7. What the repository list says about Sharon PA and the absence of a LAND BANK as a catalyst

Sharon’s Properties on the Repository List - A Perspective:

The scale of the repository list for the City of Sharon is remarkable. It has some 600 plus properties. 

In comparison, the City of Altoona has a population 29,554 down from 70,000 in 1950. It, like Sharon had substantial employment loss when the Pennsylvania Railroad shops there converted from steam locomotives to diesel locomotives in the mid  - 1950’s. Labor intensive steam locomotives were replaced by efficient diesel locomotives. Diesel locomotives were bought from outside manufacturers where before some 50% of the steam locomotive fleet had been built by the PRR in Altoona. Virtually all the maintenance and repair components for the steam fleet had been manufactured in Altoona. The economic pressures of highway transportation lessened demand for railroad transport. No more passenger cars were built in Altoona. Fewer freight cars were built. There was less maintenance of both the freight car and passenger car fleet. 

In comparison the decline and disappearance of manufacturing jobs in Sharon happened decades later than for the earlier disappearance in Altoona. Consequently, today Altoona has 1092 vacant residential structures out of housing stock numbering 13,397. The repository list for the City of Altoona is the neighborhood of 140. 

The City of Sharon has an exceptional challenge as it also has 1000 vacant residences according to the Census Bureau. Some may be blighted and abandoned. Some may not be blighted and abandoned. Some may be tax delinquent. Some may be up to date in taxes. The point is that there is a supply and demand imbalance with such a vacant residence statistic.