According to an article by Joe Grata in Thursday’s Post-Gazette, the Port Authority of Allegheny County has received federal approval to begin construction of the proposed $400 million extension of the light rail system across the Allegheny River to serve the North Shore. While I’m a strong booster of rail transit, and generally support any initiative to move traffic off rubber tires and onto steel wheels, this seems like a limited benefit to me.
The whole “T” (if they still call it that) serves a very narrow portion of the county population on a routine basis. Instead of extending it into the areas of the county that heavily use mass transit (ie: the Mon Valley), what they essentially are proposing to build is a stadium line to serve PNC Park and Heinz Field, as well as the convention center.
While many cities have rail transit that drops riders off at major venues, I have to wonder just how much this line will get used during times when there are no events scheduled at any of the above. The route doesn’t really seem like it will touch much residential area; at least, not as much as it probably could.
Granted, there may be plans for eventual expansion once the core line is built, but given that I believe this to be the first new major leg of the “T” to be built (if and when it gets built) since the system was created, I have to wonder if there’s anyone within the Port Authority who’s that forward thinking.
Let me start by saying that I very much like Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, and Our Fair City. But there are many fundamental issues that need to be addressed, and those in charge refuse to address them, while those they affect refuse to get outraged and demand action. Eventually, one way or another, the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as well as the fair-to-middling County of Allegheny, will be dragged into the 21st Century kicking and screaming, whether the powers that be like it or not (I estimate sometime around the year 2145).
The Legislative Budget and Finance Committee has released a report stating that the state’s volunteer fire companies are in poor fiscal shape, according to an article in Wednesday’s Post-Gazette. State Fire Commissioner Edward Mann put it succinctly: The state “has too many fire companies.” The article goes on to mention that Allegheny County has 197 volunteer fire companies, and that companies around the county and state have been experiencing declines in volunteers and donations since the 1970’s.
Pennsylvania has a long history of volunteer fire departments, probably because Benjamin Franklin created the first organized volunteer fire company in Philadelphia in 1736 (boy, ol’ Benny was into everything, wasn’t he?). While this exemplifies a wonderfully and uniquely American spirit of community, it also provides an estimated savings of roughly $6 billion dollars a year in salary and benefits that would otherwise have to be paid to professional firefighters.
This is not a new problem, and it’s not limited to fire companies. Allegheny County is comprised of 130 independent municipal governments (not including county government itself), which means that we have 130 city, borough, or township councils (this includes 4 political entities which call themselves “Municipality of” and one “Town of”), about 115 municipal police departments (not including the Pennsylvania State Police, the Allegheny County Sheriff, the Allegheny County Police, the Port Authority Police, Pittsburgh Housing Police, Pittsburgh School Police, and 7 or 8 college and university police departments), as well as 42 independent school districts.
Whew! That’s a lot to research and type, let alone expecting each mayor, councilman, school director, public works director, and police chief to work with their counterparts to provide effective and efficient government services to the citizenry. Now, I know this is a family blog, but I’m going to type the “C” word, so if there are any minors in the room you may wish to shield their eyes. (Boy, I hope this doesn’t get me in trouble with the FCC.)
CONSOLIDATION!
We’ve been making some baby steps (a very small baby) what with the last election wherein voters overwhelmingly (72.8%) approved consolidating the various county record-keeping row offices into one office. In the past 10 years there has also been some informal consolidations amongst police departments, usually when one tiny borough can no longer afford to stay independent and contracts out with a neighbor for service. Municipalities with multiple fire companies have also seen mergers of the companies, painful as it may have been for the individual members.
I don’t go so far as to suggest that the city and county should merge completely. It would essentially be pointless, as every square inch of Pennsylvania land is incorporated into an independent municipality (per the state constitution, all counties are sub-divided into townships; boroughs and cities are subsequently carved out of the townships). There is no such thing as “county land” in Pennsylvania, nor is there any legal mechanism for dissolving a municipality (except through merging with another). So until the state legislature decides to rectify that situation (read: “when hell freezes over”) I can’t in good conscious advocate a Pittsburgh/Allegheny County consolidation.
