Count Me In

Who needs hip to grow? Not York

noreply@blogger.com (YorkCounts) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:57:00 +0000

What really matters to the City of York’s socioeconomic sustainability? This piece from Joel Kotkin is worth contemplating. While I don’t always agree with Kotkin, his work is rock solid – he’s a serious academic, not a shoot-from-the-hip booster or ideologue.

He makes two main points. First:

"The Wall Street Journal, for example, recently identified the "Next Youth-Magnet Cities" as drawn from the old "hip and cool" collection of yore: Seattle, Portland, Washington, New York and Austin, Texas.
It's not just the young who will flock to the blue meccas, but money and business as well, according to the narrative. The future, the Atlantic assured its readers, did not belong to the rubes in the suburbs or Sun Belt, but to high-density, high-end places like New York, San Francisco and Boston.
This narrative, which has not changed much over the past decade, is misleading and largely misstated. Net migration, both before and after the Great Recession, according to analysis by the Praxis Strategy Group, has continued to be strongest to the predominately red states of the South and Intermountain West."

And second:

More important, the key group leaving New York and other so-called "youth-magnets" comprises the middle class, particularly families, critical to any long-term urban revival.

I think there is good news and bad news for a place like York in Kotkin's essay. The bad news is that we happen to find our city trapped in a state with seemingly intractable systems that work against the success of older communities, and that, as a whole, is a “donor” to the migration patterns he describes. The good news is that we probably don’t need to spend so much time beating ourselves up that we’re not Austin or Portland – that we’re not hip enough to attract the ballyhooed “creative class” – and focus on the message that for plenty of families, value and jobs matter more than hip coffee shops and jazz clubs. I’m not arguing against those things – they are a proper part of creating a downtown “Market District” that offers the quality of life that is needed to attract a certain segment of the population, and they are good for our downtown. But let’s not lose sight of the bigger picture either.

At the end of the day, York County has a couple of things going for it that are as much good fortune as they are clever economic development:

1. A great location on the edge of the Northeast Corridor, with excellent transportation access to some of the wealthiest markets in the world.
2. Relatively inexpensive land and a lower cost-of-living than is found in those markets.

With those two factors as the backdrop, the City of York has a couple of things going for it:

1. An absolutely fantastic built environment with a downtown and neighborhoods that bear all the attributes of a great urban place.
2. A shifting demographic, cultural and energy-cost climate (that will last probably 30 years) that will be far more favorable to walkable, urban places than the last 30 years have been.

It’s our job to stop apologizing for ourselves and our city (and our schools, and our taxes, and our crime) and take advantage of the above factors with an economic- and community-development strategy that looks at how to change the game based on where the market is headed. Let’s make ourselves a great urban place and let the other chips fall where they may. Today would be a good opportunity to start.

- Eric Menzer, YorkCounts chairman of the board

Survey to bring vital data on youth

noreply@blogger.com (YorkCounts) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:43:00 +0000

From today's York Dispatch:

York County students are being surveyed through Nov. 13 to gather data about their behavior, their attitudes and their knowledge about alcohol, tobacco, drugs and violence.
The Pennsylvania Youth Survey will be administered to students in sixth, eighth, 10th and 12th grades in 15 of the county's 16 school districts and several charter schools.

The article says this will be the first time so many York County schools will participate in the survey. Why is that important? More students responding means more and better data, and that will help local officials better identify issues, assess programs and target spending needs.

In the bigger picture, this is a key part of the effort to reduce gang violence and youth crime and the related issues of truancy and school dropout rates. YorkCounts will hold a series of town halls on that very subject, starting with the first event in Dover on Nov. 9. The town halls, "Kids, Truancy and a County at Risk," will focus on the YorkCounts-United Way's Stay in School Report.

- Dan Fink

For the poor, community colleges are crucial

noreply@blogger.com (YorkCounts) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:28:00 +0000

A news release Oct. 20 from the Pew Charitable Trusts highlighted a report that shows the importance of community colleges in a job market that demands lifelong learning. From the release:

"Earning a community college degree boosts earnings by an average of $7,900 annually, an increase of 29 percent over those with only a high school diploma.
For low-income, high-achieving high school students in particular, community colleges serve as a springboard to further postsecondary education; more than half eventually transfer to four-year programs, and three-quarters of those who transfer earn a bachelor’s degree."

