Expressway Through Your Heart

As first reported in yesterday's Tube City Almanac, and in a story I wrote for the Tribune-Review more than five years ago, the Mon-Fayette Expressway is going to cut a wide swath through the Mon-Yough area, and not necessarily provide much benefit to the people displaced or otherwise affected:

All along the 24 miles from Jefferson Hills to Oakland, the newly approved northern leg of the Mon-Fayette Expressway will cut through populated areas, affecting historic buildings and cultural and natural landscapes.

Older communities will be dwarfed and divided by an elevated, four-lane, limited-access toll road, and pristine hillsides will be sacrificed. Nowhere will its impact be felt more than in Braddock, Duck Hollow, Hazelwood and Turtle Creek. ...

The highway would separate most of Braddock and all of North Braddock from the riverfront, with access only via tunnels through the berm. ...

The expressway would travel 60 feet above the borough of Turtle Creek on concrete piers. Its visual impact on Turtle Creek would be high, reports the turnpike commission's Environmental Impact Statement, "since the overhead structure would extend across the downtown."

The highway would come within 75 to 85 feet of three historic churches -- St. Colman, McMasters Methodist and United Presbyterian. (Patricia Lowry, Post-Gazette)

Sure, Turtle Creek will soon be divided by the Great Wall of Turnpike, and sure, that means property values (which aren't that great) in the Valley will go from slim to none. But all that seems like a small price to pay so that executives who work in Downtown Picksberg can get to their McMansions in Washington County, quite frankly.

And it will help people get out to those nice, big half-million dollar homes in Penn Township and Murrysville, too. People in the Mon Valley should just shut up and accept it, right? If we were so smart, why would be living here?

Yesterday I wrote about all the goose droppings in North Huntingdon Township. I finally figured out what they can do with them: Sell them to highway planners to make blueprints.

The part I like best about this whole plan, perhaps, is the impact on Braddock. Sources in the borough tell me that many of the property owners down below Braddock Avenue have been hanging onto dilapidated buildings and refusing to do anything with them for 10 years or more, in hopes that they'll be able to sell them at outrageously inflated prices to the Turnpike Commission.

Well, they're about to get their wishes. But in exchange, Braddock has suffered some of the Mon Valley's worst economic conditions because of 10 or more years that landowners have refused to make any investment in fixing or developing their properties. And now, the borough will never have a chance for recovery. Braddock would benefit greatly if the lower part of the borough were cleared for a Waterfront-type development, but with a highway blocking the river, it will never happen.

The best part? Traffic studies have long shown that adding new highways doesn't reduce congestion; the congestion just expands to fill the new highways. At best, look for traffic on the Parkway East to be reduced for a few years after the Mon-Fayette opens.

And then, look for the daily Greensburg Pike to Bates Street traffic mess to be right back to where it is now.

Maybe the expressway will make it more attractive for businesses that require quick and easy distribution channels to relocate to, say, Our Fair City. I've been told time and time again that when businesses look for properties, they look for an Interstate nearby. State highways and U.S. highways do not impress them; they want to be no more than a mile off of a limited-access expressway.

"Maybe." But it's a big maybe. On the other hand, maybe all the Mon-Fayette Expressway will do is facilitate the migration out of Allegheny County and into the surrounding counties.

Which is a funny coincidence. Because, as Joe Grata points out in an accompanying story in the P-G, "Among those being credited for championing the expressway was state Sen. Barry Stout, D-Bentleyville."

Bentleyville, for those of you playing along at home, is in rural Washington County. Where they couldn't give two figs about Braddock, Turtle Creek, or Dravosburg, which is also going to get a faceful of Turnpike concrete soon.

But it could be worse. According to the public radio show "Marketplace," the Bush administration is planning to heavily support privatizing Interstate highways by allowing developers to build their own toll roads.

To encourage private investment, the administration poses relaxing environmental, safety and labor standards.

Couldn't happen? It's already being done in Chicago, where the Skyway has been privatized.

So, to review: The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is about to blast an elevated highway through most of the Mon-Yough area that will primarily make it easier for people to leave Allegheny County. The Turnpike Commission --- being a public body appointed by elected officials --- will at least have some accountability to the voters. And they're going to make some attempt to soften the impact of the highway. (One engineer is quoted in Grata's story as saying that the Mon-Fayette will be "a model of urban freeways throughout the country." I would point out that the Parkway East --- designed by infamous highway planner Robert Moses --- was also considered a "model of urban freeways" when it opened. How's that working out so far?)

But in the future, the federal government --- having already privatized large chunks of things as vital and basic as the military --- wants to give toll road franchises to private companies with no accountability.

Hmm.

Anyone want to join me in investing in a private offshore island somewhere?

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How did the local sports media miss this gem from Secretary Rumsfeld's "town meeting" with the troops in Kuwait?

Q: Yes, Mr. Secretary, Specialist McCullough (sp), Alpha Company 1st of the 112th Infantry. Thereâs a lot of soldiers here from Western Pennsylvania and we were wondering if we were going to be given the opportunity to watch the Steelers win the Super Bowl this year? [Cheers] [Applause]

SEC. RUMSFELD: I canât answer the question about outcomes [Laughter], but General, theyâre going to have access to the ·

GEN. WHITCOMB: Absolutely, sir.

SEC. RUMSFELD: Yes, youâll have access to the television, but youâre going to have to figure out a way to encourage that to happen. [Laughter]

A reporter from Tennessee apparently planted a question that one soldier asked Rumsfeld about the lack of body armor and other equipment that troops in Iraq are reporting. I think Sam Nover planted the Steelers question.

By the way, the same "town meeting" with Rumsfeld yielded the Tube City Almanac's new motto, which can be seen today in the far-right column (and what an oddly appropriate turn of phrase that is).

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To Do This Weekend: CCAC Dance Ensemble presents new student works in the auditorium at South Campus in West Mifflin, tonight and tomorrow at 8. Call (412) 469-6477 ... McKeesport Little Theater, 1614 Coursin St., presents "Charlotte's Web," tonight and tomorrow night, and Sunday afternoon at 2. Call (412) 673-1100. ... The Palisades, Fifth Avenue at Water Street, holds a country dance at 7 p.m. Saturday and ballroom dancing at 9 p.m. Call (412) 678-6979. ... Holiday train show continues tonight, tomorrow afternoon and Sunday afternoon at McKeesport Model Railroad Club, 2209 Walnut St. Call (412) 664-LOCO or visit www.mktrains.org.