December 09, 2006

Pony Up, You Cheapskates!

Alert Reader Jeff sends along the following message:

McKeesport is the bottom of the kettle in Salvation Army collections. Yet another note of shame against Your Fair City. Here is the latest Divisional Red Kettle Report that just went out over the wire:

In many communities across The Salvation Army's 28-county Western Pennsylvania Division, the cold snap has had a warming affect on its Red Kettles. Although 16 of its Worship and Service Centers are behind last year's levels, the overall total income has increased. Currently the Divisional goal of more than 2.3 million dollars is $38,000 ahead and the $800,000 Allegheny County goal is $18,000 more than this time last year.

"We are cautiously optimistic," said Major Robert Reel, the Western Pennsylvania Salvation Army's Divisional Commander. "While the total goals are good news, I am still very concerned about our 16 locations that are behind." Salvation Army Red Kettle income stays within the communities in which it raised. "These locations that are in a deficit do not have the option of fundraising in other towns," said Reel. "That is why it is critical that the local residents get behind the kettles in their own neighborhoods."

Kettles that are behind include the following communities: Altoona; Braddock; Bradford; Butler; Clearfield; Corry; Ellwood City; Jeannette; Johnstown; Kittanning; McKeesport; New Castle; Pittsburgh's Northside, Downtown, and East Liberty; and Rochester.

Deficits range from a low of $298.26 in Clearfield to a high of $17,454.66 in McKeesport. Salvation Army Red Kettles account for roughly 10 percent to 20 percent of each local Worship and Service Center's budget.

"Note of shame," Jeff? Are we going to take this? Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Heck, no!

City firefighters are out this weekend along East Fifth Avenue collecting money for the Red Kettle Drive, so if you see them, spare some change. I'll bet if you stopped down at the Salvation Army chapel on Walnut Street at Ninth Avenue, they'd take a donation, too.

Better yet, go to the Sally Ann's website and donate online, or call (412) 394-4870 to find out how your family or organization can sponsor your own red kettle.

I've seen the Salvation Army do some really good work for people in trouble, including victims of fires and other disasters and people who are suffering temporary setbacks like unemployment. And although they are a religious organization, I've never heard of the Salvos refusing help to anyone (though, in fairness, they did have a bit of controversy a few years ago).

So unless you want a very angry tiger wielding a shovel at your front door this Christmas, pony up a couple of bucks. Don't make him come over there.

I mean, gee whiz, do you want Clearfield to beat us?

. . .

Moving Day: Kevin G. Barkes of the KGB Report announced this week that his kgb.com domain name has been sold for an undisclosed amount ... his website is moving to kgbreport.com.

I wish someone would make me a big offer for one of my domain names. (A few people have offered to give me money if I'd just go away.)

By the way: You can now reach the Tube City Almanac at two different addresses ... mckeesport.dementia.org/blog or tubecityonline.com/almanac. If one site is down, the other should be working.

Posted at 1:53 pm by jt3y
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December 07, 2006

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Posted at 11:02 pm by jt3y
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December 06, 2006

Red Coats Save You Greenbacks

	Click to listen to a 1969 commercial for Eger Motors

Car buffs are going nuts over the new Ford Mustang and especially the hopped-up Shelby GT edition, which is being billed as the "most powerful Mustang ever made."

At the same time, work is continuing to transform the former Zayre and Ames discount store in Olympia Shopping Center into the new home of Tri-Star Ford.

So, it seems only appropriate that I share a little piece of history from the (half) vast Tube City Omnimedia archives.

Tri-Star bought the Ford agency in McKeesport from Pro Bowl Ford, who bought it from Babe Charapp, who got into the auto business in the city after buying Paul Jones Dodge.

While Charapp was running the Dodge agency, Fords were being sold by Eger Motors, located on Walnut Street at Seventh Avenue, in the building that now houses Pozzuto & Sons Plumbing.

That same building, incidentally, was originally a vaudeville theater --- the Hippodrome --- owned by John P. Harris, who in 1927 erected the Memorial Theater on Fifth Avenue. Harris, of course, also opened the world's first theater devoted solely to motion pictures, the Nickelodeon, in Pittsburgh. (But that's another story for another time.)

When the Egers bought the old Hippodrome building sometime before 1960, it was extensively remodeled. Oh, and about the "red coats" --- the gimmick at Eger Motors was that the salesmen wore matching red sportcoats.

Go around to the back of the Pozzuto building and you can still just barely make out a billboard-size painting that depicts one of the salesmen with the legend, "HOME OF THE RED COATS."

I don't think Eger Motors ever sold as many high-performance cars as some dealers, like Yenko Chevrolet down in Canonsburg, but they definitely handled some powerful machines. This forum for Shelby Cobra enthusiasts indicates that Eger Motors was allocated at least two of the Ford-powered, British-built sports cars in 1965-66.

Shelby Cobras sold for more than $7,000 then --- no small chunk of change --- and only five dealers in Pennsylvania even carried them. Town & Country Ford in Pittsburgh was allocated one. Eger Motors got two, which should tell you something about the kind of money that was flowing in the Mon-Yough area when the steel industry was running full bore.

