Boscov should finish other projects before starting in Reading’s Penn Square

by Steve Reinbrecht

Al Boscov wants to develop a row of major buildings in downtown Reading.

City-owned empty buildings on Penn Street.

But he hasn’t finished other projects, leaving parts of the city ugly and raising questions about his ability to attract tenants and see projects through.

For example, Boscov’s non-profit group Our City Reading owns dozens of properties all over the city. Many in the Buttonwood Street- Schuylkill Avenue area appear to be in limbo. 

431 Gordon St., owned by Our City Reading.

Our City Reading uses public money to buy and renovate blighted homes. The strategy has been criticized as scatter-shot. [I think it would be better to use Reading’s community-development funds to concentrate on fixing up an entire borderline neighborhood next to a stable neighborhood.]

How many properties does Our City Reading own? They are listed in Berks County records, but you have to look carefully.

A recent look at Berks County records shows that “Our City Reading” owns 16 properties, mostly in the Buttonwood Gateway project, where Boscov had proposed new housing.

But wait! There are more. Search “Our City-Reading” – with the oddly placed hyphen -- and 43 more properties show up, some co-owned by Carrie Miller, whoever she is. It has owned some of them for seven years.

419 Tulpehocken St. Our City Reading
owns the empty lot.

A drive around a block in the neighborhood off Buttonwood Street shows vacant lots, many with weeds and trash. Houses range from boarded up to dilapidated to well-kept and cheery.

The Reading Redevelopment Authority
owns 461 Gordon St., left.
Our City Reading owns the lot at 459 Gordon St.

Then there are the vacant storefronts across Washington Street from the GoggleWorks arts center. The strip of stores has been empty for years. What a sight to see next to the city’s premier attraction, which, to be fair, would not exist if it were not for Boscov’s major financial support.

I asked Adam Mukerji, executive director of the Reading Redevelopment Authority, why it’s so hard to find tenants for the strip, along the bottom of a parking garage. County records show that the authority owns the building.

He replied:

Empty space across from the GoggleWorks.

"Steve:
I have forwarded your email to Al Boscov for his response.
The retail space is owned by Our City Reading the not for profit headed by Al."

Boscov didn’t get back to me. He also didn’t get back to me when I asked him why he thinks he could find tenants for the giant buildings along the 400 block of Penn Street.

Rival developer Alan Shuman, who has also submitted plans for the city-owned buildings, did answer my questions.

“The downtown, and city, are filled with underused buildings for two main reasons,” Shuman wrote. “First, many owners are unwilling to make the investment into properly maintaining or renovating their buildings and would rather cut lease rates than make the improvements.

“Second, most owners are unwilling to make the investment of giving tenants (businesses) what they want.

“I talked to dozens of businesses and asked them what I should do for them to be willing to sign leases [for the downtown project] and move their businesses into the completed project.”

Reading Mayor Vaughn Spencer supports Boscov’s plans over Shuman’s.

Reading planners reject cost cutting proposal at Boscov's hotel

Thanks to the Reading City Planners, Our City Reading’s hotel, under the affiliated name “Reading Hospitality,” won’t be able cut corners on the make-or-break hotel-convention center project in the 700 block of Penn Street.

It's going to be big.

At the very end of a story Saturday all the way back on B4 is a paragraph:

“Planners also denied a request by Reading Hospitality LLC to eliminate some landscape and streetscape plans for the Double Tree [sic] Hotel and garage project in the 700 block of Penn Street. Developers had asked to remove some patterned brick along the curb and landscaping due to costs and maintenance.”

The city needs all the patterned brick and landscaping along Penn Street it can get.

Berks County deserves real-world answers from new Reading school chief

by Steve Reinbrecht

Berks County Television [BCTV] scooped the Reading Eagle, landing a 30-minute interview with Reading’s new public school superintendent.

If you had one question for the new city school chief, what would it be?

Maybe: “There’s been like 13 superintendents in the last 8 years, and none could wrangle the board or pull the district out of about the bottom 2 percent or so of Pennsylvania’s districts.

“Why are you going to succeed when they all failed?”

Reading School District Superintendent Khalid Mumin's background and achievements are impressive. I truly, sincerely wish him well and hope he turns the essential institution around.

