- [Narrator] Live from Hazleton Integration Project, WVIA presents, Keystone Edition reports, a public affairs program that goes beyond the headlines to address issues in northeastern and central Pennsylvania.

This is Keystone Edition Reports.

And now, moderator, Larry Vojtko.

(audience applauds) - Many small cities throughout the country have long been faced with declining population, shuttered storefronts and buildings falling into disrepair.

But one city in southern Luzerne County, Pennsylvania has seen double digit growth in population, a rejuvenated downtown, and a resurgence of vitality in the community.

It's a story that could possibly serve as a model for other similar cities that are struggling to reinvent themselves.

I'm Larry Vojtko.

Welcome to the season premiere of WVIA's Keystone Edition Reports, broadcasting live from the Hazleton Integration Project.

Stay with me for the evolution of Hazleton, but first, WVIA's Tom Reese sets the stage for our conversation.

(logo whirs) (ambient music) - [Tom] The city of Hazleton.

In the last few decades, it's experienced more than its share of change with new people, new businesses, and cultural activities.

The city could be said to be undergoing a renaissance.

This transformation took the hard work of community members and organizations along with the belief that great things can be accomplished when people from diverse backgrounds come together.

Hazleton has seen upgrades to its high school.

The Hazleton Art League is enjoying a resurgence of vitality.

Food festivals introduced residents to flavors from a variety of cultures.

First Friday celebrations bring the arts to the people of Hazleton, and the Greater Hazleton Rails to Trails offers a perfect setting for a bike ride or picnic.

While the city of Hazleton has certainly faced its fair share of challenges over the years, those residents, business people, and organizations in the city are making Hazleton not only an up and coming place to visit, but also a wonderfully diverse place to call home.

For Keystone Edition Reports, I'm Tom Reese.

- Thank you so much, Tom.

Well, let's welcome our guests who are here to share their expertise on the topic.

And joining us here, Mary Malone, President and CEO of the Greater Hazleton Chamber of Commerce.

Rossanna Gabriel, Executive Director, Hazleton Integration Project.

Charles McElwee, Founding Editor, Real Clear Pennsylvania, and Vice President of the Greater Hazleton Area Historical Society.

And Yosara Gonzalez, Executive Director of the Greater Hazleton Alliance for Progress.

And Yosara likes to be called Yoshi.

(Larry laughs) Well, Charles, I'm going to start with you because most of our conversation is going to be focusing on this century and what's happened.

And I'm going to ask you to give us a brief little rundown of the economics of Hazleton as the mining industry went, declined.

And then take us through what happened after that to the end of the 20th century.

- Sure, Larry.

So right after World War II, the mining industry was in free fall.

And by the early 1950s, the mining employment in this area was down to about 1700.

Then in the mid 50s, back to back hurricanes wiped out the local mines, and there was a dramatic void here, a crisis level unemployment rate, and a city in free fall.

And at the time, the Greater Hazleton Chamber of Commerce led what was essentially a local anti-poverty campaign.

They founded an industrial development corporation called Can Do that became a trendsetter in terms of economic development in Pennsylvania.

And over the course of several decades, mid-size manufacturers came to industrial parks that were civically driven, local fundraising campaigns that led to industrial park development.

In the past 20 years or so, principally, at first driven by the e-commerce demands, there has been a warehousing explosion here.

And we're seated here tonight above essentially 38 square miles of what was, what remains the eastern middle coal field, the richest veins of anthro site in the world.

But what's occurring above those mines that were once the defining feature of the city and what surrounds the 6 square mile grid of Hazleton is this warehousing explosion.

So as it stands, 26 million square feet of warehousing is either in development or slated to be developed surrounding this area.

So this area is undergoing a dramatic economic change, and it's part of a global hub of warehousing and logistics driven by the interstate highway system that feeds and supplies the East Coast.

And that stretches from here in Hazleton to the Lehigh Valley at South Central Pennsylvania.

So in terms of this age of acceleration, you can't find a better microcosm of the economic and demographic trends occurring nationwide here in Hazleton.

- Okay, so we'll get back to delving into that a little bit more and get some more details about that and whys and wherefores, but now we have examined how economic realities impacted Hazleton in the years leading up to the turn of the century, of this century.

Let's look at shifts in population that led to changes in the cultural makeup of Hazleton.

And I'll go to you, Rossanna, and Yoshi.

Rossanna, what kind of changes have you seen here in your time in Hazleton, and what has your experience been?

- During the 11 years that I'm living here in the city, I could see that the population grow in different countries.

People from different country arrive to the city, not only Latino, from different countries, but it's a good idea, or it's good for the city because we have new people, we have more businesses, more businesses, we have more people around the city.

It's B brand now.

This, the city, more B brand than before, maybe.

When I arrive here, of course, I could sit in front of my house next to the community center for one hour and maybe three cars pass in front of my house.

But suddenly, in two year, three years, we can see we don't have parking lot.

