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)
Q: Yes, Mr. Secretary, Specialist McCullough (sp), Alpha Company 1st of the 112th Infantry. There’s 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 can’t answer the question about outcomes [Laughter], but General, they’re going to have access to the …
GEN. WHITCOMB: Absolutely, sir.
SEC. RUMSFELD: Yes, you’ll have access to the television, but you’re going to have to figure out a way to encourage that to happen. [Laughter]
Headline on the front page of this week's Valley Mirror: "Pear Harbor Remembered."
You remember Pear Harbor. That happened on Dec. 8, 1941, when the Japanese launched a surprise attack on Fruit-of-the-Loom. Witnesses recall seeing squashed grapes and boxer shorts everywhere.
Watch for upcoming Valley Mirror coverage of remembrances of 6/11 --- when terrorists attacked a Bell Telephone repair truck --- and a nostalgic look back at Braddock Avenue's immortal rallying cry during the Spanish-American War, "Remember the Main Hotel!"
It's a good thing I never make mistakes. Tube City Almanac: Where typographical errors are unpossible!
Anyway, inspired by Dave Copeland's piece on Tuesday about this survey --- in which the American public ranked newspaper reporters with car salesmen in terms of "trustworthiness" --- I was going to write a big long screed. But then I remembered that nothing is more boring to non-journalists than journalists journalizing about journalism. So just go read Copeland instead. Or don't. Who am I to tell you what to do?
Speaking of telling people what to do --- and where to go ...
If you live in Dravosburg, Braddock or Turtle Creek, and you've been dreaming that some day, your little town might be divided by a giant wall of concrete and speeding cars, your prayers were answered yesterday. The federal government has approved the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission's plans to complete the Mon-Fayette Expressway from Route 51 to Picksberg. An official announcement is expected today.
This means the Road to Nowhere --- the high-speed toll road which currently connects the bustling metropolis of Large with the metropolitan California, Pa. area --- will actually go somewhere, but at a cost of about $2 billion.
And only 40 years too late to help the Mon-Yough area! Whoopee!
Now, if Turtle Creek residents are interested in seeing what their town is going to look like 10 or 15 years from now, they should load the kiddos into the old family truckster and head down Route 837 to New Eagle, and then hang a right onto Route 88 until they get to Mingo Creek County Park.
Pull over to the side and get out of the car. See those two giant bridges?
Now just imagine those over St. Colman's Church, 'cause that's what you're probably getting. It should make the fireman's fairs a lot of fun.
Oh, don't worry; the Turnpike Commission has promised to appoint "local advisory boards" that will "advise" the highway builders on how the roads will be routed. If you want to "advise" the Turnpike Commission, rumor has it that they're actually very gentle, though you might find yourself walking funny for a few days.
Complete coverage from Jim Ritchie in the Trib and Joe Grata in the Post-Gazette.
Other than that, it's kind of a slow day at the Almanac. Patti Dobranski reports in the Tribune-Review that the old Pennsylvania Avenue Elementary School in Irwin has been acquired for use as a personal care home. The school closed in 2003, and there had been some talk that the borough building might relocate there, but nothing came of it.
Also in the Trib, in neighboring North Huntingdon, Michelle Merlo writes that geese are doing what geese do, all over the sidewalks at Indian Lake Park. At one point, Merlo writes, workers had to hose down the walking track every morning.
Um, yuck?
With chemicals, fencing and other measures having little or no effect, the fed-up township commissioners have authorized the parks and recreation director to get his shootin' arn and bag him some geese.
I know roast goose is supposed to be good eatin', but having spent some time around geese, and having seen what comes out of them, I'm not sure I would want to eat the insides.
SpongeBob who? Not everything was better in the "good ol' days," but some things were --- and one category that was better (in my never humble opinion) was "animated cartoons." Golden Age Cartoons has enough pop culture goofiness to satisfy your cartoon jones for hours --- and right now it has special Looney Tunes and Tom & Jerry Christmas-themed material. (Tip of the Tube City hard hat to Tim Blair.)