I was less impressed by his interview because I wanted at least a few concrete and measurable goals. 

I wasn't really expecting BCTV producer and School Board Director Robin Costenbader-Jacobson to ask serious questions. So I can’t wait for the Reading Eagle, Greater Reading’s pinnacle newsgathering operation, to cop an interview and to pin Mumin down on things like: 

• When will he release class-size information? 
• Are all the teachers qualified in their subjects? 
• Will he replace any principals? 
• Who was in charge of the finance office when unopened mail piled up? 
• Why should the public trust his financial figures now? 
• Are all key positions, like director of special education, properly filled?
• Will policies and curricula be available online?
• Why was former Superintendent Carlinda Purcell fired? What are the financial details of her termination?
• What are the priorities? Finance, IT, staffing, curriculum, fixing buildings?
• How will the 80,000 people in the city learn about progress?

Mumin did say, in no particular order and according to my distracted notetaking [all quotes severely out of context]:
• He is a classic-car fanatic, with two Cadillacs.
• The first year will be a year of assessment.
• He found out at the district’s administrative retreat that he has a dedicated administrative staff.
• The fact that most of his staff have 10 or more years with the district shows that the administration has stayed consistent – “They’re in – they’re just looking for leadership and guidance.”
• He wants “to meet everyone and anyone.”
• “I truly believe we’re on the pathway to excellence.”
• “I believe that appreciation and being humble is part of my experience.”
• “Building relationships is key."
Costenbader-Jacobson showed complete support.
• "We did attract the best of the best."
• “He doesn’t just talk the talk, he walks the walk, he runs the walk.”

Perceptions or misperceptions about crime in Reading

by Steve Reinbrecht

For years I have heard people say that fear of crime discourages people from entering Reading to visit the GoggleWorks and other places and events in Berks County’s only city.

[Sometimes I think, and messages at the county orphanage last weekend support this idea, that “fear of crime” is really code for “fear of people who are so different from us.”

Reading, as the county seat and a city with public transportation and the centers of many social services, draws the sorts of people that others might not want to share the street with.

West Reading’s and Hamburg’s downtowns don’t have that problem, said Downtown Improvement District Boss Chuck Broad, a former Reading police chief.

Yet crime is so much easier to blame than prejudice for Reading’s problems. Do you think the governor would show up at a Xenophobia Summit?]

In any case, whizzing bullets and random thuggery are sort of the urban mythology of Reading.

“We need to take away the things that make it attractive for them [criminals] to come here to play with guns, steal what they need, sell drugs to schoolchildren and make so many fear to cross the Penn Street Bridge into the city,” F. Alan Shirk wrote in a letter to the Reading Eagle editor last week.

The Downtown Improvement District recognizes the perception that Reading is dangerous and is concerned about it, Broad said.

It’s tough to change that idea once people have it in their minds, he said, and he believes the local media reinforce – but don’t sensationalize – the idea by reporting crimes.

Even when police statistics show a significant, long-term decline in serious crime, it likely won’t change the public perception of a crime-drenched city, Barry J. Harvey, assistant professor in the criminal justice department at Alvernia University, told the Reading Eagle in January.

"It isn't so much about crime statistics as it is about perception," Harvey said. "The bottom line is if you look at statistics, Reading is really no more violent and no more crime-ridden than many of the cities in Pennsylvania.”

Some people say only non-city Berks residents think the city is too dangerous to visit. Broad said people who come from outside of Berks don’t mention a fear of crime when he chats with them at events.

There is less crime in the downtown area than in some other parts of town, but when a crime occurs in any part of Reading it often gets wrongly associated with downtown, Broad said.

Over the summer, the police officers who work in Reading public schools as resource officers have been reassigned downtown. DID asked for a dedicated police officer to patrol downtown, but the city declined. Police Chief William Heim wrote me that it was a matter of “a matter of cost and resource allocation.” My interpretation: Other parts of the city need police coverage more than downtown.

Some question the idea that many people think the city is too dangerous to enter.

There is no evidence that fear of crime is a significant issue, Kevin Murphy, head of the Berks County Community Foundation, in Reading, told me in an e-mail. 

He said events have good attendance and shops have enough customers.

“A couple of years ago, I took my boys to see ‘Larry The Cable Guy.’ It was a packed house of people who, to my eye, appeared to be residents of our rural areas.”