We have all, overrunning cars.

And you feel that it B branded the city.

- And yeah, that's the other thing, I think, that is maybe a common mistake.

When I first arrived in the city of Hazleton back in the early 90s, it was a lot of senior citizens and families that were here.

But now it's very young.

- Yes.

- And three and four children, our school district is literally bursting.

- [Larry] Mm-hmm.

- At the seams.

And the age has definitely, the average age in the city has definitely come down.

- Yes.

- Opposite of the course of my gray hair, but... (Mary laughs) - Well, you have a little bit more longevity here in Hazleton than either Rossanna or Yoshi.

Yoshi, what have you seen in your, you're here about 10 years in Hazleton.

So tell us your story and how that, your family background, what led you here to Hazleton and how that might be a more common story or typical story for a lot of the people coming to the city.

- Well, I came here, as you say, with the young generation.

I was pregnant when I was starting to come visit my family here.

And as I came during those days, I didn't see much movement.

Like Rossanna pointed out, not many cars, a lot of vacant properties, not too many businesses in the downtown.

And I was motivated with my husband once we had our first child to move in from New York City, even though I'm originally from Dominican Republic where a lot of our local Latino community members now are from, to come and start off with the new opportunities that they had here.

So I heard a lot of people complain about the lack, and, you know, how there wasn't much to do, but I saw that as an opportunity.

I was a young artist and architect looking for new ventures and possibilities of starting up a business, starting up my family, soon after my first child, I had the second, and then we, we decided to explore a little more of the community and decided to move in.

- Mm-hmm, it must have been difficult coming from a large city like New York City that would be really, it's a place where art and architecture, they just flourish.

And now you come to a small city, that must have been somewhat daunting for you, or, you know, it's interesting that you found a way to make use of those talents.

- Yes, correct.

It was very challenging at the beginning because we felt like there wasn't much to do right for us.

But as a young family, you're focused on bringing your family up, and there were many job opportunities, like you mentioned, there are many warehouses.

My husband learned new skills, he became a welder.

That was a great opportunity for us, making and sustaining our family while I took care of our kids and found out what opportunities were out there.

The school district was an opportunity for me to, like, tap into that world that I always longed for, which was teaching art.

So I became a substitute teacher, learned a lot more about our community through the school district and what the needs are.

And slowly I got to know more the culture, the history of the town, and the value that there is in the hardworking people that live here so many years and that have settled and paved the way for us as immigrants that we all are to keep rebuilding our community.

- [Larry] Mm-hmm.

- I, sorry.

- No, no, no.

That's okay.

I want to acknowledge our audience that's sitting here and came out to enjoy this conversation, but we'd like you also to be part of the conversation, and we've actually come down to Hazleton to make that easier for you.

So if you have a question for one of the panelists or just a general story to tell, all I ask you to do is step up to the microphone, and then when I acknowledge you, just say your name and where you're from, and then proceed with your comment or question.

You can do that at any time because I'll be aware that you're waiting for that question.

And if I'm not, then the person in the truck will see that and they'll tell me in my ear that you're out there.

(Larry laughs) What was interesting is you said your husband became a welder.

You said that earlier on, Mary, that there were older families and maybe even some senior citizens.

Charles is telling us that we, this buildup and Can Do is looking for workers.

And I'm thinking, is Hazleton a place where people can come to reinvent themselves?

That they could find a life, they were experiencing their life up to a certain point, looking for something else, and now this is a place where they can come and try to explore that?

- [Rossanna] For us?

- Yes.

- For Latino, for people from other country, yes, because we came here for different reasons, but at the end, it's the same.

Looking for a better future for our families.

So, and we think first in New York or a big city, but now those city are so expensive, and the life is so dangerous sometimes that we found some places like Hazleton, we say, that is my place.

That happened to me, and this is the place that I want to live with my son, for example.

And for us, maybe for other people, the native people say, it's normal, you have a job.

But for us to find a job and to have opportunity to help our family in our countries, and at the same time, you can plan to buy the house, to buy a car.

And that's something for us that mean, oh, I'm finding the opportunity that I was trying to find, and- - [Larry] Opportunity?

- Uh-huh.

- Oh, yeah, and I would say it's not only Latino, Larry.

Charles and I, before the cameras turned on, were talking about, he's cut, you know, we lend 'em out occasionally, but we always seem to lure 'em back home here to Hazleton in the relationships.

I myself am not a native.

Moved here, as I always say, for love.

And one of the things that I found instantly was that core of family, and this community is, in essence, the perfect size that you can still feel that sense of family, whether it's your, the HIP Center family here or a church family and things like that, and get to know people in that regard.

So family and community has always been at the core of it.

And so now the faces are changing.

We're integrating some new ones.

But I think that's what a lot of the attraction has been.

Yoshi had said in her story, she had other family members that were here first, and that's what brought her to investigate and think about it for her family.

- Right.

We have a question from the audience.

Please state your name and where you're from.

- Me llama Maria Landry.

Me hablo Español muy poquito.

My name is Mary Landry.

I speak very little Spanish.

What you've just heard is about the extent.

I'm a third generation Hazletonian, but I've lived in New York, St. Augustine, Florida and Baltimore, Maryland.

I have spent the past decade having a wonderful Hispanic family as my neighbors.

We were both, I have since learned, rather concerned about what the other would be like.

I was concerned because they were the first Hispanic family on our block, and at that point in time, there were very difficult relations with the Hispanic community.

There were a number of gangs.

They were concerned because the "beware of dog" sign on my gate was because of my two pit bulls.

So it was equal concern.

The first time I met them, I'd come up from Baltimore for the summer, and I went over and introduced myself in Spanish, just the way I introduced myself to the audience now.

And Sandy, the wife, said, "Thank God she speaks a little" in English.

(Maria laughs) And Amaris, her husband, did not say a word.

He stood right next to her and glowered at me as though to say, "You better be nice."

Okay, so by the time we finished talking, she said to me, as we parted, "You're to call us if you need anything."

And that weekend, they invited me to their oldest son's birthday party.

That's a saga in itself.

I will spare you, okay.

But from that I took over a knitted scarf that I had kept as surprise gifts if I had a surprise invitation and a pound of Victoria's candies, which were a real hit.

And it's just been a wonderful situation since then.

When I left for the summer, I went over to say goodbye, and Amaris, he who had glowered at me, said, "I will shovel your sidewalks every time it snows."

And they have been doing that for the past 10 years.

- Mm-hmm.

- So, thank you.

- So a little bit of conflict at first, but when we get to know people as individuals, as other humans, it then brings us closer together.

But these, this amount of remarkable change in a relatively short time span impacts every part of a community such as housing, infrastructure, law enforcement, and other city services.

We sent WVIA's Haley O'Brien to Hazleton's City Hall to talk with Mayor Jeffrey Cusat.

(logo whooshes) - [Haley] Mayor Jeffrey Cusat says he's proud of the turnaround in the city's financial standing.

- I came into office in 2016 and I immediately knew the best thing for the city was to go Act 47.

- [Haley] Hazleton was designated as financially distressed under the Municipality's Recovery Program Act 47 in 2017.

In May of this year, the city terminated its distressed status as a result of effectively using the program to make significant progress.

Mayor Cusat says long-term investments were made since he took office.

Those include two new playgrounds, one specifically designed for children with disabilities, and many other park projects.

- [Mayor Jeffrey] We wanted to be able to create an atmosphere where people can go with their families and have some time, you know, some of the places that you live in the city, you don't have a backyard, you don't have somewhere where you could sit with the family.

And it was important to try to find that atmosphere that made everyone happy.

- [Haley] Other investments target public safety.

- We bought a Flock camera system, which is like a license plate reading camera system that encircles the city so nobody could come in or out of the city without being recognized.

So if any car is stolen, looking for an Amber Alert, if somebody is wanted in a crime, police are instantaneously notified, you know, via text.

You know, we invested in a gunshot location system, which is part of the same camera system.

So if a gunshot goes off, all the police force are instantly notified the general location of where the noise came from.

You know, and then we were also so far behind, you know, with some of our buildings taking, becoming a little more dilapidated, our roads were horrendous.

Our recreation facilities were all in bad shape.

So, you know, stuff like that, you really need to dig down and, you know, to be able to put back together.

And we were very successful doing some of that through this time.

The city is growing, the tax base is growing, the population is growing.

I believe we were the only city in Pennsylvania to increase last year.

We increased by 24.9% population.

- [Haley] The population boom has amplified the housing shortage.

The mayor says that is the biggest issue the city faces.

- [Mayor Jeffrey] The housing stock that's here is older.

A lot of the apartments that are available are either homes being converted into, you know, smaller apartments.

A lot of them are done illegally and they're very unsafe.

And what's driving that is the high cost of living.

You know, apartments used to be 5, $600, you know, now with the influx of people, you know, the same apartment may be going for 9, 1100.

One of the focus of the city has is trying to find developers that will bring in safe living conditions.

(logo whooshes) - So Mary Malone, the accomplishments that were enumerated by the mayor and especially the emerging of a distressed city status of Hazleton probably is good for the business environment and attracting new commerce to the city.

Are you finding that in your job as president and CEO of the Greater Hazleton Chamber of Commerce?

- Yes, so we, our membership is made up of many small businesses.

We do have the larger businesses, whether they be warehouses or manufacturers and some new up and coming also, sometimes that prime location and spot is excellent in all areas.

I think what the Act 47 allowed and how Hazleton benefited, not only the city of Hazleton but Greater Hazleton, the Greater Hazleton area is by bringing in some expertise, whether it be in urban planning or, as you said, infrastructure, when you have this growth that quickly, your infrastructure and getting people to understand the interconnectedness of everything and how to work together a little bit better maybe.

