Filed Under: Events, Politics || By
Category: Events, Politics || By
The Mon Valley is Hillary Clinton country, according to national experts. Statewide, many polls give the New York senator and former First Lady a double-digit lead among likely voters in Pennsylvania's April 22 Democratic primary.
Such overwhelming odds matter not at all to Jaala Nesbit, 24, of McKeesport, who's helping run the Mon Valley for Obama office on Shaw Avenue. A grassroots effort, the office opened in February in an old mansion across the street from the Rainbow Temple Assembly of God (the former Temple B'nai Israel).
Nesbit and other organizers held what was billed as a "Barackaque" Saturday afternoon to thank volunteers and educate visitors about the Illinois senator and his positions on the issues.
If anything, the fact that Obama remains a longshot to win Pennsylvania is making his local volunteers more excited.
"I don't like working on a campaign where there is no challenger --- where the candidate is a shoo-in," says Nesbit, a substitute teacher at the city's Cornell Intermediate School and a graduate student in instructional leadership at Robert Morris University, Moon Township.
. . .
Though the air was cold, the sunny skies helped boost the spirits of about 100 Obama supporters (and several undecided voters) who gathered Saturday.
Their mood was also lifted by the important endorsements their candidate picked up last week, including those of U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. and state Senator Sean Logan of Monroeville. (Last week, state Rep. Marc Gergely of White Oak told Tube City Almanac that he is also supporting Obama.)
City Councilman Paul Shelly Jr. and David Adelman, a state senator and Democratic whip from Decatur, Ga., spoke Saturday in support of Obama, along with longtime local civil-rights activist Major Mason III.
"We have the power to organize the community like it has never been organized before," Mason told the audience, adding that "all I want to see in April is that Allegheny County went for Barack Obama."
. . .
Nesbit became aware of Obama after his stirring speech to the 2004 Democratic National Convention and his election to the U.S. Senate in 2006. Earlier this year, she volunteered to work for Obama during the South Carolina primary.
"It was a great opportunity to network with political leaders, and we felt we had to bring that type of energy back here to McKeesport," Nesbit says.
One of her companions on the southern trip was Al Washington of McKeesport, a former city council candidate and community organizer who works in the telecommunications industry.
"I like his proposals on health care and especially on education," says Washington, another leader of Mon Valley for Obama. "He believes in early education and early intervention. All of the testing we're doing is fine, but first you've got to teach the students, and you've got to pay the teachers."
. . .
Obama's focus on education plays well with young people, who are a big part of Obama's campaign, nationally as well as locally.
Some of the Mon Valley volunteers aren't old enough to vote --- including Washington's nephew, Darnell Davis, 15, a student at Boyce Campus Middle College in Monroeville. Davis made an informative and impassioned speech on behalf of Obama to small groups of people watching videos supplied by the candidate's campaign.
Washington says he's bringing to the local Obama office lessons he learned while working on Bill Clinton's successful 1992 presidential campaign. One of them is that TV commercials and speeches are useful, but they're no substitute for personal interaction.
"People base their decisions upon people they know," he says. "The candidate's (ads) are going to help, but it's the next-door neighbor who's going to win them over."
. . .
Like other Bill Clinton supporters who are now backing Obama, Washington has been disappointed by some of the former president's statements on behalf of his wife's campaign. Washington writes Bill Clinton's comments off as "one of those things you have to say when you're trying to win an election."
Nesbit thinks Obama's background as a community organizer should speak to many working-class Pennsylvanians.
"He's not a rich man," she says. "He doesn't come from money. As someone who comes from McKeesport, I know we're hard-working people who have to earn our money. I feel like we need someone like that representing us in the White House."
Though much has been made of the historic nature of the Democratic race --- a female candidate versus an African-American candidate --- Nesbit hopes the campaigns transcend old lines.
"I don't think it's about race or gender any more," she says. "I think it's about economic status, and we need someone who's going to work for us."
. . .
Still, Nesbit and others aren't blind to the deep-rooted prejudices that still exist in the Mon-Yough area. One white Obama volunteer, knocking on doors in Versailles, was supposedly told by an elderly woman that she would never vote for the Illinois senator. "I don't want it to be the 'Black House,'" the lady reportedly said.
Combine that with Clinton's commanding leads in statewide polling, and Obama's enthusiastic volunteers face a serious uphill battle.
"We've still got a lot of work to do," Washington says.
. . .
Mon Valley for Obama is located at 539 Shaw Ave., downtown. Office hours are 5 to 8:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturdays. Call (412) 628-5462.
. . .
Editor's Note: In the interest of full disclosure, I made a donation to Mon Valley for Obama after these interviews were complete. But this website remains independent, and no special consideration was made by Obama supporters to me or this website in exchange for a contribution, and I will happily cover any McKeesport-based Hillary Clinton activities, if I'm available.
