I'm tellin' you why ... photos of today's "Salute to Santa" parade are coming to Tube City Online on Monday.
(But those don't look like no eight tiny reindeer to me.)
There appears to be demolition work going on right now at Eastland Mall in North Versailles. A check over the weekend revealed roll-away trash bins and a big pile of debris (much of it looked like it was from old flea market stalls) outside the old mall entrance between what had been Baker Shoes and Gimbels.
There's a possibility that someone is renting space for storage and that remodeling is underway, but given the terrible condition of the mall over the past few years, I strongly doubt it. Instead, I suspect that preparations are underway to finally knock the old white elephant (not that White Elephant!) down.
One sign that Eastland has an imminent date with a wrecking ball would be the start of asbestos abatement --- early '60s commercial buildings are often lousy with asbestos, which was widely used as a fireproofing material in floor and ceiling tile and insulation.
If I can sniff out any other information, I'll let you know.
. . .
Speaking of North Versailles: Here's some useless but interesting trivia that I don't think anyone in the local media has picked up on. (In any event, a search of the Internet tubes hasn't turned up anything, but maybe it was in the News --- in which case a certain reporter who covers radio and TV is sure to email me.)
Anyway: Apparently, one of the characters in the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds is supposed to be a graduate of East Allegheny High School in North Versailles.
It's true --- I couldn't make this up. A.J. Cook plays FBI agent Jennifer Jareau, who's supposed to be a graduate of EA, where she captained the soccer team and won an athletic scholarship to Pitt.
I've been trying to figure out the Mon-Yough connection to the show, without any luck so far. I'm assuming that someone has a relative from this area, or attended Carnegie Mellon.
I found this out the other night when I caught a few minutes of Criminal Minds and noticed that the guy from Dharma & Greg is one of the stars. Since I was pretty sure he had a name (Thomas Gibson, as it turns out) I looked up the show on Wikipedia.
If you watch the show and start seeing references to Wilmerding and Monroeville Mall, you'll know why.
. . .
More Turtle Creek Valley News: Alert Reader Dave says: "Jason, please write something about Marty Griffin from KDKA and the preacher from Pitcairn who encouraged kind-hearted, generous local people to donate over $10,000 to buy Thanksgiving turkeys for our less fortunate folk. This is a great story."
Indeed --- you may have seen Pat Cloonan's story (subscribers only) in the News last night.
You can also read about it in the Pitcairn Times-Express. As Michael Cristiano reports, for the past two years, Rev. David Martin, pastor of the Pitcairn Assembly of God Church on Wall Avenue, has climbed onto the roof to collect money to donate turkeys to local food banks.
This year, Griffin, who hosts a morning talk show on KDKA radio, got involved and his listeners pledged $10,000 --- the equivalent of 1,000 turkeys, according to Cloonan --- enabling Martin to wrap up his vigil early. You can listen to the podcast (MP3 file) of the program at the KDKA website.
. . .
City Councilman Paul Shelly Jr. kicked off his run for the District 9 seat on Allegheny County Council last Saturday. Shelly is seeking the Democratic nomination for the seat currently held by Bob Macey of West Mifflin. Macey was appointed to the seat back in May after Jay Jabbour resigned to run for state representative.
Saying he will "not badmouth any fellow Democrats," Shelly is also pledging to do his best to "serve the entire valley," though he adds "any candidate that tells you that they won’t look out for their home town first may just come back and try to sell you the McKeesport-Duquesne Bridge!"
Shelly has posted his "Platform For a Better Mon Valley" to his website at paulshelly.com.
Besides Our Fair City, District 9 includes Duquesne, Dravosburg, Elizabeth and Elizabeth Township, Forward, Glassport, Liberty, Lincoln, Port Vue, South Versailles (Coulter), Versailles Borough, West Mifflin and White Oak.
. . .
One aside from your humble editor about Shelly's platform: The candidate who attacked "fellow Democrats" the most this year --- at least in the Mon-Yough area --- was George Matta II, who Shelly endorsed. Matta ran a brutal campaign against state Rep. Marc Gergely (another occasional reader of the Almanac).
But Shelly offered a pretty good commentary on the situation back in May. A few choice morsels:
I don’t agree with many of the tactics used in this race. It seemed a campaign of making the other guy look worse than yourself rather than giving compelling reasons as to why you are the better candidate. I detest negativity and am disturbed that those sort of tactics were employed. I thought we had turned a corner and got past that stuff. I guess I was wrong. Negativity still works or politicians wouldn’t employ it. I believe that it hurts the candidates, the voters and the process. It keeps good folks from seeking public office as they choose not to subject their families to such craziness. ...
I must agree with Mayor Brewster who said that this was a divisive election and that we need to rebuild relationships within our own Democratic Party. We tend to spend too much time and energy fighting each other rather than rallying behind the common cause of fighting for our city.
Unfortunately, elections can and do bring out the worst in some people. I know that in the past, in the heat of battle, that I have done and said things that I later regretted and even apologized for. I am conscious of this and try to do better at it. I’m not condoning anyone’s actions. I saw a lot of things said and done in this race that I would never do. My family and I have chosen to stay here and it is just not worth it.
The state didn't take long to stick it to the taxpayers after the election, did it?
First came the news that a special transportation commission, composed of PennDOT representatives and elected officials (like J. Barry Stout of the mid-Mon Valley) want to soak us with much higher taxes and fees.