What would make sense (so it’ll never happen) would be for some regional consolidation. Do we really need a Homestead, West Homestead, Munhall, and Whitaker? Why is there a Braddock, North Braddock, Braddock Hills, and Rankin? How about a Borough of Turtle Creek V alley? Instead of Glassport, Liberty, Lincoln, and Port Vue, how about South Allegheny Township? Why not let the city of Pittsburgh gobble up Mount Oliver, Bellevue, Dormont, McKees Rocks, and a host of other one-horse towns that cling to it’s periphery (or, in Mt. Oliver’s case, are completely surrounded by it)? Allegheny Valley Township, anyone?
This will have to be a short diatribe today, as I had a rather unpleasant day at work and came home with a pounding headache tonight. That, combined with my allergies acting up have put me in a mood to do nothing but curl up in my nice warm bed and wait for the sweet, sweet release of death (or for the aspirin and antihistamine to kick in, whichever comes first).
Over the years I’ve come to be something of a newspaper junkie. I suppose my addiction began in college. I discovered a newsstand in downtown Pastureville that carried a host of out-of-town papers, including but not limited to: The (Baltimore) Sun, The Washington Post, the (Harrisburg) Patriot-News, the major New York papers, and a variety of local papers from around this great commonwealth. This was something of a shock to me, since Pastureville was quite literally smack in the middle of nowhere. But I had developed a routine of visiting one of the downtown diners at some point either before or after my morning classes (and admittedly during a class on occasion) and since I sometimes found myself dining alone, I decided that I would rather kill some time reading as opposed to staring at traffic on College Avenue.
I came to appreciate the different views on different national subjects, and even liked reading about stories that could only be of local interest. Even if I had never been to Baltimore (I’ve since visited Charm City; kind of like Pittsburgh with a seaport) I nevertheless read the local page and the police blotter like I was a native. Upon returning to Our Fair City, I found that I could still feed my craving, even if it required a trip into that other big city in Allegheny County (no, no, not Duquesne). Since I travel there to work anyway, it’s no big deal to grab a few papers.
The problem is that I find myself spending $3 or $4 a day on newspapers, and that’s in addition to The Daily News and Post-Gazette (it’s even more on Sundays). Not that I begrudge the newsstand marking up the price; I would assume that there are shipping or mailing charges associated with delivering a Washington Post two states away from it’s intended market. What makes me scratch my head (other than dandruff) is that very often the same three papers bought at the same newsstand on consecutive days will have a different total price. Sometimes it’s even the same clerk!
I attribute this to the fact that every time I plunk my papers down on the counter, the clerk usually has to call out to someone else behind the counter. “Uh, Charlie, how much is the Philadelphia Inquirer?” I want to shout “A buck and a quarter, just like yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that!” I don’t, though, because sometimes the clerk simply looks at the “DAILY 50 CENTS” (75 cents in some locations outside the metropolitan area, according to the “Inky”) and rings up $0.50 on the register. (I make out even better on the Sunday editions, which can go for around $3 per paper, unless the clerk is lazy and only charges the $1.50 face value.)
My quandary, therefore, is this: am I being dishonest? After all, I know that the newsstand charges more for these papers. Is this not akin to “theft of services” or “theft by deception?” Should I drive myself down to Allegheny County Jail and book myself in? Or should the newsstands simply tape a notecard with the prices of the different papers next to the darn cash register?
I have one other question. Just who the heck buys all those porno mags?? I mean, geez, there’re racks and racks of ‘em! (Uh, no pun intended.)
Okay, it’s not really an award as much as a major (if somewhat dubious) honor. I was, however, rather nervous as to my big public debut and all. It’s not every day that one gets to publish their thoughts for the world (and posterity) to read and critique. (Unless, of course, you publish a blog every day...um, strike that last sentence.) At any rate, here I am, filling in for our illustrious webmaster. My only hope is that I live up to the standards of the Almanac (let’s face it, I couldn’t possibly lower them).
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