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.
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.
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?
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.
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.)
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.
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.
You are on an archived page of Tube City Almanac.
Click the banner to return to the front page; or click here to visit Tube City Online.
Published weekdays (usually), except holidays (and when we have something better to do) at McKeesport, Pa., by Tube City Online LLC, P.O. Box 94, McKeesport, Pa. 15134.
Opinions expressed here are those of the individual authors, and do not necessarily represent those of any organization. No warranty is given or implied for the information and opinions contained herein; the reader uses that information at his or her peril.
Except where noted, all contents are copyright © 2003-2008 Tube City Online LLC, a limited-liability company chartered in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. No content from Tube City Online may be reproduced in whole or part in any digital or print publication without express permission, except that short excerpts may be used with attribution in commentary or for critical purposes.
Tube City Online is edited by Jason Togyer, member National Writers Union, Society of Professional Journalists, American Radio Relay League and National Radio Club.
Also, objects in Tube City Online may be closer than they appear. If Tube City Online is swallowed, seek professional help immediately. Stop use of Tube City Online if condition persists or worsens. Tube City Online is produced in a facility that also includes Peanuts. Do not expose Tube City Online to open flames and keep it out of the reach of children. Do not back up, as severe tire damage may result. Not responsible for lost or stolen articles. Tube City Online is still not a significant source of saturated fats or Minnesota Fats.
