Archive for Harrisburg Crime

Who are the people in your neighborhood?

September 25, 2008 / Jersey / 6 comments

While out hanging Dice posters the other night, 31 Flavors and I spotted a scattering of little, rectangular green handbills stapled to telephone poles and hung on the door at Nonna’s announcing a meeting for a new Midtown Community group which is forming to serve the Engletown Neighborhood.

[edit: It was pointed out to me that there are varying spellings of the name - Wikipedia has it spelled  as Engletown while the locals seem to prefer Engleton

Engletown? Where the hell is Engletown? You may be asking right about now.

I wondered that too and was educated at tonights meeting- Engletown is the area between Reily and Kelker from Second to Third which sort of falls on the outskirt-ish reaches of Midtown and just on the other side of the "tracks" of Kelker leading into Olde Uptown.

The meeting agenda was relatively loose; more of a roundtable discussion than a lecture was moderated by hosts Tara and Brandy who co-chaired the group of about twenty Engletown residents. (Tara is the Tara half of the other Tara and Caleb- for those of you in the Midtown-know.)

With the rapid development of the HACC Midtown Campus in addition to the desire to band together a community and local residents concern about increasing crime and more and more blighted houses within the confines of Engletown, the community gathering could not have happened at a more opportune time and was, in my opinion, a resounding success.

Attendees from all sectors were in attendance and freely shared ideas, thoughts and concerns for their neighborhood.

More of a community organization than strictly a crime watch group, the Engletown Community Project appears to have all of the key-elements and players in place to become a valid, positive, enriching group which will certainly improve the overall quality of life within the sector of Midtown it encapsulates.

An email list has been established and will be used to communicate initial progress, initiatives, committees and goals for the group. Send an email to engletoncommunity [at] yahoo [dot] com to join the email list.

A Website will be launched soon which will likely act as something of a hub for all information pertaining to the Engletown Community Project.

So there you have it, kids. Good people getting together to share great ideas and important information.

Nights like tonight make me proud to live in this city.

Category: Harrisburg Crime, News?, Plugs / Tags:

I’m The First Guy In Harrisburg Charged With Not Paying The Amusement Tax

September 22, 2008 / Jersey / 7 comments

Do you think I go too far in this blog?

I don’t feel that I do.

Sure, maybe I can forgo some of the ball busting, but what fun would that be?

I feel that I’m an observant person.

And I also feel that I bring to light some alternative takes on what the local commercial media might think but certainly aren’t able to say.

I’ve been pretty public and vocal about the local amusement tax fight. And the local tax collector absolutely hates that.

You see, I’m pretty sure that the local tax collector is a nice guy. He’s gotta be. But because I question the legality, fairness and value of the amusement tax, he’s got a bullseye on my back for every single show that I do or have done.

Quite some time ago, the tax collector for the city filed a citation against me for “failure to pay the amusement tax” and we both appeared in front of Judge Solomon.

The tax collector made his case and I made mine- but of course, I lost.

Found guilty of “failure to pay the amusement tax”.

I think that the fine is something around a hundred a fifty bucks.

But I still haven’t paid it.

It’s not that I’ve ignored it. It’s just that I haven’t paid it yet. (Even though every dime that I’ve owed to the city in amusement tax has been paid, I guess I still have to pay the hundred and fifty bucks.)

ANYWAY- I’ve been wanting to write a blog about “A Night in The Life of a Harrisburg Police Officer” and go on a ridealong. (Note: If the Patriot News writes a story featuring a night in the life of a Harrisburg police officer anytime in the immediate future, you’ll know they got the idea here first)

So I called the Harrisburg Police and spoke with the officer in charge of the ridealongs. He was very enthusiastic and explained the process to me. I have to give my requested ridealong times and beat (I told him I want the busiest, bloodiest, most dangerous shift- he told me 4-11 on a Wednesday).

After giving my information, he explained that they would run a background check to make sure that my ridealong doesn’t turn into a ride-to-the-clink and that he’d call me back when it cleared to set the time.

