Great Harrisburg Cleanup This Saturday

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Dauphin County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It may be wet & cold today but Saturday will be sunny & dry.  Perfect weather to come out and join Friends of Midtown in the Great Harrisburg Cleanup which runs from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm.  There will be a dumpster located at the Broad Street Market for the bags of trash & debris collected.  Our new incinerator owner, LCSWMA, has agreed to waive the tipping fees and the dumpsters have also been donated by local businesses.  This is truly a community event and city-wide as there will be donated dumpsters located in Uptown and Allison Hill.

We will meet at 8:45 am in front of the Broad Street Market on the Third Street side and set our plans to clean up our neighborhood.  If you prefer to work with your neighbors in your own block and find hauling your collected trash bags to the Broad Street Market dumpster could be difficult, register your group on the Great Harrisburg Cleanup website at http://historicharrisburg.com/index.php/events/volunteer-registration and indicate what street corner your bags will be placed so they can be picked up by Public Works.

Any questions?  Contact us at beautification@friendsofmidtown.org before 8:00 am on Saturday.

Hope to see you there!

Botched Harrisburg Home Invasion Leaves Alleged Robber With Facial Injuries, Victim With Gunshot Wound To Leg

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Dauphin County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A botched armed robbery Friday in Harrisburg left an alleged robber with facial injuries and another man with a gunshot wound to his leg, city police said.

Adrian Ortiz-Diaz, 39, who lives in Allison Hill, broke into an apartment in the Hall Manor Public Housing Complex and tried to rob a victim with a gun, police said.

The 21-year-old victim fought back and was shot in the leg during the struggle, police said in a news release.  The victim’s girlfriend was also home at the time of the attempted robbery, but was not injured.

Read more:  http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/07/botched_robbery_leaves_one_man.html#incart_m-rpt-2

Violent Crime Wave Continues With 3 More Shootings, Robberies In Harrisburg

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Dauphin County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Within hours of Harrisburg police’s first foot patrol to curb the city’s most recent wave of violent crime, police responded to three more shootings and several robberies.

As of Wednesday afternoon, police had arrested two male teenagers, a 17-year-old and a 14-year-old, as well as a 23-year-old man in connection with the crimes, and additional charges are likely as the investigation continues, city police Chief Pierre Ritter said.

Speaking from the site of the latest foot patrol in the Allison Hill neighborhood Wednesday afternoon, Ritter addressed the department’s need to keep up with criminals, who he said are quick to target areas far away from planned police enforcement zones.

“What we’re seeing happen is, when we make foot patrols in one area, these guys go to another area to commit crime,” Ritter said. “Criminals are becoming more and more mobile.”

Read more:  http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/05/post_562.html#incart_m-rpt-1

Harrisburg Neighborhood Safety Zone Program Nabs 16 Guns, Cites Over 150 Code Violations

HARRISBURG — Police confiscated a gun, wrote nine traffic tickets and issued 100 citations for property code violations during the third phase of the capital city’s Neighborhood Safe Zone initiative.

The eight-day crackdown on crime targeted North Sixth Street between Radnor and Woodbine streets, and along North Fourth Street from Radnor to Jefferson streets, Mayor Linda Thompson said.

Thompson spoke during a news conference Tuesday to provide an update on the NSZ program launched two months ago.

Modeled after initiatives in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., the program increases enforcement in specific areas for a brief duration: police crack down on crime, then code enforcement officers survey properties for violations — resulting in everything from littering citations to deeming structures unfit for human habitation — and illegal dumping.

Read more:  http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/04/harrisburg_neighborhood_safety.html#incart_m-rpt-2

Harrisburg Shootings Lead To Street Barricade, Shaken Residents

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Dauphin County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hours after Harrisburg police barricaded an uptown street for safety, shots rang out throughout the city’s crime-ridden Allison Hill early Saturday, wounding at least two men and leaving residents shaken.

Residents, some awakened by volleys of bullets, found the sound of gunfire all too familiar.

Gunshot victims bled on the streets, one on South 14th and one on Brookwood.

Police cars, their lights flashing “like Christmas trees” as one resident described it, descended on the neighborhoods.

Read more: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/08/harrisburg_shootings_lead_to_s.html

4-H Helps Urban Areas Go Green – Harrisburg’s Allison Hill Neighborhood

This project is a 4-H educational outreach program of Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences. The program was initiated by Dauphin County cooperative extension to address the specific needs of urban and inner-city youth.