Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse is approaching the end of his second year in office.
As a result, we thought now might be a good time to test how our readers rate his performance.
We’ve done this before with quite a few Keystone State officials.
It went well for some, like Pat Toomey, Eugene DePasquale and Philly Mayor Michael Nutter.
Some others, such as Kathleen Kane, Tom Wolf, Bob Casey and the entire state legislature didn’t do as well.
How will Mayor Papenfuse do?
Do You Approve or Disapprove of Mayor Eric Papenfuse’s Job Performance?
- Disapprove (65%)
- Approve (35%)
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13 Responses
He inherited a mess from a corrupt former mayor Reed and a crazy Linda Thompson. He is doing as best as can be expected. I agree with closing the Civil war museum and selling the artifacts to the federal government for placement in Gettysburg. And reducing lanes and putting in bike lanes is common now in many cities. I gie him a solid B-.
All his Departments except for (Public Works) is staffed with people who have no idea what they are doing and who are overpaid (the solicitor has even been disciplined), it is rumored that he is a silent partner to one of the major slumlords in the City which would explain why Patton, the Codes Director says that he doesn’t go after investor owned properties…sooo he isn’t a good Mayor, but he is an opportunist…can we have a vote on whether he is a good opportunist?
HBG Res & Josh – please allow me to disabuse you of the mistaken notion that the point of the conversion to two lanes was to get a bike lane. This is dead wrong as anyone who has paid close attention can attest: traffic studies indicated the corridor would be safer by moving from three lanes to two and so PennDOT decided to convert that section to two lanes. AFTER that decision was made, the city petitioned to use the excess space as a bike lane. Just so that we don’t have any confusion: the bike lane decision came AFTER it was already decided to reduce that section of Front Street from three lanes to two. Go forth and sin no more.
Also, I witnessed multiple bicyclists using the far side of Front Street not two days prior, though it is unclear if that has as yet been consecrated for bicycle use.
There is plenty of room for legitimate criticism of the mayor, but this is not one of those areas.
Mixed bag. Wish he would focus on making City government work really well like most of Harrisburg’s suburban cousins.
No one has been indicted so far so, it appears, political crime is down and that is an improvement.
Capital Murder by Chris Papst is excellent review of the Stephen Reed Linda Thompson regimes. The only capital city to declare bankruptcy. It is a bipartisan crime. Hard to see how Mayor Papenfuse can do worse. All the best to him.
http://www.amazon.com/Capital-Murder-investigative-reporters-collapsing-ebook/dp/B00YDSKG1I/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1444829491&sr=1-2&keywords=capitol+murder
HBG Res — Of course I am being sarcastic. (Although, to be fair, right now it is freshly paved and a joy drive on.)
I agree with everything you said except one thing: That someone will die.
No one will die because no one will even use that stupid bike lane.
I was a big critic of Eric before he was elected. The recent leaf collection thing was a mistake; government services do include Fall leaf collection. A bike lane on Front Street is insane, but it’s “cool” so it’s being pursued. The truth is, our city is so far gone in so many ways that I’m unsure anyone can really make it work.
Eric is an eccentric politician. He doesn’t like politics, but desperately wanted to get elected. It is like he was picked last in gym class and wanted to prove he is popular. He did a great service to the community in building the Midtown Scholar bookstore and should be commended for that, but he has never been known to be a collaborator.
He is a bully. He’s gone after the Civil War Museum and now the Susquehanna Art Museum (of which he used to be a board member). Instead of moving forward into the future, he is bent on settling old scores. He ran for City Council and lost, then ran for County Commissioner and lost. He only won for Mayor because he put $100K of his own money into the race and paid off key individuals and made a deal to support the developers interests to gain their support. Linda Thompson was unpopular and Miller ran an uninspiring campaign. In speaking with a Harrisburg insider the other day they told me, “Of all the people I’ve worked with on community projects, I’ve never met someone who was so narcissistic and self interested.”
@Mr. Miller
The parking tickets aren’t Pappy’s fault, that was set long before he took office.
Papenfuse has not fixed Front Street. I hope you’re being sarcastic, because he has destroyed Front Street. For an idiotic bike lane on the busiest street in town, that will make it smaller and two lanes only. And someone’s going to get killed with everyone going so fast. He has botched the trash and leave collection process. Crime is up, and the city’s going to be $6 million in the hole next year. Bring back Thompson! At least we knew what we had with her. This guy the total fraud. Makes himself out to be the savior and he’s just a big bully.
He fixed Front Street. FOUR MORE YEARS!
His crusade against the Civil War Museum is dead wrong.
Parking tickets are ridiculous