Discussion last night about how Lancaster County’s economy seems to weather the economic storms better than most. There are reasons for that, but also limits.
So I was curious to see this piece linked on Atrios, about rising retail vacancies:
Strip malls, which are usually anchored by grocery or drug stores, saw average vacancies spike 0.5 percentage […]

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Ah, the Yokel rides again. As if there were any doubt.

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Ah, well.
I see LancoYokel spent his Sunday penning a critique of last week’s print output. Which is fine. Though I’ll stay away from the criticism of the convention center piece because I unfortunately will probably be writing more stories about this issue as we go down the line, and as a general rule I mostly […]

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If you spend any time on Good Drive, you’ve probably noticed it: The new stoplight at Noll Drive.

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Via Atrios, more news of the death of suburbia:
As the realization takes hold that rising energy prices are less a momentary blip than a restructuring with lasting consequences, the high cost of fuel is threatening to slow the decades-old migration away from cities, while exacerbating the housing downturn by diminishing the appeal of larger homes […]

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Interesting. Kunstler gives an interview to NPR in which he talks about the “end of surburbia as we know it” - a consistent theme with him - and says this:
Kunstler says that big cities will become more population dense at their centers and along waterfronts, but they’ll essentially contract as people will move to smaller […]

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Call this Words fail me, part II.
Look, I understand why people might oppose F&M’s plan to relocate the Norfolk Southern rail yard. We can characterize these things as “NIMBY” but the fact is that we’re talking about where people live, where they raise their families. Of course they’re going to be concerned when things change […]

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Had to stop at the bank by Park City on the way back from the dentist today, decided to go out the Manheim Pike way (anything is better than Harrisburg Pike), and was stunned to see the old Jack Treier Moving and Storage site completely cleared, nothing but bare dirt and a view of Route […]

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On the way out to the dentist this a.m. and I passed a bunch of signs for TRRAAC, the folks who live in the Farmingdale Road/Barrcrest area and oppose plans to move the Norfolk Southern rail yard into their backyards. There’s a meeting on the proposal tomorrow night, but as I read the story in […]

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On the way out to the park in Silver Spring, I kept seeing sign after sign. On the way back I figured I’d try to count them - 29 between Silver Spring Park and Good Drive.
It’s those “Seeing Red? Vote Blue” signs - the Lancaster Democrats voter registration drive. “Vote Democrat for a Change.” It’s […]

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New twist on the old favorite:

For years, the idea of eating only food grown locally and in season was reserved for upscale chefs like Alice Waters of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., or serious hippies living off the grid, while the rest of us didn’t think twice about gulping down blueberries from Chile or avocadoes […]

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She muttered derisively as she perused the Sunday paper. Amazingly, she wasn’t even reading my column.
Rather, she was looking through the 2008 Parade of Homes guidebook, in which the lowest-priced single-family home this year cost $281,076. The lowest-priced townhome, this year, was $169,900.
“Who’s buying these things?” she asked as she looked at the “middle of […]

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Hm. I await, now, the same sort of outrage over this as was generated by “The Crossings.”
Won’t happen of course. Specifically because Dale High’s not involved.
But, curious to see this. About 6-8 months ago, I’d heard a few whispers that another “lifestyle center” was in the works. More than that, it was suggested that someone or some […]

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F&M gendarmes deliver a beatdown to Ron Harper:
The incident was captured on videotape until the camera was ripped from Harper’s hands. It took place on a public road in Lancaster Township nearly 3/4 of a mile from the campus at approximately 2:00 p.m. June 3, 2008.  Mr. Harper and co-Publisher, Chris Hart Nibbrig, met on Marietta and […]

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“The Lancaster Economy Report” showed up in the mailbox today, and I know a lot of other folks here in the building got it as well. No one’s written about it yet and I don’t know that I expect anyone too; it’s fairly complex, as broad economic pictures tend to be. Not as sexy as […]

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And so I had this idea that the kids, being baseball players and all, would like to do a night at the Barnstormers - onto the field with the players for the national anthem, the “Field of Dreams” thing.
Little did I know.
Amidst schedule changes and personnel changes and last-second phone calls and the absolute ton […]

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Being considered in Montgomery County, Md., near D.C. An idea that might work - on roads like Harrisburg Pike, maybe:
Congestion pricing is a system under which governments charge motorists to use a roadway during peak hours. The purpose is to reduce traffic by encouraging people to abandon their cars in favor of walking, biking or […]

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I’m sort of aghast at the wide-eyed amazement expressed in this Era piece, but then again, over the course of the past couple weeks I’ve had several people say to me - in almost conspiratorial/apologetic tones - that they’re growing some of their own vegetables this year.
Revolutionary!
But apparently it is. Which sort of flabbergasts me; […]

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And now, one from the grassy knoll.

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See, I really shouldn’t read these things. And then I do read these things and wish I didn’t, because I get so *&^$#@& annoyed.

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