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While you're there, you'll see that Felix the Cat is more than a clock with wig-wag eyes. He was one of the first stars of animated cartoons, and the original cartoons from the 1920s and '30s are still full of trippy, surreal goodness. Return to those thrilling days of yesteryear at The Classic Felix the Cat Page.
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Speaking of those Thrilling Days of Yesteryear, it's no secret that I love old-time radio ... "Dragnet," "Fibber McGee & Molly," "Jack Benny," "X-Minus-One." I don't know how I missed this Web page at Salon.com called --- you guessed it --- Thrilling Days of Yesteryear. Ivan Shreve writes about old radio shows, some TV and other items of nostalgic interest.
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When it comes to nostalgia, you can't help but think of "The Flintstones." At least I can't. Whenever I think of nostalgia, I always think of poorly animated Hanna-Barbera cartoons that rip off "The Honeymooners," transplanting the characters haphazardly to pre-historic times and using lots of lame rock puns.
Anyway, if you thought "The Flintstones" was a documentary, you'll love the new "Creation Museum," currently under construction near Hebron, Ky., which explains how dinosaurs co-existed with humans in the Garden of Eden, and how the tyrannosaurus rex was the terror that original sin unleashed. "You'll run into this monster lurking near Adam and Eve. How's this possible? Find out soon!"
Golly gosh, I can barely wait!
Some how I missed last month's conference in downtown Picksberg at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center that was organized by the people behind the museum, a group called "Answers in Genesis." Unfortunately, they're not coming back to our area any time soon. (I wonder if any of the attendees made it up to the Carnegie Museum while they were in town? Probably not, because they couldn't learn anything from a group of people who they consider "willfully ignorant.")
I don't know when I'll make it to the museum, but if you go, make sure to take your Polarock camera --- I'll want to see some pictures. (Tip of the Tube City hard hat to Boing Boing.)
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I'm embarrassed to admit that I thought this show was funny when it first aired, and knowing my sick sense of humor, I probably would still think it was funny now. Anyway, the producer of "Sledge Hammer!," the short-lived mid-'80s TV sendup of the "Dirty Harry" movies and shows like "Hunter," now has a Web site.
Please: I deserve your pity, not your scorn. Or as they might say down in Hebron, Ky., "hate the sin, love the sinner."
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Erie bloggers (geez, I hate the word "blog") have their own Web site.
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How did a gearhead such as myself miss this? From the people who brought you "Wonkette," it's "Jalopnik," a daily online magazine (I really, really hate the word "blog") devoted to gossip about cars and the automobile industry.
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How did I miss this, too (or is that "two")? Jay Leno (you may have heard of him; he's on TV) is writing a very readable and entertaining column for Popular Mechanics.
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The Global Schoolyard Rhyme Project is exactly what it sounds like. Now you can insult fifth-graders in whatever language you choose!
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And finally, via Atrios, more evidence that irony is dead:
On Oct. 4, "Bush introduced Mike and Sharla Hintz, a couple from Clive, whom he said benefited from his tax plan. Last year, because of the enhanced the child tax credit, they received an extra $1,600 in their tax refund, Bush said. With other tax cuts in the bill, they saved $2,800 on their income taxes. They used the money to buy a wood-burning stove to more efficiently heat their home, made some home improvements and went on a vacation to Minnesota, the president said."
But on Tuesday, we learn that a "Des Moines youth pastor is charged with the sexual exploitation of a child. KCCI learned that the married father of four recently turned himself in to Johnston police. Rev. Mike Hintz was fired from the First Assembly of God Church, located at 2725 Merle Hay Road, on Oct. 30. Hintz was the youth pastor there for three years. Police said he started an affair with a 17-year-old in the church youth group this spring."
Um, yeah. The good Rev obviously had the "child tax credit" confused with the "marriage penalty." Or something like that.
Christmas lights are appearing throughout the neighborhood, wreaths and giant lighted snowmen are decorating homes, and commercial radio stations are in their second week of torturing us with holiday songs. Yes, it's that magical time that comes only once a year, which we call the Annual Mounting of the Snow Tires.
That coincides with the much-more regularly occurring events we call the Scraping of the Knuckles and the Using of the Very Bad Words.
