Forbes.com Names the Harrisburg/Carlisle Area as One of Top Metro Areas

May 6, 2010 Leave a Comment

A national business website, Forbes.com, just named the Harrisburg/Carlisle metropolitan area as one of its ten most livable cities in America.  The following is the entire news article that appeared on the front page of The Patriot News on May 4, 2010:

Guess Who Lives in America’s Fifth Most Livable City?  You Do.

Forget the Big Apple, Boston and Seattle.

Harrisburg ranks fith in a Forbes.com list of America’s most livable cities.  Pittsburgh is first.

“By and large, the cities on the list aren’t big tourist destinations, but they are places where costs are relatively low and quality of life is high,” said Francesca Levy at Forbes.com.

Levy said the list doesn’t intend to suggest one metro area is better than another.

“Rather, we developed a measure to judge one aspect of cities: livability.”  And she siad Forbes.com defines that as “one where you can get through the day-to-day business of life witht he fewest obstacles.”

“That means, on average, having a good balance of job security and opportunity, safety, and a decent amount of stuff to do, and everyday costs aren’t out of control,” Levy said.

The ranking comes as good news for those who serve as the region’s cheerleaders.

“I think it speaks very well about our region, particularly when we’re in competition with metro areas of all sizes,” said David Black, president of the Harrisburg Regional Chamber.

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Safety or Freedom – Pick One

August 25, 2009 Leave a Comment

A couple of weeks ago, the Lancaster Community Safety Coalition started installing surveillance cameras at strategic locations throughout the city for the purpose of watching unscrupulous activity.  There was an uproar then, as there is today, about whether the cameras violate citizen’s privacy rights.  I stated at that time that although I’m concerned about the potential for abuse, I thought the benefits outweighed any downsides.  My rationale was that the cameras are watching PUBLIC spaces, not PRIVATE bedrooms.  When I walk downtown, I’m seen and watched be literally hundreds of people if I walk more than a block or two.  What’s the difference if there is one more set of eyes peering at me?

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Is the Social Media Revolution a Passing Fad?

August 15, 2009 Leave a Comment

more about “Social Media Revolution“, posted with vodpod

A couple of weeks ago I posted a video to this blog which showed the impact that social media is having on our society, and in particular, on the real estate business.  Still aren’t buying into this phenomenon?  Wake up and smell the coffee!

Related articles of interest:
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Lancaster City Bucks National Trend

July 15, 2009 Leave a Comment

 Lookin' good Lancaster!

In a story that appeared in the Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era today, the Lancaster City Council Finance Committee touted the city’s recent positive trends in real estate activity and growth:

Despite a significant decline in the real estate market nationally, the city saw only a 0.5 percent drop in real estate transfer taxes last year.  That shows a strong interest in living in the city.

And, the transfer tax decrease comes from comparing 2008 to the previous three-year average.  Those three comparison years, 2005-2007, happened to be the city’s best three years ever.

And the city experienced a 10-year high in the number of building permits issued, with $115 million in new construction activity in 2008.  That level of investment is the third highest in city history, behind only 2006 and 2007.

New businesses are opening downtown, redevelopment is continuing in the northwestern quadrant of the city and the new Lancaster County Convention Center and Marriott Lancaster at Penn Square Hotel recently opened. ¹

This is great news and should be shared with all Lancastrians - – - so why did it appear on page B4 buried at the bottom of the page?  The front page of the newspaper ran the following four stories:

  1. Jurors Hear 911 Call – Story about a local murder trial (negative slant).
  2. Good Man Who Got Greedy is Jailed – Story about a banker who swindled friends and customers (negative slant).
  3. Fumo Gets 55 Months in Prison – Story about sentencing of Pennsylvania lawmaker for corruption (negative slant).
  4. Welcome Back , Potter – Frivolous piece about the latest installment of J.K. Rowlings’s newest movie (fluffy slant).

Surely the powers that control which stories that are run on page one of the Intell/NE  could have found a small corner of the front page to trumpet the accomplishments of its own city?  I guess that’s the reason why I’m not working at LNP as a newspaper editor.

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¹ Harris, Bernard. “City Audit Shows Positives and Negatives.” Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era [Lancaster, PA] 15 July 2009, Metro Edition, Local Section : B4.

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Lancaster’s Real Estate Market Improves

July 10, 2009 Leave a Comment

The gap between the 2008 and 2009 real estate markets in Lancaster County is down to a razor’s edge.  On Wednesday of this week, the front page of the Intelligencer Journal ran the following story:

Market Here For Housing Gets Better ¹
Numbers for pending home sales improve

The housing market in Lancaster County continued to rebound in May, creeping ever closer to 2008′s level, local Realtors reported Tuesday.

The number of pending home sales here was down only 2.5 percent from the May 2008 figure, the smallest gap so far this year, according to the Lancaster County Association of Realtors.

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Big Brother’s Watching You!

June 28, 2009 Leave a Comment

Don't look now - you're being watched.

Image courtesy of Linda Johnson for the L.A. Times

When I read George Orwell‘s book “1984″ back in high school, I scoffed at some of the outlandish things that ‘Big Brother‘ was allowed to do.  Well it’s twenty-five years after Orwell’s fictional year and at least one of his predictions is coming true right here in Lancaster, PA.  Video cameras are being installed on the streets of Lancaster to keep an ever vigilant eye on it’s residents.  This story has caught the eyes of many cities across the country including Los Angeles, CA.  The L.A. Times published a story this past week on Lancaster’s very own eyes in the sky.

Lancaster, PA Keeps a Close Eye on Itself *

A vast and growing web of security cameras monitors the city of 55,000, operated by a private group of self-appointed gatekeepers.  There’s been surprisingly little outcry.

Reporting from Lancaster, Pa. — This historic town, where America’s founding fathers plotted during the Revolution and Milton Hershey later crafted his first chocolates, now boasts another distinction.

It may become the nation’s most closely watched small city.

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Real Estate Advertising in Newspapers is on Life Support

June 5, 2009 Leave a Comment

Fading away - - -

Image courtesy of Flickr

I read two surveys within the last week that reconfirm my belief that newspaper advertising for real estate is now officially a thing of the past.  No more will I listen to those pundits that extol the benefits of this flimsy periodical from a bygone era.  If you’re a homeowner who needs to sell their property and is considering what forms of advertising to utilize – - – listen up.  If you’re an agent who is looking for ammunition to try and convince a potential listing that newspaper advertising is not worth it – - – you’re about to hit the jackpot.

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Newspaper’s Grand Experiment

April 2, 2009 Leave a Comment

    
Yesterday, Lancaster Newspapers, Inc. (LNP) made the decision to cease printing its evening paper, the Lancaster New Era, by June 29, 2009.  To many older, long-time New Era readers in Lancaster County this came as a complete shock.  Many loyal subscribers will ask, “How could this once-proud icon of local journalism just decide to shut down after so many years?”  Well, to be honest with you, the real question is, “How could LNP have continued to operate two newspapers profitably?”

LNP was a dinosaur in that it was in the minuscule minority of newspapers across the country that published a morning and evening paper.  Most newspaper companies figured out a long time ago that repackaging and regurgitating news stories from the morning edition wasn’t going to cut it.  It just took the powers that be at LNP a little longer for reality to set in.  But the real story isn’t the fact that they decided to discontinue the afternoon paper, its that I don’t believe they still see the runaway freight train that’s going to run over them – the Internet.

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