And again, with those, you know, guided by the expertise.

I mean, we're still almost finished with the first comprehensive plan that this, that is actually three municipalities are working on that, which is the first time, but probably a good 20 plus years.

So a lot of the Act 47 allowed the city some breathing room to build up infrastructure.

Things like, again, fire and police.

If you come from a New York City, you are used to, I don't even know how many the police force is, but it takes some time to do that building here in our third class city.

- [Larry] Mm-hmm.

- But it is a better environment for business and learning how on the bilingual piece.

When I first started at the chamber 10 years ago, very rarely did we do things in both languages.

I can say thanks now to partners that everything that we do generally is bilingual because someone might understand English or be able to read it, but you're going to be comfortable in whatever your native tongue is, and that's only natural.

- [Larry] Absolutely.

Yeah.

- Rossanna keeps trying to get me to learn Spanish.

(Larry laughs) Maybe by the next time, right?

Roseanne, will be- - Be on the line to learn.

- Well, Charles, can you tell us more about Can Do?

I think you actually worked for Can Do for a bit.

- I did work for Can Do for a period.

- And tell us what their objective is, how they work, and what they're offering.

- So Can Do is the economic development corporation, formed the mid 1950s here in Hazleton.

And they are a principle driver of economic development projects in the area, principally centered in the industrial parks here.

So the industrial parks alone employ 11,000 with varied industries that are tied to this ongoing warehousing and distribution development with some manufacturing as well.

So Can Do has been around for many decades and is definitely a driver of this economic transformation that we're seeing with the warehousing.

- Mm-hmm, and so Rossanna, are you seeing a lot of the people who are making use of the services of the Hazleton Integration Project?

Are they, a lot of them employed in some of the businesses that are in the industrial park?

- Yes, we work a lot with different companies that are working in the Industrial Park, Humboldt or Valmont Industrial Park.

We can make some, a couple that came here to bring activity and that help us with grant for our programs already.

And we know a lot of employees that come to work to the warehouse around Humboldt Industrial Park and Valmont Industrial Park.

- So what's the biggest need that you see?

- [Rossanna] In our people?

- Yes, in, you know, that you see at, in your work here at the Integration Project?

- First, they came here, as I mentioned before, because they want to see a better future for their family.

And because we have offered, we offered jobs for them, the first problems that they confront when they came here is the housing.

But they manage to do it.

They manage different way.

And then school is a long process.

But we are helping families with that too.

If not, we are in contact with the school district to try to do more quickly the process and then the language.

That's why the community center integrate everything.

We are trying to not only unify the old community, the newcomers.

We are trying to, the newcomers become citizens, but they learn a little bit English.

The communication is gonna be better.

We are trying to help our organization like the Chamber of Commerce, like Can Do, to translate the documents.

- [Larry] Mm-hmm.

- Because Mary mentioned before, when you read in your own language, you feel better.

You're gonna understand better.

Even nowadays, I have words that I never understand.

I need to find out what I, you try to tell me.

- It's funny that Rossanna mentions the translation and the integration part of it.

I was working for the school district for a long time as a translator after I substituted.

And then I made the jump and got to know the Hazleton Alliance for Progress through my communications and tapping into the real estate world, which then brought a lot of curiosity to me as to how I could contribute to the community to help revitalize.

I did see through my years living here changes in the downtown that I was very curious about.

With an architectural background, I always wanted to find a way of giving back with the skills that I have.

And I think it's a challenge that many immigrants have because they get their degrees from their home country, then they don't, they're forced, like my husband was, to learn, like, skills that are probably not what their... - [Mary] Preference.

- Crafts or their education really is and their background.

So it's usually a transition point where they go to work in these industries to settle and then get the economic stability and then jump and find ways to either credit their degrees so then they could actually give back the alliance.

Then I still work and I feel as a liaison where we are trying to in the downtown then bring the economic development, the language barriers with bringing then bilingual component.

So the new people that once they have their savings, right, they wanna put up their business, they see all these vacant properties in the downtown and they have a dream and they wanna put their beauty salon or their, you know.

- That's what I was going to say.

- Yes.

- So all of the growth that we talked about, the interesting thing Charles talked about at the top of the show, the number of square footage that is being built, most of that is not actually Can Do, it's private developers now.

It's like the next stage that are coming into the area.

But with all that kind of development, yes, housing is key, but you also need restaurants and hair salons and car shops.

And so that's where the chamber has really seen the boom is in the smaller business and a drive for that entrepreneurial to build their own or have their own small business.

And so if you would talk to any of our banking lenders and things like that, but it's also driven because we're very fortunate here to have the education.

Not only high school, we just had Johnson College open up their trade school.

We have Lackawanna College, Penn State Hazleton, and Luzerne County Community College.

And so that education is also so key to vibrant, and to futures, whatever your future is to look like.