That just underscores our belief here at YorkCounts on the role that HACC can play in helping students from low-income families break out of poverty, and in making sure York County has a well-trained workforce.

And we know HACC takes that role seriously. Over the summer, I attended a workshop at HACC where officials from various organizations spent a morning basically brainstorming ways to improve the college-readiness of high school students in York. From that session, Lise Levin, community development director at HACC's York campus, has started a list of things HACC wants to try. The ideas range from in-service days at HACC for teachers to class-sampling opportunities for high school students.

What ideas do you have for helping city students be more prepared for college?

- Dan Fink

Judge Uhler talks truancy on WITF

noreply@blogger.com (YorkCounts) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:30:00 +0000

York County Judge John Uhler talks about truancy and the toll it takes on our community on WITF-FM's "Radio Smart Talk" this morning. His truancy work will be part of an upcoming series of town halls planned by YorkCounts. The first town hall is 6:30 p.m. Nov. 9 in Dover. Here's the program summary from witf.org:

"More than one million students drop out of school each year in the U.S. Statistics indicate that a college graduate will earn hundreds of thousands of dollars more in their lifetime than a high school drop out.

As these figures suggest, education is one of the keys to earning a sustainable living that will provide for a family.

So why do so many still leave school or not see education as important to their
futures? How do keep these kids in school and prepare them for the workforce after they've graduated?"

- Dan Fink

Sprawl is bad

noreply@blogger.com (YorkCounts) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:52:00 +0000

I've been at two very different events recently. One was a gathering of grassroots organizations and community activists, representing poor communities with high minority populations. The other was a gathering of municipal decision makers, representing the conservative, tradition-bound folks of Lancaster County.

Both groups heard the same message: Sprawl is bad.

Sprawl creates unsustainable, environmentally wasteful development. It adds to the burden on government by demanding wave after wave of government support for new sewer and water infrastructure and new roads, more fire and police resources and more schools. It forces people to work farther and farther away from their homes. And it segregates middle- and upper-income residents from lower-income residents.

The thousands of suburbs that have popped up across the country since the 1950s were built with government-subsidized highways, cheap gas and consumers with money to spend on their houses. Guess what: Governments are out of money, gas isn't cheap and consumers don't have money, if they even have a house.

Which is why Christopher Leinberger says "Sprawl is the root cause of the financial crisis."

Fixing the economy, for the long term, means ending this perpetual push to the 'burbs. It means less money for highways, more for mass transit. It means investing in cities, older first-ring suburbs and other walkable communities. It means building new developments close to existing communities and not in some out-of-the-way cornfield. It means having municipalities incentivize high-density and mixed-housing requirements for new communities, and it means builders and developers figuring out how to do that and still make money.

In other places, community leaders are learning the lesson that sprawl is bad. The same thinking will help York County, too.

- Dan Fink

Mike Smith wins a Jefferson Award

noreply@blogger.com (YorkCounts) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:24:00 +0000

This news comes courtesy of Bob Woods, executive director of the United Way of York County.

Mike Smith is one of the 2010 winners of the Jefferson Awards, given out by WGAL-TV each year. Mike is receiving the award for his service with the Temple Guard Drill Team “helping young people in York County stay off the streets and out of trouble.” He also leads the York Chapter of Guardian Angels and directs activities at Crossroads Youth Center. The Jefferson Awards Banquet will be held Oct. 29 at the Sheraton Harrisburg-Hershey Hotel. The United Way is a major sponsor for the awards, and proceeds are divided up among the various United Ways in southcentral Pennsylvania.

Bob is hoping for a good turnout from York County to support Mike and the other York County honoree, Karen Ann Wire.

- Dan Fink

Some thoughts on little empires

noreply@blogger.com (YorkCounts) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:24:00 +0000

The Daily Record ran a story recently about Newberry Township's offer to merge with three small neighboring boroughs. The township sent letters to Lewisberry, Goldsboro and York Haven to see if any of them would be interested in talking about merging.

Newberry Township supervisor Stephen Pancoe said he thought a merger made sense because you gain economies of scale and reduce duplication of services. Those are the reasons most often cited to justify a merger or a regional consolidation. We would certainly agree with that position, and we applaud Newberry Township for its thinking.

Unfortunately, all three boroughs said no. As Lewisberry Council President William Thompson said, "I guess we like our little empire."

The only problem is that many of these little empires are falling apart all around the state. This structure of government, around since the 1700s, doesn't seem to work anymore in many places, regardless of which political party is in power.