Category: Cartoons, General Nonsense || By
Category: Hardscrabble Mon Valley Watch, Mon Valley Miscellany || By
Finally! An actual mention of Our Fair City by the national political writers!
The conversation was about how tiring it must be to run for president, and someone --- a woman --- said that on top of everything else, Hillary Clinton has to spend an hour and a half getting ready for each day's campaigning. She didn't mean studying her notes and making sure she knows the name of the mayor of McKeesport, Pa. (Michael Kinsley, Slate.com)
When he steps aboard a campaign bus in Pittsburgh on Friday, Senator Barack Obama begins a six-day journey across Pennsylvania and its complex political landscape, one that is largely favorable to his rival, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Mr. Obama will travel from the gritty western part of the state to the more prosperous east, at times riding straight into unfriendly territory, like that in Johnstown, the hardscrabble, blue-collar base of John P. Murtha, the powerful congressman, who is one of Mrs. Clintons staunchest allies.
Category: Local Businesses, Mon Valley Miscellany || By
Hugh Geyer, original lead tenor for The Vogues, has rejoined the group.
That means that Geyer is no longer singing with The Vogues.
Huh?
Yeah, it's confusing. The original members of the Turtle Creek-based quartet lost the rights to the name and trademark in the early 1970s.
Opinions differ on what happened; some people claim that dishonest managers and agents cheated the group, while others claim that one of the members was greedy. Possibly the answer lies somewhere in between.
A lawsuit ensued between the new owner of the trademark and Chuck Blasko, the original Vogues' second tenor. The courts awarded Blasko the right to perform with a group called "The Vogues" in 14 counties around Pittsburgh, while the owner of the national trademark was allowed to use it everywhere else.
For years, if you saw a show by "The Vogues" around Pittsburgh, you saw a group with one original member (Blasko), but if you saw "The Vogues" anywhere else, including Las Vegas, you saw no original members. When Blasko's group toured nationally, it was billed as "The Five O'Clock World Tour," named after one of the group's biggest hits. (Sadly, it's not an unusual situation, and it's happened to other rock groups of the 1950s and '60s.)
Several years ago, after The Vogues were spotlighted in a Rick Sebak WQED-TV special, Geyer, who still lives in the Mon Valley, joined Blasko's group. I saw them at a outdoor concert in Turtle Creek a few years, and they swung --- they really laid the crowd out. I've seen a few reunited 1960s groups that could no longer perform, but this group sounded good, and a lot of that was due to Geyer, who sang the soaring, high passages on many of The Vogues' hits.
Then a week ago I heard an ad on an out-of-town radio station advertising an appearance in Cincinnati by "Hugh Geyer and The Original Vogues," and I said --- huh? I didn't think Blasko's group was allowed to tour under that name.
I emailed my friend Tom, Geyer's stepson, who maintains a website about The Vogues and also hosts tubecityonline.com. Tom says Geyer has left Blasko's group and joined The Vogues.
If you want to see them, the bad news is that you'll have to leave the Mon Valley. The nearest upcoming shows are in Mingo Junction, Ohio (that's just south of Steubenville) on Saturday, April 19 and in Mentor, Ohio (east of Cleveland) on Saturday, April 26.
But that Mentor show might be worth the trip --- Frankie "Sea Cruise" Ford and Shirley Alston Reeves of the Shirelles are also scheduled to appear. Plus, it's good news that Geyer (who's a nice guy) is getting some national publicity.
And even if "The Vogues" is no longer all original four guys from Turtle Creek, it looks like they put on a pretty good show.
. . .
Chiaverini's Closes: One of McKeesport's nicest restaurants that you didn't know about is no more. Chiaverini's Family Restaurant on Walnut Street in Christy Park, near Enamel Products, has closed. I found out Saturday, when I stopped for dinner.
A note on the front door thanks customers for their 22 years of patronage. I'm getting old, because I didn't think they had been there that long.
Too bad. The service and the food was always good, but in recent years a limited operating schedule had sometimes made it hard to make time to eat there.
Category: Hardscrabble Mon Valley Watch || By
Mike Littwin of Denver's Rocky Mountain News has really outdone himself in this profile of Clairton:
(S)ure enough, just as I'd been warned, there was the white smoke belching from the Clairton Works mill, on the banks of the Monongahela River, one of the few working mills left in the region.
And long-abandoned storefronts were, in fact, boarded up --- ghostly reminders of what was and what would never be again.
And, yes, as the whistle blew, men in hard hats, many carrying lunch pails, headed home to their company-built houses, constructed in the days when the mills ran up and down the river, or maybe they went to a nearby bar for a well-earned beer or two after a hard shift.
This is the largest coke-manufacturing plant in the country, producing, the U.S. Steel literature says, 4.7 million tons a year. You can see the smoke, and smell it, for miles.
I hadn't come in search of a cliche, but here it was awaiting me.
