'What's Wrong' Example No. 2,412

Welcome to "What's the Matter With Our Fair City," Example No. 2,412.

At hand is Mayor Jim Brewster's plan to return Fifth Avenue to two-way traffic to ease congestion and make it easier for people to get to and from the McKees' Point Marina and the Palisades.

Sounds logical enough. The one-way traffic pattern is a relic of the late '60s, when Downtown was congested by train and car traffic. In fact, a bunch of streets were converted to one-way traffic at the same time. Unfortunately, the one-way traffic patterns were designed to solve traffic problems that no longer exist, because the businesses that caused the traffic no longer exist.

Along comes a good man, Harold Byer, whose family was in the retail business in Our Fair City for three generations as the owner of Byer's Children's Shop on Fifth Avenue, to complain to city council about Brewster's proposal, according to Pat Cloonan's story in The Daily News.

"If Fifth Avenue can be re-established (as) two-ways, and retain the parking on both sides of the streets, such as we have now, that would be great," Byer is quoted as saying. "But the parameters of Fifth Avenue are such that you can't do it."

"Can't." If the Mon-Yough area could only sell "can'ts." We could supply most of the people living in North America with their daily recommended allowance of "can't."

Why can't you re-establish Fifth Avenue as two ways? Because of the concrete obstructions and landscaping that were installed in the 1970s to slow down traffic on Fifth Avenue.

If you spend as much time Downtown as I do, you'll notice that traffic is so slow right now on Fifth Avenue that, some days, you could take a nap in front of Byer's old store and not bother anyone.

And Cloonan makes a very cogent, but sly observation: "Byer noted two lanes of traffic could share space with two lanes of parking in the 200 block of Fifth Avenue -- between the Palisades and the intersection with Market Street. But that's not the case in the 300 block, he said, and it gets even tighter further east on what remains the main business street in McKeesport's main business district."

That could also as be read as "what remains of McKeesport's main business district."

Fifth Avenue --- "what remains the main business street" in Downtown --- is the main business street only in the memories of McKeesporters. It is clear to anyone else that congested, dingy, dark, narrow Fifth Avenue hasn't been the main business street in Our Fair City for at least 20 years; the lack of business on Fifth Avenue should make that self-evident. The "main business streets" in Our Fair City have long since become Lysle Boulevard, Walnut Street, and to a lesser extent, West Fifth Avenue, and more effort should be devoted to building up those corridors and making them attractive.

Why should the city fathers worry about maintaining parking on both sides of Fifth Avenue in the 200 and 300 blocks, when many of those parking spaces are empty?

This is the same mentality that --- a few years ago --- led the city to eliminate free parking on Saturdays. I was visiting an office on Fifth Avenue on a Saturday afternoon not long after that when my meter ran out. I came down a few minutes later to find a $2 parking ticket on my car. The rest of Fifth Avenue was empty.

I don't begrudge the city its two bucks, but ticketing cars on an almost-empty street is pretty self-defeating, isn't it?

Yank out the concrete obstructions on Fifth Avenue! Make the street open to two-way traffic again! Otherwise, the city is trying to maintain parking spaces for businesses whose owners have either long since moved to greener pastures or retired.

In fact, while we're at it, make on-street parking Downtown free. Further down in Cloonan's story, Mayor Brewster says that "motorists who park along Fifth Avenue these days aren't necessarily 'near or at' a desired shopping place. The mayor noted that some are employees, others are carpoolers parking in McKeesport --- and running the risk of a $4 ticket --- to save money on parking in downtown Pittsburgh."

With due respect to Hizzoner, who I am really starting to like, so what if they're carpooling to Pittsburgh? They're going where the jobs are. Be happy that they're spending time in Our Fair City at all. The city's best shot at survival, long-term, may be in establishing itself as a low-cost bedroom community. Let people park all day Downtown and carpool to Pittsburgh!

What's more, it would be nice if there were some bagel shops where carpoolers could grab breakfast on their way to work, and some restaurants where they could stop Downtown to eat before they went home.

Let me go one step further. There's a big empty parking garage on Lysle Boulevard that's currently closed, but which the city must still pay to insure, maintain and protect. It's within sight of Port Authority's big bus terminal, and less than a block away.

So here's a novel idea. Give it to Port Authority Transit on the condition that they turn it into a free park-and-ride lot for carpoolers, vanpoolers and people who catch the bus to Pittsburgh. There's precedent; PAT is building a new parking garage at South Hills Village for park-and-ride use. It's costing PAT more than $21 million.

I'd wager that renovating the Lysle Boulevard parking garage in Our Fair City would cost a great deal less than that. And there isn't currently a park-and-ride lot in Our Fair City, which is why I currently take two buses to and from work.

If you had a busy park-and-ride lot next to the bus terminal, then private businesses might be encouraged to open a coffee shop or a cafe nearby.

You could also fairly easily erect a heated, lighted walkway from the Lysle Boulevard parking garage across the street to The People's Building --- now largely empty --- which would suddenly make it attractive to companies otherwise moving their offices to Monroeville, North Huntingdon or Cranberry. Having a captive audience in The People's Building would spur retail activity that would be necessary to keep those office workers fed, shod and clothed.

None of this is brain surgery. It just takes getting past this attitude that we "can't" do this or we "can't" do that, and it takes getting past this attitude of waiting for the 1950s to come back to Downtown McKeesport. It isn't going to happen.

The sooner the Mon-Yough area learns to take what it has and move forward, rather than sitting around moping over what was lost, the better off we'll all be.

...

Someone took me to task Tuesday night for writing about Our Fair City because I don't actually live within the limits of Our Fair City. In point of fact, I don't.

Actually, I've never lived within Our Fair City, and have always lived in the towns that border Our Fair City (except for while I was in college, and for a year or so after I graduated).

Currently, I live in North Bittyburg, which borders Our Fair City, and shares its roads and some of its services. When I bought my house, I chose it based on its proximity to a bus line that would get me to work in Picksberg as cheaply and with the least amount of trouble possible. If I could have found a house in Our Fair City that would have provided that opportunity, I would have purchased it. As it is, moving from one side of Our Fair City to the other has cut my commute time in half, which is no small beans.

So am I a resident of Our Fair City? Legally, no, and I never have been. But economically and for all practical purposes, yes. Frankly, the fortunes of North Bittyburg --- like all of McKeesport's suburbs --- rise and fall with McKeesport's. North Bittyburg has no identity of its own. It exists solely because of its historical proximity to Our Fair City.

And I wouldn't make a bit of fuss if North Bittyburg and all of the other towns would get over their Edifice Complexes and merge into Our Fair City. In fact, I wish they would --- though I know it would send some of the members of North Bittyburg Borough Council into apoplexy if I suggested that to them.

...

In more news stories you may have missed, a venture capital firm based in eastern Pennsylvania has announced plans to acquire Tube City Holdings --- descendant of the old Tube City Iron and Metal --- for an undisclosed amount. Tube City got its start as a scrapyard in Our Fair City many years ago, but has long since moved to Glassport.

Tube City currently provides support services for the steel industry, including equipment leasing, byproduct and slag recovery, and scrap metal processing.

As part of the deal, Tube City will merge with International Mill Services, which does similar work with the steel industry. The companies are calling it a "merger of equals," and Michael Coslov of Tube City will be the CEO of the new firm.

Earlier this month, Tube City was honored by AK Steel Corporation for providing "outstanding service, value and strategic support" to the company.