

A young man told me that federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers grabbed a friend of his off the street in Reading on Monday and took him to a facility in York.

My friend knows his two brothers as well. The detainee, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, has a baby born here, and has no criminal history, according to my source.

I could not find him on the ICE “detainee tracker” website.

I sent an e-mail to ICE spokesman Adrian Smith, providing the details – the detainee's name, his country and when and where he was nabbed.

Smith called me Thursday. He helped me confirm that I was looking at the proper tracking page. But he said he could not provide information about the incident I was asking about.

He said to make sure I had the proper spelling for the man’s name.

I asked, what if an ICE agent had entered it improperly?

I told him it’s very important for the public to be able to quickly find out about anybody detained or arrested by the government, at any level.

We don’t want people disappearing. That would have been laughable to consider a couple of years ago, but anything seems possible now.

Smith told me he would check and call me back. I didn’t here back by Thursday night.

I also requested, under the federal Freedom of Information Act, a list of everybody ICE has detained in Berks so far.

On the phone, he said he couldn’t give that to me. I hope he sends me a more-formal response to my formal request. 

I find the whole method of getting public information from a government agency shockingly difficult.

I think Smith is trying to do his job within its restraints – he always calls me in response to my queries, in just that doing way more than many public servants have for me on this issue of recent federal immigration activities in Berks [District Attorney John Adams, Reading Mayor Wally Scott, Reading Police Chief Andres Dominguez Jr., and City Council President Jeff Waltman haven't got back to me, if my calls and e-mails are reaching them.]

Reading Eagle ignores Reading, works to normalize Donald Trump

by Steve Reinbrecht

Which presidents have visited Berks County? That's the front page story in the Reading Eagle. The take-away? There is no news in Berks. Oh yeah, fasnachts. And Thon.

Sanctuary city? No mention of the issue in the Eagle.

The City Hall reporter produces about three stories a month, usually covering a meeting, in a city of 90,000 people that has terrible problems with poverty, education and economic development.

But the local "newspaper" ignores the place where the real news is.

On the national level -- let's normalize Donald Trump, just the type of authoritarian, God-spouting, anti-immigrant, anti-education, fear-mongering, media-bashing caudillo to give the Berks Establishment hard-ons.

"Animosity to the president represents an American tradition."

Berks, Reading officials should say: Sanctuary or not?

by Steve Reinbrecht

Is Reading a sanctuary city? Do police in Berks County ever ask people about their residency or immigration status? I've been calling City Hall and the courthouse, but have not heard from the mayor or district attorney. I think it would be good for the community if they went on the record.

The federal government estimates that about 28,000 people in Berks were born in one of dozens of foreign countries.

I’d bet thousands of undocumented immigrants live here.

The idea of sanctuary cities, where local crimefighters do not ask about immigration or hold people for federal immigration agents, has gained attention after President Trump vowed to stop sending federal funds to them.

Supporters of sanctuary cities say that when local police cooperate with immigration officials or ask about residency status, it discourages people from reporting crime or testifying.

Reading is NOT a sanctuary city, City Clerk Linda Kelleher told me in an e-mail, without elaborating.

Mayor Wally Scott and Reading Police Chief Andres Dominguez Jr. did not return my calls.

The Berks Jail does not hold people for federal immigration agents if they have a “detainer,” Warden Janine Quigley told me in an e-mail.

“We do not hold individuals solely for this reason. Sometimes an incarcerated individual with a Berks sentence or Berks charges also has an ICE detainer; however, once the person is released on the local issue, we begin the discharge process.”

County Commissioner Kevin Barnhardt said the county jail hasn’t honored federal immigration detainers for about eight years, under a policy started by former Warden George Wagner.

District Attorney John Adams did not respond to my inquiries.

In 2010, Adams told bctv.org that being in America illegally does not violate local laws.

“Berks District Attorney John Adams said immigration issues are a federal issue and being in America illegally does not violate state law.

"There are actually provisions in the law to protect crime victims who are here illegally," he said.