State Sen. Judy Schwank, a Democrat who represents Reading, said many people harbor fears about going downtown in any city – but that people will visit when there is something fun to do.

“We have had concerts and other events at the Sovereign Center that are sold out. Royals games regularly draw thousands of spectators. And the Goggleworks is lively on the weekends.”

Aging Reading Democratic Committee is dying for younger members

By Steve Reinbrecht

Reading’s Democratic Committee has to figure out how to get younger people to join, according to Larry Miccicke, voted president last month.

Perhaps that’s a vacuum for a new generation of city leaders to fill. And raising political awareness in Reading could affect county races.

The committee should have 88 members but has only 39, and that’s the highest membership level for a long time, Miccicke said.

All over, even older people have become disenchanted with politics, but the young are least involved, he said.

Having a robust political party in Reading is important. The University of Southern California has a good list of some of the reasons that parties matter.

1. In a political system where well-funded special-interest groups have the most influence, parties give political clout to everyone. Rich people have money; poor people have votes.
2. Parties promote compromise and moderation. “Leaders work hard to forge compromises on issues to keep as many people in the party as happy as possible. That usually requires that extreme ideas get turned into more moderate ideas.”
3. Parties make it easier for voters to vote by lining up candidates with similar views and policies, and anything to make it less onerous to vote is welcome. “Voting research strongly supports the hypothesis that party identification makes voting easier. The stronger the party identification a person has, the more likely they are to vote.”
4. Parties play a role in organizing political campaigns, especially on the local level. They recruit and screen candidates, recruit volunteers, raise money, plan strategy, work to get people out to vote, and provide campaign advice. 
5. And they recruit new groups of voters.

The city committee is inclusive, Miccicke said, and has members of all races and ethnicities.

“What you don’t see is young people.”

Miccicke wants to have more events – rallies and parties in neighborhoods – to spark interest. 

Voters need more opportunities to talk with local politicians who represent Reading – state Reps. Tom Caltagirone and Mark Rozzi, and state Sen Judy Schwank. The three are very approachable, which helps engage newcomers, he said.

Miccicke will need more members to work during elections and call prospective voters. In a world of social media, robocalls and caller ID, nothing is more effective than personal calls from a neighbor, Miccicke said. 

With a higher turnout in the city, Berks Democrats could control more county elections, Miccicke pointed out. Interest among city voters is high in city races for Reading School Board and City Council, Miccicke said, but there’s less interest in state offices. Democrats’ clout is dilute in Berks County, which has been gerrymandered to dispose of Democrats into conservative Republican districts.

In the primary election in May, 44, 932 people were registered to vote in Reading – 32,003 Democrats, 6,056 Republicans and 6,873 “other.”

The Berks County Democratic Committee’s website lists seven races with no Democratic challenger -- those for U.S. Congress in the 15th District, and for state representatives in the 124th, 128th, 129th, 130th, 134th, and 187th. 

The committee doesn’t have the same percentage of Latinos as the city does, but the proportion is rising, Miccicke said.

There will be some discrimination and close-mindedness as people who differ from traditional Berksians get more power, he said. And there isn’t a grand alliance among Latinos, many of whom identify most closely with their homelands than their language. Maybe they could rally around being Democrats if they could see how that could pay off.

Local media show that Berks County’s racists seem proud to spew hate

All of the comments on WFMZ’s story about immigrant children coming to Berks County were negative, many showing the type of ignorance that fuel knucklehead politicians who pander to populist, nationalist fear to get votes, and then arrange policy to keep people ignorant.

Comments at Reading Eagle were mixed. I’m glad the Eagle has resumed accepting comments on its website to publicize reader reaction – although it’s clearly not a valid survey of people in Berks.

I want to know the truth about Berks, and here it is on display. I’m glad to know there is such abject racism in Berks County, though likely shared by only a small group of people, perversely proud of their awful views.

Perhaps the comments show that people with vicious attitudes look for venues to get their message out. Others commenters are suffering and accept the propaganda by so many of our leaders that our problems are caused by undocumented immigrants.

The facts are that the vast majority of Latinos in Berks County are here legally. Many are citizens! Many speak English better than many Berks residents speak English, and certainly better than most Berks Countians will ever speak a second language. 

