When Noma was first opened, it enjoyed considerable success. As time wore on, patrons grew tired of the “same old, same old” lack of specials and lack of people and found other places. The owners and management decided to try something fresh an idea that was cool in 1983 by opening a theme lounge that hadn’t yet been done has been beaten to death in Harrisburg. After breathing new life into failing miserably and thoroughly pissing off the original crowd, they reopened Noma with a fresh new vibe. After a long, successful run, Noma has been retired. How is this is a bad thing?.

There is no demand for DT/city retail because the city limits are far, far too small and the ‘burbs have a stranglehold on the retail. The HBG area is very compact and one does not need to travel far to get what one wants; it makes no sense for a lot to be in the city right now. Also, I will go so far as to say the HBG metro is saturated with retail. Think about it: 3 Boscov’s within spitting distance of each other, soon to be two Targets in the same boat, etc. The only thing HBG needs is stuff it does not already have. A few things, sure, but that list has shrunk quite a bit over the years…

*Unless the city leaders get smart and plop a nice big grocery store DT, then things will change fast. You may laugh, but studies show that once a grocery store comes in people flock, as that is a neccessity people love to live near (not to mention if HBG wants to cater to International students and DT living, they need this for sure).

My advice would be for the city to carve out a niche market of things you simply can’t get anywhere else. But that takes business owners who are willing to gamble with their time and money, and unfortunately, the track record with niche stores in HBG is not so good…

Here is what I have to say to Harrisburg: commit 100% to being a big city and start living, acting and thinking that way and do a complete overhaul, or do a 180 from that and start being the best small town you can be (State College comes to mind in this category for example) and nothing more. The vortex HBG is caught in between these categories needs to go because it is killing it!!!

Wow, NOMA has closed?!?!? Okay, I am now thoroughly convinced that DT HBG’s nightlife is done for when it comes to variety. I know I should be a little more positive but I just don’t see anything good popping up, as things outside of the Hardware Bar realm is referred to by the locals as “gay” and they stress how they won’t be going there…ever. *yawn*

Unless one of you guys open a club, I don’t have any faith in HBG. Why don’t I come back and open one instead you ask? It’s just not worth it to me anymore. I already know what I would be up against, and there is no sense in catering to a crowd that has since left DT a long, long time ago…

RIP HBG, RIP. Very ironic to think I enjoyed the nightlife much better when there was but a mere handful of bars and clubs (e.g. The Vault days). :(

i don’t think parking would be such a big issue if:
a) the meters around town weren’t constantly bagged for no apparent reason ALL THE TIME.
b) all the garages were open for business on weekends. i’d use the locust street garage if it were open; that’s very close to a lot of the nightspots.
c) the price of leaving your car in a garage overnight was significantly decreased, or in some cases… possible. i’ve parked on fourth and market to go downtown before because i don’t know if i’ll be back to get my car out of a garage promptly at 2am (which leads to poor decision making in terms of drinking and driving anyway).