TheBurg

5. HOME WORK e Harrisburg school district has been through the ringer in recent years: a discredited administration, a bitter school board race, state receivership and a whole new leadership team. Just as the dust began to settle, the pandemic hit, sending kids packing for home instruction. Nearly a year later, they still haven't returned to the classroom. Credit the administration for quickly cobbling together a virtual program and the teachers for implementing it. However, all-Zoom, all the time has been a poor substitute for classroom learning, so much that even the kids yearn to return to school. If you look up the term "no-win situation," you just might find a picture of the district's stressed teachers, students and parents. 4. COMMITTEE COMPROMISE Every year, Harrisburg has at least one policy issue that makes it onto my annual list. For 2020, that initiative was the Citizen's Law Enforcement Advisory Committee. e city first proposed the legislation in June after weeks of Black Lives Matter protests, though the ordinance didn't pass until November, following several public meetings, hundreds of public comments and numerous changes. For some residents, the legislation went too far; for others, it didn't go far enough. We'll now see how this compromise plays out as the committee is populated and begins its work in 2021. 3. YEAR OF PROTEST I've long considered Harrisburg to be a sleepy capital city. Each morning, state workers zip in and, each evening, they zip right back out. Most of the time, that's about the extent of the state's impact on the city. Not in 2020, when Harrisburg became a magnet for protests. e year of outrage began in April, with noisy anti-lockdown protesters gridlocking city streets, then continued in May and June with demonstrations and marches in support of Black Lives Matter, before wrapping up in November with election-related protests and counter-protests. Along the way, there were some tense moments, especially in the neighborhoods near the Capitol. However, as they say, all's well that ends well. Violent incidents were remarkably few given the thousands of people who participated in dozens of protest actions, even if police sometimes literally had to stand between opposing sides to keep the peace. 2. SMALL BUSINESS BATTERED e pandemic has wrought tremendous collateral damage (see several items above), but the impact on the small business community has been especially profound. Harrisburg is a unique place. Snubbed by major chains, local people have stepped in to fill the gap, with each restaurant, bar and shop its own individual, often quirky, creation. As of this writing, most have survived, though some have not, and many are teetering still. As I have before, I renew a call to support our wonderful small businesses and arts groups, which add so much life and character to this weird little city on the Susquehanna River. 1. COVID IS EVERYTHING In my three decades in journalism, I have never before seen a single story so dominate the news cycle and our lives, affecting everything from our health to our economy to our schools to our social lives to our housing. In fact, you can overlay the pandemic atop of each of the prior nine stories on this list. Since March, it's been the stormy sea we've all been forced to swim in, and, here at eBurg, we've slapped on our masks and tried to cover it from every possible angle. I hope we've been of service to our community during this time of trial, though I pray we'll never have to endure anything like it again. ere's an old saying that there are few guarantees in life. Heck, 2020 serves as a perfect example. As the strawberry descended in Market Square on last New Year's Eve, who could have imagined the difficult year ahead? Having said that, I can practically guarantee that, a year from now, my 2021 reflections will be more positive, the news less doom and more bloom. After all, the coming year has to be better. Right? Yes, right. Lawrance Binda is co-publisher/editor-in- chief of eBurg. Illustrations by Rich Hauck.

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