Berks County has a lot of great stuff, but nothing like its neighbors

by Steve Reinbrecht
[I reported this in August.]

Premise: We want people to come to Berks County.

We want the best workers to work in our businesses.

We want people to visit and spend money and go home and tell friends how much fun they had in Greater Reading.

We want smart young people to come and study here and maybe stay and start businesses and families.

Reality: We have to work hard to attract people here.

At this point, we don’t have the jobs to lure many employees. In fact, more than 40 percent of Berks workers commute to jobs outside the county, according to 2011 statistics. 

We don’t have nationally ranked colleges.

We don’t have blockbuster attractions like neighboring counties do, such as the Valley Forge Casino next door in Montgomery County or an amusement park like Dorney Park, with Steel Force, the ninth longest steel roller coaster in the world. Longwood Gardens, in Chester County, had 1.1 million visits in 2013. Valley Forge National Historical Park gets 1.3 million visitors a year.

But maybe Berks doesn’t have to be a regional powerhouse in education or tourism or even employment.

“Be careful what you wish for,” said Berks County Commissioner Mark Scott. Many people like the quiet life here, prefer cornfields to development, and are happy to drive an hour to ride a roller coaster, he said.

“People who live here don’t feel deprived of a Dorney Park.”


In a comment on a recent report by Franklin and Marshall College about Berks’ economy, Brian Kelly, head of ReDesignReading, a community development corporation, suggested that Berks look inward and concentrate on the people who live here.

“The key to economic revitalization will be a diverse strategy that leverages our strengths and harnesses the resiliency, diversity, and entrepreneurialism of our workforce and population.”

Consider what we do have, Berks Commissioner Christian Leinbach told me.

“I'm pretty impressed with what we have to offer here in Berks County, and yes, it fits well with my vision of Berks County. “

The list of the top three attractions in Berks, provided by Lisa Haggerty, of the Greater Reading Convention and Visitors Bureau, surprised me: Maple Grove Raceway, the Kutztown Folk Festival, and Koziar’s Christmas Village. The Kutztown festival gets about 130,000 visitors a year, said director Steve Sharadin. Attendance figures weren’t available for the raceway or holiday display.

The weeklong Berks Jazzfest every spring is a big deal in Greater Reading. In its 25th year, the fest attracts 40,000 a year from all over the world. Studies show the fest has as much as a $10 million effect on local economy, organizer John Ernesto said. 

But it pales in comparison to the annual Musikfest, 35 miles away in Bethlehem, with 10 days of live music, including hundreds of free performances. Estimated attendance in 2013: 993,000 people. This year, Keith Urban, Cheryl Crow, Weezer and paleo-rockers Moody Blues and Steely Dan were booked.

Marketing could improve. Some of the best attractions Berks has aren’t well known. Even some tourism professionals in nearby counties haven’t heard of the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, the exceptional arts center in Reading, nor even the iconic Pagoda.

Asked about Berks, Nina Kelly, a spokeswoman for the Chester County Conference and Visitors Bureau, said she thinks about outlet shopping and the former Joe’s Restaurant, known for its mushrooms, and said she has heard about the hotel under construction in downtown Reading.

She was only “vaguely” aware of the GoggleWorks arts center in Reading.

“Tourism wise, that’s not on the map,” she said.

Asked about Berks attractions, George Wacker, at “Discover Lehigh Valley,” that county’s tourism bureau, said, “Now you’re putting me on the spot. … I know the Reading Phillies put on a great family event.” 

He hadn’t heard of the GoggleWorks but did know of the Pagoda.

It’s even hard for prospective visitors to get to Berks. Haggerty said a lack of passenger air and rail service discourages conventions. 

The latest Census figures estimate that about 26,000 people commute in and about 50,000 commute out to work. The job recovery since the recession lags in Berks, compared to Chester, Lehigh and Lebanon Counties and the state overall. A big chunk of those who drive out probably go south and east to pharmaceutical and information-technology jobs, such as at Vanguard Group, in Malvern, said Ed McCann, former director of Berks’ Workforce Investment Board. Those who commute in, mostly from homes north and west of Berks, come for manufacturing and health-care jobs. Many workers at the new Berks Park 78 distribution complex on Interstate 78 are from Schuylkill County, he said. 

