READING — The impact of community involvement was a theme across panels at Spotlight PA’s Ideas Festival, an all-day forum that brought together Berks County residents, subject matter experts, and journalists.
Whether talking about data centers, stray cats, or getting kids involved in local sports, the question always returned to how residents could create influence.
More than 230 people moved in and out of the GoggleWorks building during the Oct. 3 event, chatting, debating, eating, and dancing with one of the KPop Demon Hunters.
Ideas Fest grew out of the Community Forum series, a project of the Berks County Community Foundation that Spotlight PA’s Berk County bureau took over this year. The monthly virtual discussions have brought together local, regional, and national experts on issues such as blight, the future of passenger rail, and jury selection.
Spotlight PA Berks General Manager José Joel Delgado Rivera said the topics for Ideas Fest came from suggestions from the community, and he’s ready to plan another similar event for next year.
“We wanted to highlight the ideas that we were having in Berks County that can be exported to the rest of Pennsylvania,” Delgado-Rivera said. The American Journalism Project, a national venture philanthropy organization that has made major financial investments in Spotlight PA, brought general managers from around the country to the Berks event to learn how to replicate it, he said.
Recordings of the six panels will be available on Spotlight PA’s YouTube channel. Here’s a brief breakdown of each:
Data Centers: What’s Coming, What’s at Stake
Local, residential engagement is the key to regulating the impact of data centers, a panel of experts agreed.
Almost half of Berks County’s 72 municipalities have, or are developing, some type of zoning ordinance related to data centers, the executive director of the county’s planning commission told residents who filled the theater at GoggleWorks. That local action is strengthening residents’ control in a way state-level proposals have yet to accomplish.
“The unfortunate reality is that we, the people, are going to have to keep fighting locally because the state government has no real intention of passing actual protections in the near future,” state Sen. Katie Muth (D., Montgomery) said.
Forum panelists, including Muth, Ashley Showers of the county’s planning commission, Reading Planning Commission Chair Wayne Jonas Bealer, and developer Joe D’Ascenzo Jr., each agreed that there needs to be community involvement — even if they disagreed on data center concerns or methods. (The panel was moderated by Spotlight PA Berks reporter Amanda Fries and Community Forum organizer Dave Myers.)
Sizable warehouses have changed the rural landscape of Berks County in recent years, and municipalities have been preparing for a potentially greater data center boom. Vacant warehouses could be converted into the centers if they follow the correct permitting process, said Showers.
D’Ascenzo pushed the panel to think of his project in Cumru Township — a planned 50-acre data center and attached power plant — as an example of correctly executed planning. He said the center will have a closed water loop, pulling unclean water from a sanitary system; will not raise electricity prices for its neighbors; and is one mile away from its closest neighbors, eliminating noise concerns.
The county has a planning document available to help municipalities plan their own ordinances, Showers said. The City of Reading, the county-seat, currently is within a 180-day moratorium for data centers as it finalizes its own ordinance, Bealer said. He expects they will be close to the deadline because of how complicated the issue is.
Learn more from panel-recommended resources: Berks County Land Development Dashboard, Public Notice Pennsylvania, municipality-specific planning commission agendas.
Latino Berks: Voice, Participation & Representation
Political power has not kept up with the expansion of Berks County’s Latino population, a panel of journalists, organizers, and scholars agreed. The session was translated live for Spanish-speaking attendees. WFMZ reporter José Martinez moderated the panel, which included reporter Joel Cintrón Arbasetti of Puerto Rico-based Centro de Periodismo Investigativo; field coordinator Nancy Jiménez-Zapata of Make the Road Pennsylvania; Barrio Alegría Director of Operations Anthony Orozco; and history professor A. K. Sandoval-Strausz of Penn State University.
Panelists said civic engagement goes deeper than the ballot box. Greeting neighbors, going to church, and joining community associations build a sense of belonging that makes political participation possible. Residents who cannot vote still can shape their community through culture, music, and organizing. The panelists said barriers to civic engagement include a distrust of government and a tendency to focus on national rather than local politics. Reaching people, they said, takes trusted messengers and spaces where residents feel comfortable asking hard questions about who holds power.