Many small boroughs and older suburban townships don't have the money to upgrade deteriorating water and sewer lines or take care of their roads. Many have dropped their police departments and turned police service over to the state. Their tax bases continue to shrink, as homeowners keep moving out to the newest suburban developments. This cycle of build-and-abandon has decimated cities and these older suburbs, eats up farmland and contributes to sprawl.

In York County, we have a patchwork of municipalities, and all of them have council members or township supervisors, managers and secretaries, their own zoning ordinances, as well as their own water and sewer rates.

Is a system of 72 separate municipal governments, many created more than 200 years ago, the best way to go in the 21st century?

What do you think?

- Dan Fink

YorkCounts sets first town hall in Dover

noreply@blogger.com (YorkCounts) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:20:00 +0000

YorkCounts will travel to Dover Senior High School Nov. 9 for the first in a series of town halls to engage York County residents in a conversation about the work of YorkCounts. The first three town halls - the next ones will be in January and February - will focus on the United Way's Stay in School Report, and especially Judge John Uhler's Truancy Task Force work. YorkCounts is partnering with Dover Area School District to present this first town hall, which will start at 6:30 p.m. in the high school auditorium. For more information, contact Dan Fink at 650-1460 or dfink@yorkcounts.org.

- Dan Fink

YorkCounts going to Washington

noreply@blogger.com (YorkCounts) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:44:00 +0000

Later this month, the staff of YorkCounts - James and I - will travel to Washington, D.C., for Building One America, a summit that will, according to its Web site, "highlight regional policies, programs, and strategies with proven success in combating concentrated poverty, residential and school segregation, and sprawl – building solutions into national policy."

These issues go right to the heart of the work of YorkCounts.

Among the speakers are David Rusk and Myron Orfield, two nationally known authorities on urban policy and race and poverty, respectively. YorkCounts brought both men to York to speak at community meetings.

Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor to President Obama, and U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) will also present.

The event is Sept. 17-18 at the Lincoln Park United Methodist Church.

- Dan Fink

Lancaster fights to save its young people

noreply@blogger.com (YorkCounts) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:30:00 +0000

If you haven't read this story from the Lancaster Sunday News, yet, read it. The city of Lancaster unveiled a new program, one modeled on a similar program in High Point, N.C., that takes a new and some might say risky approach to combating drugs, gangs and violence. On Sunday, leaders from law enforcement, the courts and the community confronted four people who thought they were headed for prison. Four convicted felons, caught selling drugs to police, were given a choice - go to prison for a two-year minimum, or sign up.

Sunday News Reporter Chip Smedley described the program this way:
"'The Fortunate Four' are the first given the opportunity to take part in a new city program that lets selected small-time dealers (with minimal prior records) caught in direct sales to undercover police avoid jail if they agree to abide by a long list of strict guidelines. The program, they were reminded often, is not a 'Get Out of Jail Free' card. One misstep and they're done."

The four heard real-life stories - from a U.S. attorney; from the Lancaster County DA; and from a mother's whose daughter was shot and killed while dealing.

"My daughter is dead, five bullets in her back" Diane Johnson said. "She thought she was smooth; she thought she knew the streets."

York's Gang Prevention Initiative will be watching. In the meantime, good luck to Lancaster.

And read the story.

- Dan Fink

Creating a 21st-century workforce

noreply@blogger.com (YorkCounts) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 19:04:00 +0000

Here's something to think about. Louis Soares, the director of the Economic Mobility program at the Center for American Progress, made this point about a new approach to training workers in a 21st century economy. He spoke recently at a workforce event in Washington, D.C.:

"(Soares) argued that in today’s dynamic labor market workforce policy should focus not only on emergency unemployment counseling but also on making career coaching and skills training available to all workers. This requires reforming and integrating the education and workforce development systems by retooling the employment service as a 'one-stop' career center, making financial aid available for working learners, and investing in and improving community colleges."

YorkCounts has tried to encourage more connections among local workforce development stakeholders. What should York County be doing with its investments in worker training that will help Pennsylvania and the United States produce the best-trained workforce in the world?

