Column makes case for Building One PA

There's about two weeks left before Building One Pennsylvania, and the media mentions are starting to build. The lastest is a spot-on column from Lancaster Online. Jeff Hawkes does a good job of capturing the thinking behind the diverse mix of organizations from across the state coming together around a couple of key issues.

He starts out trying to explain why Lancaster - and, by extension, York and Harrisburg and cities across the state - are struggling.

"The issue has nothing to do with whether Republicans or Democrats are in charge and everything to do with long-standing, deep-rooted state and federal policies that favor new roads and development outside cities and towns and discourage annexation and regional approaches that give older communities a fighting chance.

With cities and towns in every corner of Pennsylvania hurting because of policies beyond their control, they and their advocates are seeing the need to come together and explore a common agenda of solutions."

So how do groups like YorkCounts and Good Schools Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Council of Churches find common ground?

"The conveners of the summit include 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania, Southeastern Pennsylvania First Suburbs Project and YorkCounts — organizations that focus on rational land-use policies and effective municipal governance.

But the scope of regional equity also encompasses the missions of organizations such as Pennsylvania Council of Churches and Good Schools Pennsylvania, both of which are also conveners of the summit.

'How Pennsylvania funded education has not only failed students but contributed to the blighting of communities and sprawl,' said Good Schools' Janis Risch in explaining her organization's interest in the summit.

If the summit is successful, said Marilyn Wood of 10,000 Friends, then advocates of various causes — public education, affordable housing, transit, the environment — will see how they all win if they join forces to reverse the decline of urban Pennsylvania."

That's really the bottom line here: Giving people a place to come together and exert some influence over public policy that has too long shoved older communities to the side.

Do you want to see municipal budgets continue to be strained and school taxes continue to go up? Or do you want to add your voice to the call for changing a broken system? Building One Pennsylvania is July 16 at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology in Lancaster. Go here to register. Do it today.

- Dan Fink