Once known as glass city, when 70 percent of the world's glass was made here, this town is probably better known now as the home to Terrelle Pryor, the No. 1 college football prospect, who signed a letter of intent on Wednesday to attend Ohio State.
Beyond that, though, this economically battered city of 10,000 is fairly unremarkable in southwestern Pennsylvania. Like many cities in the region, it has lost a third of its population, and Clay Avenue, its downtown, is a shadow of its former self.
Category: Mon Valley Miscellany, Pointless Digressions || By
It's Dyngus Day! Have you checked your dyngus today?
Wait! Stop! Before you disrobe, you need to know that the day after Easter is known as "smigus dyngus" in Poland and "pomlazka" in the Czech Republic.
Until I started working part-time at a radio station with a bunch of polka shows, I had never heard of this tradition, which is kind of surprising, considering the number of Poles and Czechs in the McKeesport area.
There is a "Dyngus Day Dance" at 6 p.m. tonight at the American Legion hall in Jeannette. North Huntingdon's Frank Powaski, who hosts one of Pittsburgh's most popular polka shows Sunday afternoons over WKHB (620), is the emcee, and Ray Jay and The Carousels will be performing.
Other than that, the Mon Valley is shockingly short on Dyngus Day activities --- which I find surprising, since we have so many dinguses around here. (Rimshot)
OK, enough with the jokes. According to the website Dyngus Day Buffalo, the word "dyngus" comes from the medieval Polish word "dingnus," which means something that's "worthy or suitable" as a ransom to protect a village. It also has its roots in the German word "dingen," which means "come to an agreement."
As with so many festivals, this one started as a pagan tradition. An article in the Polish American Journal explains:
The custom of pouring water is an ancient spring rite of cleansing, purification, and fertility. The same is true of the complimentary practice of switching with pussy willow branches, from which Dyngus Day derives its cognomen "Smigus" --- from "smiganie" --- switching.
The pagan Poles bickered with nature --- "dingen" --- by means of pouring water and switching with willows to make themselves "pure" and "worthy" for the coming year. Similar practices are still present in other non-Christian cultures during springtime.
Whipping brings good luck, wealth and rich harvest for the whole year. The strength from the rods is passed onto the person whipped. The whip or "pomlazka" is made from willow rods. The easiest variety is made from three rods, but it can be braided from 8, 12 or even 24 rods.
Boys surprise the girls by dousing them thoroughly with buckets or bottles of water all the while reciting a little rhyme: "Good day, good day, my lily, I water you to keep you from withering," or "Water for your health, water for your home, water for your land, here's water, water!"
Formerly this practice was much rougher, for young men literally dragged girls to ponds, wells or streams at dawn and threw them in.
It was expected that the girls accept this all good-naturedly and reward their tormentors with decorated eggs, bread and a glass of brandy/wine --- or all three. The dousing was supposed to make of them good future wives with many children.
Category: Local Businesses, Mon Valley Miscellany || By
First the good news: Paul Elliott, the California real-estate agent selling the People's Building, called Tube City Online Thursday night to say that he's received a solid offer from a developer who is experienced in historic preservation.
While he can't name the potential buyer yet, Elliott says the party has rehabbed other older buildings and is excited about the People's Building. The preliminary sales price is $495,000, Elliott says.
We could use some good news around here, so keep your fingers crossed. Spring has sprung, and Easter is a time for rebirth. I don't mean to be sacrilegious, but the resurrection of the People's Building could bring the rest of that block of Fifth Avenue back from the dead.
. . .
Category: Mon Valley Miscellany, Our Far-Flung National Correspondents, Politics || By
Category: Pointless Digressions || By
The server logs show a noticeable upward bump in readership since the recent mentions in the Post-Gazette.
Thanks for checking in, folks, and I hope you'll stick around. In case you're wondering what www.tubecityonline.com and the Tube City Almanac are all about, this is a non-profit (actually, negative profit!) website primarily concerned with issues around Allegheny County's "second city" and the adjoining communities.
The Almanac is updated several times a week. It's where I occasionally commit journalism, pontificate on local issues, and generally make a nuisance of myself.
It's just one small part of the bigger website, Tube City Online, which has been on the Web in various forms since 1996.
There, you'll find some Mon-Yough area history, along with information for new arrivals and visitors (like restaurant reviews), and "fun stuff" like photos.
I am also planning a major new feature that will allow the community to get more directly involved. The computer experts at Skymagik Internet Services, the local small business which hosts this website, are working on it right now.
I am a lifelong resident of the McKeesport area (Versailles, Liberty Borough and West Mifflin) except for a year in Monongahela, Washington County, and two years when I lived in the dorm at college.
I have no political agenda, except that I dislike stupidity in local government. I also get tired of people wallowing in self-pity or apologizing for living in the Mon Valley. I have a strong interest in promoting the McKeesport area and encouraging citizens to get involved.
