Allegheny County Prothonotary and Democratic candidate for Mayor of Picksberg Michael Lamb is now calling for commuter rail between Downtown and Oakland, according to Tim McNulty in the P-G:
Lamb said the city could work with railways to connect those two job centers, as well as Hazelwood, using new passenger rail cars that hold 200 commuters each. The main expenses would be the $2.9 million cars and new stations, which he said could be partially funded by Oakland hospitals, universities and other non-profits. The proposed route would be the same one used as Amtrak and share Amtrak's Downtown station.
I realize it's kind of absurd for someone from the Mon Valley to criticize ill-advised redevelopment schemes in Dahntahn Picksberg --- pot, meet kettle; kettle, meet pot --- but if I had anything nice to say, I wouldn't be a writer, so I will cast my asparagus and you, alert readers, should feel free to toss it back at me.
I had a meeting Dahntahn on Wednesday morning at One Oxford Centre, and parked over at the Municipal Courts Building garage on First Avenue. My walk to and from Oxford Centre took me right past what's left of the old Public Safety Building, formerly the Post-Gazette Building, at the corner of Grant Street and the Boulevard of the Allies. It's being ripped down to make room for a new parklet that will serve the PNC Bank building across the street, on the site of the old Baltimore & Ohio commuter train station.
Explain to me, someone, why the City of Pittsburgh --- which is constantly belly-aching about how non-profit institutions and tax-exempt land are robbing it of desperately needed revenue --- is allowing a prime corner Downtown to be used for a parklet? (The Post-Gazette's editorial board, which never saw a redevelopment scheme it didn't like, called it a "dandy" idea. If the P-G likes it so much, maybe it should be paying for it, too, but I digress.)
Now, I realize that the Public Safety Building, as a government-owned structure, wasn't providing any revenue to the city's coffers anyway. But it could have been sold to someone who needed office space, or it could have been converted into the residential housing that Downtown Pittsburgh so desperately needs. And then it would have been put back onto the tax rolls.
Yes, the Public Safety Building was rundown, mostly due to 40 years of deferred maintenance, but it wasn't that old --- I don't think the Post-Gazette moved there until the mid-1930s. Watching the bulldozers and jackhammers try to pull the beams down yesterday led me to believe it was still structurally sound, even if the mechanical and electrical systems were aging.
Meanwhile, there's the spiffy new (well, a couple of years old now) Municipal Courts Building, a misbegotten lump of post-modern piffle along the Monongahela River next to the Hotel Graybar, aka the Allegheny County Jail. It's just south of the Liberty Bridge, on what was roughly the passenger coach storage yard for the B&O train station.
Someone, please, explain to me why commercial land --- the railroad property --- was seized for public use, therefore taking it off of the tax rolls; while two blocks away, a perfectly serviceable building is being torn down to make way for a park primarily for use by PNC Bank employees. Call me a starry-eyed old dreamer, but couldn't the old Public Safety Building have been turned into the Municipal Courts Building?
And that brings us to the story of the old Baltimore & Ohio train station. Erected in the 1950s, it was used mostly by the railroad's commuter trains from Pittsburgh to Connellsville (and thusly through Our Fair City); B&O long-distance passenger trains used the P&LE depot (now Station Square).
In 1989, the Port Authority killed the remnant of the old commuter service that ran between Pittsburgh and Versailles. At the time, PAT officials said the service died because of declining ridership, but people who rode the trains tell me they thought it was an assisted suicide; the railroad didn't want to run passenger trains in the first place, and thus did its darnedest to make them as inconvenient and problem-prone as possible. (Have you ever heard of a train running out of fuel? The PATrain did.)
There was also the little problem of the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County coveting the land occupied by the train station and the passenger coach yard. But they couldn't actually build on the land as long as the trains were running. So they killed off the train and took private, eminently developable land --- on the riverfront, no less --- and built the monstrously ugly jail and the neighboring, slightly less repellant court building.
Now, the City of Pittsburgh is doing it again --- taking prime property and turning it into a parcel that will generate no revenue. (Although it may be privately owned by PNC Bank, it will be assessed, I'm sure, at a fraction of what an occupied commercial building would be assessed at.)
And as if to add insult to injury, former City Council President Bob O'Connor, the man who would be mayor, has proposed launching a rail service between Dahntahn and Oakland. Admittedly, he's talking light-rail over the Forbes and Fifth corridor, but wouldn't it be convenient to have self-propelled railcars traveling up and down Second Avenue to Panther Hollow in Oakland? Too bad we don't have a railroad station conveniently located right on Grant Street --- oh, right, we did. Never mind.