- Dan Fink

Hear about smart growth

noreply@blogger.com (YorkCounts) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:30:00 +0000

The York/Adams Regional Smart Growth Coalition still has space available for the Aug. 20 smart growth panel discussion in York. Learn more about what smart growth is and why it's important for York and Adams counties. Panelists include Judy Schwenk of 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania; Felicia Dell, director of the York County Planning Commission; and Dick Schmoyer, director of the Adams County Planning Commission. The event will be at the offices of the Realtors Association of York and Adams Counties, 901 Smile Way, York. RSVP to Shanna Wiest, shanna@rayac.com or 717-880-1230.

- Dan Fink

June-July YorkCounts e-Newsletter

noreply@blogger.com (YorkCounts) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:57:00 +0000

The latest YorkCounts e-Newsletter is out. We used to post the e-newsletters here on the Count Me In blog. Now, you can find them on our Web site. This month, read about the work that's starting on a community effort to reduce obesity in York County; plans for a series of YorkCounts town halls; recent projects from Better York, one of our funding partners; and changes in a couple of key YorkCounts Indicators.

- Dan Fink

Gauging interest in the IB charter school

noreply@blogger.com (YorkCounts) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:24:00 +0000

We're pretty excited here to have received funding for the International Baccalaureate regional charter school. But we'd like to know more about how you see this effort. Specifically, we'd like to know if there are individuals with school-age children or soon-to-be school-age children that would consider enrolling their kids in a future York IB school. Remember: This school would create classrooms with a mix of students from the city and the suburbs, hopefully offsetting the negative effects of classrooms filled with overwhelmingly poor children. And it would represent an attempt to make available a high-quality public education to parents all around York County.

Tell us what you think in a comment, and if you're comfortable, leave your name and e-mail address.

- Dan Fink

Learning from Lancaster

noreply@blogger.com (YorkCounts) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:11:00 +0000

Keystone Edge, which describes itself as a Web site that "tells the story of the new economy in Pennsylvania," had a cover story last week detailing Lancaster's revival. I saw four things they've done that York might think about as our city continues its redevelopment efforts.

1. Forge partnerships. In Lancaster, Franklin and Marshall College and the James Street Improvement District remade an entire quadrant of the city. The YWCA showed that kind of collaborative spirit with its Renaissance Project. On York's south side, York College could team up with Crispus Attucks or a revived South George Street Community Partnership to expand the improvements that have happened there.

2. Use arts and culture. With its Artist Homestead Program, York already recognizes the potential of the arts community for improving the quality of life in the city. The Cultural Alliance, the Strand and the Heritage Trust seem like logical candidates to continue the work.

3. Promote the city lifestyle. Codo has taken the lead on this in its effort to attract young professionals. Somebody needs to think about ways to promote the city's great housing stock, its farmers markets, the developing restaurant scene and other amenities. See Lancaster City Living's approach.

4. Enhance and build on key resources. York doesn't have anything to compare with Lancaster's new convention center for attracting visitors. Hopefully, the study from Roger Brooks will go a long way in identifying the resources that do exist and figuring out how to use them to increase visitors to the downtown.

- Dan Fink

A good read on health care

noreply@blogger.com (YorkCounts) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:53:00 +0000

The conversation is heating up on health care reform. We'll be hearing lots of industry jargon in the next few months, especially about the so-called "public option." It will be difficult to stay on top of it all.

This recent article from the New Yorker is a good primer on how soaring health care costs are at the heart of the debate. The author, Atul Gawande, suggests that providers have undergone a subtle shift in the past 20 years, one that has created an environment of overuse. Unfortunately, more tests and more surgical procedures haven't produced better results, Gawande argues. They do make providers more profitable. And they drive up costs for insurers, consumers and the governmenet.

Doctors and hospitals, among others, disagree. Take a look and decide for yourself. Because a key point Gawande makes is that a lot of these high costs are local; they vary from one area to another based on the philosophy of the local system of providers. It made me wonder what the costs might look like if someone crunched numbers for York County the way Gawande did for the two towns in Texas in the article.

Are we more or less profit driven here? What would your guess be?

Update, 11:41 a.m. July 15: The U.S. House introduced comprehensive health care reform legislation this morning. Here's an analysis of the bill from the Congressional Budget Office. I'd love to hear somebody in the health care business take a whack at explaining the good and bad of this.

- Dan Fink

Engaging the next generation

noreply@blogger.com (YorkCounts) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:12:00 +0000

Biloxi, Miss., is taking a different approach to supporting its young people with after-school and other programs, one that mixes community involvement, the mapping capability of the Web and the resources of Public Agenda's Center for the Advancement of Public Engagement.

