Ithink the revitalization efforts related to downtown Harrisburg as described in Penn Live’s “ Digging deeper into Harrisburg revitalization ,” published Sept. 12, are laudable.

A safer and more prosperous downtown will benefit the entire region.

However, the revitalization of the Allison Hill and Uptown sections of the city are just as important, if not more so. The levels of poverty in those important neighborhoods are staggeringly high. One way to gauge the economic health of those communities is to look at statistics from the Harrisburg City School District.

According to the data gathered by the State Dept. of Education for the years 2023-2024, almost 94% of all Harrisburg city school students live at or below the poverty line; that’s almost 6,000 students, 518 of whom are homeles

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