“[Former] Reading Police Chief William Heim said illegal immigrants who are not wanted for other reasons should not fear reporting crimes to the police.

“The department does not check immigration status, even during traffic stops, because it considers that to be a responsibility of the federal government, he said."

State Sen. David Argall, who represents Southwestern Berks County, wants to punish communities that don’t cooperate with federal immigration agents.

Argall is a co-sponsor of Senate Bill [SB] 10, which would prevent municipalities from obstructing federal efforts to deport illegal immigrants.

“Under this bill, municipalities and counties would be prohibited from authorizing themselves as ‘sanctuary cities’ as a way to hinder federal efforts to prevent illegal immigration,” he wrote in a newsletter last month.

“Combating the issue of sanctuary cities is critical for the safety and welfare of our residents and communities.”

  

Berks County does have a contract with ICE to detain immigrant families.

Argall's article:

Addressing the issue of sanctuary cities

Immigration has certainly been an important issue that has taken the forefront of discussion at both the state and federal levels.

Over the years I have consistently supported legislation concerning illegal immigration and strict enforcement of provisions for employers and individuals who are found to be living and/or working in the United States illegally, and I will continue to do so. 

Senator Reschenthaler (R-Allegheny/Washington) introduced legislation, which I have co-sponsored, addressing the issue of sanctuary cities in Pennsylvania.  “Under this bill, municipalities and counties would be prohibited from authorizing themselves as “sanctuary cities” as a way to hinder federal efforts to prevent illegal immigration. 

Combatting the issue of sanctuary cities is critical for the safety and welfare of our residents and communities.

Group plans to try vertical farming in Reading

By Steve Reinbrecht

A group of farm people and development people from Berks County plan to meet June 27 to continue discussing the creation of a vertical farm somewhere in Reading.

Vertical farming is the rather new method of growing food in racks or on walls in buildings, often where light, temperature, humidity and other variables can be controlled for the best productivity.

It demands a big initial investment but might pay off because of new light technology, lower utility costs, the demand for fresh produce in urban areas, and the opportunity to use vacant urban buildings.

Berks County Commissioner Kevin Barnhardt said he plans to meet with the group to decide how to find a good location in the city as well as identify investors, developers, and other supporters. They also plan to create a technology committee.

Members include Tom McMahon, a former Reading mayor; Tim Daley, executive director of Habitat for Humanity; Tami S.Hildebrand, executive director of the Berks agriculture department; and staff from St. Joseph Medical Center and ReDesign Reading, a community development agency.

In a quick Internet search, I found that Philadelphia CityCouncil is considering a resolution to support vertical farming.

One such farm seems to be succeeding in that city.

On the other hand, I found stories about an apparently failed project to grow basil and other produce in a vertical farm near Scranton. It had high hopes when it opened in December 2013, according to Farm and Dairy.

“Green Spirit Farms LLC will establish a vertical farm system that will grow leafy vegetables, peppers and tomatoes in East Benton Township, Lackawanna County. The company is projected to invest more than $27 million to acquire an existing 300,000-square-foot building and is expected to create at least 101 jobs.”

And then it failed, because of problems getting funding, the operator said.

“Green Spirit Farms was producing basil, gourmet radishes and other greens at the former Corning facility in East Benton Township, but the effort never expanded beyond a sizeable demo project, and in March 2014 called it quits.

“The problem was financing, said Milan Kluko, executive director of Green Spirit Farms, blaming a private backer for backing down.

““We brought the know-how and the equipment to demonstrate the project,” he said. “The financial deal didn’t come together.””

Barnhardt mentioned the idea May 10 at a forum about community development.

“Calling Reading the "hub" of the county, he said county government and other municipalities need to "reach in and help" where they can.

“One example, given in response to an audience question about a specific project each of the panelists would like to see get done, was about a new concept called "vertical farming."

“Barnhardt said a man in Philadelphia has been turning abandoned warehouses into hydroponic farms, an idea that could work for a building such as the Penn Optical building in Reading.

