The Noise and the Hurry Seems to Help

Tuesday afternoon, I went Downtown (the lights are much brighter there, you can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares, etc.) to get a tire fixed, go to the bank, and shoot some pictures at the RIDC industrial park, and naturally, my mind got to wondering.

. . .

I am grateful for Pittsburgh developer Barry Stein's efforts to rehabilitate and rent out the Midtown Plaza Mall, which was one of the all-time worst things ever built in the Mon Valley. (I'm fairly certain it was built in part with taxpayer money, and as I believe P.J. O'Rourke has pointed out, the epitome of a public-works project is the public toilet. Which, incidentally, is what Midtown Plaza usually smelled like.)

And glory, hallelujah, was it a happy day when they finally pulled down the parking deck over Fifth Avenue. Yippie! Here comes the sun!

All that being said ... I don't mean to sound unkind, Mr. Stein, but when the heck are you going to finish? Other than the handful of businesses rented out along Lysle Boulevard, I haven't seen much progress for more than a year. Midtown Plaza still has rusty steel beams, broken siding and half-demolished pieces of concrete hanging out everywhere.

I realize that they may be waiting for additional tenants before they finish the work, but is it too much to ask that the wreckage be cleaned up? And maybe a fresh coat of paint be used to cover some of the demolition scars?

Midtown Plaza is on Downtown's two main streets, after all, and they may not be much right now, but we like 'em.

. . .

By the way: When I was walking around Tuesday afternoon, I saw someone barbecuing ribs and chicken in front of the bar on Sinclair Street near Lysle. They also had some tables with umbrellas set up so that people could sit and eat.

I didn't have time to stop, but boy, did it smell good. That kind of activity doesn't cost much, but makes life a little bit more pleasant --- and we can use more of it Downtown, in my never-humble opinion.

. . .

In the comments to Friday's Almanac, Alert Reader Terry wrote:

McKeesport has itself to blame the the downtown area being dead. Any time you expend large sums of tax payer money to bypass a business district (Lysle Boulevard) and inhibit access to the remaing business with 50-plus traffic signals, you in essence commit suicide. Now our tax money is going to be infused into a corpse (Fifth Avenue). No doubt, upon completion, the politicians attending the wake will be expounding its resurrection.

There's truth to this, although Lysle Boulevard was built in the 1930s, long before Downtown began to decline. Some blame can be laid on the people who ran the city Parking Authority in the 1960s, who made it difficult, if not impossible, for private business owners in McKeesport to open surface lots. The authority preferred to force people to pay to park in its garages.

Well, there's no trouble finding a spot in those garages now!

On the other hand ... it's arguable that the Downtown's days as a shopping district were numbered once the malls opened --- especially Century III, but Greengate and Monroeville also drew some shoppers who otherwise would have gone to McKeesport. That was a national trend, not a local one.

And though the city fathers did much to wreck Downtown in the 1960s in the name of "urban redevelopment," I'm reluctant to blame the current leadership. They can only do so much to correct the past damage.

. . .

One thing they can do, however, would be to keep the streets leading to and from Downtown clean and in good repair. The Jerome Avenue Bridge and its approaches are a mess. Many of the sidewalks Downtown are full of weeds, dirt and litter. There's plenty of dirt and debris at the east end of town, near the hospital, as well.

Even Gibson Way --- the main entrance to the McKees Point Marina --- is a mess. The marina is one of the jewels of the city. People should not be driving past piles of cinders, filter-tips and paper cups to get there.

However: I suspect there's a lack of money in the city budget for street sweeping and maintenance, which is yet another reason we need more regional government cooperation.

The exits from McKeesport are the entrances to North Versailles, Port Vue, White Oak, Glassport, etc. It seems to me those communities have a vested interest in making sure that they're clean and attractive --- why should the city front all of the cost?

. . .

And speaking of the marina: I saw lots of people down there Tuesday washing or repairing their boats. I'm not privy to the records of the people who keep their boats there, but I'll bet good money that more than half don't live in the city, either.

Before the people from White Oak, Glassport, etc., jump on me and start complaining, remember that I don't live within the city limits, either. But we all have a vested interest in its health. A clean, attractive McKeesport benefits all of the surrounding communities.

More on this tomorrow, I think. I know: You're quivering with excitement.