Font ResizeWhen those grain storage towers come down, mixed commercial and residential buildings that are part of the Northwest Triangle development will go up.
Consider why those silos -- agribusiness lodged in the heart of an urban area -- stood there in the first place.
Ohio Blenders sold bulk and bagged alfalfa. That business served as a throwback to a York that acted as the agricultural center of the surrounding county as well as its industrial heart. The five market houses that operated in and around York stood as spacious indicators of that agricultural might.
York's location near the center of the triangle-shaped York County and the three railroads that came together there -- the variously named Northern Central, Western Maryland and Ma & Pa -- helped pull in factories and agribusinesses.
Now the Northwest Triangle development, a product of the information age with high-end condos and cubicle-filled offices and Wi-Fi and routers, is replacing a low-tech alfalfa sales operation.
Right in front of our eyes.
All this is taking place near a bridge that served as the founding locale of the modern labor movement in York County.
Veteran labor advocate Richard L. Boyd explains in his book, "The Bridge," that leaders of organized labor in
Just by way of contrast, that site is near today's posh, double-towered Susquehanna Commerce Center.
Anyway, Dick Boyd explains that they gathered in secret in that then-remote spot for fear that their companies would discover these organizing activities.
Today, many factories where
these workers labored are gone, and the city and county have placed a reasonable bet on the largely white-collar information-age jobs to support those people living in those Northwest Triangle lofts and condos.
This brings us to another change.
For decades, blue-collar workers were uncommon visitors or members at the Lafayette Club, that symbol of exclusiveness on York's East Market Street. Indeed, women and people of color were barred.
Now the Lafayette Club, fighting membership declines with apparent success, is laboring to change its reputation for exclusivity.
The club will play host, for example, to a York City Council forum on Tuesday.
Republicans Nina Aimable and Jay Andrzejczyk and Democrats Renee Nelson and Henry Nixon have confirmed attendance.
Until 10 years ago, Nina Aimable, a black woman, could not have become a member of the club. Renee Nelson, a white female, could not have joined until 20 years ago.
Resources for Urban Neighborhoods is one of the forum coordinators.
A goal of that coordinator is just what its name suggests -- to work with local associations for community improvement. Some of those neighborhoods are in the most economically distressed parts of the city.
So the evening will represent an opportunity for all city neighborhoods to come together in a locale that for years would have not opened its doors to many of those residents.
York is indeed changing, sometimes slowly, but often for the better.
And sometimes, this change is hidden in plain sight.
James McClure is editor of the York Daily Record/Sunday News. He writes daily about local history on his blog, www.yorktownsquare.com. To contact him, e-mail jem@ydr.com.
Not going easily
The silos that mark Ohio Blenders can be seen as symbols of York County's agriculture. So their demolition to make way for badly needed new and rehabbed buildings can be viewed as bittersweet, another storm to wash out carefully planted seeds in a longtime farm economy.
But those tall icons are not easily plowed under.
A photo op linked to a news conference this week went awry. A construction machine, with York Mayor John Brenner at the controls, was deployed to claw into a grain-loading building next to the towers, a ceremonial act toward their demolition.
But the machine wouldn't start at first and mechanics had to open its hood, delaying the ceremony. Finally, Brenner, with the help of an operator, maneuvered the claw into the side of the building.
It was as if the deeply rooted silos had willed that they were not going to easily give an inch to a bunch of city slickers in suits.
-- Jim McClure