Oh, and occasionally you'll see our editorial consultant, the Tube City Tiger, popping up to offer his comments, like here and here.
He tends to have pretty strong opinions, and my advice is don't make him mad. Those teeth aren't just for pudding.
Category: Mon Valley Miscellany || By
A Westmoreland County high school senior yesterday made his college selection official.
Terrelle Jones, 17, of Rostraver Township will be attending California University of Pennsylvania.
The announcement was made to his mother, younger brother and grandmother in the kitchen of the family's home in Collinsburg.
No representatives of the media attended. The news was not reported on ESPN, Fox Sports or local TV.
Afterward, there was no reception for crowds of people. Instead, the family celebrated with dinner at Eat'n Park.
Jones, a standout on Belle Vernon Area High School's debate team and a photographer on the yearbook staff, was not heavily recruited by any colleges or universities. Some family and friends believed he was leaning toward trade school or the Marines, but Jones said he always intended to go to college.
However, he admitted that he wasn't sure how the family would pay for it.
Tuition at Cal U. is only $2,600 per semester, but with books, fees, meals and commuting expenses, experts estimate the total cost to the Jones family will top $30,000.
"The loans that Terrelle has to take out are pretty scary," his mother, Tamara, said. "I'm glad he's going to Cal U., because he can live at home, and use my car."
"I played some field hockey, but I'm not really too good at sports, because of my asthma," Jones said. "So I didn't qualify for any athletic scholarships. And I guess my grades could have been better junior year, but I got my driver's license and a girlfriend, you know, so I kind of slacked off."
No famous ex-debaters or former yearbook photographers were available to advise Jones that his junior year slump would hurt his chances to land an academic scholarship in the Big 10.
Jones wants to major in computer science at Cal U. Upon graduation, his state university degree is unlikely to attract high-priced contract offers from recruiters for computing giants like Google.
Although Jones hoped to study computer programming at MIT or Carnegie Mellon, the family found the cost was out of reach.
Tamara Jones works as a nurse at Mon Valley Hospital, while Jones' grandmother is a billing clerk for a local tool and die company. His father is deceased.
Terrelle Jones will have to continue working part-time at a fast food restaurant on Route 51 to pay for gasoline, clothes and other necessities.
His mother admits she worries about him. "Terrelle works until midnight, 1 a.m., then he comes home, sleeps for a couple of hours and goes to school," Tamara Jones says. "He's out there in the car in the middle of the night. I can't fall asleep until I hear him come home. Sometimes, I get scared and cry."
Her son smiles sheepishly when he hears her complaints. "I know she loves me," he said. "She's my mom. But I told her, I got to work."
Despite the challenges that Jones faces, he considers himself lucky to get the chance to attend college.
"My mom always says you have to keep things in perspective," Jones said. "She says people get all worked up over dumb stuff, like sports, and they lose sight of the every day stuff."
Still, said Jones with a little grin, "Sometimes I wish I could have played football."
Editor's Note: The preceding was satire, and all of the people and quotes are fictitious, but any resemblance to any real Mon Valley families was purely intentional.
Category: Hardscrabble Mon Valley Watch, Politics, So-Called Radio Humor || By
When you work in radio (even when you have a mediocre career like mine) you never know what to expect when you pick up the phone.
Sometimes it's a listener with a request or a complaint. Other times it's someone more important.
Here's a case in point from my show on Sunday night. I have to give this caller credit: Even though Hillary Clinton is ahead of Barack Obama by double digits in Pennsylvania, this guy is not getting overconfident. He's out there, working the phones ....
Request line call: Sunday, March 16, 2008 (MP3, 1 MB)
Meanwhile, the international media continues to supply dependable and sturdy "gritty hardscrabble Pennsylvania" cliches in their stories about the April 22 primary ... and beyond!
The reality is that Pennsylvania is much more rural and backwater than you'd think from the Big Smoke in the east. Its shoebox shape has terrain that's not unlike a carelessly thrown blanket, with ripples and wrinkles running its length. These relentless mountains and valleys have been both curse and promise to the state.
Watch for deer, which have staged a real comeback, defying the best efforts of trigger-happy hunters in the territory where The Deer Hunter was set.
At the west end of the state, the towns of Erie and Pittsburgh will muddle your understanding of Pennsylvania again --- they have much in common with the troubled east. So keep a clarity of vision and stick to the middle of the Keystone State, where enlightenment is always just around the bend.
Taylor will arrive in Pittsburgh just as the city appears to have overcome its old reputation as a dirty place full of steel mills and pollution. The Places Rated Almanac named Pittsburgh the No. 1 Most Livable City in America two years in a row. It's traded its gritty steel mills for jobs in health care, education, robotics, technology and financial services, according to Allegheny County promotional materials.
