Jonny Numb

[Header photo by Dan Gleiter, via msn.com]

Harrisburg’s “Tent City” was a sort of in-plain-sight secret nobody wanted to address: sandwiched between a bourgeois section of the State Capital and the PennDOT building by the Susquehanna Riverfront, I am unsure how many people used the wooded area for their refuge, but within the past year, a PennDOT project to expand Interstate 83 brought the commune to the fore, prompting news stories and tales of a proposed alternate location for the residents to transplant their bodies and possessions to.

Despite protestations, the commune was completely leveled in the name of the highway project, a move that seems to have pushed at least a portion of the homeless population downtown, with some taking up residence along the perimeter of the vacant federal building, among other places.

I managed to capture some video of the snow-capped desolation during a recent drive into the office: