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Advice This Summer: Avoid Downtown

This may sound extreme, but after the latest incidents of violent crime downtown, I would advise anyone to stay away from Downtown Harrisburg for a while until the city can clean things up a bit.

When the entertainment district begins to see violent crime outside their door, something is wrong.For those of you who don’t know yet, a band performing downtown was mugged and pistol whipped after their show at Smalls last week. It was barely reported in the mass media, but local bloggers Jersey Mike and Justina, did make mention of it. CBS 21 only did a story after the online outcry became louder.

Smalls isn’t off the beaten path or in a bad part of town. It’s right in the heart of Restaurant Row on 2nd Street. Violent crime should not be happening where people come to frequent the city’s best bars and restaurants on a regular basis. If crime continues to flourish in Harrisburg like is has this year, more and more people will stay away from Harrisburg’s entertainment district.

The scene downtown has continuously gotten worse and I’ve discussed this with several area bloggers. The frat party mentality is out of control and the police do little to intervene or keep the peace outside of some presence outside the River Street Garage. When the bars let out downtown, it’s a drunken madhouse, especially between Locust and Pine. Reports of fights and verbal attacks do little to help the scene and the clubs that cater to this sort of element are fueling it.

My advice this year- stay away from downtown Harrisburg until the businesses, the city, and the police figure out a way to clean things up.

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5 Responses to “Advice This Summer: Avoid Downtown”

I don’t know if I’d go quite that far. I know that I’ve seen disproportionate amounts of problems down by The Quarter, which by default will trickle up towards the rest of the area. It’s as if there’s some vortex between The Quarter and Eclipse; Eclipse brings in all the frat-brother-wannabes and The Quarter brings in all the ghetto-thug-wannabes, and both are beginning to erode downtown. I’d like to see some more police presence down that way.

Left by floor9 on July 6th, 2007

Frat boys: it is definitely at epidemic proportions.

I blame the beer specials and the lack of clubs with a dress code downtown. And no, no open toed shoes and no baseball cps is not a good dress code.

Left by Justina on July 9th, 2007

Wow, I am very saddened to hear this news but not at all surprised. The mentality in Harrisburg overall is very, very negative and many people can’t seem to figure out how to control themselves. I have traveled the U.S. extensively and now lived in many places, and the people in Harrisburg are a breed like no other…

I wish the city the best and I sure hope they can get things under control. Without DT Harrisburg, the area really is nothing…

*Oh and I am not surprised at all the media tried to sweep this all under the rug. There is a very conservative “speak no evil” mentality in Harrisburg and this is NOT a good thing, as this does nothing to help make the problems get better.

Left by dskillz on July 10th, 2007

A bit of sarcasm thrown in this post if you didn’t figure it out. Either way, it is unacceptable for any crime to occur in the downtown entertainment district.

I’ll still patronize the area though, but Harrisburg is on watch…

Left by Bone on July 16th, 2007

ANother reason to stay away…the restaurants aren’t inspected! http://passopenrecords.org/2007/07/17/restaurant-inspection-update/

Left by Dani on July 17th, 2007

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