Mapping Assets for Biloxi's Youth project uses technology to plot on a map all of the programs and community "assets" that serve youth in the area. Public Agenda, which advsied Biloxi on the effort, said the list includes everything from "parks and breakdancing groups to youth ministries, scholarships and summer camps."

The project has its own Web site so people can report and describe the assets they've found, as well as comment and discuss things as they move forward. They'll reconvene in person on July 24th to see how many things they were able to find and start thinking about how to better coordinate Biloxi's strengths on behalf of children and teens.

Anybody else see the potential for doing something similar in York County? Services related to at-risk youth and their families come to mind first. How about jobs programs aimed at the unemployed and underemployed?

- Dan Fink

Time for teachers' merit pay?

noreply@blogger.com (YorkCounts) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:28:00 +0000

School is out, but education is a hot topic right now. The state's budget deadline is hours away, and Gov. Ed Rendell has been out stumping for his education plan, which calls for $300 million in new funds for basic education. Republicans have proposed using federal stimulus money to keep funding for basic education flat. Whichever side you're on, there's no disputing the fact that the quaility of the state's educational system goes right to the heart of how competitive Pennsylvania will be in the 21st-century economy.

How well prepared for college will our students be? How will we reverse brain drain? What will the quality of our workforce be? How attractive will the state be for recruiting and retaininig key employers?

Part of the governor's plan for improving Pennsylvania's public-education system includes new testing for students and new evaluations for principals and teachers. Even the liberal think tank Center for American Progress makes the case in this new report that teacher evaluations should play a larger role in assessing student performance, and now might be the time to consider ideas such as merit pay:

"New educators, both teachers and principals, are more receptive to differential treatment of teachers than were prior generations. Seventy percent of new teachers in a representative sample said that the fact that teachers do not get rewarded for superior effort and performance is a drawback. Eighty-four percent of these teachers said that making it easier to terminate unmotivated or incompetent teachers would be an effective way to improve teacher quality. The influx of so many new educators also provides an opportunity for supervisors to evaluate teachers more rigorously now, before these individuals gain tenure."

What about this? Is it reasonable to think that tracking the performance of teachers and schools and giving bonuses to high-performing teachers might produce higher-performing students?

- Dan Fink

Sattler to leave York

noreply@blogger.com (YorkCounts) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:20:00 +0000

Ryan Sattler, the former Bon-Ton executive who founded York County Community Against Racism and has been a key leader of the effort to establish a county Human Relations Commission, announced in May he will move to Baltimore this summer for family reasons. Sattler said he wants to remain involved in YCCAR and the YorkCounts HRC working group unitl his move is completed, and that could take several months.

- Dan Fink

YorkCounts e-newsletter - May 2009

noreply@blogger.com (YorkCounts) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:22:00 +0000

Found on the blog at yorkcounts.org

May 2009

In this issue:

YorkCounts work advances on three fronts
Partner spotlight: United Way of York County
Indicators update: Bias-related incidents

YorkCounts work advances on three fronts

It's a busy time for volunteers working on three different YorkCounts initiatives. Here's a recap on where each effort stands.

The IB charter school: York County Community Foundation and the Women’s Giving Circle, a program of the Community Foundation, awarded $60,000 and $15,000 in grants respectively to YorkCounts for its effort to create a new K-12 regional charter school in York. Once approved by the state Department of Education, the new school will offer an International Baccalaureate curriculum, and it will be the only K-12 IB school in Central Pennsylvania.
YorkCounts Director James DeBord accepted the grants on behalf of Dennis Baughman and Sue Krebs, volunteers who have guided YorkCounts’ Metro-York Educational Opportunities Subcommittee since it formed in January 2008.
The money will allow the regional charter school effort to move to its next stage. The Educational Opportunities group will next write its charter school application and start looking in York at possible sites for the school.
The regional IB charter school concept emerged in response to a 2007 Metro-York recommendation that called for attacking the root problem in the York City School District: the concentration of poverty in the city. In his 2002 visit to York, David Rusk made establishing a charter/magnet school one of his key recommendations. The IB school, which is to be made up of a 51 percent-49 percent mix of city and county students, would create a new public school opportunity for parents and students throughout York County.

