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Sovereign Bank has its name on seemingly everything in Berks County. The City of Reading alone could be renamed "Sovereign, Pennsylvania" and you really couldn't argue with the logic. "In Sovereign We Trust" could very well be our local government's official slogan.

First Run December 16th, 2006

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All Our Eggs in One Risky Basket

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It was announced last week that Senator Mike O'Pake, also known as Mike "Scratch my back and I will smile for your campaign shoot" O'Pake, is overseeing the allocation of funds to the City of Reading for crime-fighting purposes.

First Run January 1st, 2007

Money for Nothing and Our Crime for Free

New Year’s Eve was ushered in with the usual bang in Reading. Fireworks went off atop Mount Penn, as gunshots went off around the city.

It was sometimes hard to tell which were which.

First Run January 6th, 2007

Brand New Year, Same Old Reading

First Run January 13th, 2007

One of the area’s most distinguishable structures, not to mention one of its least celebrated, found out this week that sometimes guests aren’t always welcome.

Especially those toting explosives around with them.

No More Rooms at the Inn

January 9^th shooting in the city left a 17-year old male little more than a fading memory. Far too young to die. Incidentally, an even younger teen was also involved in the same horrific incident. Only he was the one pulling the trigger.

First Run January 17th, 2007

Have my eyes and ears betrayed me?

Have I been so delusional lately (due to the sudden spike in violence) that I have reverted back mentally to the times when the streets ran the city? When a mayor could be elected and be so unfit for said position?

First Run January 26th, 2007

In his state of the city address this week, Mayor Tom McMahon gave Reading a passing grade. “The state of the city is good.”

“Overall.”

Overall, I think the two blocks the mayor spends most of his time in, are, for lack of a more excitable word, good indeed.

First Run January 31st, 2007

First Run February 5th, 2007

Two stories broke early this week in Berks County…one being the ongoing saga of Kevin Bean, a local funeral home director who has aspirations of becoming the next Bruce Lee…and a debate over new sensors that would pinpoint gunfire inside the city.

Amazing how similar two very dissimilar topics can be.

Fists of Funeral Fury;

"Sensor-ing" the Real Problem

Evidently, This is Graceland

Three Cheers (I Mean Votes) for Eppihimer

Berks, State Blamed for I-78 Deboggle

The deteriorating conditions could have been blamed. The people who refused to heed the forecasters’ warnings and travel anyway could have also been blamed.

But when several tractor-trailers jackknifed on Route 78 last month and formed a sudden roadblock for thousands of motorists along the interstate, the bulk of the blame was thrown on both the county and state.

First Run March 5th, 2007

A Race against hate

First Run March 20th, 2007

With the latest "victory" over drugs and the trafficking thereof in Berks County, city detectives unknowingly helped further the racial divide we face with their findings.

It isn’t a secret many in and around the city associate the downfall of the urban infrastructure with the influx of Latinos into our community.

On Saturday, a host of volunteers and area residents staged a clean-up of the Skyline Drive vicinity, including the mountain trail and Pagoda areas.

The effort produced at least three dumpsters of trash and debris according to one participant, with tires among one of the largest finds.

First Run April 3rd, 2007

Skyline clean-up should be a catalyst

A recent article that ran in the city’s one printed news source caught the attention of many taxpayers throughout Berks. In the article, a PennDOT spokesperson was quoted in reference to a proposed re-vamping of Route 222 in the Ontelaunee Township vicinity as saying nearly nine million dollars has already been allocated to the project…and will be used up long before the first stone has been disturbed or laid.

Nine million ways to lose your lover…and their funding

First Run April 15th, 2007

It came to my attention a few days ago that a certain current mayor’s campaign posters were left in some pretty odd places.

It seems maybe he or his campaign staff have forgotten that what seems like 50% of the housing rentals in this city are either owned by people who live in another county, or, worse yet, sit vacant.

Mayor Wonka and the Voting Factory

First Run April 19th, 2007

It was amazing that during my first walk through City Park this spring, I was moved. And I should be, as a park in spring should be the perfect retreat from the hustle and bustle of life and allow for reflection.

First Run April 29th, 2007

City Park a perfect place to reflect…a bad reflection

Sometimes it is hard to tell where a politician stands on an issue.

If you are the politician in question, that can make things more than a little difficult for both you and the people you are trying to convince to vote in your favor. Such has been the case with Angel Figueroa.

First Run May 3rd, 2007

"Angel in the outfield"

Is Figueroa in left field on issues?

