Three weeks ago I wrote that the Lancaster County Community Foundation was giving $200,000 to the City of Lancaster to establish a public arts department. The city is going to use that money to hire a public arts manager, Bernard Harris reports in this afternoon’s New Era. The idea of the department and the manager came out of a “Lancaster Public Art Action Plan” (pdf), which was completed on October 28 by the Community Foundation and the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design.
Two people spoke to Mr. Harris about the plan: Mayor Rick Gray, who is the main proponent of this public arts initiative, and public works director Charlotte Katzenmoyer.
Ain't this public art good enough for you?
In a nutshell, it will be the role of the public arts manager to figure out how to keep the city getting more beautiful, rather than more ugly, over the coming years. That will likely take a mix of public policy (standard procedures and guidelines), ordinances (such as requiring 1% of the amount spent on new construction projects to be spent on public art or aesthetics), funding, awareness, and advocacy.
It sounds like the newly-hired public arts manager will be given the opportunity to study what other cities have done to foster public art. The manager will then be asked to suggest an overall public arts initiative for Lancaster city and present plans for how to make it happen.
It’s likely that a volunteer Public Arts Committee will be formed as well.
What do you think of this idea? What type of person should be considered for this position? How can we make sure that this program succeeds after the 3-year $200,000 grant dries up?
For those of you who are a part of the Creative House of Lancaster, it’s likely we’ll work together to bring a grassroots arts perspective to this initiative.
The Harrisburg Patriot-News offered to buy out many of its employees in October, and many heavyweights took the offer, as Jersey Mike reported. It’s hard to get the full story, as Dennis Owens of ABC-27 in Harrisburg found out:
“One story you won’t see in the Patriot-News is the inside story about what’s going on. One person who took the buyout said they had to sign a non-disparagement clause – meaning they can’t talk about the buyout or risk losing it. The person did say there are a lot of sad people.”
Harrisburg isn’t alone—jobs are being cut at Lancaster Newspapers as well, and in hundreds of other local papers in the United States. John Grapper, writing in the Financial Times, wonders if local papers will survive. At best, he suggests, they will survive, but not as we know them today.
Allow me to introduce you to problem #2 you can solve in 2009 for fun and profit:
No. 2: Journalism
Problem: Local newspapers are shriveling. Assets: There is a growing sense of community (and desire for it), and more readers and resources are online than ever before.
Daniel Victor, a reporter at the Patriot-News who didn’t take the buyout, has turned his blog into a think-tank on this subject. There is a thriving conversation among the South-Central PA twitterati on this subject. This morning, for instance, Jeff McCloud of Elizabethtown asked Daniel Victor,
“Won’t something else step in to take a newspaper’s place? Esp. if it’s a large org, such as the Patriot-News?”
"The American Newspaper Industry is Hale and Hearty," a Lancaster Newspaper Company display on South Queen Street erroneously states.
You’ll find a good group of other locals participating in the conversation on Twitter, including Andréa Cecil, web editor for the Central Penn Business Journal; her colleague Jessica Bair, a reporter; Scott Detrow, reporter for WITF-FM; Janet Pickel, online editor for the Patriot-News; and Tom Murse of the Lancaster New Era. David DeKok of the Patriot-News has also blogged on the subject.
In other words, there is no shortage of ideas or enthusiasm. What are needed, though, is an entrepreneur who can assess the current cultural and economic situation and develop a breakthrough way to match the assets with the problem. Will that entrepreneur be you or someone you know?
The current recession will undoubtedly continue into 2009, perhaps bottoming out before summer and then resuming slow growth in the second half of the year.
Central Pennsylvania in general, and Lancaster in particular, will be rife with problems. But, there will also be surprising stability that many other areas of the country lacks. Part of that stability is the result of having valued our various assets conservatively—sometimes flat-out undervaluing them.
To the victor goes the spoils: Figure out how to turn these pairs of problems and assets into opportunities in 2009, and prepare for a very prosperous new year.
This is the first post in a series of eleven. Here’s the first pair; the other ten will follow soon.
No. 1: Construction
Problem: Construction is expected to grind to a halt. Assets: Lots of skilled workers and lots of tools and equipment.
Photo by Flickr user robertpogorzelski
Financing for new construction projects has dried up, and few people are ready to take the risk of initiating those projects. Unfortunately, that is going to lead to a lot of skilled workers without work. There will also be a lot of tools and equipment sitting unused.
One obvious opportunity involves investments in public infrastructure. To get a slice of the money President-elect Obama is promising, we’ll need to show that we have shovel-ready projects where the plans and approvals are in place and people can be quickly put to work doing the actual building. Locally, the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce & Industry [disclosure: yes, that’s my employer] is already working to coordinate the efforts of state and federal legislators and other officials and back them with broad local support.
Aside from getting ahold of federal money to put construction workers and equipment to work, what opportunities do you see in this convergence of problem with assets?