About fifteen minutes later, I got a call back.

“Michael, this is xxxxx xxxxxx with the Harrisburg police”

“Oh, hey. How’d everything turn out?”

“Well, you do have one thing on here that you’re going to have to clear up before we can take you out on a ridealong”

“Uh oh, is it a parking ticket?”

“Ha, no. No, this is something about failure to pay amusement tax?”

“Ah, the amusement tax. Yeah, I guess I forgot about that. So all I have to do is go and pay that and we’ll be all set?”

“Yup, sure thing. Just go square that away and we’ll schedule you a time for a ridealong.”

“Okay cool. Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“How long have you been on the force?”

“Eighteen years.”

“And in eighteen years, you’ve seen a lot of stuff, eh?”

“Sure have.”

“Well let me ask you this- in your eighteen years on the force, have you ever seen someone charged with failure to pay the amusement tax?”

“Uh, nope. Never.”

So, folks, because of the amusement tax, I’m not able to report to you on exactly what it’s like to work a shift on the Harrisburg Police Force.

That is, until I pay that stinkin fine.

Category: Amusement Tax, Foreshadowing, Harrisburg Crime / Tags: ,

Let me know when this horse is dead.

August 12, 2008 / Jersey / One comment

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/YqymiMFlZ08" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Category: Harrisburg City Council, Harrisburg Crime /

WHP 21 Lays The Smack Down on HBG’s Sports Hall of Fame

July 31, 2008 / Jersey / 7 comments

In a display of some fine journalism the likes of which this city has been mostly denied, WHP-21 reporter Jason Bristol shed some light on the financial quagmire known as the Sports Hall of Fame.

Bristol asked some pretty basic questions of Lavenda; and his answers made it quite clear that there is, perhaps, no real plan or possibility of Harrisburg having a sports hall of fame anytime in the near future.

Bristol asked Lavenda “Have you heard of the Sports Museum of America which is in New York?”

To which Lavenda replied: “From my understanding, they’re no further along than we are.”

And here’s where the proverbial bitch-slap comes in: The Sports Museum of America opened in May and boasts over one thousands sports exhibits including the Heisman Trophy and exhibits which allow visitors to participate in interactive activities like changing a tire on a NASCAR vehicle or seeing what it’s like to be an NHL goalie.

But Lavenda, the man earning one hundred thousand dollars per year to develop Harrisburg’s version of a sports hall of fame, was literally clueless about this massive display just three and a half hours from here.
Read Jason Bristol’s blistering report here.

And be sure to email Bristol commending him on a job well done here.

Category: Harrisburg City Council, Harrisburg Crime, Simply Amazing /

I’d Like To Hold A Conference With The Patriot News Editorial Board

July 24, 2008 / Jersey / 2 comments

Based on the fact that the Patriot News has displayed an almost inexplicable increase in the coverage of local events and reports released by the Mayors Office over the past several days, I’d like to hold a conference with the Patriot News Editorial Board and ask them a few questions.

If the Patriot News Editorial Board were willing to listen to the concerns of a panel of people just like me who wonder some of the same things with regard to the way they report their news, I would ask them the following questions:

1. What is the thought process when deciding which events or activities that occur within the walls of the Martin Luther King Jr. building in Harrisburg are considered newsworthy?

2. Does the newspaper aggressively seek realistic, accurate and relevant crime data from the records department in The City of Harrisburg? If not, why? If so, what investigative methods do you use?

3. Does the editorial board of The Patriot News have a bias for or against any body within local government?

4. Does the Editorial Board of The Patriot News aggressively seek out stories and happenings? Or is it more of a passive endeavor; reporting on and responding to only the press releases sent to them?

5. Does the Editorial Board of The Patriot News view it’s readers as intelligent, concerned and capable citizens of the city within which it reports? Or are the demographics and readership data used for selling advertising it’s only concern?

Category: Harrisburg City Council, Harrisburg Crime, News?, Other Sites I Like /
« Older Entries   Recent Entries »
Wordpress Theme by ThemeZee