And the one thing that we know both in the chamber, and I think Charles, probably you've heard it also, our economic development partners, Can Do as well, is that, you know, back in the day when I was coming out, go get your four-year degree.

That's not necessarily what the answer is today.

And I think bringing all those opportunities- - We have more offer right now, but we need more.

- Yes.

Charles.

- Yeah, so Mary, you were noting the next phase of economic development here.

So it really is.

That's true because the industrial parks, he isn't situating on a plateau.

So there's only so much room for development.

So now we're in this private developer phase of warehousing that's surrounding a six square mile grid.

And the concern is, has warehousing gone too far?

And there are concerns here.

And if you talk to any Hazletonian about the quality of life, the sustainability- - The community life.

- [Charles] Exactly.

- [Yoshi] The people that work there, what type of quality of life are we giving them?

- [Charles] It's a profound concern.

Yeah.

- [Yoshi] And we wanna bring community back together, that pride, that integration, like, that gesture of just trying to speak the language.

Even if it's just saying "Hola" in their, in the person's same language.

Then I'll give an effort from their end so then people could see that you're welcome, you're helping your community thrive.

I mean, we're here in it together.

- So we're talking about economic growth that is bringing people here.

It's affecting housing infrastructure.

And we talked a lot about education.

We're gonna be taking a look at that in just a bit.

But I just wanted to invite an audience member to come to the microphone when you have time and we'll then have this look at the changes and how it affected the education here in K through 12.

Because among the recurring reasons, newer residents of Hazleton's site regarding their decision to relocate to this city is the search for a better education for their children than they would find in a bigger city.

However, the large and rapid influx of students, many of whom speak Spanish as their first language, has presented a very daunting challenge for the Hazleton Area School District.

WVIA sent MMJ Tim Novotny to learn more.

(logo whooshes) - [Brian] I'm Brian Uplinger, superintendent for the Hazleton Area School District.

I believe the most significant milestones in the district's history is the increased influx of students.

The growth has been enormous.

In 2017, we had 11,500 students.

At this point, it's 2023, we're up to about 13,200.

And that increase is significant.

There are other districts that are seeing a huge decline in their populations while we're seeing the, an increase in our student population.

(uplifting music) - Susan Burrows, English teacher and English department chairperson.

When I started here in 2003, our Hispanic population was very small.

And now in the Hazleton Area High School itself, it's the majority of the students.

When the new population came here, our Hispanic students, many of them did speak English and were bilingual.

The kids who did not speak English, that's who we work with so they can become bilingual.

- My name is Jesus Rivera.

I'm a senior at Hazleton High School.

I came here seven years ago, so it was really hard for me 'cause when I walked in a room, it was full of people not from my culture.

So it was really hard to communicate.

So I was like, what do I do now?

How do I communicate to a teacher?

I need to use the bathroom.

How can I say it?

And there was nobody there to help you.

Like, there's kids there, but they don't speak the same language as you.

So, like, you just feel left out.

- That was one of the biggest red flags when I first came to the district was that communication barrier that we were seeing.

The school district adapted to the changing population by adding bilingual liaisons in all of our schools, we've hired bilingual paras.

We're looking to add additional staff members that are bilingual as well, just to accommodate those students that are coming to us so they feel more at home and more relaxed.

- [Susan] The total goal is not for everybody to just speak English, but for everyone to be bilingual.

And what we've done is this, we had an ELD program, but now in grades 9 through 12, instead of the students who have not tested out of ELD to come into regular English classes, they're going to have ELD half a year and a regular English class the other half of the year so we can move more kids forward to that bilingual goal.

- And our ESL is actually a good program 'cause I learned a lot from it.

And, like, I got out of there and then I jumped to regular English.

It's not the same, but it prepares you.

So I think they do have a lot of support for the student, but I feel like they need to have more Hispanic teachers teaching.

'Cause I'm gonna be honest with you, I have a lot of white teachers and they're really nice and everything, but there's more people that come here without, like, they're, like, 16 years old, 17 year old.

It's hard for them to learn the language.

So that's when they need to hire a little more, you know, Hispanic teacher.

'Cause these buildings, like, 75% Hispanic culture.

- The difficulty is we have a number of people that are in the area that have been teachers or are teaching in the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico or where have you, you may want to discuss is the reciprocity that Pennsylvania doesn't approve.

There has to be some policy changes in order for us to accept a Dominican certification for a teacher.

That would be wonderful if something like that were to occur, we'd be able to support those families coming in.

We'd be able to support those teachers coming on staff.

There would be more faces that our students would be familiar with.

- Our Hispanic students, they've made our school better.

Plain and simple.

They've made our school better, they've made our community better.

And without them, I don't know what would even be here anymore.

Their culture is rich, their culture is beautiful, and we want them to retain that and share it with us.

- So we see how Hazleton Area School District has been meeting those challenges.

We have a question from the audience.

Sir, would you please state your name and where you're from?

- Hi, my name is Jim Kajano.