Interestingly, SurveyUSA shows more difference in McCain's performance against the two Democrats; it has McCain leading Obama 47 to 42 percent while trailing Clinton 47 to 46 percent. This sounds plausible, with Obama seeming likely to be a weaker candidate in gritty west and northeast Pennsylvania than Clinton.
Poor Pennsylvania. As the national media focuses on the Keystone State, it has earned a new and less than admirable moniker: The other Ohio.
Of course, this description also mirrors the hope of Hillary Rodham Clinton for whom the hard-pressed, semi-depressed Buckeye State presented a political field of dreams. Moreover, to be sure, Pennsylvanias Appalachian string of devastated former mining and mill towns constitutes its own private Ohio.
Category: Local Businesses, Mon Valley Miscellany || By
At the risk of tooting my own horn: Toot! Thank you, Brian O'Neill, for noticing this little stagnant backwater of the Internet.
This is not the first time I've made it into a column in the Post-Gazette. When I was in high school, Peter Leo quoted some letters I had written to him. (Yeah, and that and a quarter won't even get you a cup of coffee.)
Some people have claimed that those early publishing successes led me to become a writer, but I think that's a terrible thing to blame on Peter.
I've had a very gratifying response to my newfound fame. So far, three people have noticed.
Despite that tepid response, I suspect the column was probably very well read. It was on page 2, in between two very picturesque ads for breast enlargement surgery. It caught my attention right away.
In the meantime, I'm reminded of the exchange in "Blazing Saddles" between Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder:
"I'm becoming a real underground success story in this town."
"Yeah, soon they'll be willing to say hello to you in broad daylight."
In Other Business: In the comments on Friday's Almanac, Alert Reader Donn wonders what a new owner could do with The People's Building:
Our downtown is not going to rebound, housing for seniors should not cohabitate with a "sober living community" and what retailer would want the once choice location? A Jenkins Arcade concept is no longer economically feasible albeit would be most welcome.
Category: Good Government On The March, Politics || By
Let's say you're White Oak Borough, and all of the elected members of the McKeesport Area School Board are from the city of McKeesport. There are no representatives from White Oak.
What could you do to correct this problem?
(In fairness to those officials, they told the Daily News on Saturday that the name change suggestion was the "least important" item they discussed. It's possible that the Post-Gazette blew the story out of proportion.)
This isn't about the school district being named "McKeesport." It's about the fact that all of the elected school directors are from the city, and several of those are politically aligned with McKeesport Mayor Jim Brewster.
Category: Hardscrabble Mon Valley Watch || By
Johnstown isn't in the Mon Valley, but in the eyes of the national and international media, it's just another Hardscrabble Gritty Steel Town. From the Toronto Star:
Under the shadows of a steel mill's rusting carcass, a new Johnstown is slowly taking shape.
Quaint cafes and even an upscale bridal shop have appeared in long empty storefronts. Downtown lofts are being snapped up. Biotech companies and high-tech firms have set up shop.
Decades after heavy industry died, taking much of Johnstown with it, this Rust Belt community appears to be regaining its footing. An aggressive city planner, a creative redevelopment authority and tourism officials are trying to turn Johnstown into a postindustrial tourist center with a vibrant downtown.
As the home of U.S. Steel - once a giant, now little more than a logo on a football helmet - Pittsburgh was one of the wealthiest cities in the country, once. Now it's just a regional capital of the Rust Belt, with all the second-generation assimilation of a factory town that lost its factories. The children of the Polish immigrants now say "yinz" and drink Iron City, and absolutely everyone wears black and gold. It's hard to pass five people on the street without seeing one of them in Steeler gear, especially on Sunday. Some even wear it to church, which is almost as holy a communion as Heinz Field.
Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania, with its depressed steel industry, are generally similar to Ohio, with blue-collar workers and a struggling economy. That region could favor Mrs. Clinton.
It's a Rust Belt state largely abandoned by the once-mighty steel, coal and railroad industries. Today, its biggest employers are the federal government, the state government and Wal-Mart, in that order.
Category: Mon Valley Miscellany || By
In the early 1990s, Integra Bank, which had taken over the structure after a series of corporate mergers, put many of the remaining tenants on month to month leases. Rumors circulated that Integra was getting ready to tear the building down. Tenants fled.
Although the roof is nearly new and "tight as a drum," Elliott says, some infrastructure improvements are necessary. The elevators --- there are three, including a service elevator --- must be upgraded. In addition, new wiring and telecommunications lines might be required.
Category: Good Government On The March, Politics || By
Several people have emailed me this article from the Post-Gazette:
Last week, White Oak council President Jack Petro Jr. proposed changing the name of the McKeesport Area School District as one way to attract new people ...
Mr. Massung and Mr. Petro were involved in the effort that resulted in Penn State University's campus changing its name from Penn State McKeesport to Penn State Greater Allegheny in January 2007.
