{"id":217232,"date":"2026-06-12T07:26:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T07:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/217232\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T07:26:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T07:26:21","slug":"community-forum-the-challenge-of-blighted-property-in-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/217232\/","title":{"rendered":"Community Forum: The Challenge of Blighted Property in Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From Spotlight PA Berks Bureau<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Spotlight PA Berks Bureau will host a community forum entitled \u201cThe Challenge of Blighted Property in Reading\u201d on Thursday, July 16, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., via Zoom.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Tuesday, May 5, Spotlight PA published a story written by their Berks Bureau City and County Accountability reporter Hanna Holthaus.\u00a0The story, entitled \u201cWho owns Reading\u2019s blighted homes?\u201d highlighted the challenges of identifying who owns the blighted properties and the ability to hold them accountable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An analysis of the 286 properties on the city\u2019s September 2025 blighted list found that it was difficult not only to identify who actually owns the property but also how to contact them.\u00a0Many of these properties were neglected for a long period of time and posed problems for their residents and neighbors.\u00a0This is not just a Reading problem. It is a statewide issue with many cities and counties confronting the same issues.\u00a0Holthaus will share the results of her research.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"285\" height=\"409\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781249181_302_image.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-145975\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.6968481375358166;width:375px;height:auto\"\/>Photo courtesy of Hanna Holthaus<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She will be joined by Jack Gombach\u00a0and the City Managing Director, David Barr, Reading\u2019s community development director.\u00a0Gombach has experience working with both public and private partners on projects, and Barr has pushed for a number of changes during his short tenure in office \u2014 including disincentivizing buyers from keeping properties vacant.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Holthaus, Gombach, and Barr will be joined by Deb Millman, President of the Greater Berks Development Fund, who has been trying to remediate abandoned and blighted industrial and commercial properties in the region for some time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Join Spotlight PA Berks Bureau for this important conversation about a very critical issue for our region. Register here:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eventbrite.com\/e\/community-forum-the-challenge-of-blighted-properties-in-reading-tickets-1991232476941?aff=oddtdtcreator\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">eventbrite.com\/e\/community-forum-the-challenge-of-blighted-properties-in-reading-tickets-1991232476941?aff=oddtdtcreator<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Spotlight PA Berks Bureau Spotlight PA Berks Bureau will host a community forum entitled \u201cThe Challenge of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-217232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}