I'm a relative newcomer.

I've only been here since 1981, long enough for my Philadelphia relatives to notice my children's "upstate" accent.

Mr. McElwee, you talked about how things changed after World War II.

Could you rewind further back?

My sense from having been here a while is that what we're going through now really isn't new.

It's a third or fourth or whatever renaissance.

Can you speak to immigration patterns over the long term here and the kind of changes Hazleton has gone through maybe over the past hundred years?

I mean, not day by day obviously, but that may be useful.

- That's a great question.

So this is new.

So the warehousing and logistics development is interstate highway driven, completely new to this area of Hazleton, this region that was blessed with geological serendipity.

So at one point, Hazleton was the center of the anthracite coal industry, but it wasn't limited to coal in, at the turn of the century, for example, this city was one of the fastest growing cities in the United States.

And it was a city where 30 languages were spoken on the city streets, and where in addition to the anthracite mining industry, you had the world's largest silk mill, which was brought here by a French silk magnet in addition to factories.

Coffins were manufactured here, for example.

There were numerous breweries, and there was a downtown that so much of the inventory in downtown Hazleton is a result of that boom that occurred principally between World War I through the 1920s.

So the mining industry occurred during the period of economic expansion here that paralleled this period of industrial growth in America that we really have not seen since.

It was really between the 1870s and 1970s when America underwent this transformation.

And we have yet to see that type of growth, including here in Hazleton.

So the mining industry collapsed oftentimes when out of town reporters report on Hazleton.

It's presented as this mining area when this, it is so untrue.

So many people who have recollections of the mining industry at this point are in their 80s and 90s.

- [Larry] Right.

- This industry has been gone for many years, and the warehousing is the principle driver now.

- And we have many theaters, and there was a lot of rich culture happening in the downtown.

People would come here from New York City to watch plays and some of our downtown theaters and commute back and forth, as I've been told.

(Yoshi laughs) - No, so as was a center for vaudeville.

- Yeah.

- In the 20s, yeah.

- That's true.

Yeah, yeah, right.

I wanna stay with that a little bit and contrast or compare what happened a hundred years ago, what's happening now, because we see similarities, it, you know, with Rossanna, with this wonderful facility, the Hazleton Integration Project, integration is at the heart of that.

Now, a hundred years ago, all of my grandparents came from Slovakia.

So I'm only second generation American.

Now, in that time, with my parents, with their parents, my parents, the watch word was 'assimilation.'

My parents were all about assimilating into the American culture.

And they, you know, we didn't learn to speak Slovak even though it was a, it was a subject in my grade school.

But we didn't really learn to speak Slovak.

We were encouraged to speak English.

We were encouraged to accept the American culture and society, and education was the key.

And you have to assimilate.

We're talking about integration.

So there is a distinction, right?

- Yes, because when the center start, the key point was start to integrate the native people with the newcomers.

And it's the difference between when somebody from Europe that is white came at that time that we are Black, Black Latino, we are Latino.

Some kind of, some people see difference between that.

And at that point, when the center start, we were talking about integrate the newcomers and additional to that, we had the opportunity to speak our language, if not like before, when my uncle came years and years ago, that they said to their children, "Speak only English."

Now we say, "You're gonna speak English at school, you're gonna speak Spanish home, you're gonna keep your language."

And that, we want to integrate that.

And we are doing little by little, the center is a centerpiece to do that.

We cannot cover the entire city, but we are doing our job.

- [Larry] But don't you see integration as a two-way, like, it's also integrating the people who have, are lifelong natives of Hazleton integrating together.

So you're integrating the community.

- And actually, this building, this particular project and program has been that.

There are any number of teachers, volunteer teachers who came in that were of the community more, you know, who had been here longer and things to offer their service.

And also, this is a place where I could come to learn Spanish as well.

One point I would like to make too, that I think sometimes gets lost.

So in the assimilation versus integration, we are more, I don't care which community you come from, a global citizen.

We have changed so much.

So technology, and the one thing that COVID taught us is, you know, you can live in Harrisburg, but virtually still, you know, do work and be a vital part of Hazleton.

So I think that also changed, you know, the addition of technology and, you know, companies now, multiple are international.

We have many international companies here.

And that makes a big difference as far as how people think.

And now, as you said, Dr. Uplinger said it, right?

The goal, and Susan Burroughs, a beloved teacher for a long time, right, is to be bilingual, to have Yoshi's skillset- - Right, so I was gonna say, like, being, like, we are a globalized world- - Yes, mm-hmm.

- At this point, which is different from what was happening a hundred years ago where you only contacted people through letters or telegrams or, you know, communication was very limited.

Being that the more languages you know, the richer you are culturally, the better you're gonna get around in the world, the more opportunities you're gonna have.

- I always thought it was kind of sad that we kind of lost that.

- [Yoshi] Lost your language, yeah.

- The cultures that were such a mix.

- [Rossanna] But now we have more organization.

- Having bilingual education... - Right.

- Uh-huh.

- If kids could learn their own language at school, as I grew up in a bilingual school, I don't remember not knowing English and not knowing Spanish.

I learned them at the same time.

I took two classes in Spanish and history and writing and literature, and then everything else was in English.

- [Larry] Mm-hmm.

- And that bilingual education was American school.

You know, it's private.

But we could have that in public school system and charter schools, we can have teachers that could facilitate that.

- We have an audience question.

Identify yourself.

- My name is Fermin Diaz, and I want to put a few things.

A simulation will never happen because that happened long ago when we export our culture through Hollywood.

So that why it's more integration.

You cannot compare it, immigration in the 1800 where you completely disconnect from your homeland.

And now with WhatsApp and social media, you just get connect.

So as simulation happened, when we export culture through different events, like in Dominican Republic, we got three invasion from United States.

And that shaped our history so that the process is different because we came with some fact of the culture.

Who don't know in the world Superman, Batman, things like that?

Bart Simpson, you know, that's part, like it or not, American culture is part of the world culture.

So people arrive here with some context.

The other thing is in terms of economic development, some first in translation, it's not just translation, it's culture and translation.

People are focused in translate, Google do translate.

Cultural translation is understand the context and how people expressing, how they hectical with their hands and things like that.

And the third issue is economic development.

There are a bias, a tendency of present Hispanic as a restaurant owners, cleaning, and things like that.

But that's completely different here.

We got a new radio station from Hispanic.

We got doctors, we got dentists, we got engineers, we got lawyers.

I think we need to demystify that thing that, oh, they cook good.

You know, we do because, like, like Walt Whitman say, "We have multitudes inside us."

But the immigration that we are speaking today is completely different.

Immigration, the first one is not, like, the first chain immigration, it's completely different.

Thank you.

- [Larry] Thanks, Charles.

- So I think on a historical note here on this question of assimilation, we have, when you consider Hazleton, there are components here that led to assimilation here long ago.

So you had the mining industry that was in a simulative force that brought together a mosaic of cultures that were employed by this industry.

And while employed by this industry, you had a labor movement here.

The, really, the birthplace of America's labor movement occurred here in Hazleton in 1902 strikes.

It was mediated by President Roosevelt and settled here in Hazleton.

And the third component to all of this, this was a city, like many larger cities where the Catholic church dictated urban development.

Long ago, it was immortal, it still is technically, but it was immortal sin to miss mass.

And so many of the cultures formed their own neighborhoods around parishes.

Like, here tonight, we're in the historic Italian neighborhood of Hazleton and Nanny Goat Hill just across the street from Most Precious Blood Church, one of the oldest Italian parishes in America.

So those forces- - [Mary] We still today honor those traditions.

- [Charles] Right.

- For the things that happened in the summer, but- - This is the other component here, you, unlike many areas, unfortunately, the industrialists who thrived here so long ago, they did not remain anchored in this community.

They are not a local philanthropic force, and it's tragic.

So, you know, there are places, like, larger cities like Pittsburgh where the Heinz family is still involved, or Hershey where Milton Hershey's Empire he left behind, a school for poor children.

That's not the case here.

And that's a challenge.

- Mm-hmm, well- - You mentioned, sorry, philanthropy, right?

And arts and culture.

And I think that's one of the key components of integration is how we can communicate without necessarily using words as a community and how we can all come together.

And that's been, like, the real challenge, you know, I think within our community, like, you step out, you go to the stores, there are certain neighborhoods that you can't cross because then you don't understand the language, and then things get iffy.

Or they live in that part of the town, and we live in this part of the town.

So, you know, sometimes it frustrates me as I was working in the school district, and still now in our community, it's like, it's not they or them, it's us.

So how can we bring that to the table, and through, again, rebuilding the pride in our downtown, retelling our history that we, it's not very different than the past, yes, or some different components, but what can we do?

Whether it is with art, music, food, you know, interacting in different ways, dancing, like theater.

There are so many ways that we can communicate that we could share our cultures.

- Actually, we started at the center with that mindset.

And we, you can come to this building at night, you can find 60 children from different backgrounds, from different family playing together.

That's integration.

We can find our after school with children from Latin America, Haiti, but different country.

Different country, Latin America.

Now a lot of people from Spain are coming in Anglos here together.

We are trying to integrate our people through the class and to become the citizens.

Every day we are trying to abide about that.

- Well, so far we've been focusing on the changes the city of Hazleton has experienced this entry, but there are sites, businesses, and traditions in the city that remain solid, prominent, trusted, and vital parts of the community.

WVIA's Sarah Scinto visited two businesses that have long contributed to the unique personality of Hazleton.

(logo whooshes) - [Sarah] For 56 years of his life, Jim Grohl has watched his city grow and change from the window of Jimmy's Quick Lunch, glancing out onto East Broad Street every time he tends to the hot dogs on the grill.