"After our Penn State satellite campus changed its name, student enrollment spiraled," Mr. Massung said.
"It's no secret McKeesport is a depressed city that's struggling to just survive," Mr. Petro said.
So by their brilliantly genius-y thought process that is probably being turned by mice in a cog, we could rename the Hill District to The Highland Estates and people will suddenly be all, "Hey! Let's move to The Highland Estates. Doesn't that sound like a place where we don't need to worry about getting murdered while we walk the dog at night?"
Like I said. Brilliant!
Homewood is now "Westhampsminstershire" and Lincoln/Lemington is now "Derbyshirbingham."
Spread the word, 'kay?
Category: Hardscrabble Mon Valley Watch || By
In the spirit of yesterday's Almanac, we're initiating a new feature between now and the April 22 primary called the Hardscrabble Mon Valley Watch.
I'll be looking for examples of national political pundits who do the best job of working "gritty, hardscrabble, steel mill" images into their stories.
Send me your favorites. Here are some to get you started.
From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Which is to say: Pennsylvania ain't Ohio. I've split my born days between the states; trust me on this one. You can't just graft the Ohio campaign narrative of working-class anger over lost industrial jobs onto Pennsylvania. Sure, that gritty anger still flares in Mon Valley steel towns, but out this way, not so much. In 1970, one in four Philly jobs was industrial; now it's one in 20. Rust Belt demise is old, old news here. We're through the Kubler-Ross stages of grief. What we want to know is which new strategy can best propel us in a modern economy.
Still, the state remains a political bellwether, with a mix of conservative blue-collar Democrats from the mine and mill towns in the hard coal country of the northeast and the iron and steel belt of the southwest.
At the Immaculate Heart of Mary Roman Catholic Church, on Polish Hill in Pittsburgh, they can't afford a janitor anymore. The ladies of the parish volunteer, swabbing the tile floors and polishing the mahogany pews. They are a familiar Pittsburgh type: the wry, forthright, steel-willed wives of hardworking, shot-and-beer men ...
Polish Hill is only one of many Pittsburghs. There are no steel mills left. The largest employers include medical centers, the University of Pittsburgh, PNC Bank and Mellon Financial Corp. Pitt and Carnegie Mellon have spawned a fertile digital culture to match the medical one; programmers, painters and poets are flocking to stately old neighborhoods. A symbol of this change is the city's mayor, Luke Ravenstahl, who is all of 28 years old.
Category: Mon Valley Miscellany, Pointless Digressions, Politics || By
Oh, boy! Six weeks of Clinton versus Obama! And Pennsylvania is the battleground!
National political writers are already pouring into our area. Don't be surprised if you're getting into your car at the Waterfront and you're accosted by a reporter from the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, or any of the other newspapers.
Here are some helpful tips to follow if a national political reporter wants to talk to you:
(ADVISORY: Editor's Note: Updated to include "hardscrabble")
McKEESPORT, Pa. --- Boarded-up storefronts line the main street of this once-bustling milltown in the Monongahela River Valley.
Proud, defiant steelworkers once carried lunch-pails to the hulking steel mills that lined both sides of the river, belching smoke and flame into the air.
The population of this hardscrabble mill town soared to more than 55,000 during the World War II era of the "greatest generation."
Elderly local resident (insert name here) points with pride to the mill, whose smoke once blackened the skies.
"We were proud and defiant," says the lifelong resident of McKeesport, Pa., a once-bustling steel mill town south of Pittsburgh, who worked for 30 years in the local mill, making steel.
The skies have surprisingly cleared, and the mills are now silent, and in the shadows of their rusty hulks, the proud, defiant children and grandchildren of steelworkers go to work in the new high-tech industries around Pittsburgh.
Sitting on a bar stool in a typical tavern amidst the boarded-up storefronts in this hardscrabble, once-bustling steel mill town, south of Pittsburgh, the descendants of steelworkers remain proud and defiant.
They cheer the Pittsburgh Steelers and talk about the fortunes of other local sports teams.
But collectively these sons and daughters of steelworkers wonder whether the two Democratic presidential candidates, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, understand the problems facing this once-bustling steel mill town, where once more than 55,000 people lived.
"The steel mills are closed," says (insert name here), an economics professor at (university name here). "But in the once-bustling steel towns south of Pittsburgh, there's a real question whether Obama and Clinton understand the challenges facing the descendants of the once-proud, defiant steelworkers."
To the surprise of a visitor, the smoky skies around Pittsburgh are finally clear. Downtown Pittsburgh is filled with dazzling skyscrapers and a new convention center.
But many of the proud, defiant descendants of steelworkers have found it difficult to adjust to their new jobs in the high-tech industries around Pittsburgh.
A new shopping complex called the Waterfront has sprung up to replace one of the big steel mills along the river, south of Pittsburgh, that once employed generations of proud, defiant steelworkers.