No simple "walk in the park" for me

First Run May 12th, 2007

Ten or so years ago, my nightly run to the corner store for some of Berks County’s own Icy Tea would often be accompanied by a greeting or two perhaps from a uniformed man. His car bore the seal of the City of Reading. But I expected nothing less.

Something ranks

First Run May 17th, 2007

Urban ratings prove ignorance is indeed bliss

If you feel as if you are alone in your belief that the City of Reading is a troubled place with more problems than you can shake a stick at, well, you might just be right about that feeling. Seems the people who run the show around here aren’t the only ones who are “blind-in-one-eye and can’t-see-out-the-other.” The uncertain future we face may be just an illusion after all.

First Run May 24th, 2007

In the stressful world of politics and law-making, the severe repercussions associated with a bad decision can be life-altering for thousands of people you have never met. Yet these people have entrusted you to keep their homes and streets and kids safe. They have given you the power to make their lives either easier or worse off. And of all the questions they could ask, currently the most perplexing one seems to be "got milk?"

A-"Breasted" Development

First Run May 26th, 2007

"Bush-ed" over nine-tenths of a cent"

Ever wonder why in the world the gas sign always shows the price and is followed by that last inconspicuous, much smaller nine? Its been that way for a long time, and I can remember hearing people when they were quoting gas prices by saying "oh, well Exxon down the street wants one twenty-nine-nine a gallon."

First Run June 1st, 2007

Primary colors

Amazing how during the one process we like to say most separates us from all other countries on the planet…on that one day we hold open governmental elections…the true measure of our fellow countrymen and lawmakers are revealed. Their "true colors" flashed for all to see.

It was a bright, sunny morning. City officials were abuzz with the idea that today was going to be a good day for Reading. The second annual (that in itself seems almost paradox) Commerce Bank Reading Classic bike race was about to take the streets by storm…and in the meantime the rest of the city was going to take the day off from their normal routines.

Only not all of them did.

First Run June 10th, 2007

Bike races and foot chases

Please leave your

That's My Boy!!

or 'Little Jimmy Made the Evening News!"

Another recent pit bull attack in the city has led me to believe officials are not doing what is required to see that these often-vicious dogs are licensed, muzzled and controlled. Sure, our local government has started to stir in regards to the issue now, but only after another fragile child’s body was brutalized.

First Run June 18th, 2007

Our "humane society"

First Run June 26th, 2007

Is Reading’s need for "commerce" the fly in Sovereign’s ointment?

I very rarely like to quote myself, right or wrong…especially when wrong…but sometimes you realize that something you said was either so epic or so tainted that you are left scrambling to find your own words in order to prove a point. In my case, (no pun on my own name) I will be using my own words to start a debate you can rest assured will prove vital to this city’s future. And that you can "bank" on.

My Penn Street Sanctuary

First Run JUly 7th, 2007

The Reading Eagle featured an article by Don Spatz today highlighting the first sale of a condominium unit in the newly-erected “Park Place on Penn” residential community positioned squarely in the middle of the 1000 block of Penn Street. In the piece, it was said that the purchase price of well over $200,000 is a win for the city and rebuffs the naysayers who stated the idea would never fly. But I still have my questions…

First Run JUly 14th, 2007

It was the one course I missed. I can’t seem to remember if I was absent that semester or what. But only if I had been in class…I would have learned how to subtract something from nothing…multiply something by zero and not get zero…and divide a negative number by a number that doesn’t exist. And I would have learned how to balance my budget in such a way that I ended up spending more money than I ever had to work with.

BARTA mathematics 101

Sovereign finally finding "Tool" to success

First Run July 27th, 2007

I recently encountered the postman who has the route which encompasses the area around one of my jobs and noticed he was wearing a cap bearing the name of the band Tool. I asked him about it, and he took it off, waved it around and began telling me about the concert he went to where he got it…which to be honest surprised me (since he isn’t exactly young.) But as it turns out, that concert, the one he spoke so highly of…was in Reading.

At the Sovereign Center to be exact.

ike a Wild West film from the 1920s, the picture is black and white. A gray sky over a deserted building sets the scene for a tale of desertion and desolation, a dusty street lined with the remnants of what once was civilization: bottles and posters and broken glass.

Just 15 years ago, this very same street was packed with shops and tourists and the sound of money changing hands. All distant memories.

First Run August 3rd, 2007

Once-bustling city streets end up with "no outlets"