Berks has wonderful attractions, but few are on the level of those in neighboring counties. In 2012, tourists spent nearly $800 million in Berks, compared to more than $1.8 billion in the Lehigh Valley and Lancaster County, and about $1.2 billion in Montgomery County, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. 

Berks was once a shopping destination. Reading’s downtown outlets, now all closed, received buses full of shoppers from all over the region. Much of the retail moved to the suburbs, but my three daughters greatly prefer shopping at the King of Prussia Mall or at Park City Mall in Lancaster than at anywhere around Reading because of the number and quality of the stores. Berks’s major mall, the Berkshire Mall in Wyomissing, has about 110 stores. The King of Prussia Mall, in Montgomery County, has more than 400 stores, many not found in Berks, such as Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale's, Lord & Taylor, and an Apple store. Park City Mall, near Lancaster, has about 175, also including an Apple store.

The Vanity Fair outlets, in West Reading, still bring buses to our area, despite the larger outlet centers to the east and west of Berks, Haggerty said. “People still associate Reading with great outlet shopping and plan visits to VF when they are here,” she said.

Cabela’s, a giant hunting and camping store just off Route 78 in northern Berks, has anchored a giant retail complex and must be a regional destination, but the company would not provide visitor numbers.

West Reading, with its blocks of restaurants and boutique shopping, is a destination for people from outside of Berks, said Dean Rohrbach, manager of the borough’s Elm Street development program, run by the state. For example, about half of the diners at Papillon Brasserie, a French restaurant at 615 Penn St., come from outside the county, he said. Chatting with people at Fightin Phils baseball games in Reading, he’s discovered many of them come from away as well.

Hawk Mountain and the World War II Museum and air show also bring ample visitors, Haggerty said. The museum had 33,000 visits in 2013, representing 46 states and 16 foreign countries, according to its office.

The Santander arena and nearby Santander performing arts center in Reading had about 285,000 attendees at hockey games, concerts and other events in 2013, according to 
Joanie Berney, SMG marketing manager. 

Billboard advertisement is an example of the efforts of Berks’ biggest employer, Reading Health System, to drum up business. But only about 10 percent of the patients came from outside of Berks County in 2013, and about 1 percent came from further than the surrounding counties, said spokeswoman Ann Valuch. 

Pennsylvania attracts students. About 36,000 students come to the state for higher education while about 20,000 Pennsylvania students leave the state for school, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, proving the state is an educational draw.

What about Berks? County-level data aren’t available, but its two small private schools, Alvernia University and Albright College, each on the outskirts of Reading, successfully draw students from outside the region. At Albright, 65 percent of students come from beyond Berks and the six surrounding counties, including about 70 foreign students this year. About 70 percent of Alvernia’s students come from outside of Berks.

At Kutztown and Penn State Berks universities, each connected with the state system, nearly 90 percent are from Pennsylvania, though Penn State Berks Chancellor Keith Hillkirk noted his school also has about 70 foreign students, and the number grows each year.

However, no Berks College is a top-ranked school such as Bethlehem’s Lehigh University or Lancaster’s Franklin and Marshall. Lehigh University draws about 75 percent of its undergraduates from out of the state. F&M, a couple of blocks from downtown Lancaster, draws 62 percent of its freshmen from other states and another 13 percent of them from other countries.

Lehigh and FM also have easy access to their cities’ downtowns, providing more of the urban experience that attracts young people today. Many students seek colleges in exciting urban environments with lots of recreation and public transportation.

But many still prefer the bucolic settings that Berks’ schools provide, said Hillkirk, who also leads the Berks Higher Education Council. From Berks they can take field trips to nearby cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Washington and Baltimore for theaters and museums and city fun. He knows some students have returned to the Berks campus from Penn State’s main campus because they like the smaller campus at in Berks County 

“I think we have the best of both worlds,” he said.

What are Berks leaders doing to attract more commuters, students and shoppers?

Many agencies pursue economic development from many angles. If McCann’s theory is correct – that many people in eastern Berks commute outside the county to IT and pharmaceutical jobs – perhaps employers in those industries could be lured to Berks with the prospect of so many skilled workers, McCann said.

Rohrbach is studying surveys and reports to decide how to focus marketing to attract more people to West Reading. He wants to get the message to higher-educated people who might like the borough’s arts and distinctive dining.

The Berks tourism bureau is launching its own marketing study and expects results after February.

