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.”