Picksberg's financial woes stem from many problems endemic to older urban areas --- aging infrastructure; legacies of debt and bureaucracy; and labor contracts created primarily to serve as political patronage, not to ensure the reliable delivery of public services.
Yet so many of the wounds, particularly in economic and urban development, are self-inflicted, and a prime example can be found in a two-block area near the corner of First Avenue and Grant Street. No private corporation would erect a new office building across the street from a building that they know will soon be empty; and then tear down the empty building for creation of something that produces no revenue. But to the City of Pittsburgh power structure, this seems like a perfectly sane thing to do.
Thus does the city's body politic continue to shoot off its own toes. On the other hand, what's the loss of a few toes when you have a giant sucking chest wound?
It's a short Almanac today, and one which requires at least a working familiarity with the comic strip "Doonesbury" and the late writer Hunter S. Thompson. If you're not familiar with either Garry Trudeau's brilliant creation or Dr. Gonzo, then bugger off.
No, I don't mean that. I'm tired and cranky, that's all. But what else is new?
Anyway, as those of you familiar with "Doonesbury" and HST know, the character of "Uncle Duke" was heavily inspired by Thompson. Duke was introduced as a booze-swilling, pill-popping, gun-toting writer for the underground press, and a womanizing lout. Thompson hated, hated, hated "Uncle Duke," possibly because Trudeau didn't compensate him.
Indeed, Thompson threatened Trudeau with physical harm if their paths ever crossed, though in later years, he supposedly made piece with the Uncle Duke character --- especially as Duke's adventures became ever more fanciful.
At various times, HST's comic strip doppelganger has been governor of America Samoa, an NRA lobbyist, coach of the Washington Redskins and a zombie. Most recently, he's been a member of the occupation government in Iraq.
So, when Thompson snuffed himself Feb. 20, people naturally wondered --- what would Trudeau do with Duke? Comic strips have a lead time of several weeks (although Trudeau works on a shorter deadline to allow him to respond to events in the news), so naturally, his initial response had to be confined to a statement on the "Doonesbury Town Hall" website: "The late Hunter S. Thompson was indeed the initial inspiration for Doonesbury's Uncle Duke ... Their paths diverged as Duke took on a life of his own, and over the decades his ever-evolving career has differed dramatically from that of HST. ... The Town Hall respectfully raises a hefty tumbler to Hunter S. Thompson, a powerfully innovative and influential journalist and writer whose voice will be missed."
But then came this week's series of "Doonesbury" strips. Monday's installment was fun (the third panel is a homage to Thompson friend Ralph Steadman, who illustrated some of HST's articles and books), but Tuesday's installment was ... well, at first I thought it was over the top, and then I laughed hysterically.
As I write today's Almanac on Tuesday night, the newest "Doonesbury" hasn't been published yet, so I have no idea whether Trudeau continues the story, or if this was just a two-strip nod to Thompson's legacy. But if you're a "Doonesbury" or HST fan, what did you think? Tasteless or funny?
I vote for "tasteless and funny," and some how, that seems a fitting enough monument to the late Hunter S. Thompson.
I learn something new every day. Last weekend, I learned that Roy Orbison had recorded a version of "Love Hurts" --- a big hit in 1976 for Nazareth --- back in 1961 as the B-side of a single called "Running Scared." But Orbison's wasn't the original version, I came to find out; a little online search determined that the first recording of the tune was by the Everly Brothers.
What a great talent Orbison was, and I didn't really appreciate him while he was alive. He just seemed like some weird old guy with sunglasses and a bad haircut who recorded "Oh, Pretty Woman," and 3WS was burning that out by playing it 20 times a day. But his catalog was deeper, and broader, than that, and included some really solid stuff, and he died way too early.
I also learned that "Are You Lonesome Tonight," a monster hit for Elvis the Pelvis' back in 1961 and the number two song that year ("Runaway" by Del Shannon was number one), dates back to the turn of the century. That I learned when Mike Plaskett played a 1920s version of it on WDUQ Saturday night. I emailed this to a friend of mine in radio; "the 'chairs in your parlor' line is a giveaway," he replied. In retrospect, I suppose it is.
Did people still talk about sitting in the parlor in 1961? I doubt it. The parlor had become the TV room by then, and people were sitting on the sofa, watching "Gunsmoke" and "Perry Mason" on the Philco. But no doubt Elvis had heard the song on a scratchy 78 while growing up in Tupelo, or else it was the kind of song his mother or aunts sang while doing laundry.