Public safety study: Representatives from nine municipalities begam monthly meetings in April with a goal to cooperate on a study of the role regional policing might play in improving public safety. The nine municipalities - Dover, East Manchester, Manchester, Spring Garden and Springettsbury townships, Manchester, Mount Wolf and West York boroughs and the city of York - have chosen a chairman, found two municipalities to take the lead in the state's grant application process and heard a presentation by the consultant that will likely be asked to perform the study. The group's smart, honest conversations have been encouraging.

Stay in School: The United Way of York County took the lead in convening a group to study the array of local in-school and after-school programs aimed at keeping more kids in school. The group also set out to determine which ones were having the most success and to assess whether they could be implemented on a larger scale. The group will release its recommendations in a report due in August 2009.

Partner spotlight: United Way of York County

The United Way held its annual meeting June 15, electing new board officers and recognizing the work of key volunteers. A big part of the program detailed how the United Way did in the past year on its core function: funding community agencies. Despite one of the most difficult fund-raising environments in memory, the United Way managed to raise $7.1 million for its 2008 campaign and distributed some $5 million to its 34 partner agencies.

The local United Way was also part of an organizational change in May that changed the name of the global umbrella entity to United Way Worldwide. United Way chapters around the world approved the change to better integrate United Way of America and United Way International and to "position the United Way as a leader in the global market and better ensure . . . long-term growth," according to a statement from United Way of America.

Indicator update: Bias-related incidents

In May, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission released its annual report for 2007-2008. That report put the number of bias-related incidents reported for 2007 in York County at 17. That's a significant dip from 2006, when 35 cases were reported. It would put the average per 100,000 residents at 4.1, and that's lower than the county average during the past 10 years. But it would still be higher than the state per-capita average in the same time period, which means that the county has more intolerance than what would be considered the statewide average. That's an aspect of the county's quality of life that still needs work.

- Dan Fink

Meeting held on draft county comp plan

noreply@blogger.com (YorkCounts) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:55:00 +0000

The York County Economic Development Corp. and the York County Planning Commission have issued a draft 10-year economic development strategy for York County. They released the draft May 5, and there's a public meeting tonight to give an overview of the plan and take public comment. The meeting starts at 6:30 in the county planning offices on the second floor of the former York County Courthouse, now called the York County Administrative Center. Find a press release from the county planners here. Read the full draft plan, all 222 pages, here. The public comment period ends June 22. York County Commissioners will hold a public hearing on the plan at their regular meeting July 8.

- Dan Fink

Libraries respond to avoid cuts

noreply@blogger.com (YorkCounts) — Thu, 28 May 2009 19:23:00 +0000

Libraries across the state have begun mobilizing in response to a budget proposal by the Republican-controlled Pennsylvavnia Senate to reduce library funding statewide by 50 percent, to $37 million. In York County, the cuts would reduce state support by almost two-thirds, from $2.4 million to $900,000. Libraries are a key community resource, especially for lower-income families who might otherwise not have free access to computers and the Internet. And libraries are busier than ever, as more people look for work and interact with government aid agencies. The York County Library System has a "Libraries are a Lifeline" page set up that allows Web visitors to send a form e-mail to their state legislators. Gov. Ed Rendell's proposed budget would reduce the state subsidy by $1.75 million. Here's an analysis of Senate Bill 850 and the governor's budget by the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center.

What's the value of a strong, well-equipped local library system? How much of a priority should libraries be in the state budget?

- Dan Fink

More on swine flu, public health

noreply@blogger.com (YorkCounts) — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:45:00 +0000

CBS News reports the swine flu outbreak didn't turn out to be an international health crisis. But it did reveal "the precarious state of local health departments" at a time when those same departments are feeling the pinch of government budget cuts.

Here's a key point:

A review by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department in January noted great strides in preparedness but said many shortfalls remain. They include the ability to maintain public health functions such as food safety and daily needs during a pandemic, and the capacity to meet surges in health care demand and to strategically close schools.

Here at YorkCounts, we have made the point before that York County needs a countywide health department. This news story shows how difficult it would be to respond to a major public health crisis, even under the best circumstances.

Want to learn more? Go to Where's My County Health Department.