Even most of those without proper visas are here to improve themselves, learn English, work hard, and send large parts of their earnings home. They do not cost American jobs or reduce wages, and on the whole contribute more to our economy than they take.

As readers pointed out, so many commenters have such un-Christian views. An almost prehistoric sectarian hate. That’s the same mindset the Nazis channeled. Blame the Jews! Shiites, blame the Sunnis! Hutus, blame the Tutsis! Hindus, blame the Muslims! Buddhists, blame the Hindus!

“More than half of Reading residents are illegal as well so they don't deserve any saving either.”

-- Virginia Houseman

“As long as one veteran goes without proper care we should not spend one red cent taking care of someone else's kids.”

-- Rochelle-Brian Foreman

“There are sooo many illegals ALREADY living in Berks collecting benefits attending schools using up resources not speaking English. How come no one has a plan to get rid of them?”

-- Kim Bak

“Berks schools are struggling to make their numbers now what do you think will happen when you bring all these uneducated none English speaking kids into your schools. All of the money will be spent on them and what they need and to hell with your kids. Face it you are going to get screwed.”

-- Virginia Houseman

“I would rather support the animals in our humane society over these kids. Until every child, adult, ederly and heck even our american pets have homes ship these kids back.”

-- Tamarya Heminitz 

“How about we house a few of them next door to you. You'll be singing another tune after the first backyard cock fights.”

-- Andrew Price 

"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." -Jesus

-- David Delozier

“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

-- Joan Baker

Berks County is two years behind on $67 million emergency-communications project

By Steve Reinbrecht

Berks County was supposed to have complied with federal radio requirements by the end of 2012 but has asked for an extension until the end of this year.

But county leaders will not tell me why Berks is two years behind on the $67 million tax-payer funded public-safety project.

And the Reading Eagle doesn’t seem to publish uncomfortable news about Berks government.

Brian Gottschall, county emergency services director, told me that all media requests go to Chief Operating Officer Carl Geffken, who didn’t respond to my inquiry.

The Reading Eagle followed the county’s battles with NIMBY opponents of the system in Cumru and Bethel townships but has had no recent stories [at least that I could find with its clumsy search engine] explaining why the project is so far behind.

In April, now-retired Eagle reporter and trusted county spokeswoman Mary Young wrote a story quoting county officials about how well they were doing their jobs to be prepared for disasters – but the story did not mention the radio system.

Tom Bausher, West Side Regional Emergency Management Agency’s emergency management coordinator, told me that the delay has not affected his operations. The agency serves Sinking Spring, West Reading, Wyomissing and Spring Township. 

His bigger concern is how it will work. He’s heard it will be up in November.

He’s read mixed reviews of similar systems.

"It doesn’t get all good reviews, I’ll tell you."

Bausher also isn’t happy that he’s spent money to purchase new equipment required by the upgrade but the county will own it.

He’s paid for six units. Some large fire and police departments have had to acquire many more.

“The cost of this is outrageous.”

An FCC spokeswoman told me this week that the county is in compliance, having received extensions as needed.

The federal agency required emergency communications systems to change the frequencies they use by Jan. 1, 2013, and the county decided to restructure its system.

The goals were to improve radio coverage in hard-to-reach areas and allow all emergency responders to communicate with each other.

It called for building 21 new transmission towers and requiring local municipalities to chip in for equipment.

In a June 24 letter to the FCC asking for the extension, Gottschall wrote:

“We have made significant progress in the build out of the new system. The remaining sites have been built, but now we are in the process of optimizing the new VHF system that will replace the legacy systems. This will take some time to complete as we have to wait until cutover is completed.

“The reason for this is because 3 of the channels on the new systems are also in use today in wideband operation. The legacy channels cannot be vacated until the users are cutover and using the new 700 MHz trunking system. This is schedule to be completed by mid-November, 2014. Once the cutover is completed, we will need time to then get the new VHF system optimized and fully operational.”

Will pot-possession prosecution continue in Berks County?

The top crimefighter in Brooklyn announced last week that he will stop prosecuting most low-level marijuana cases.

What is the policy in Berks County?

It’s up to District Attorney John Adams, and he hasn’t yet answered my inquiry.

