Fred Pickard Hershey, Pa

The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education recently released their report called Measuring Up 2008 ( http://measuringup2008.highereducation.org/index.php ) which measures the progress of higher eduction overall in the country and on a state by state basis.

While Pennsylvania's numbers have improved over the past two decades, the affordability of higher education in Pennsylvania ranks is one of the lowest in the country. The study shows that the percentage of income, after financial aid, to afford college is very high here, which makes the affordability low.

You can check out your state's rating at http://measuringup2008.highereducation.org/states/index.php

Yeah, I'm tired of dealing with tires left in REO properties!

I know we occasionally get a REO property where the owner has left a used tire or two still in the garage. I mean those properties that have stacks and piles of used tires just rotting away.

For instance, we were assigned an REO property back in the spring and upon initial inspection I noticed there were piles of tires visible from the street on different parts of the property. We estimated there were between 500 and 600 tires in different parts of this property. We had a very difficult time finding a property preservation contractor who was willing to handles the tires.

These photos only show a few of the piles of tires left on the property. There were car tires, there were car tires on rims, there were truck tires, there were tractor tires and strangely enough, one pile of tires was 20 inch wide Hoosier dirt track racing tires.

The cost to the lender to clean this out was huge. Generally, tire recyclers charge between $3 and $5 each to take automobile tires to recycle, but they won't take them on the rims. The truck tires are more like $8 and the tractor and racing tires could be even more. And that price is delivered to the recycling facility, which means they have to be loaded and carted to the facility. And since they won't take them on rims, those have to go someone with a tire machine to be broken off, then the wheels need to be disposed of.

Needless to say, the trash out on this property was a long term affair.

After this one was finally cleaned out and closed, I was assigned a property in Lancaster County with a detached two car garage. The entire garage was filled with truck tires. These were, fortunately, without the rims attached and the bank hired their own property preservation firm to clean it out. These guys estimated there were between 125 and 150 truck tires to be removed. We haven't quite figured out why this was full of tires, just happy it is now cleaned out.

And overall, I'm tired of dealing with tires.

Now even the local Mall is in default and facing foreclosure

Commerce Bank, which holds the mortgage on the Harrisburg Mall, announced yesterday that mall owner is in default and the bank is seeking possession of the property.

According to the mortgage holder, the mall owner has been in default since August 15. and nearly $50 million is due in principle and interest.

The bank notified all mall tenants to pay their rents directly to the bank.

This mall, located near the intersection of Interstate 83 and Paxton Street was built around 1971. When it opened, it was the first enclosed mall in Central Pennsylvania. The original anchor tenants were Gimbels, John Wanamaker and a large two level J. C. Penney store. It was originally called the Harrisburg East Mall.

The mall lost favor with shoppers in the late 1980's and early 1990's as newer shopping opportunities were built and the area gained a reputation for criminal incidents. A friend of mine was assaulted in the parking lot in 1988 or 1989 and there were numerous reports of armed robbery and assaults in the parking lots.

The current anchor tenants are Bass Pro Shop and Macy's. The third anchor, Boscov's, a regional department store chain, closed this fall as part of a chainwide bankruptcy plan.

It will be interesting to see what happens here. The mall has been making somewhat of a comeback in recent years, with the building of a large theatre complex and additions to the store roster.

The story from the Harrisburg Patriot News is pasted here:

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2008/11/harrisburg_mall_in_default_of.html

That's right. The Harrisburg CBS television station was placed as a home market for the Baltimore Ravens since under the NFL rules and television agreement, WHP-TV's viewing area is within 75 miles of the stadium.

Now there is some history here. When the Colts were in Baltimore, they played on Baltimore's north side at Memorial Stadium and there were thousands of Colts season ticket holders that lived in south Central Pennsylvania. The location was a fairly easy drive down Interstate 83 to the beltway and then only a ten minute drive from there to the stadium. There were quite a few busloads of season ticket holders leaving from the Harrisburg area every home game Sunday.

Well, of course, the Colts left town at 3AM on March 28, 1984 thanks to team owner Robert Irsay and his desire for a new taxpayer supported stadium.

In the ensuing years, central Pennsylvanians switched the allegiance to other teams, mostly the Eagles and Steelers and most older fans, like myself, have never forgiven the Irsay family for the move.

Fast forward to 1995 when Art Modell, owner of the Cleveland Browns announced he was moving the team to Baltimore. Part of the agreement to allow this move was that the name and trappings of the Browns would remain in Cleveland, so after some time, a couple of fan contests and some agonizing, the Baltimore Ravens were born. And they played their first games at Memorial Stadium. The same place the Colts said was inadequate.

Of course, the Ravens did move to a new stadium in downtown Baltimore in 1998 and have been happily playing there sense.

But back to my subject, while the Ravens have caught on with Baltimore fans, the former fans from central Pennsylvania have never come back. You can find Eagle and Steelers items in most Harrisburg area stores, but have to go to a sport specialty store to find Raven items. As far as most central Pennsylvanians are concerned, the Ravens are the visiting team.

Yet because of the silly 75 mile rule, if the Ravens are on CBS at the same time as the Eagles or Steelers, we are forced to watch this foreign team rather than the "hometown" Eagles or Steelers.

By the way, driving from Harrisburg city hall to Camden Yards is 78.5 miles and takes about 90 minutes per Google maps. NFL - give us back our Steelers and Eagles

One of the negatives about living in a smaller market is the lack of transportation opportunities when you just have to get out of town.

The Harrisburg International Airport is a very nice facility converted from the former Olmsted Air Base with a new terminal, very long runways and short security lines. The bad part is that it can be difficult to get anywhere from here.

This week, there were six airlines serving this area; Air Canada (2 flights a day to Toronto), Continental (a few flights to Cleveland and Newark), Delta (to Atlanta and Cincinnati), Northwest (to Detroit and Minneapolis), United (to Chicago and Dulles) and US Air (to Boston, Philadelphia and Charlotte). Almost all of the service is by "express divisions" of these airlines on regional jets or props. American provided service to Chicago and Dallas, but pulled out earlier this year.

That brings me to some good news for the area

AirTran started service yesterday to Orlando. Finally, a way to get to Florida without having to brave the Atlanta Hartsfield subway, the Philadelphia airport kiosks and the Cincinnati airport buses. I only wish they had started last month so out trip to the NAR convention could have been direct.

The airport commission is working hard to bring an additional airline or two into the market to provide service to more markets. Hopefully some more routes will be added by next summer to make vacation travel easier for everyone.