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In Pennsylvania over 2,500 state historical markers, some dating back over one hundred years, dot the roadside. A recent system wide review of the marker’s text brought controversy, but also a thoughtful analysis of the content of those markers that attempt to interpret Indigenous and African American histories. Timely thoughts as public history agencies struggle to do the right thing.
Can America’s small cities be saved? Practioners in the fields of historic preservation, parks and recreation, and community development across the country have tried to tackle this problem. The problem runs wide and deep. For example, in Pennsylvania over 30 municipalities, almost all of which could be characterized as small cities, have been designated financially distressed. All of these places have a similar litany of problems – declining population and tax revenue, high pension and health care costs, a large inventory of blighted or tax-exempt properties, and heavy burden of municipal debt. Recent opinion pieces in the New York Times and the Washington Post have highlighted the issue, now what? Read more.
What happens when a highway project, long planned to improve the functionality of the overall transportation system, runs up against new designations that look at the value of resources on a landscape scale? How can infrastructure development manage this changing landscape? After all it does not look like this kind of thinking is going away. Read the back story and some recommendations for the future.
As Pennsylvania confronts the next massive wave of resource extraction – natural gas drilling, its citizens now have a primer on the lessons from their past owing to a recent decision from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on the constitutionality of Act 13, legislation from 2012 that sought to accommodate natural gas drilling. Learn more about what the court had to say about this controversial law.
Efforts are now underway in Pennsylvania to support the stewardship of more than 40 cemeteries where African American Civil War veterans were interred. This important project, Pennsylvania’s Hallowed Ground, builds on many years of work of by dedicated volunteers across the commonwealth. Learn more.
In Pennsylvania over 2,500 state historical markers, some dating back over one hundred years, dot the roadside. A recent system wide review of the marker’s text brought controversy, but also a thoughtful analysis of the content of those markers that attempt to interpret Indigenous and African American histories. Timely thoughts as public history agencies struggle to do the right thing.
Can America’s small cities be saved? Practioners in the fields of historic preservation, parks and recreation, and community development across the country have tried to tackle this problem. The problem runs wide and deep. For example, in Pennsylvania over 30 municipalities, almost all of which could be characterized as small cities, have been designated financially distressed. All of these places have a similar litany of problems – declining population and tax revenue, high pension and health care costs, a large inventory of blighted or tax-exempt properties, and heavy burden of municipal debt. Recent opinion pieces in the New York Times and the Washington Post have highlighted the issue, now what? Read more.
What happens when a highway project, long planned to improve the functionality of the overall transportation system, runs up against new designations that look at the value of resources on a landscape scale? How can infrastructure development manage this changing landscape? After all it does not look like this kind of thinking is going away. Read the back story and some recommendations for the future.
As Pennsylvania confronts the next massive wave of resource extraction – natural gas drilling, its citizens now have a primer on the lessons from their past owing to a recent decision from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on the constitutionality of Act 13, legislation from 2012 that sought to accommodate natural gas drilling. Learn more about what the court had to say about this controversial law.
Efforts are now underway in Pennsylvania to support the stewardship of more than 40 cemeteries where African American Civil War veterans were interred. This important project, Pennsylvania’s Hallowed Ground, builds on many years of work of by dedicated volunteers across the commonwealth. Learn more.