Reading Police Chief Bill Heim said his department has not changed its pot-busting practices and has no policy about the enforcement of low-level marijuana violations.

“I would not object to the possession of small quantities of marijuana being handled by the issuance of summary citations instead of misdemeanor arrests, but currently there is no provision in the law that I’m aware of to do that in Pennsylvania,” Heim wrote in an e-mail.

Berks County cannabis control seems to have eased a bit. In 2013, according to state records, police made 66 arrests for selling marijuana in Berks, down from 98 arrests in 2007.

In 2013, police made 467 arrests in Berks County for possessing marijuana, down just a bit from the 471 arrests for possessing pot in 2007.

In unprogressive Pennsylvania, the war on weed is leaving more casualties -- across the state, police made 16,367 arrests for possessing pot in 2007 and 17,937 arrests in 2013.

Convolutedly, tax money pays for poor Berks students to go to religious schools

What’s the murky truth behind this crisp Reading Eagle headline: “$40,000 donation will help needy children in Berks County attend private schools”?

The story is about how a bank got tax relief by donating to a scholarship fund run by the Berks County Community Foundation.

Stick with me here. It’s a minor story, but this is important! How schools are funded, and whether the public-school model shifts toward private and religious school management, are watershed issues in education policy.

Back to the story … It sounds sweet. A win-win. A friendly bank gets good press; kids in “low-achieving” schools [all Reading’s public schools and, somewhat bizarrely, Fleetwood HS] get better educations.

But only private schools? That didn’t sound right.

Three times, the Eagle story says that the fund is to help pay for students to go to private schools. But according to the state and the foundation, the fund is designed to help students pay for private or public schools.

Otherwise it would seem like a bald school-choice scheme to give tax breaks to businesses and create a pool of money to lure students from failing public schools to non-public, mostly religious schools.

Ironically, that’s pretty close to what it is. A third-grader at a Reading elementary school can’t use that scholarship check to help pay tuition at Wilson, or Gov. Mifflin or Exeter. Her only choices are private and overwhelmingly religious schools. In Berks, no public schools have signed up to take the students who want to get out of city schools. About 25 private schools, mostly religious, have.

Across the state, only a handful of public schools will accept these students. Local public schools don’t want to accept students from city schools, it seems. Religious schools, perhaps with a higher mission of saving souls, not just creating knowledgeable problem solvers, are happy to take the money.

Certainly parents are desperate to get their children out of Reading schools [and perhaps Fleetwood HS]. For the 2013-14 year, the foundation received 644 applications and had enough money to offer scholarships to 52 students. Between 2002 and 2013, the fund provided almost $1 million for the benefit of about 1,400 Berks County students.

Reading Eagle should put elected leaders on hot seat for public-school funding story

For the good of all of us, Reading Eagle reporters need to challenge ideas, not just write down whatever the same old sources tell them.

It’s not really news to report that public officials say they need more money to do their jobs better. They always say that.

In a story about education subsidies Sunday in the best daily newspaper in Berks County, public school superintendents bemoan the level of state education subsidies. The Eagle documents how those public officials say they need more money to fulfill their educational goals.

I’ve heard conservatives say there is no proof that adding money to school budgets improves academic outcome. So instead of writing the same story every year, why not ask the superintendents to justify why they need more money and how that will improve learning?

On the other hand, maybe schools really do need more money. So why not ask the elected officials who represent Berks in Harrisburg why the state isn’t supplying more money?

Why not ask the secretary of education and the governor’s office?

The Eagle has promised better state-level news coverage with its new “Briefing” page on Mondays. One story “you should know about this week”: “State lawmakers have signed off on a measure inspired by a Berks County Vietnam veteran to create new license plates that honor military service.”

That’s nice, but I bet there are other stories I should know more about. It looks like bland wire news to me, words to fill up space. To be fair, it is hard work contacting and arranging interviews with elected officials, and then thinking up tough questions, then the likely rebuttals, and then follow-up questions.

The Eagle’s favorite method is to e-mail the lot of them, which produces a lot of predictable non-answers. For example, here are the canned responses to the state budget July 1. The Republicans are pleased – especially with all the education spending – and the Democrats are disappointed. What a waste of ink! Let me know if it helped you learn anything about how our elected leaders plan to solve the big problems.