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From the headlines you&#8217;ve read over the last few years, you might think the mountain city of Hazleton is a crime-infested wasteland.We&#8217;re familiar with that perception, have seen it stated in reader comments, and we fully understand some incidents don&#8217;t reflect well on the area.Just see the recent story about the 14-year-old girl who allegedly pulled a gun on two other teens about 4 a.m. near a bar. As many of you have mentioned, we&#8217;d also like to know what the heck a girl that age is doing out at that hour, let alone being out at that hour with a gun while allegedly robbing other children of their valuables!But there&#8217;s a lot of good things going on in Hazleton as well.As for crime, Mayor Jeff Cusat and Police Chief Jerry Speziale say major incidents are down more than 40 percent since the end of 2015.We know some folks still might not believe Hazleton is safe. However, consider that Chief Speziale reports a lot of information to the media. That&#8217;s not the way it works with every police department in every municipality.So, common perceptions of crime may be off due to the fact you hear more from Hazleton Police than others.Hazleton is not all drugs, crime and doom and gloom.That&#8217;s far from the case.In fact, a story last week about a huge construction project within city limits is good indicator Hazleton may have a very bright future.A developer plans to break ground in June on a 1.4 million square-foot building that could be used as a warehouse and distribution center.A tenant has yet to be lined up. But barring anything unexpected and despite neighbors&#8217; concerns, this project is going to happen.Simply put, it&#8217;s unlike any commercial development Hazleton has seen in decades.No matter the company that utilizes the space &#8212; sports drink warehousing has been mentioned as one possibility &#8212; it will offer hundreds of jobs and enough annual tax revenue to perhaps pull the financially distressed city from the brink of despair.As Mayor Cusat noted, the warehouse would add roughly 15 percent to Hazleton&#8217;s real-estate tax base. In addition, income and other taxes will be collected during construction and on an annual basis going forward when the building is filled with workers.Even better, the mayor believes such a major project will set off a wave of development around it to cater to the influx of employees.While that project begins on a wooded parcel off Route 309 in the southern end, more development is brewing downtown with &#8212; just to mention a few &#8212; a bar/restaurant on Broad Street and an old school that&#8217;s being turned into apartments just off Broad on Poplar Street.For those of you who haven&#8217;t been to downtown Hazleton, we must say it&#8217;s the best it has looked in years due to an extensive streetscape project.The mayor also is starting an aggressive paving schedule (two entire developments will get new roads) and touted an energy-efficient plan that will replace all of the city&#8217;s streetlights &#8212; well more than 1,000 &#8212; in the coming months.These are all very good signs, and we felt we should point them out to balance the crime coverage.Hazleton will never be Beverly Hills.We would always like to see less crime.But it&#8217;s still a good place to live.And when a developer chooses a city for a major development as opposed to an industrial park, it should tell you something.&#8212; Times Leader<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Hazleton City Hall </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_OTS_Hazleton_City_Hall_GEN_1505851941070_26582969_ver1.0_640_360-1-.jpg</photo0><caption0>Hazleton City Hall </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>

Our View: New development shows Hazleton could have bright future