Yet many say the prosperity of the new high-tech industries around Pittsburgh has passed by the sons and daughters of the steelworkers in this once-bustling mill town, whose population has fallen from its World War II high of 55,000 people, and whose main streets are lined with boarded-up storefronts.
They are troubled by the loss of so many jobs --- good paying jobs that were once easy to find in the hulking steel mills that once lined both sides of the hardscrabble river valleys.
And while the smoke has cleared from the skies above the rusty steel towns south of Pittsburgh ...
(Editor's Note: Story should continue for another 2,000 words. Make sure to include references to Primanti Brothers, Heinz, and the Terrible Towel.)
Category: Mon Valley Miscellany, Pointless Digressions, Politics || By
Yesterday, Alert Reader Glenn was worried that filming post-apocalyptic movies like "The Road" in the city will give people a bad impression. Alert Reader R.M. has the solution:
I would simply tell anyone who comments that Huey Street isn't really in McKeesport. It's in Greater Allegheny. After all, PR must always be the primary consideration.
"I'd rather it continue in the family," said Jean McCague, whose father, Andrew B. McSwigan --- son of Andrew S. McSwigan --- was Kennywood's president for nearly 40 years, until 1963.
"I am very much opposed to the sale," Andrew S. McSwigan's granddaughter Kay Matthews said. "It's just kind of getting rammed down people's throats."
In a mock primary conducted on March 3-4, the clear winner was Barack Obama, one of the contenders for the Democratic Presidential nomination. Senator Obama received 47 votes, followed by Senators Hillary Clinton and John McCain, tied at 21. The remaining votes went to Governor Mike Huckabee (8) and Ralph Nader (6), plus 4 for a local student.
The mock ballot required students to choose among Clinton, Huckabee, McCain, and Obama, and thus was not conducted as the Pennsylvania primary will be in April, with voters only able to vote for candidates from the party in which they are registered.
Category: Local Businesses, Mon Valley Miscellany || By
It was nice of Greg Victor to quote the Almanac in the Sunday Post-Gazette's round up of local web commentary, "Cutting Edge."
But isn't there something perverse about newspapers reprinting days-old Internet comment? And I'm not just bitter because the P-G never hired me for any writing jobs.
At least I don't think I am. 'Course, I didn't think I was "cutting edge" either. Some days, my rapier wit looks more like a spoon.
. . .
They're Gonna Put You in the Movies: Last month, I noted that the upcoming Viggo Mortensen-Charlize Theron picture "The Road" was filming some scenes in Braddock at an abandoned car dealership.
Another little birdie, Alert Reader Glenn, now tells the Almanac that some location filming for "The Road" is underway on Huey Street in the city:
Coincidently I am reading the "The Road," about halfway through, and the book is not what I'd call a feel good book and I doubt the movie will be a feel good movie!
I have not been able to determine yet whether the setting in the book is an aftermath of a gigantic volcanic explosion, a meteor hitting the earth or a nuclear winter. But the bottom line is everything is nearly destroyed, covered in a gray ash and civilization is in chaos as a father and son try to make their way to the east coast via "The Road," to seek food, shelter and security.
Being the road they are traveling depicts destruction I wonder if McKeesport being a setting for the picture again doesn't depict Our Fair City as a disaster zone! Well then maybe on the other hand as I traveled through some of the neighborhoods.
Category: History, Radio Geekery || By
Category: Local Businesses || By
A tentative agreement has been reached to sell the former Christy Park Works to a company in India, reports Forbes magazine and other sources.
Pittsburgh-based Reunion Industries, currently operating under federal bankruptcy protection, has agreed to sell its CP Industries division to Everest Kanto Cylinder Ltd. for $64.25 million.
It's Reunion's second attempt to sell CP Industries; a deal last year with a private-equity firm in Florida was not completed.
This sale must be approved by federal regulators and bankruptcy trustees.
CP Industries manufactures seamless containers for holding gases compressed under high pressure. Its customers include makers of alternative-fuel vehicles, NASA, the U.S. Navy, and others in the transportation and aerospace industries.
The Christy Park plant, which opened in 1897, was once part of U.S. Steel's National Tube Works. Located along Walnut Street south of the 15th Avenue Bridge, the facility spans 600,000 square feet and employs more than 100 people.
CP Industries calls itself the world's largest manufacturer of seamless pressure vessels. Though Reunion is in bankruptcy, published reports indicate that CP is profitable and had $40 million in revenue last year.
Everest Kanto, based in Mumbai, was founded in 1978. Its other manufacturing plants are in Aurangabad, Tarapur and Gandhidam, India; and Jafza, Dubai. It currently has no U.S. manufacturing facilities.
According to a press release issued by Reunion, no layoffs are planned in the city: "The buyer is committed to employing all of the existing employees and intends to operate and grow the business at its present facility."