As for higher education, there is tremendous competition among colleges to attract students. Schools need to figure out a niche and market it clearly and precisely to perspective families, Hillkirk said.

McCann, of the workforce board, notes that maybe it’s more important to have residents than commuters because people tend to spend their money in the place where they live.

But people are voting against Berks County with their feet. More than 3,000 people moved out of Berks than moved in from 2010 to 2012, according to the Census.

It’s a chicken and egg problem -- people want to go to where there are jobs, good schools and fun things to do. But businesses and fun things to do don’t generally spring up where no one goes.

Although it’s important to try to attract them, it’s unlikely that more tourists, commuters and college students will solve many of Berks problems. Maybe we should focus on providing services jobs and goods for the people already here rather than attempt to be a regional beacon in a part of the county with so many strengths.

Perhaps economic development could be focused more on day-to-day assistance to small businesses here rather than seeking giant employers. And perhaps promoting little-known gems such as the GoggleWorks and walking trails here will enrich the lives of residents as well as visitors.

Vigilantes open strategic bridge in Lower Heidelberg Township

by Steve Reinbrecht

Vigilantes have moved barriers to open a bridge in Lower Heidelberg Township.

The bridge, across the Little Cacoosing Creek in Lower Heidelberg, has been crossable for years, but Establishment forces have used concrete barriers to block passage for cars and trucks.

[Disclosure: it’s practically in my back yard.]

Recently, the length of Connecticut Avenue in the Green Valley development that crosses the creek has been paved, and the concrete barriers replaced with plastic barrels and saw-horses.

Desperate drivers, eager to save precious minutes on their commutes, have shoved the stuff aside to open a lane.

Establishment forces, either township police or Grande Construction workers, replace them. When that happens, before someone gets out and takes matters into his or her own hands, a steady stream of vehicles drive to the bridge, pause, and do three-point turns. Many drive down our cul-de-sac, looking for an alternate escape. GPS services have long directed vehicles across the dead-end bridge. Friends have been duped.

Major construction started in September 2011, almost three years ago. The township wants the bridge open for better emergency-response access.

The hundreds of families in the development want the bridge open because it shaves minutes off every trip east and lets us avoid The Worst Traffic in Berks County, on Route 422 through Sinking Spring. It saves me at least three minutes a trip from my errands and chauffeuring to Wilson High School and Wyomissing. It saves me driving through a mile of residential streets full of tots, old people, bikes, dogs and school buses.

Grande must have spent $1 million on the bridge. It certainly isn’t among Pennsylvania’s structurally deficient bridges. It has two spans. Grande created acres of wetlands to remediate disturbing the existing wetlands. The company planted dozens of native trees and shrubs and cattails etc. 

How many new bridges have been built in Berks lately, especially by a private developer?

I know Establishment forces can’t let us vulnerable citizens drive across unsafe bridges.

But this bridge is safe. What’s the holdup preventing the public from using this high-cost infrastructure? It’s obviously some bureaucratic holdup with state approval or insurance or waiting for a quorum at a summer municipal meeting.

In any case, I’m glad the rules have been broken to let common sense prevail.

Berks County is two years behind on $67 million emergency-communications project

By Steve Reinbrecht

Berks County was supposed to have complied with federal radio requirements by the end of 2012 but has asked for an extension until the end of this year.

But county leaders will not tell me why Berks is two years behind on the $67 million tax-payer funded public-safety project.

And the Reading Eagle doesn’t seem to publish uncomfortable news about Berks government.

Brian Gottschall, county emergency services director, told me that all media requests go to Chief Operating Officer Carl Geffken, who didn’t respond to my inquiry.

The Reading Eagle followed the county’s battles with NIMBY opponents of the system in Cumru and Bethel townships but has had no recent stories [at least that I could find with its clumsy search engine] explaining why the project is so far behind.

In April, now-retired Eagle reporter and trusted county spokeswoman Mary Young wrote a story quoting county officials about how well they were doing their jobs to be prepared for disasters – but the story did not mention the radio system.

Tom Bausher, West Side Regional Emergency Management Agency’s emergency management coordinator, told me that the delay has not affected his operations. The agency serves Sinking Spring, West Reading, Wyomissing and Spring Township. 

His bigger concern is how it will work. He’s heard it will be up in November.

