June 29, 2008

He Already Had the Mustache

Posted at 10:31 pm by Jason Togyer
Filed Under: Cartoons | three comments | Link To This Entry

June 27, 2008

Tick, Tick, Tick

I wasn't able to attend this week's hearing on the city's proposal to demolish several buildings --- including the Penn-McKee Hotel and the old Eagles lodge --- but from talking to witnesses, it sounds like things were pretty contentious regarding the latter building.

My sources tell the Almanac that Henry Russell Jr. of MHI Inc., the listed owner of the Eagles since 1991, and city solicitor Jason Elash exchanged sharp words over the building's condition.

Maryann Huk of the McKeesport Preservation Society reportedly testified that she has nominated both structures for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, but no property owner testified on behalf of the Penn-McKee.

Meanwhile, someone recently accused me of being "unsympathetic" to preservation efforts in the city.

If you've been reading the Almanac for a while, you know that I am absolutely unsympathetic to anyone who wants to preserve McKeesport history. I also foreclose on orphanages and tie widows to train tracks while twirling the ends of my mustache and cackling.

No, gentle reader, I am not unsympathetic, but I'm also not an idiot. Everyone wants to preserve the Hitzrot house and the Penn-McKee, but none of the responsible parties have made any tangible moves.

City council still has to vote on whether to demolish these buildings, possibly at its meeting next Wednesday. Then the contracts will have to go to bid.

That means that the clock is running, but time hasn't run out.

If the people who want to save these structures are serious, they will immediately start raising money, hire engineering and legal help, and apply for the appropriate permits.

Or, they will turn the buildings over to someone who can afford to save them, and who is willing to jump through the proper legal hoops.

But if they fail to act, and the buildings fall down or are demolished, they will have no one to blame but themselves.

. . .

Meanwhile: The Italian millionaire who owns St. Stephen's Hungarian Church on Beacon Street is in jail.

As the Almanac reported last July, St. Stephen's and several other Catholic churches in the Diocese of Pittsburgh were sold to a company controlled by Raffaello Follieri, a playboy whose family has close ties to the Vatican.

Well, federal officials in New York arrested Follieri on Tuesday and charged him with fraud and money laundering.

In other words, another historic building in McKeesport is apparently owned by someone with no means of repairing or marketing it.

That's just swell.

How long before St. Stephen's falls into disrepair, and the city starts making plans to demolish it? I say two years.

. . .

To Do This Weekend: Amateur radio operators from around the world will participating in annual "Field Day" exercises, including members of the city's Two Rivers Amateur Radio Club. They'll be up along Carpenter Lane in White Oak Park, near the water tower.

McKees Point Marina, Water Street at Fifth Avenue, will host a free concert by the classic rock/country group Steeltown from 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday. All ages are welcome; organizers recommend bringing a blanket or lawn chair. Call (412) 678-6979 for more information.

Chuck Blasko's Vogues will perform at the Renziehausen Park bandshell at 7 p.m. Sunday as part of the city's free summer concert series. Call (412) 675-5068.

Finally, Animal Friends hosts a rabies clinic for dogs and cats three months of age and older at city Fire Station No. 2, Eden Park Boulevard, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday. Cost is $10; all dogs must be on leashes, and cats in carriers. Call (412) 847-7076.

Posted at 07:07 am by Jason Togyer
Filed Under: Events, History, Rants a.k.a. Commentary | four comments | Link To This Entry

June 26, 2008

See Also 'Sleep, Deprivation of'

When you read a non-fiction book, do you ever wonder who has to compile the index?

I sure wondered. It turns out that it's usually the author, and he has about a week to do it.

And there may be easier ways to do it, but a scratch pad and pencils worked for me.

(Yawn.) I need a nap.

Posted at 12:00 am by Jason Togyer
Filed Under: Pointless Digressions | one comment | Link To This Entry

June 25, 2008

New Owners Seek Tenants For People's Building

A New York City couple making their first venture into commercial real estate has purchased one of the city's best-known landmarks.