An Indian news website this week quoted a "senior Everest Kanto official" as saying that although not all details of the acquisition have been worked out, no immediate changes are planned in Christy Park.
"At this point we cannot give details on revenues, profitability, or production capacity since we are under the non disclosure period," the unidentified source told DNA India. "All I can say is the company is profitable. CP Industries makes jumbo cylinders and it makes great sense for us to acquire a company which is a global leader in the segment."
The Asia Pulse news service quotes Everest Kanto's chairman and managing director, Prem Khurana, as saying that acquisition of CP will allow his company to capitalize on the "robust global demand" for compressed natural-gas storage systems.
Category: Mon Valley Miscellany || By
During Black History Month, the News had a lot of neat stories about local people of note.
Here's a nice profile by Stacy Lee about 77-year-old city resident Al Kimber, who served in the U.S. Army's last so-called "Buffalo Soldier" unit --- a regiment of all African-American soldiers.
Kimber, reports Lee, had only two weeks left on his tour of duty in 1950 when his unit was shipped from Japan to Pusan, South Korean, to defend the city from the North Koreans.
"All the white troops were in Northern Japan," Kimber tells Lee. "We were not allowed to fraternize. It was strictly segregated except for a few white officers. The white officers were bitter because being assigned to an all-black outfit was a form of punishment. Some were very nice, though. They came from every state in the United States. The officers from up North were always better with getting along with the black troops than the Southern gentlemen."
The story was in last Tuesday's paper; it's worth seeking out.
. . .
Those Darn Catholics!: A recent letter to the editor in the News from a North Huntingdon resident alleged that Serra Catholic High School won the WPIAL football and boys' basketball titles this year because it recruited students to play sports.
It's a perpetual charge levied against Catholic high schools. And it could be the case that Serra's been recruiting.
But if they're recruiting, why have they been recruiting so many bad student athletes for all of these years?
Because for most of my life, Serra's football and basketball teams have stunk out loud.
And it's not like something changed this year. Serra's athletic director and men's basketball coach have each been there more than 20 years. I had both Bill Cleary and Bob Rozanski as teachers, for goodness' sake. (It's not true that Mr. Cleary had a complete head of hair before I was in his class, but I'm sure I didn't help lower his stress levels at all.)
So c'mon, people. Don't take this accomplishment away from this group of kids, or their coaches. How petty can people be?
. . .
Continuing Decline of Western Civ. Dept.: I've said it before, I'll say it again: The Mon-Yough area is not in need of its own Mensa chapter.
City police have nailed a ninth-grader at McKeesport Area High School who called in three bomb threats this week, writes Raymond Pefferman in the Daily News. The suspect is currently making new friends at Shuman Center.
I have a vague memory of being 14 years old, and I did a lot of immature, stupid, annoying things. (And if you've been reading the Almanac, you know that I haven't changed much.)
But I can remember discussions around the lunch table that pretty much concluded that calling in a bomb threat was the lamest form of prank.
So I can't put myself in a mindset that would think calling in repeated bomb threats was funny or in anyway subversive ... not to mention that back in "our day" no one had caller ID, and a phone trace was complicated.
Calling three times is pretty much the height of stupidity; after the second threat, he had to know they'd be watching the phones. This turkey even left a voice mail for the cops to use as evidence against him.
Category: Mon Valley Miscellany || By
This is a good time to remind everyone that opinions expressed at Tube City Almanac are not those of any organization, any member of my family, or any employer.
Are we clear? Good.
Because someone just gave West Penn Allegheny Health System a $19 million "F-U":
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has purchased the former Palace Inn in Monroeville and plans to turn it into a health center.
UPMC announced today that it has closed on the sale of the building on Mosside Boulevard, paying $18,975,000 ...
The new UPMC adult outpatient facility will include outpatient clinics, diagnostic imaging services such as CT scans, X-ray, ultrasound and mammography, an ambulatory surgery center, an urgent care center and physician offices. (Post-Gazette)
The Palace Inn at the intersection of William Penn Highway and Route 48 is just about within sight of Forbes Regional Hospital, which has held a near monopoly on hospital care in Monroeville since opening in 1978.
Category: Cartoons, General Nonsense, Mon Valley Miscellany || By
He might as well keep drawing customers to the bar with those signs because his food doesn't make a bold statement. My hamburger and fries came plopped on a layer of tin foil spread across a plastic serving tray. The food wasn't so hot.
Category: Pointless Digressions || By
Pardon this temporary service interruption. Normal service should resume Wednesday.
I've been out of action since Saturday with the flu. Hell, I was so delirious on Monday that I dreamed that Jay Jabbour was running for office again.
Update: I like to think I'm a little better than this guy when I'm sick.
(Probably not much. But a little. Besides, since I live alone, there's no reason for me to whine and pout ... there's no one to get any sympathy from.)
(Tip of the Tube City hard hat: Gene Weingarten.)
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