To digress for a second, though today's Almanac is nothing but a digression, Elvis' musical influences, and his ability to synthesize them, are truly remarkable. Here's a guy who was able to take everything from barrelhouse rhythm and blues jump music to gospel to 1920s pop and turn it into his own brand of rock and roll, with little or no formal musical education. I'm not a big Elvis fan, but you have to respect that.
My own music tastes are all over the map. Pop music and I parted ways somewhere around 1984. Even to my tender ears, the synth-pop and hair band music seemed so phony and artificial that I just couldn't get into it. Like so many yinzers who heard WDVE in utero, I drifted into 1970s guitar and folk rock --- Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Boston, Three Dog Night, Steppenwolf, Steve Miller, Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Somewhere along the line, I started seeking out the originals of the old blues records that CCR had covered. That led me to enjoy '40s and '50s blues, which led me to sample jazz and swing. For a while --- and well before the swing-band revival of the 1990s --- I was heavily into the big band era. I was probably the only kid at Serra High School with a collection of Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller and Woody Herman records. But R&B also got me into doo-wop; and doo-wop got me into rockabilly, which took me into old-time country and bluegrass. Someone (Ray Charles, I think) said that rock, jazz, blues and country are all only about a half-beat off of one another, and it's true.
(Ray Charles is like a god to me, by the way. I just happen to think that Brother Ray could sing anything --- a grocery list, assembly instructions for a swing set, the ingredient list from a package of Wonder bread --- and make it sound cool.)
I was lucky to grow up in a household where this kind of foolishness was tolerated, and it didn't hurt that my own family's musical tastes were eclectic. Dad was into Porky Chedwick-style oldies and country music, so a ride with him was likely to feature an "Alabama" 8-track or WIXZ or WEEP on the radio. Mom loved Motown and pop, so she'd be listening to 13Q or Stereo WTAE, featuring Don Berns and Jim Quinn, who was still a liberal back then. (I know, I know, you're asking: "How long ago was that again?") And my maternal grandfather, who I spent a lot of time with as a kid, loved '40s and '50s pop.
Pap also loved big cars, which probably was an influence on me, too. He had a Cadillac Coupe de Ville with a "Wonder-Bar" radio that could search for radio stations automatically. In the era before seek and scan and digital tuners, this was a marvelous thing for an 8-year-old geek to play with. You'd press the button, and the pointer would start moving along the dial, pausing on any stations it found. When it got to the end, it would "ka-CHUNK" like an electric typewriter and the pointer would shoot back to the beginning again.
We'd be riding along in his Cadillac with WJAS on the radio when "Round and Round" or "Wanted" would come on. "You know who that is?" Pap would say. "That's Perry Como. He's from Canonsburg. He's the greatest singer that ever lived."
Though I loved Pap, I couldn't stand that kind of music as a kid. But it's funny; recently I've gotten heavily into '50s pop --- Guy Mitchell ("There's a pawn shop on the corner in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania"), Rosemary Clooney, Bobby Darin, Dean Martin, Patti Page, and yes, good old Mr. C. The music is so square that the records have corners, but I love it, and every time I hear "Papa Loves Mambo," I think of my grandfather.
None of this is of any relevance, necessarily, but it goes a long way toward explaining why I can't name any current artist on the Billboard Hot 100.
News item in Saturday's Daily News (the story isn't currently online): Complaints were lodged last week at a Glassport borough council meeting over a Website called glassportboro.com, which features, as you might expect, information about the TV show "ALF."
No, of course not; it features information about Glassport. According to the story, "some residents" are upset, which I would interpret as "some residents who the author of the Website has criticized are upset."
A quick review of the Website, owned by Dennis Marini of Glassport, reveals a lot of content that looks to be strictly factual and obtained from public records --- things like reprinted council meeting minutes, police press releases, and the borough's monthly financial statements.
But there are also editorials --- some signed, some unsigned --- critical of elected officials and the direction that the borough of 4,900 people has taken. Candidates for political office have also posted comments and declared their positions.
I know even less about Glassport than I know about anything else, and there are lots of things about which I know squat. Suffice it to say I don't know how to evaluate the claims of various people writing on glassportboro.com for truth or accuracy, and I have no idea what kind of axes are being ground, or whose oxen are being gored.