“Barnhardt said such an effort - which could be done with county and city support - would provide jobs, fresh food and restore a blighted property.

On Friday, Barnhardt said the group is considering other buildings, as there are many to choose from.

No budget or timeline has been set, he said.

Maybe Reading’s indoor horticulture future is medical marijuana.

Two men want to start growing medical cannabis in an unidentified building in Reading.

Once again, Reading Eagle article about turkey farm is a turkey

by Steve Reinbrecht

The Reading Eagle has been trying to cover this interesting issue, where neighbors are opposing a proposed turkey-breeding operation in Amity.

The conflict has gotten a lot of attention, as it should, pitting property rights against quality of life in the surrounding community.

But the Reading Eagle coverage is more confusing than enlightening.

For example, the article states that 32,000 birds will produce 10 million tons of manure a year.

Imagine a pile of 10 million tons of turkey shit. That means each bird would be producing more than 1,700 pounds of manure a day.

Those would be some pooping turkeys.

Reporters and editors must use common sense and check their math when publishing the news on important issues. Otherwise your newspaper, even award-winning, will lose credibility.

According to the Reading Eagle:

Kathy Martin, a licensed professional engineer with Oklahoma-based Martin Environmental Services, and an expert witness in poultry waste management, said she estimated "the amount of waste produced by Shirey's birds to be a little over 10 million tons.”

I still don’t know basic facts about this story.

• Why is the hearing necessary?
• What conditions is the property owner seeking?
• Did the opponents know it is zoned for agricultural use when they moved there?
• How large of a poultry building could be built with no conditions?
• What's the expected project cost?
• How much property tax would the improvements generate?
• Doesn't Berks County want economic development?
• Isn't this economic development?

Poultry farms in Berks are getting big loans from the state to expand.

Reading Eagle story about new Berks GOP chief doesn’t mention Trump

by Steve Reinbrecht

Why did the Reading Eagle publish an interview with the new Berks County Republican Party chairman – but didn’t publish his comments on Donald Trump?

Donald Trump is the leader of the national Republican Party.

Media of all sorts have been writing about Trump.

You might think readers want to know: Does the new Berks GOP chairman, Joseph E. Rudderow III, support Trump?

Not all Republicans do. Maryland's Republican Gov. Larry Hogan said Wednesday that he will not vote for Trump.

Lancaster Online asked Dave Dumeyer about Trump after Dumeyer was elected chairman of that county’s GOP on June 3.

“This year, he [Dave Dumeyer] will lead the committee’s efforts to gather support for candidates in the heated November elections — including the controversial GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump and, in the highest-profile local race, state Sen. Lloyd Smucker in his bid for the county’s congressional seat.

“About a month after Trump’s last two GOP competitors dropped out, Dumeyer said he thinks local Republicans are warming to the idea of Trump’s candidacy and will see him as a better alternative to likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

““People are coming around, people who were supporting another candidate are saying, ‘Well, OK, he wasn't my preference but I can vote for him,'” Dumeyer said.”

So why did a string of Reading Eagle editors accept a story about the Berks GOP with no mention of the most recognizable man in the world?

The newspaper is fascinated with politics, right? It devotes a page every Monday to “The Briefing,” a “weekly report on government & politics.”

It routinely sends reporters to follow the herd in Harrisburg to cover state issues, like research for childhood cancer and time limits on prosecuting child-sex crimes.

On local politics, the reporter elicits this from Rudderow:

"Yes, it's exciting there's a national election going on, and sure, Berks County's going to be a part of it.”

Do the Reading Eagle newsroom leaders believe local politics doesn’t matter? That county parties are irrelevant? That no one cares how candidates for local positions are chosen and supported?

Maybe Rudderow didn’t want to comment about Trump. Who could blame him? But the Eagle should explain that it at least asked.

Is the media leadership trying to avoid embarrassing links between Trump and Berks County?

Is it because the Reading Eagle is scared or has no ability to cover sensitive, divisive and powerful events?