A mix of good and bad news as reported by Patrick Burns in this morning’s Intelligencer Journal: Bulova Technologies, which has a small manufacturing operation downtown at Lancaster Square, has been sold and will be moving to Florida. Forty people are losing their jobs. Boluva’s historty traces back to the Hamilton Watch Company. The good news is that Stephen Gurba, who runs the company, sold the company but not the building. He plans to renovate the building, putting in things like, oh, say, windows, and to stick around as the landlord. Commerce Bank, under its new name Metro Bank, will be moving into the first floor by 2010.
Lancaster city, Pennsylvania, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau
The U.S. Census Bureau released new data today as part of its American Community Survey program, which tracks information for certain areas between 10-year censuses. This is the first time Lancaster city, with a relatively small population (55,029 of us) was included in such an extensive Census Bureau project in the in-between years. (New York City, for instance, is always included in such studies. This time around it revealed that the number of whites in Harlem has tripled.)
The data reveals some shocking trends for our city. I compared the newly-released data against data from the 2000 census (which reflected reality as of 1999). To do this, I converted 1999 dollars into 2007 dollars (by multiplying by 1.24438087, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).
We all know that the current economic recession is hurting everyone. What we didn’t realize was how badly we here in Lancaster city were getting hit already.
Household & Per Capita Income
Lancaster city – As of 2007, median household income was $31,599. In 1999 it was $37,045 (adjusted to 2007 dollars). That means household income dropped 15% between 1999 and 2007. In that same time, per capita income dropped 9%: in 2007, per capita income was $15,813. In 1999, it was $17,365.
Lancaster County – As of 2007, median household income was $63,499. In 1999 it was $56,628. When you tack on the suburbs, median household income grew 12% within the county. But, county-wide, per capita income dipped by 0.6%: in 2007, per capita income was $25,214. In 1999, it was $25,382.
Question: What do you make of the fact that in the county, median household income significantly grew, while per capita income slightly declined?
Lancaster city is not alone in hearing bad news: Every metro area in Northeast Ohio (in some ways a peer region) saw such a decline. In Wooster, median household income was down 20%.
Home Values
Lancaster city – City homes declined 20% in value. The median home value in 2007 was $71,300. In 1999, it was $88,724 (in 2007 dollars).
Lancaster County – County homes increased 14% in value. The median home value in 2007 was $169,500. In 1999 it was $148,454.
This disparity in property value trending obviously has massive tax implications. Consider also the difference in aging infrastructure: 63.1% of city homes were built prior to World War II. In the county homes that old account for only 24.3% of the market. In the city, 3.6% of homes were built in the past 17 years. In the county, that number is 23.3%.
Households with Income over $100,000
Lancaster city – In 2007, there were 1,241 households earning $100k or more, representing 5.9% of city households. In 1999, there were 663 measured using 1999 dollars), about 3.1% of households.
Lancaster County – In 2007, there were 30,711 households with income $100k or more, representing 16.7% of county households. In 1999 there were 16,799 (measured using 1999 dollars), about 9.8% of households.
Below the Poverty Line
Even before the economic recession, poverty levels were increasing in both the city and the county.
Lancaster city – As of 2007, 25.4% of individuals in the city were living below the poverty line, up from 21.2% in 1999. Fully 65% of single-mother households (no husband present) with children 5 years old or younger were living below the poverty line, up from 54.9% in 1999.
Lancaster County – As of 2007, 9.1% of individuals in the county were living below the poverty line, up from 7.8% in 1999. Among single-mother households (no husband present), with children 5 years old or younger, 52.5% were living below the poverty line in 2007, up from 43.7% in 1999.
Top Industries
Lancaster city:
In 1999, the top 3 industries (in terms of number of people employed) were:
Manufacturing (23.7%)
Educational, health and social services (19.9%)
Retail trade (13.2%)
…In 2007, the top 3 industries were:
Educational, health and social services (21.1%)
Manufacturing (17.3%)
Professional, scientific, and management, and administrative and waste management services (12.7%)
Lancaster County:
In 1999, the top 3 industries were:
Manufacturing (22.5%)
Educational, health and social services (18.2%)
Retail trade (13.0%)
…In 2007, the top 3 industries were:
Educational services, and health care and social assistance (20.2%)
Manufacturing (18.7%)
Retail trade (12.0%)
It’s great to see the city’s #3 industry as of 2007.
Commuting
Because I am smug enough to highlight these stats, I will. As of 2007, 11% (2,456) of us city dwellers were walking to work. That was only true of 3.5% of the county population. Another 5.2% of city dwellers were taking public transit, as opposed to 1.3% county-wide.
What’s your response to this data? Lancaster city is more vulnerable to the effects of the recession than we previously realized. Is there any way the 2010 census data can possibly look even a little bit better?
