Parking and transportation are two of the hottest topics Harrisburg leaders will need to address as they look to spurring economic development downtown and making the city a more inviting place to live.
They are the topics of PennLive’s next roundtable on Harrisburg’s long-awaited revitalization that will feature four speakers at a noon Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, roundtable streamed live to PennLive’s social media platforms.
The roundtable on parking and transportation is the second in an ongoing series stemming from PennLive’s community forum on Harrisburg’s economic revival held recently at Harrisburg University and sponsored by the Foundation for Enhancing Communities (TFEC).
Lancaster has pulled together to bring retail, culinary and cultural excitement to its city. Why not Harrisburg? That’s the question PennLive asked at its first community forum on Harrisburg’s economic revival held recently at Harrisburg University.
The Harrisburg community heard from two active participants in Lancaster’s downtown revitalization — Tripp Muldrow, an economic development consultant and principal with Arnett Muldrow & Associates of Greenville, S.C.; and Marshall W. Snively, president of the Lancaster City Alliance, a nonprofit organization that supported its economic turnaround.
They and Harrisburg community leaders identified at least six major issues impacting the city’s economic development. At the top of the list for businesses and residents were parking and transportation.
PennLive has identified four speakers to lead the next roundtable discussion on the issues, including:
Dr. Laura Beltrán Figueroa, research director with Penn Policy Center
Todd Vanderwoude, executive director, Downtown Improvement District (DID)
Robert Farr, Executive Director of Rabbit Transit and Capital Area Transit
Kevin Burrell, Harrisburg city resident and Strategic Initiative Policy Manager at the Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations (PANO).
The conversation will focus on the major issues businesses and residents face with parking in downtown Harrisburg and in residential areas, as well as concerns over access to public transit.
Among the questions we’ve asked our speakers to consider include:
Are parking issues a major obstacle to revitalizing Harrisburg’s downtown? How did we get to the point where people must pay to park even on Saturdays?
Can public transit be improved to better connect parts of the city as well as surrounding areas?
Doug Neidich, Chief Executive Officer of GreenWorks Development, suggested in the previous forum the city consider starting a downtown trolley that would stop at key places in the business district. Is that doable?
The DID showed one path to addressing parking in downtown Harrisburg by subsidizing it to allow free parking at key times of the day. Can the city enlist other large businesses or even the state to do the same?
Are parking and transportation impacting the city’s ability to attract and maintain residents as well as businesses?
What advice would you give to city leaders in how to improve the parking situation as well as the availability of efficient, comfortable public transportation?
Once again, we invite our readers to send questions they’d like to ask as well as comments on the topic to letters@pennlive.com We’ll try to include as many as we can in the discussion.
And make sure to sign on to PennLive’s Facebook or YouTube channel to participate in the conversation. Your ideas just might help ignite Harrisburg’s revival.
Joyce M. Davis is PennLive’s Outreach & Opinion Editor. Follow her on Facebook, Bluesky @joycemdavis.bsky.social, and on Twitter @byjoycedavis.