It’s an outrage Reading Eagle hasn’t pursued secret DUI hearing

By Steve Reinbrecht

A letter writer asks why the award-winning Reading Eagle newspaper has completely dropped reporting about a secret DUI court hearing for a lawyer who had contributed to a judge’s election campaign.

The reason is that the Eagle looks like a newspaper but really isn’t.

Real journalists follow important stories to make sure powerful people, like judges, are accountable.

But Berks is run by people used to getting favors. See how that is working out, as the rest of the region passes us by.

The letter is eloquent:

Editor:

In a February Reading Eagle story that raised the issue about a private court proceeding she held, Judge Eleni Dimitriou Geishauser's staff said she would not comment on a pending case. 

That was nearly three months ago, so the case is no longer pending.

What gave Geishauer the right to authorize a secret, back-door hearing for Reading attorney Zachary A. Morey? Anyone else with three times the legal limit drunken driving charge would have had their hearing held in public.

According to the Ballotpedia website, Geishauser ran for judge on a judicial philosophy of unwavering ethics and strict respect for the laws of our land.

It looks like this judge has two judicial systems in her courtroom: one for the average citizen, and another for the well connected.

President Judge Paul Yatron admitted in February that this case was improperly handled, so should I assume he filed a complaint to the Judicial Conduct Board of Pennsylvania?

Both of these judges have an ethical obligation to provide the citizens who voted them into office an explanation.

Being silent shows defiance and an abuse of power.

Many readers posted comments at the time the story happened because it deserves attention.

Michael A. Kouvaros
Spring Township

Berks County had no Keystone Innovation Zone credits in 2015

by Steve Reinbrecht

I want to know why the tech-entrepreneurial tidal wave that is obviously washing through many other small cities is passing Berks and Reading by.

In 2015, the state awarded almost $18 million to 239 companies across the state as part of the state's Keystone Innovation Zone.

They included companies in Johnstown, Erie, Williamsport, Harrisburg, Selingsgrove, Lancaster, Bloomsburg, Carlisle, with lots in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre and Erie and Doylestown.

Reading has a KIZ. 

How much did Berks get?

Zero.

Two Berks companies got KIZ credits in 2014.

The Reading Eagle had a story on its website about companies in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties getting tax credits.

But even though the Eagle is the major newsgathering organization in Berks and Beyond, it doesn't mention Berks' failure to incubate tech companies.

Why, other than the Eagle knows how to LOOK like a newspaper but the newsroom leaders don't know how to produce a REAL newspaper? Or is it the newsroom leaders' compulsion to assure everybody that everything is fine in Berks, so buy a new car?

The KIZ is an incentive program that provides tax credits to for-profit companies less than eight years old operating within specific targeted industries within the boundaries of a Keystone Innovation Zone, the state says.

“The KIZ tax credit program significantly contributes to the ability of young KIZ companies to transition through the stages of growth.”

Berks economy is stagnant because of poor leadership, crony journalism

by Steve Reinbrecht

To the tax-haters in Berks County, the front page of the Reading Eagle on Friday warned that your payments to support county government are going to rise if more people and businesses don’t move here.

The reporter wrote:

“If the county's property tax base continues to stagnate, budget chief Robert Patrizio warned, commissioners are going to face some tough choices about spending and taxes in the future.

“ ‘This has to be our No. 1 initiative,’ he said of efforts to grow the county's property tax base. ‘We have to find a way to get development in this county.’ "

Off Buttonwood Street in Reading

Why won’t Wegman’s build here? Berks’ economic activity is stagnant for many reasons. And the lack of good reporting on Berks’ serious issues has contributed to our local lack of progress. You can’t fix problems until you identify and understand them.

The county’s economic-development leaders have held their jobs for years with very little to justify their often taxpayer-subsidized salaries. If they identify practical goals and report on their progress, you won’t read them in the Reading Eagle. 

Jon Scott at the Greater Berks Economic Partnership, Ed Swoyer at the absolutely opaque Greater Berks Development Fund, Adam Mukerji at the Reading Redevelopment Authority, Lenin Agudo, the community development director in Reading City Hall, Ellen Horan at the business Chamber, Crystal Seitz at the visitor’s bureau – none is held accountable for demonstrating effective outcomes.