He’s read mixed reviews of similar systems.

"It doesn’t get all good reviews, I’ll tell you."

Bausher also isn’t happy that he’s spent money to purchase new equipment required by the upgrade but the county will own it.

He’s paid for six units. Some large fire and police departments have had to acquire many more.

“The cost of this is outrageous.”

An FCC spokeswoman told me this week that the county is in compliance, having received extensions as needed.

The federal agency required emergency communications systems to change the frequencies they use by Jan. 1, 2013, and the county decided to restructure its system.

The goals were to improve radio coverage in hard-to-reach areas and allow all emergency responders to communicate with each other.

It called for building 21 new transmission towers and requiring local municipalities to chip in for equipment.

In a June 24 letter to the FCC asking for the extension, Gottschall wrote:

“We have made significant progress in the build out of the new system. The remaining sites have been built, but now we are in the process of optimizing the new VHF system that will replace the legacy systems. This will take some time to complete as we have to wait until cutover is completed.

“The reason for this is because 3 of the channels on the new systems are also in use today in wideband operation. The legacy channels cannot be vacated until the users are cutover and using the new 700 MHz trunking system. This is schedule to be completed by mid-November, 2014. Once the cutover is completed, we will need time to then get the new VHF system optimized and fully operational.”

Will pot-possession prosecution continue in Berks County?

The top crimefighter in Brooklyn announced last week that he will stop prosecuting most low-level marijuana cases.

What is the policy in Berks County?

It’s up to District Attorney John Adams, and he hasn’t yet answered my inquiry.

Reading Police Chief Bill Heim said his department has not changed its pot-busting practices and has no policy about the enforcement of low-level marijuana violations.

“I would not object to the possession of small quantities of marijuana being handled by the issuance of summary citations instead of misdemeanor arrests, but currently there is no provision in the law that I’m aware of to do that in Pennsylvania,” Heim wrote in an e-mail.

Berks County cannabis control seems to have eased a bit. In 2013, according to state records, police made 66 arrests for selling marijuana in Berks, down from 98 arrests in 2007.

In 2013, police made 467 arrests in Berks County for possessing marijuana, down just a bit from the 471 arrests for possessing pot in 2007.

In unprogressive Pennsylvania, the war on weed is leaving more casualties -- across the state, police made 16,367 arrests for possessing pot in 2007 and 17,937 arrests in 2013.

Is the GoggleWorks' momentum running out?

By Steve Reinbrecht

The GoggleWorks Center for the Arts is supposed to have a big role in brightening Reading’s future.

“By all counts, Reading is well on its way to an historic period of revitalization and prosperity,” says the state’s KeystoneEdge webpage about the city. “It might have begun with The GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, a community art and cultural resource center founded in 2003 in a former safety goggles factory.”

“The GoggleWorks, the biggest arts center of its kind in the nation, calls Reading home. As a renovated factory building set in the heart of Reading, it sparks hope that the arts can jolt life into the city,” according to an article in January2013 in Curator, an online arts magazine.

“Art is one of the best ways to redevelop the city,” retail magnate Al Boscov, who was instrumental in creating the GoggleWorks, told Berks County Living magazine in October 2013. “Art is fueling the rebirth of the city of Reading.”

“Can the arts revive Reading?” asks a Reading Eagle story about the arts center this week.

But is the GoggleWorks, which opened in September 2005 at the cost of $13.5 million, succeeding?

It never has been able to cover its expenses without rich people and philanthropies donating a huge chunk of its roughly $1.7 million annual budget, including more than $1 million in 2012 and 2013. For example, Boscov donated $570,000 in 2012 and $300,000 in 2013. Marlin Miller, another founder, donated $550,000 in 2012 and $300,000 in 2013.

Some artists who have had studios in the GoggleWorks since it opened are leaving. Too few people visit their studios, some say. One says the GoggleWorks is failing its mission to engage the neighbors: “To nurture the arts, foster creativity, promote education and enrich the community.”

Many city residents don’t visit or know much about the place.

The Berks tourist-bureau website virtually ignores the GoggleWorks.

A row of never-leased retail space right across the street is starting to look trashy.

But the GoggleWorks’s leader, who started in July 2012, says he has the answer to get more money to sustain the arts center and attract young artists to live and work here.

