In case you missed it: The week’s good reads about Pennsylvania cities

Philadelphia DA nominee Krasner, FOP President McNesby continue sparring match.

Civil rights attorney Larry Krasner traded some choice verbal jabs with John McNesby, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police, after Krasner won the Democratic nomination for Philadelphia district attorney Tuesday.

After his nomination, McNesby told Philly.com Krasner “would be catastrophic to the police department and the community.”

McNesby also advised his members not to call the district attorney’s office, saying, “Don’t do a damn thing because you’re not going to be covered.” 

Noting that the FOP endorsed third place finisher Rich Negrin in the primary, Krasner said, “I understand that people get upset when their candidates do not win, and they say things that really are irresponsible,” adding, “I’m delighted about working with the rank and file. If the union chooses to work with the district attorney, that’s fine.” 

In Happy Valley, a growing tech sector that  nobody knows about 

In downtown State College, hidden among the bars, restaurants and stores is a growing innovation sector that Spud Marshall, a local innovator, believes people should know about.

“I’ve watched people just walk right by these really cool places and they have no idea they are there. There’s all these things our community is really proud of that we’ve created, but so many young people, in particular, don’t know that they exist,” said Marshall. has helped start many of these initiatives. 

Marshall has helped start many of these initiatives. He proposed the idea of putting physical markers and guides downtown. Like a trailhead on a hiking path, the idea is to direct people to these easily overlooked venues.  

He’s one of 20 young city leaders selected as part of the Emerging City Champions Fellowship program, created by the Toronto-based 8 80 Cities and funded by the Knight Foundation.

Commonwealth primary results

Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski won the Democratic nomination with about 28 percent of the vote on Tuesday. He will be running for his fourth term despite an FBI investigation of City Hall that ensnared other officials.

Pawlowski will face Republican nominee Nat Hyman, a real estate developer, in the general election this fall.

Incumbent mayors in Harrisburg, York, Pittsburgh, Johnstown and Latrobe in Westmoreland County also managed to hold onto their party’s nomination and expect little opposition in the general election.

In Bethlehem, Nanticoke, Pottsville, New Kensington and Connellsville Democratic mayors were unopposed on Tuesday and Republican ballots were blank in those cities as well.

Immigrants, authorized or not, help Philadelphia

About 50,000 unauthorized immigrants live in Philadelphia. A new series from WHYY/NewsWorks, Life, unauthorized, looks at the personal stories of immigrants who are living in the region without legal status.

Infrastructure Week: a bi-partisan issue

One thing almost everyone agrees with is the nation’s infrastructure needs a lot of work, said Ray LaHood, former U.S. Transportation secretary.

“We’ve been neglecting the infrastructure for a long time because, frankly, we haven’t had the money to do all the things we need to do,” he said. “Currently, there are about 60,000 structurally deficient bridges in America, the interstate system is crumbing. We have 50- and 60-year-old transit systems.”

Philadelphia played host to Infrastructure Week, an effort to find funding to replace deteriorating roads and bridges that form America’s backbone.

The tough question, said former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, is how to pay for it? He suggested increasing the federal gas tax.

Where’s the DNC surplus?

Pennsylvania donated a $10 million taxpayer-funded grant to help finance Philadelphia’s hosting of the Democratic National Convention last summer.

The convention’s host committee ended up with a $4 million surplus. But none of that money made it back to the state.

Out of the surplus, about a million dollars went to bonuses for host committee employees. Several state officials have pushed for an audit, believing that the bonuses were inappropriate, even though former governor Ed Rendell, the host committee’s chair, said they were.

Gov. Tom Wolf supports the audit, too, saying, “there are a lot of questions about what did happen with the surplus. The integrity [of the committee] is something that people question.”