Investors shun Berks because it’s hard to get here. What other city is so isolated? We have no passenger rail or air service. To get to central Berks from Allentown and the north, you drive for miles of one-lane congestion on Route 222. Coming from Philadelphia and the east, you drive through endless traffic lights on Route 422 in Douglassville and Exeter Township. Or take the turnpike for a fee and lots of extra miles. From the west, you’ll get a close look at dozens of intersections on Route 422 from Lebanon through West Reading. 

In the south, we did get a beautiful expressway, Route 222, which my daughters drive to Park City Mall, outside Lancaster, because Berks has no shops they like. The state provided $140 million for highway work in Berks – to improve Interstate 78 so people can drive THROUGH Berks County faster.

The lack of adequate road access is due to the county’s lack of political clout, demonstrated by the obvious gerrymandering that has made Reading irrelevant on the state and national levels.

Here is another example of local leadership failing to lead. The Democratic political machine here can’t handle its responsibilities. The city of Reading will get nowhere without reasonable diplomacy with county and state officials. But the Dems can line up no one better than Vaughn Spencer or Wally Scott to tell the city’s story and grovel for help. 

Entrepreneurs have told me they won’t invest in Reading because they perceived it was corrupt. That perception has become a well-publicized reality.

I suspect Berks County suffers from a xenophobic business climate that favors established businesses over newcomers, discouraging the kind of innovation that is fueling development in the Lehigh Valley and other places. Do banks operating locally loan to minority entrepreneurs? They are not publicly embracing new credit-risk assessments designed to make it easier for deserving poor people and young people to borrow. The Chamber of Commerce promotes right-wing policy that channels growth to the wealthy and leaves the middle class struggling, and not spending, and thus not creating demand for jobs.

From the Chamber of Commerce's tax form

Reading has missed out on economic- development aid from the state. Bethlehem and Lancaster won tax advantages over Reading because of Reading’s shoddy application. 

Berks has received a paucity of development grants from the Ben Franklin Technology Partners compared to Bethlehem, York, and Scranton. On Oct. 15, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania announced $651,600 in loans to help young companies in the 21-county region. Berks got $25,000 for one company, about 4 percent of the total.

What’s the progress on the Ride to Prosperity? Berks didn’t regain its pre-recession peak employment [175,800 in July 2007] until December 2014, although it rose through 2015 to 177,000 in October. Economic development officials say we need “shovel ready” sites. So where are they creating them?

Our schools are mediocre. In a ranking of 681 state highschools, Wilson was 105th, Boyertown was 137th, and Wyomissing was 233rd. I’m sure our talented children can’t wait to leave. But that’s OK. Berks has also led the charge to defund public schools even further.

Do we really want visitors? If so, we need to get better people to run the visitor’s bureau. “Take a ride” is the motto; it sounds like “take a hike.” The agency, which got $50,000 in tax money in 2014, paid its president, Crystal Seitz, $135,000 that year. Is she worth it? How do we know?

Drivel from the visitor's bureau website

Once I called the bureau for information about an attraction. A staffer told me she shouldn’t tell me because the business I was interested in was not a member. So it’s clear the bureau, like so many Berks agencies, is more interested in internal politics and survival than serving its mission.

One whopping reason Berks can’t escape its lackluster growth is that Berks’ media – the Reading Eagle, WFMZ, bctv.org – don’t adequately cover the news in Berks. They hold no one accountable. They create no record to hold elected officials to. They ask no tough questions on practical issues. They don’t cover deep problems with health-care access, education, politics, or the environment because advertisers want to project the image that everything is wonderful here, so buy the new car. 

The media are happy to reinforce the world view that everything is OK in Berks County, from the environment to the economy; that people with brown skin cause our problems; and that what we celebrate is celebrated for Christian people who believe themselves white. That sells the media's products, but does nothing to solve the problems limiting our economic growth.