Each year, I try to wait until as late in the season as possible, mostly because a good pair of winter snowshoes for the ol' sled is fairly expensive, and they wear out quickly on dry pavement. Invariably, I wait too long, and end up putting the snow tires on as it's snowing.
On Sunday, with the weather seeming to turn colder and rain and snow in the forecast, I decided to take a chance.
Naturally, it's rained for the past two days.
Incidentally, there must be something more depressing than a rainy day in December in Western Pennsylvania, but I can't really think of it. It's not bad enough that all of the leaves have fallen off of the trees and are rotting in the gutters, or that we have about six hours of daylight, or that everything has taken on a gray, dirty cast. No, now the sun is blotted out by clouds, and we're cold and wet, to boot. Why have you forsaken us, Joe DeNardo?
It almost makes one long for snow --- getting back the whole snow tire thing that I started out with. Many people believe that front-wheel drive negates the purpose of snow tires. Au contraire, motormouth. All other things being equal, a front-wheel drive car equipped with "all season" tires will have better traction in snow than a rear-wheel drive equipped with "all season" tires --- but a front-wheel drive car with a good set of snow tires will outperform them both. My late grandfather had a front-wheel drive Ford Escort equipped with snow tires that I think would have climbed up the side of an igloo, if you'd let it. It plowed through snow better than some four-wheel drive vehicles.
A few words of explanation are in order before the snow starts flying.
Front-wheel drive means just that; the front wheels propel the car. Probably 60 percent of the cars currently being built are front-wheel drive. (I didn't make any attempt to verify that stat, by the way. I plucked it out of the air.) Front-wheel drive cars have good traction in snow because the heavy engine sits up front, directly over the drive wheels. Rear-wheel drive means the opposite --- the power is transmitted from the engine up front to the wheels in the back via a long drive shaft.
Rear-wheel drive cars are good at lots of things --- most race cars and many performance cars are rear-wheel drive --- but driving in snow isn't necessarily one of them. The heavy motor is up front, and can't provide any weight to help keep the drive wheels on the road. Worse yet, in a really light car, the heavy front end sometimes wants to slide out of the way and swap ends with the rear wheels. That's why putting a 50 pound bag of sand in the trunk of a rear-wheel drive car is often recommended for winter driving. Rear-wheel drive is making a strong comeback --- Chrysler recently re-introduced its first rear-wheel drive sedans in years --- and maybe 30 percent of the cars being built today are rear-wheel drive. Most (if not all) trucks are rear-wheel drive, and they benefit most of all from a bag or two or three of sand in the back, especially if secured with boards and chains over the rear wheels.
Of course, many trucks and SUVs, and maybe 10 percent of passenger cars, have four-wheel drive, which means exactly what it sounds like. Four-wheel drive is not a license to drive like a maniac in the snow, and I know you nuts are out there. A four-wheel drive vehicle driven recklessly in the snow is just as likely to go plowing off the road and into a ditch as any other vehicle; it's just often easier to get a four-wheel drive vehicle back out of the ditch, because you have two more chances that one of your drive wheels will be able to get you out.
Now, back to the tires. Summer tires are just that --- for use in the summer. "All-season" tires aren't, as far as I'm concerned. They should be called "three-season" tires, because they aren't great on ice or snow. Snow tires use softer, stickier rubber --- good for gripping ice, but not very long-wearing --- and they usually have big, blocky treads that are good at digging into loose material.
Snow tires have a couple of drawbacks --- besides the fact that they wear out fairly quickly, they can also screw up a car's handling at high speeds --- but on a rear-wheel drive vehicle like my sleek, gray Mercury, they're essential. And having driven front-wheel drive vehicles both with and without snow tires, they're a useful safety feature, in my never-humble opinion, and well worth the money. A good snow tire should cost between $70 and $90, installed, in my experience. (Personally, I get mine from an independent dealer in Our Fair City that deals in both brand-name and generic tire brands, and I try to stick to American-made tires.)
I also know several people who put snow tires on all four wheels of their cars, on the grounds that steering and braking is improved in deep snow if all four wheels are similarly shod. Mechanics that I've talked to have told me that it doesn't help that much in the kind of snow that Western Pennsylvania usually gets, and that it's a waste of money, but if you drive frequently on unplowed roads, it might be worth the extra cash.
