The following is my timeline and comments on The State of The City Address by Mayor Steven Reed Wednesday April 4 2007.
Have you ever noticed that we have an intersection of Church and State in Harrisburg?

11:54AM Wednesday April 4, 2007

I hustled my way through the back hallways of the maze-like Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg PA today- making my way towards the banquet room which housed the annual “State Of The City” address by Mayor Steven Reed-

The stream of suits and dignitaries filing into the building almost resembled a line of mourners headed towards a funeral- but one of those funerals that you only attend out of a feeling of obligation.

Right around six hundred people- mostly the financial elite of the midstate- filled the room and dined on what appeared to be standard banquet fare- mixed greens salads, green beans and some sort of penne/veggie pasta- plates of cookies sat temptingly in front of each seated guest.

12:12PM- Tom Russel makes brief announcement ringing the proverbial dinner bell.

Scanning the room, the tables seemed to be arranged in order of financial importance- the banks right up front-

Harrisburg University mid room at stage left. (Directly in front of my vantage point)

Notable attendees (it seemed like EVERYONE was there) working their way through the room included Brad Koplinski, Randy King, and reps from nearly every corporate interest in the region including NRG Energy, Belco Community Credit Union, Rhoades and Sinon, UGI, Coca Cola, and on and on-even Anita Smith- the goofy but kind-of MILF-EY Capitol Blue Cross president and spokeswoman was seated a few tables stage left of center.
12:26PM Tom Russel makes the opening remarks-

If one thing rang consistent through the entire program, it was lame jokes. After reading off the corporate sponsors of the event, Russel made the obligatory “thank me for the great weather we’re having” comment. And it wouldn’t be the last…in fact, it was only the beginning-

12:38PM- Chairman of the Harrisburg Regional Chamber makes even MORE opening remarks-

More thanks to our corporate sponsors…and a lame weather-related energy joke.

12:42PM- Mayor Reed’s Address-

Video Introduction- brief highlight roll-that you’ll have to use your imagination for-

Comparison to Magnum PI
Photo with BB King outside of Mr Mikes Records
Reminded us all once again that we were the 2nd most distressed city in 1982.
Disgruntled groan from audience when “Third best mayor in the world” mentioned.
More lame jokes.
And the highlight-
“Our city’s number one cheerleader!”

12:45PM- Cheerleading begins-

More thanks. Seemingly the same people that Tom Russell and Allen Westbrook thanked.

Reed now spends a few minutes beating the dead horse of bringing up the conflict in Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq- as if we needed to hear more of that.

A few more minutes, now, about dedicating the day’s event to the fifty four thousand troops from Pennsylvania who’ve been deployed…and to the one hundred sixty eight who’ve died in combat. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that…but it could have been more brief, in my humble opinion)

12:52PM- Moving on to rehash what we already know

Great excitement in Reed’s voice speaking about the continued sprawl of Second Street, museums, parks and construction projects. Also mentioned were the Midtown Art Center in the old PAL building; and apparantley the southern gateway plan is advancing- well, if you count an artists rendering of the project “advancing” then I guess that can be considered “new”

Second Street from Forster to Division is going to be converted to a two way street sometime in the next twenty four months-

1:02PM- More boasting and rehashing what new businesses have opened in Harrisburg.

1:08PM- More boasting

1:12PM- Subject moves to education-

The interesting thing about this portion of the speech was the CONTEXT in which Reed compared our City to the rest of the country.

It seemed like when he was rattling off all of our economic achievements, it was with a feeling of self achievement.

But when talking about education and crime it was about the NATIONAL averages.

Which is funny, considering that property values are up across the board and crime is creeping up nationwide again-

But while there are national trends in spending and new niche markets growing exponentially, HARRISBURG, according to Reed, is on some new trailblazing path of righteousness.

Okay, back to my notes-

Comment about how school should start later in the morning and continue until five PM. Because there’s somehow, somewhere, a correlation between conditioning kids into the ‘workday’ regiment- and lowered crime rates.

1:21PM- Still talking education–but moving into urban development-

This was perplexing.

Whilst speaking to a room full of…a SEA of old, grey and balding and mostly white people; Reed had the audacity to commend himself on the urban development and minority owned businesses spurred by one of Reed’s plans.

What someone may have forgotten to point out to Reed is that the Harrisburg minority is the Asian community, followed by Caucasion–and the MAJORITY of residents within the City of Harrisburg are African American-

So, Mayor Reed- the dominant majority within the city own and operate a proportionate number of businesses-

And the fanfare for this is WHY?

Please understand-this wasn’t brought up here as a race issue- I’m merely pointing out what seemed to be more FLUFF in the speech today.

1:27PM- Crowd Reactions

The crowd is becoming visibly and audibly disinterested. Whispers and chatter-along with someone at the table directly in front of me falling asleep with his arms folded at his chest…and farting.

Scanning the room, attendees are quietly talking amongst themselves at their tables.

1:31PM- More achievement touting- still nothing about crime or the incinerator.

More jokes about contributions.

More numbers- Whitaker Center has attracted 2.9 million visitors since opening (which is a completely different blog but that number is LAUGHABLE considering the financial black-hole that is The Whitaker Center); 7181 codes inspections, 5872 reports of abandoned vehicles, 4178 vehicles towed (Don’s Towing must have had a GREAT year)…

1:45PM- Conclusion-

“That, ladies and gentlemen, is the State of The City of Harrisburg”.