Art has ignited positive change in city neighborhoods across the world. Susan Golembiski, a fashion designer who left the GoggleWorks after buying Jan Rae, a business in West Reading, easily reeled off a list of communities, some urban, that have transformed themselves by embracing art: Lambertville, New Hope, Fishtown, Manayunk, South Street, Red Bank.

Local artists and entrepreneurs made them fun places, she said, and people began to visit from farther away.

To spur revitalization in Reading, city leaders decided to create an arts district centered on the GoggleWorks. In 2012, local architect Lee Olsen was paid $75,000 to create a plan for the Ricktown arts district among the blocks of mostly poor, Spanish-speaking people.

But Ricktown has gone nowhere.

“Although there was a lot of discussion, nothing proceeded,” GoggleWorks spokeswoman Lauren McNitt said.

In March, Boscov asked for about $2.25 million in federal money that had been earmarked for Ricktown to instead develop buildings on Penn Street.

"There's nothing we can do in Ricktown strong enough to make any impact," Boscov said. "But this (Penn Square project) could work." he said in March.

Some GoggleWorks artists say the number of visitors has declined and that GoggleWorks has to do better marketing. McNitt has heard artists are disappointed that more art is not being purchased.

Artist Alan Cernak has had a studio in the GoggleWorks since it opened but has decided to leave. He said the project started out wonderfully but that foot traffic has declined.

“Now it’s down to zero.”

Not quite – the GoggleWorks’s electric eye counted a monthly average of 19,820 visits over the past eight months, with the highest in May -- 25,802. Before the GoggleWorks installed counters in early October 2013, it didn’t tally visitors, McNitt said.

Golembiski said the number of visitors was good at first, especially during Second Sunday events, but has dropped recently.

“People don’t want to go into Reading,” she said. “People are afraid of Reading. I don’t understand it. I’m not. … I feel kind of guilty leaving it.”

Cernak, whose Japanese-style art attracts many young people, agreed that fear of crime is a barrier.

“They hear we’re going to move to West Reading, and everybody’s mother goes, “Oh good.’ “

Artist Suzanne Fellows, also a board member, said it’s unlikely the center will see again the crowds it attracted in its first years.

Many people like to disparage GoggleWorks, she said, but things are going well. “Things aren’t in the ditch.”

At times, the GoggleWorks café has closed for lack of business, though now it is run by Reading’s Mi Casa Su Casa restaurant.

The GoggleWorks has a high turnover of artists, said artist Ed Terrell, who ran the African Coalition of Reading gallery in the GoggleWorks from its opening in 2005 until he left in March.

Studio space is in demand because many artists are lured by the prestige and promise of being part of an arts organization, Terrell said.

“After some months, they’re sitting in their studios, realizing no one’s coming by,” Terrell said. “So many amazing artists who came there to do stuff leave.”

Every spring for years, Terrell has held an art show and contest in the GoggleWorks for Reading School District students, giving awards and displaying art work from every grade and every school. His award ceremonies packed the floor with adults and children from the city.

He says the center is not following its mission because it does not reach out to the local community

“It’s a very quiet place,” he said. “A lot more could be going on there to represent the community. … They don’t target the surrounding community.”

The last outdoor community event was in the summer of 2011 in the parking lot, McNitt said. But she said holding a farmer’s market inside the GoggleWorks’s cafeteria every Friday is a great way to attract new visitors from the neighborhood and nearby high rises, filled mostly with old people. She distributed 400 bilingual fliers about the market to residents and students in nearby Lauer’s Park Elementary School.

After finding a flier in her child’s school bag and seeing sidewalk signs, Mariel Tineo visited the GoggleWorks for the first time June 13 with her young children to see the farmer’s market, which debuted that day. She said her children enjoyed the market, and she bought honey and bread.

To other residents, the GoggleWorks remains a mystery. Pablo Reyes-Polanco had noticed the colored flashing lights on the exterior. “I never knew that was the GoggleWorks, and I’ve been here for five years.” He was surprised to hear what it was. “I like art.”

Residents Yesenia Montanez and Heisy Berroa Nuñez also had noticed the lights but didn’t know it was the GoggleWorks or an arts center.

Friends Marcell and Miguel like to hang out in the cool, comfortable third-floor lounge after discovering the GoggleWorks during a Reading High School field trip. They also like looking at the art.

“Many people don’t know about this place,” Miguel said.