But I do know that the beauty of the First Amendment is that Mr. Marini can host a Website called glassportboro.com that makes an argument, and that people who disagree with him can create their own and make opposing arguments. And the beauty of the Internet is that it's made it a lot more convenient to disseminate the information.
Years ago, if you had a niche message --- targeting people who care about politics in Glassport, for instance --- you would have had to write pamphlets or newsletters, photocopy or ditto them, and mail them or pass them out on street corners. Yet despite the fact that it was a bit of a pain in the rear, there was a burgeoning industry of "'zines" in the late '80s and early '90s.
Now, you can skip the whole printing and publishing process and go straight from creation of content to distribution. And rather than seeking out readers, they seek you out through search engines like Google.
Rumors of the demise of the "mainstream media" at the hands of Web publishers are greatly exaggerated, mainly by delusional bloggers who are seriously overestimating their own importance. Newspaper circulation and TV viewership are both down, especially among those who spend a lot of time on the Internet, but TV, radio, magazines, and newspapers are still the big dogs, and Web publishing is not going to topple them any time soon. If TV wasn't still a major force in advertising, would so many Websites advertise on TV? Also, some top Websites are controlled by the same conglomerates that own major newspapers, magazines and broadcast outlets, such as AOL Time Warner. As their marketshare of "traditional" media declines, they'll gain eyeballs for their "new" media.
Nevertheless, the Web sure has made it easier for the voiceless to have voices. They may be shouting into a wind tunnel, but they never even got a chance to see the wind tunnel before, so that's some kind of progress.
An Alert Reader recently pointed me to a column by Mike Seate in the Tribune-Review, which called people who self-publish online "fools" for writing for free. Maybe we are.
Is it foolish for Mr. Marini to care enough about Glassport to want to maintain a Website about it? Is it foolish for Mike Madison to care enough about events surrounding his local school board to keep tabs on them over at Pittsblog? I guess it's in the eyes of their readers.
Personally, I make sure I do my best writing for the people who pay me to write; publishing the Almanac is more of a daily writing exercise to limber up my typing fingers. It's practice. That's why I don't bother spilcheking it or making sure the grammar is gooder. If people get a kick out of reading it, so much the better.
Jack Kelly wrote in the Post-Gazette recently that his newspaper held a editorial discussion about many topics, including Web logs, and "the consensus seemed to be that we needn't worry much about them." But as Kelly pointed out, it was these "fools" who have broken several big news stories, including the story that Eason Jordan of CNN had alleged that reporters in the Middle East were being deliberately targeted by American troops.
"The earth rumbles, and we think it's our big feet, stomping the Lilliputians," Kelly says. "But what if it's an earthquake about to swallow us up?"
Maybe, but I wouldn't count my earthquakes before they've hatched. It remains to be seen if Web publishing and blogging is here to stay, or if it's just a faddish hobby; Seate suggests it's like the CB radio boom of the 1970s, which had a huge surge of popularity and then faded out.
Yet many bloggers are doing nothing more than keeping a diary online; instead of hiding them under their beds, they put them on the Internet. And keeping diaries or journals is hardly a fad. It's probably as old as written language itself; all that's changed now is the medium the diarists are using.
In any event, I'd hesitate to call anyone choosing to exercise their First Amendment rights a "fool," unless their opinions are truly in the realm of cloud cuckoo land. Was it foolish for Thomas Paine to print up pamphlets the 1770s that supported American independence? Was it foolish for William Lloyd Garrison to publish abolitionist newspapers in the 1830s? Was it foolish for Soviet dissidents to distribute underground newsletters calling for the overthrow of Communism?
Not only did those folks write for free, they published at great risk to their own lives. That sounds like the very definition of foolishness.
Whereas I only risk making myself look --- well, foolish --- on a daily basis. But I have fun.
...
A correspondent reports that she was waiting in line at a Lysle Boulevard convenience store behind a young man who had his wallet on a chain. Which is not necessarily unusual, except that this was a white plastic chain --- of the type often used to hang plants from hooks on front porches. She asks whether this is a trend, and as far as I know, it isn't.
It could have been worse, of course. He could have had his wallet on a macrame chain.
...
(Lest anyone think that my comments about Mike Seate's column are motivated by some evil purpose, in the interest of full disclosure, I used to work at the Trib, and some people there were happy to see me go. I also happen to enjoy Mike's column, but don't hold that against him. Also, I had shredded wheat for breakfast, I'm wearing brown socks today, and I just got a haircut. How's that for full disclosure?)
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