This commercial, which aired on WIXZ (1360) in 1969, is advertising the 1969 Shelby GT, a special edition of the Ford Mustang which (like the modern version) was tuned and hopped up under the supervision of legendary race-car mechanic and driver Carroll Shelby.

I don't know how many Shelby Mustangs that Eger sold in 1969, but they sold at least one in 1970 --- it turned up on eBay last month at a starting price of $64,100.

As the jingle in this commercial says, the redcoats saved you greenbacks ... but you'd have to save a lot of "greenbacks" to buy a 1969 Shelby Mustang today!

Posted at 10:34 pm by jt3y
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December 05, 2006

Deep Thoughts From a Shallow Mind

Does anyone really believe that Luke Ravenstahl is qualified to be mayor of Pittsburgh?

I don't have a dog in this fight, of course, and I know next to nothing about Ravenstahl --- or as Will Rogers said, all I know is what I read in the newspapers. For all I know, he's nice to animals, a snappy dresser and as Homer Simpson said after meeting God, "perfect teeth, nice smell --- a class act all the way."

I just don't think that two years as a city councilman, and no other business or governmental experience, qualifies him to be mayor.

What should the qualifications be for that office? I don't know, but like Potter Stewart, I know it when I see it, and Ravenstahl doesn't have them.

And no, I'm not jealous, just because he's mayor of Pittsburgh and I, a few years older, couldn't get elected president of a Lincoln Borough bowling league.

I'm also puzzled by the rush by various elected officials, like Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato and U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, to endorse Ravenstahl's campaign for election.

I'm not sure what they hope to accomplish --- is this merely an attempt to keep the peace between the city, county and federal governments? Do they want to forestall any potential Democratic primary fight? Do they think that Ravenstahl is pliable and that he'll go along with them?

I like and respect Onorato and Doyle, and I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt --- that they see some quality in Ravenstahl that isn't obvious to an outsider.

I'd sure like to see some of those qualities for myself.

. . .

The O'Connor ‘Legacy’: Ravenstahl has been very careful, of course, to associate himself with Bob O'Connor's family and colleagues. No doubt that may help his campaign.

But it always puzzles me to hear people talk about Bob O'Connor's "legacy." There is no O'Connor legacy as mayor --- that's why his untimely death was such a tragedy.

A death alone, even from the disease that claimed O'Connor's life, is not necessarily tragic --- people die from terrible diseases all the time --- but he had spent at least a decade preparing to be the mayor of Pittsburgh, and never got a chance to do much of anything. Fate has rarely been so cruel.

As for O'Connor's few months in office, they were a mixed bag. His public statements struck all of the right positive notes, and I think he brought a real sense of optimism to the city at a time it desperately needs it.

But O'Connor's few public actions while in office were mostly confined to appointing people to offices, and some of those appointments were highly questionable. They seemed motivated more by a desire to find people who were politically suitable or well-connected than by any sort of "reform" impulse.

. . .

Another Brick in The Wal: I notice that the Foodland in Great Valley Shopping Center in North Versailles has closed. From the piled-up old newspapers in the front entrance, it must have happened in late October.

The main culprit, I suspect, is the massive Wal-Mart on the other side of the parking lot. Also vacant is the former Hills store opposite the Wal-Mart on Route 30. It's been empty since the Ames chain went toes-up, of course --- but no one has moved to occupy it. One of the two fast-food restaurants in the parking lot of the former Hills plaza just closed as well, a victim of the lack of traffic, I suppose.

Meanwhile, with the loss of the Foodland, Great Valley --- once a fairly decent little shopping center --- is now "anchored" by two thrift stores.

There's also a good, old-fashioned hardware store there. I'm a regular at the hardware store (I just bought my water heater there) and I'd hate to see them close, but I have to assume that with Wal-Mart across the street, they're hanging on by their toenails.

Wal-Mart's pros and cons have been well debated, and I suppose a Wal-Mart partisan would argue that the Foodland might have been a marginal business, or that Great Valley and Hills shopping plazas have outlived their useful lives, or whatever.

But can anyone deny the obvious --- that where Wal-Mart goes, it tends to suck the oxygen out of all of the surrounding retail stores?

. . .

This Would Be Fun: I was really hoping to call a moratorium on mockery of our outgoing junior senator in the spirit of not kicking someone when they're hurting. (After all, I'm not Rush Limbaugh.)

But it's hard when conservative pundits keep floating trial balloons like this one on the National Review's blog:

AMBASSADOR SANTORUM: How about Rick Santorum for the UN job? Yeah, there'd probably be a confirmation fight. And he may want to take a breather after 16 years in elected office. But it's worth thinking over.

I have a better idea. Rick will no doubt be returning to his lovely home in Penn Hills, and there will be a municipal election for school director next year. The senator has been a very vocal critic of public education, calling it an "aberration," saying that students get a "weird socialization," and criticizing the "clear liberal agenda" of teachers.

I can think of no one better to reform the public education system than Rick Santorum, and I think he should run for Penn Hills school director --- after all, Mr. Santorum is a resident, because he pays taxes there, and he should be able to get up to speed on the local issues very quickly.

Anyway, I'm used to seeing people get elected to school board who seem to hold the system in contempt. Penn Hills might as well get someone who's honest about it.

Posted at 10:11 pm by jt3y
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