Beside the new market, the GoggleWorks serves the community with free after-school art classes, McNitt said. In 2013, the GoggleWorks served almost 1,100 students with 197 arts classes, including 518 children in 60 free after-school classes.

“I’d like to know how to reach more people in the community,” she said.

The Reading Eagle, Albright College radio WXAC and Berks Community Television (BCTV) have helped spread the word about the GoggleWorks and its events, McNitt said.

But the Greater Reading Convention and Visitors Bureau website is not much help. The top of its “arts and culture” page in its “What to do section” mentions the Amish, but not the GoggleWorks.

The top of the “attractions” section mentions the Pagoda, but not the GoggleWorks. The website lists dozens of attractions alphabetically, so you see the Biedler House and Cornwall Iron Furnace, remarkable as those sites might be, long before you get a clue, while you’re planning a trip to Reading, that there’s a place called the GoggleWorks.

The GoggleWorks, spreading out over 145,000 square feet in a five-story former factory, is full of galleries, artist studios, beauty and whimsy. It is free to enter, and you may wander on three floors where much beautiful, intriguing and provocative art, by local and visiting artists, is always on display.

It has a wondrous wood shop and a cozy movie theater. Though now operating at full blast, the center has had to close it exceptional glassmaking studio, with its giant furnaces, because of the high energy costs. Winter heating costs in the old building are killer.

GoggleWorks’s executive director, Phil Walz, who started in October 2012, said he has a plan to find the revenue to allow the arts center pay its own way – and it involves attracting people from around the world, not just the neighborhoods.

In May, glass artists from across America came to Reading for an intensive two-week class. More art students will come to learn how to form glass in kilns, jewelry and metalsmithing, ceramics and fine woodworking. The two-week workshops range from $475-$660. The classes feature renowned regional and national faculty and target emerging and professional artists.

The revenue stream will “absolutely” plug the GoggleWorks’ budget gap, Walz said. But the math is daunting – to raise $1 million, the center would have to collect $660 from more than 1,500 art students.

The plan uses the center’s advantages – its physical capacity, year-round operation, location, low-cost public transit, low cost of living and competitive course prices, Walz wrote.

It will also help develop the city, Walz said. It could help create a place where young artists could rent cheap space, use equipment they could never afford on their own, find cheap housing and walk to work. Similar elite arts centers are generally in remote spots and operate only 2-3 months a year.

“We believe that our comparatively low cost of living, ease of access to major metropolitan East Coast centers, the cost, availability, and high quality rental studios available, and the availability of large teaching studios for rent, combined with a vital creative community, will make Reading a destination for serious artists wanting to begin a career.”

Artists also complained GoggleWorks administrators were closed to their ideas.

Cernak had pushed the idea of a convention for lovers of anime – a Japanese art style – that would have included visits to the Pagoda, but said it didn’t get anywhere.

Golembiski wanted to teach fashion and design classes to young people so they could learn her vanishing trade.

“They just couldn’t make it happen.”

Terrell and others made a plan called GoggleScapes with awnings, benches, lights, planters, sculptures and a banner across the street to make the center look more exciting.

“This was all shut down.”

Administrators also shot down the idea for a mural at the entrance, Terrell said.

McNitt said the GoggleWorks suffers from a lack of resources, not good ideas. Walz gets such suggestions every day, McNitt said.

Referring to GoggleScapes, she said: “Where is the money going to come from for something like that? GoggleWorks is being asked to be self-sufficient. What are we going to cut?”

Similar sites do not have much exterior art, and once installed it’s hard to have removed, McNitt wrote.

“Permanent art such as what Mr. Terrell was proposing would also be a reflection of the organization's aesthetic, cultural and institutional values. Walz believes that anyone should be able to come here and develop their own.”

Is the arts center a symbol of the disconnection between the people who plan what to build and promote to improve the city – and the people who live there? Do development plans depend too much on attracting outside people to bring their money into Reading instead of organically improving the city from the inside out?

On cold days last winter, apparently homeless people gathered in a seating area in the arts center, Golembiski said.

“It put people off.”

Terrell wants to focus on the neighborhood, no matter how scruffy it is.

“It has to be a living, breathing place,” Terrell said of the arts center.

Decisions now are based on paranoia, he said.

“With art, you can’t have paranoia,” he said.