- Dan Fink

Good Gov Monthly - April 2009

noreply@blogger.com (YorkCounts) — Mon, 18 May 2009 18:12:00 +0000

Found on the blog at yorkcounts.org
April 2009

In this issue:

Tragedy increases urgency of anti-gang work
A snapshot from the Indicators Report: Idle youth
IB charter school reaches milestone

Tragedy increases urgency of anti-gang work

The shooting death of 9-year-old Ciara Savage on Mother's Day showed in the starkest possible terms the need for a comprehensive approach to the problems that lead to gang violence. The county's anti-gang initiative, led by Beth Gill-MacDonald, will surely have more people willing to join its work. Safer York, the city's Weed and Seed anti-crime project, will find it easier to argue for continued support. Downtown Inc.'s effort to bring a more sophisticated approach to public safety should gain traction. The Stay in School project recommendations, due this fall from the United Way of York County and YorkCounts, hopefully will attract a little more attention. All of this will require the three Cs that David White talked about at the recent gang-prevention summit: cooperation, coordination and communication. Maybe Bev Mackereth, the county's new director of Human Services, and the next mayor of York - whoever that is - can begin a new period of ambitious, big-picture thinking to help these groups work together to develop a county plan to provide better education, more job opportunities and safer streets for the youth of York County.

A snapshot from the Indicators Report: Idle youth

The Indicators Committee added this measure to the 2009 report to show the number of youth who aren't working. These so-called "idle youth" are kids who dropped out of school or who graduated but haven't found a job or gone to college or a trade school. In the York-Hanover Metropolitan Statistical Area, 8.7 percent of youth ages 16 to 19 were considered idle by the U.S. Census Bureau. The percentage rose to 13.3 percent for ages 19 to 21. It's hard to draw many conclusions, since there's no previous data to use for comparison. But when hundreds of young people are out of school or not working, they are the most likely to turn to gangs, crime and drugs. Finding these kids, training them and helping them find decent-paying jobs is one of the education recommendations from YorkCounts' Metro-York group.

IB charter school reaches milestone

The effort to increase educational opportunities for York residents reached a significant milestone in April. A public K-12 charter school, one designed around what's known as an International Baccaleurate curriculum, identified two likely funding sources that will allow the YorkCounts Educational Opportunities committee to hire a consultant and begin considering potential sites in the city. If the effort succeeds, city residents will have a new option (see update) for a public education, in addition to the York City School District, and the first in central Pennsylvania with an IB program. It is hoped that an IB charter school will also make it more attractive for middle-class families to live in York, and their children would, in theory, help break up the concentrated poverty that interferes with student performance in the existing city schools.

Update, 5/21: To clarify, this IB school would be the fourth charter school in the city. Crispus Attucks YouthBuild, Lincoln Edison and New Hope Academy also operate as charter schools, according to the Pennsylvania Coalition of Charter Schools.

- Dan Fink

A plea for help

noreply@blogger.com (YorkCounts) — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:43:00 +0000

Everywhere I go this week, it comes up: the crossfire killing of 9-year-old Ciara Savage in York on Mother's Day. This tragedy has reverberated through York County like a news event seldom does. And it demands action. Earlier this month, Penn State York held a gang summit, and some powerful speakers made the case that York County needs to find ways to keep our kids safe. But all of their eloquence and passion couldn't come close to making the point the way this senseless death does. And this single incident is tied into a whole range of other issues that stand in the way of making York County a better place to live: improving educational opportunities; providing safe community places for at-risk youth; creating good-paying, family-sustaining jobs that lift people out of poverty; and establishing more affordable housing opportunities across the county.

But on the most basic level, I'll say it again: We need to keep our kids safe. How are we going to do it? The time has passed for letting the passionate volunteers on the gang-prevention coalition try to figure it out by themselves. That group will likely be the leader in developing a broad response, and its next meeting is at 8 a.m. Friday in Penn State York's Conference Center. To join that effort, call Beth Gill-MacDonald at 495-7267 or send e-mail to bxg5@aol.com.

On Sunday, a unity march will bring two sets of marchers to Continental Square: one coming down Duke Street from Crispus Attucks, the other coming down Beaver Street from the Jefferson Center.

On Monday, Safer York, York's Weed and Seed anti-crime program, will host a public forum at Community Progress Council. The meeting starts at 9 a.m. at CPC, 226 E. College Ave., York.

The work won't end there. In the days and months ahead, the entire community needs to be involved, from the family in Dover to the cop on the street in Shrewsbury to the business owner in Hanover. In 10 years, will we be able to say this was a turning point? Will we be able to say we finally started dealing with the problems of poverty and gangs, as well as the cycle of violence they perpetuate?

We all have to ask ourselves: What can I do to help?

- Dan Fink