Learn more: Barrio Alegria, Centro de Periodismo Investigativo, Make the Road, A.K, Sandoval-Strausz and José Martinez.
Spotlight PA’s translated coverage is available here.
Community Cats: Who’s Responsible — and What Actually Works
There are between 30 and 40 million community cats (often referred to as strays) in the country, and only about 2% are spayed or neutered, said Steven Martinez, the executive director of York County SPCA. Martinez participated in the panel with Dan Cody, executive director of the Humane Animal Rescue of Pittsburgh, and Spotlight PA Berks reporter Gabriela Martínez to discuss the best ways to manage the seemingly ever-growing cat population. Ashley Mikulsky, CEO of the Animal Rescue League of Berks County, moderated.
The panel was partly inspired by Gabriela Martínez’ 2025 story about how one Berks County family’s brush with rabies showed holes in the Pennsylvania response system. It’s the only state with zero government-run animal shelters or rescues, Steven Martinez said. Instead, nonprofits are left struggling to tackle the problem alone.
Advocates at large may disagree over the best ways to control the stray cat population, but panelists agreed the best way forward is to develop a comprehensive care system with rescues, nonprofits, and municipalities working together instead of allowing disagreements to put them in silos.
Green Space for All: Lessons from Pennsylvania Communities
Spotlight PA’s Erin Negley led a discussion with leaders from Reading and Philadelphia about how urban gardens and green spaces can make Pennsylvania communities healthier, cooler, and more connected.
The panelists were Bethany Ayers Fisher, sustainability manager for the City of Reading; Courtney Shober, ag project coordinator at B.A.R.N. (Berks Agricultural Resource Network); and James Wright, project manager for strategy and operations at Deeply Rooted, Center for Health Justice, Penn Medicine. They described their work supporting community gardens, identifying available land, and connecting residents with resources and local agriculture organizations.
The conversation centered on practical hurdles including unclear land ownership, uncertainty about property use, ongoing maintenance, and the need for steady volunteers and funding. Panelists stressed that sustaining community gardens over the long term is often harder than starting one, and that partnerships with city agencies, schools, construction companies, and local organizations help fill the gaps.
The benefits, they said, come in community connections. Reading, for example, is working with a construction company to build wheelchair accessible garden beds.
The Future of Youth Sports in Pennsylvania and Beyond
Youth sports are no longer just a tool for kids to burn energy, learn teamwork, and have fun, panelists agreed. It’s turned into a multibillion-dollar industry, with parents spending upwards of $10,000 a year or more for their children to travel for events across the county, author and journalist Armen Keteyian said.
Keteyian was joined by Rashida Suber, head coach of girls basketball at Reading High School, and author/journalist Linda Flanagan. They each agreed that there has been mounting pressure on children to compete at higher stakes over the years.
Children as young as 7 or 8 may be participating in national championship tournaments, formerly reserved for when they age. The stress pushing children to play harder, faster, and better puts them in precarious mental situations, while also putting parents in financial strain.
Panelists suggested being honest with children about the limited possibility of eventually playing Division I or professional sports, while also keeping activities age appropriate. Very young children, for example, can compete without keeping formal score.
From Scroll to Follow: How to Build an Audience on Social Media
Moderator Jai Smith, founder and editor of Lehigh Daily, led a discussion about getting started in social media with Alexa Freyman — a storyteller, researcher, and content creator with Berksiana (formerly Berks Nostalgia) — and Anthony Matz, a content creator, social media manager, and digital marketing professional who co-owns Berks County Views.
Freyman and Matz agreed that starting small and sticking with it is important to building an audience. They discussed the limitations and rewards of creating local content. Routine is important for Freyman to engage her audience. Their tools varied: a cell phone, video cameras, and various editing software.
They agreed that each fills a niche left empty by the decline of local media. Freyman’s focus is on history, making it relevant to issues being discussed in communities today such as the future of Berkshire Mall. Matz said he has focused on promoting businesses and is pivoting to more real estate work.
Spotlight PA’s Lisa Scheid contributed to this report.