Reading Comes Up With Revitalization Plan

Consultants want the distressed city of Reading to move forward by looking back.

The Reading Eagle reports a revitalization plan for the city calls for re-creating the old market houses that stood in its center square for more than a century and restoring a long-gone traffic circle to make the area more walkable.

The consulting firm hired by the city's Downtown 20/20 Committee also recommends adding trees in the middle of some downtown blocks and adding a pedestrian plaza in the middle of Penn Street.

Landscape architect Krista Schneider says many recent changes made the area unattractive to those on foot.

The revitalization plan comes on the heels of Reading being named the "Poorest City in the United States". More than 41 percent of Reading residents live under the poverty line, according to new Census data.

City officials say they don't have the money on hand now to make big changes but hope having a plan in place will help them move swiftly when financing comes available.