- [Jim] Thank God we're an institution in the city, you know, well-known.

Everybody else comes in for the nostalgia.

The nostalgia.

My mother and grandmother both said, "We are always here to make a living, not a killing."

So we always, family-wise, always did it that way.

We're here for a living.

- [Sarah] Jimmy's is one of several longstanding businesses spread across downtown Hazleton.

Grohl says his family has kept Jimmy's mostly the same since it opened in the 1930s, but the city has certainly changed around them.

- I would say our population almost doubled.

We were down I think almost 20,000.

Now we're probably up mid 40s.

So I think it's a different culture that's here.

- [Sarah] Just down the street from Jimmy's, Hazel Drugs has been the city's local pharmacy since 1868.

- This is our 155th year.

So we're the oldest existing business in Hazleton, and we're also the oldest compounding pharmacy in America.

- [Sarah] Hazleton's population has grown exponentially in the last several years, and along with it, Spear's customer base.

- A lot of the new residents in our community are used to local community service from where they were before, where they lived.

So a lot of them embrace the idea that we're local, that we're established, that we've been here a long time, they trust us, they feel better coming to a local community pharmacy on the corner that can offer delivery, that can help package their pills, that can help counsel them, and also can help deal with any language issues.

We do have a number of bilingual staff members, so people do feel very comfortable coming to us.

- [Sarah] While Hazel Drug has been seeing a stream of new customers, Jimmy's sees nostalgic generations of longtime residents stopping by.

- A lot of times, we have fifth generations coming in.

You know, my great-grandfather used to come in, my grandmother came in, and my parents brought me here when I was a little boy.

You know, so a lot of people grew up from Jimmy's.

- [Sarah] While the city evolves, both businesses say they have no plans to leave downtown.

- Well, our role in Hazleton's future, I think, is to just deliver the same thing we've been doing.

Deliver quality prescription products to Hazleton and its residents.

My two sons are also pharmacists.

They work in the pharmacy with us.

So I think it shows that our legacy is something that we're serious about.

You know, we're not going anywhere.

We plan to stay here, and as the community grows, we hope to grow too.

- [Sarah] For Keystone Edition Reports, I'm Sarah Scinto, WVIA News.

- Well, we're running out of time.

We only about three minutes left.

So here's a question for each of you, and we'll start with Yoshi and go right down the panel.

How do you visualize the future of Hazleton?

- The future of Hazleton just looks really rich to me.

My children grew up here.

I see all our communities, like, coming together, all our cultures.

We have people from the Mexican committees, we have people from the Dominican committees, we have Italians, we have Irish, we have Polish.

We have so many melting pots of people in here that I wanna see more people walking in the streets, opening up businesses, and offering their services and all their culture to others and just really integrating in a healthy way and see that reflected in the education of our children in their schools so we can have representation.

- Charles?

- The city of Hazleton's future, Larry, will depend on leaders who are civically responsible and anchored in their hometown.

People who are hyper attuned to the quality of life concerns in this area.

And they're wide ranging from the economic and the fact that this warehousing development, the Lehigh Valley being a telling example of this is perhaps out of control.

And if you talk to anyone in Hazleton, it's a concern in terms of where the development is occurring as a result of Pennsylvania's archaic zoning loss.

In addition to that, there are concerns about public safety and housing.

Mayor Cusat know that both, and as the mayor, know they're making progress and hiring more police officers because after all, safety's the foundation for economic vitality.

And then housing.

We have a housing stock that dates to before World War I.

That's not good.

- [Larry] Mm-hmm.

- So how can we address that concern?

The overcrowding of half double homes constructed by mining companies in many cases many years ago, and what leaders can come forward and bring everyone together to address those concerns.

- Rossanna?

- I can see the future of Hazleton with first, second, and third generation for the newcomers that arrived recently.

And I can see more college here, more schools, and more business.

And now not only warehouse, and I can see more people managing at the top of those businesses that came from the first and second generation that now is growing.

- Mm-hmm, and Mary, you have about 30 seconds, the future of Hazleton.

- Passionate progress that's blended.

- [Larry] Passionate progress that's blended.

- Mm-hmm.

- So we're working on the integration.

We saw the businesses that... - [Mary] Correct.

- Still are here.

We see the new businesses coming up.

- [Mary] Correct.

- And we're- - Bill Spear, Hazel Drugs, 108 years, a member of the Greater Hazleton Chamber.

His son is leading the next generation of Young Rotarians.

- [Larry] Great.

- Along with getting Rossanna signed back.

- Passionate progress blended.

Well, I would like to thank our panelists for participating, and thank you for joining us.

For more information, please visit wvia.org/keystonereports.

And remember, you can rewatch this episode on demand anytime online or on the WVIA app.

Find more stories about our region at wvia.org/news.

For Keystone Edition Reports, I'm Larry Vojtko.

Thank you so much for watching.

(audience applauds) (dramatic music)