Joe Grata of the Post-Gazette Local Newspaper points out that the entire package --- including a 12.5 cent increase in gasoline taxes, $15 increases in driver and vehicle license fees, and a new 0.9 percent real-estate transfer tax --- would be the largest tax increase for "transportation needs" in the state's history.
Then "Fast Eddie" Rendell vetoed a bill that would have allowed workers to have the $52 occupation tax removed from their checks in small installments, rather than in lump sums.
The governor said the legislation didn't give municipalities "reasonable time periods for implementation of these changes."
An editorial in last night's Daily News lacerated Rendell, calling his veto high-handed and destructive to low-income wage earners, and labeling him "His Excellency." It pointed out that although $52 may not seem like much, for seasonal and part-time workers (it used the example of high school or college kids working at Kennywood), it could swallow most or all of their first paycheck.
That's not a particularly encouraging message to send to a young person, I'll admit. The good news is that the legislature meets again Monday, and might try to override Fast Eddie's veto.
I'm more aggravated about the first item --- the massive dirt sandwich that PennDOT Secretary Allen Biehler and other officials want us to eat. You can read all of the details in the Tribune-Review Greensburg Astonisher.
The money raised would ostensibly fund mass transit improvements, repair bridges and highways, and upgrade traffic signals.
You know, I can't find PennDOT's budget on the PennDOT website. (That's a shocker, I'll admit.) Consequently, I can't see how much that the agency is paying for administrative costs.
There is a spiffy 2005 Annual Report (PDF), but it doesn't say how much PennDOT spends on management, either. (Another a big surprise!)
Still, even without those documents, I can't help but wonder if trimming some layers of management at PennDOT might free up more money for some of these vital transportation projects.
Also, Pennsylvania has the largest, most-expensive state legislature in the country, costing taxpayers about $341 million this year.
It stands to reason that if we cut the General Assembly in half, we'd have $170 million to put toward transportation, wouldn't we?
I suspect we have as much chance of that happening as Port Authority inventing a bus that runs on rainbows and unicorns.
It's much easier to soak the taxpayers. Shucks, we don't mind.
Hey, when's the next election? Two years? Fine. Stick it to us, and we'll be waiting. Just ask these guys.
. . .
In other business: On Sunday, the Local Newspaper has released the results of their comic strip survey. "Doonesbury," "Get Fuzzy" and the resurgent "Sally Forth" are in the "most hated" category, while the favorites include "Blondie" and "The Born Loser."
"Get Fuzzy," once one of my favorites, has been off of its game for a while. But the ongoing "Doonesbury" stories have been sharp --- one is following Alex Doonesbury's problems during her freshman year of college, while the other, more vital one, examines B.D.'s return home from Iraq, where he lost a leg in an ambush.
(For those of you who think that "Doonesbury" is too left-wing, rest assured, there's nothing overtly political about either story --- the Iraq story in particular has been praised by the Defense Department and veterans alike.)
What really blows my mind are the comics that readers say they like best. "The Born Loser"? Good grief --- has anyone, ever, gotten more than a smile out of "The Born Loser"? Other favorites include "Wizard of Id," "Hagar the Horrible" and "Beetle Bailey."
Egad. If "Beetle Bailey" is your favorite comic strip, you probably think Wonder Bread is "too spicy."
Even more depressing: The vow that these results "will be a primary factor ... in helping the (Local Newspaper) decide what changes will be made to the comics."
I await the decision to bring back "Henry" and "Mutt and Jeff." And what about the "Toonerville Trolley"?
Oh, never mind the last one --- I think the Toonerville Trolley is part of the PennDOT tax increases.
I got a message from Mayor Jim Brewster the other day informing me that he finally did get an appointment to meet with Penn State University President Graham Spanier to discuss the impending name change from "Penn State McKeesport" to "Penn State Allegheny."
Brewster also says that Penn State officials told him that they received only two complaints about the name change --- and one of those, presumably, was mine. There have been a lot of letters to the editor of the Daily News, but I don't imagine that the university is counting those.
Consequently, the mayor is encouraging residents to voice their opinion directly to Penn State officials. I think that's an excellent idea, and whether you agree or disagree that "Penn State McKeesport" should change its name, take the time to write and express your viewpoint, too.
My personal hope is that maybe this name change isn't set in stone --- or perhaps it can be tempered in such a way that the name "McKeesport" remains a part of the campus's name. ("Penn State Allegheny at McKeesport"? Hmm. Anyone have another suggestion?)
Someone asked me recently why I dislike the change. Simple: I think the city benefits from having the prestige of a Penn State campus, and I think it's harmful to the city's image to remove its name.
The city should be proud of its past, but more importantly, it needs to have a future --- and if we're going to go around hanging our heads because we're from "McKeesport," then we might as well level the place right now.
Anyway, we don't need to drive a wedge between the city and this important educational resource, and rightly or wrongly, a lot of McKeesporters (past and present) are offended.
Why? Well, read what the chancellor of the Penn State New Kensington campus recently wrote:
We are proud of our New Kensington heritage as we enter as fifth decade of service to the citizens of southwestern Pennsylvania. We have no plans to regionalize our name. There are no discussions, going on now or in the planning stages, at the campus or University Park on a name change for the campus.
We will continue to be known by the city of our birthplace. We are ... "Penn State New Kensington."
I had something of a perfect storm late last week --- the water heater blew up and the two-hour job of replacing it took all day, and then I came down with a bad cold --- so you were spared my bloviating on the results of the elections. Keep that in mind: There's something else to be grateful for on Thanksgiving.
I will drop a few pearls of wisdom (actually, they're more like "cubic zirconia of obviousness") on you, however.
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