Price too low for old county prison site (YDR opinion)
“If the Facebook court of public opinion were judge and jury in the case of the old county prison, the York City Redevelopment Authority might be thrown in the slammer for stealing, well, a prison.
Most YDR Facebook readers seemed to think the price a board of viewers set for the RDA to pay the owners of the old York County Prison in an eminent domain case was a steal.
As recently as a 2007, the Gearhart family had the 2.9-acre site on the market for about $3.9 million.
That seemed like a pretty steep price for a decaying old cellblock that hovers ominously over the hardscrabble northeast neighborhood.
The property was overgrown and unsightly — and city officials offered a long list of reasons why the jail should legally be considered blighted.
The family had some interesting ideas to redevelop the site — a storage facility, a convention center, a water park, restaurants, a hotel.
None of those ideas have taken root.
The prison has been empty and decaying since the late ’70s, and it would be good to see it put to productive use.”
York Daily Editorial September 10 2014