Also, if you don't mind changing your own tires --- or if you know someone who will do the job for you --- you can save time by buying a set of spare wheels for your car and having snow tires mounted on them. (You can get used or new wheels from a good junkyard --- I've bought them from both Spitz Auto Parts in North Huntingdon and Toll Gate in Greensburg --- and most yards will check to figure out what kind of wheels you need, if you don't already know.) That way, you don't have to leave your vehicle at the tire store to have the snow tires mounted; just leave the wheels, and pick them up when you're ready.
As long as you have a good jack and jack stands, and a flat surface to change the tires, you can put the snow tires on at home, when you're good and ready. Obviously, you'll need someplace to store the two tires you're not using; that would be a real problem from apartment dwellers, I suppose. (I guess you could prop them up in the living room and drape spider plants over them, maybe, or call them outsider art.)
Anyway, do you run snow tires on your car? And what kind of vehicle is it? I'd be interested in hearing from you. Drop me an email at jt 3 y at dementia dot org, or leave your information below by clicking on the "comment" link.
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This is one of a new series of entries I'm going to be writing called "Blacktop Jungle," which was the name of an automotive column I wrote years ago for the Observer-Reporter in Washington. Look for another one soon on winter driving tips and techniques. Eventually, I hope to expand "Blacktop Jungle" to a new section of Tube City Online that will also include helpful shortcuts around Western Pennsylvania. (You can submit those, too!)
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In other news, remember yesterday's rant about bad publicity being aimed at Our Fair City, and the bad image it gets in the media?
Some timing I've got, huh? Yoi and double yoi:
Attorney General Jerry Pappert today announced that agents from his Bureau of Narcotics Investigation (BNI) have intercepted a shipment of 11 kilograms of cocaine and have arrested two McKeesport, Allegheny County residents on charges of possession with intent to deliver the drug.
Pappert identified the defendants as Gregory T. Armstrong, 36, 3010 Grover St. McKeesport and James E. Jones, 45, 1026 Walnut St., McKeesport.
There was an interesting contrast in the coverage of Friday's Mon Valley economic development summit between the Post-Gazette's story and the story in The Daily News. (I didn't see a story in the Tribune-Review; if you did, let me know, and I'll link to it.)
The P-G story leads off with the negatives:
To McKeesport Mayor James Brewster, the need for economic development in the Mon Valley has never been more apparent than it was Thursday night when a young man was killed after an apparent drug deal went sour.
Working on very little sleep because of the shooting and subsequent arrests, Brewster addressed a conference of officials from all levels of government and local agencies about the need to provide economic opportunities that are part of legal enterprises.
Those economic opportunities are going to have to grow on land that is so polluted today that no one wants it.
The Mon Valley is primed for industrial growth, said presenters at the Mon Valley Economic Development Summit.
At the summit, held yesterday morning at the Palisades along Water Street, McKeesport Mayor James Brewster gave an introduction that reminded attendees to "stay positive."
(long list of attendees deleted)
Major points of the strategy include the concentration of commerce into hub areas, the development of the Mon/Fayette Expressway, and the development of a proposed technical school called the Valley Academy of Science and Technology.
Brewster, the mayor of McKeesport, said development will not come easily. He recalled overhearing a woman at a party say she wouldn't go to McKeesport because she was afraid. He said local officials have to turn that perception around.
"Why should we have to overcome that obstacle? We should market what we have. We should brag about what we have," he said.
U.S. Steel Corp. is expected to return to the site of its historic Homestead Works after almost two decades.
The Pittsburgh-based steelmaker, which closed the 550-acre plant in 1986, might purchase a vacant building on the site originally targeted for Siemens Westinghouse Power Corp. for fuel cell manufacturing. An announcement could come as early as today, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has learned.
U.S. Steel would relocate its research and technology center operations from Monroeville to the site in Munhall, which is next to the popular, 270-acre Waterfront development of restaurants, stores and entertainment. Columbus, Ohio-based Continental Real Estate Co. owns the building.
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