Lin and Lily Lum of Brooklyn have purchased the former People's Union Bank Building, Downtown, from the mortgage company that foreclosed on the property earlier this year.

Terms of the sale were not disclosed, though the 102-year-old skyscraper now known as The People's Building was expected to sell for more than $400,000.

The Lums, who both hold engineering degrees from SUNY-Stony Brook, also own two brownstone townhouses in Brooklyn, according to New York City deed records.

But this is the couple's first foray into owning a commercial property, and their first purchase outside of New York.

Naturalized U.S. citizens, the Lums are natives of Guangdong (formerly Canton) province, China. Lily Lum works for New York City's Health & Hospitals Corporation, while Lin Lum is a computer programmer for a major investment bank.

Reached by phone at her New York office this week, Lily Lum told the Almanac she and her husband were looking for an investment opportunity when they saw the People's Building listed on the Internet.

"We didn't know anything about the building," she said. "It was a surprise. It had a wonderful history. We liked the history of it."

For most of its history, the building's upper floors were home to doctors, lawyers and other professionals. The Lums would like to attract the same kind of tenants; Lily Lum said she doesn't want to rent the building to just anyone.

The local property manager hired by the mortgage company has been retained and will stay on-site, Lum said.

It's not the first building Downtown to be sold to an East Coast investor. The building at 224 Fifth Ave. that once housed Byer's Children's Shop and Gala Jewelers was purchased several years ago by a Connecticut man.

Lum said the couple's first tasks will be to repair the damaged sidewalk along Walnut Street, wash the exterior of the first and second floors, repair the hot and cold water systems inside, and improve air circulation in the mezzanine and old banking hall.

"We are also looking to see if the city can help us --- if there's any way we can cooperate" to find tenants, she said. "Some of the people have already come to talk to us."

---
Potential tenants interested in renting space in the People's Building should contact Lily Lum at (646) 296-5347, or lum.lily@nychhc.org.

Posted at 07:49 am by Jason Togyer
Filed Under: Local Businesses, News | two comments | Link To This Entry

June 24, 2008

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

It's about time that Downtown finally got its own lighthouse. Too many ocean liners have foundered on the shoals of the Youghiogheny.

Next, someone needs to stop those sirens in Dravosburg from luring sailors to their deaths.

I keed, I keed. Actually, the lighthouse, funded by private donations, was erected at the McKees Point Marina on Water Street in memory of the late city councilman and Mayor Joe Bendel.

Bendel was among the people who had the vision and foresight to push for the marina's construction, over strenuous objections from some residents and political rivals.

The lighthouse is a little bit incongruous, to be sure --- what's next, lobster traps? --- but it sure does look neat.

It's odd to think that the marina was a controversial idea. There were many people who objected on principle --- they thought any recreational opportunities should be handled by the private sector.

That's true enough, except that no one in the private sector was doing anything to develop the city's riverfront.

There was a bigger group of people who objected on the grounds that it was a waste of time.

"McKeesport's dead," they said. "Who would want to come to here?"

It was the same group of bellyachers who sits around complaining because there's no place to shop Downtown, but who never shopped Downtown when stores were open, or who complain about corruption, crime and taxes, but haven't lived in the Mon Valley since the Jakomas administration.

Marina Manager Ray Dougherty told city council in May that just about everyone who had a slip in McKeesport last year has returned this year. (Although someone jokingly said to me the other day that even if they put their boat in the water, they might just have to sit at the dock, because they can't afford fuel.)

The answer to the question, "Who wants to come to McKeesport?" turns out to be "a lot of people," if you give them something worth coming for, if you behave professionally, and if you promote the city.

In general, the Mon Valley could use more "do'ers" who are planning for the future, and fewer "complainers" who talk about all of the things we've lost, but never try anything new.

I don't have a boat myself, but ain't that a pretty sight?

If you sort of squint and block out the abandoned Penn-McKee Hotel, you could imagine you're up in the Allegheny National Forest, not in Downtown McKeesport.

And now for the ugly.

Here comes the sun on Fifth Avenue, and the pigeons of McKeesport and winos drinking MD 20/20 out of paper bags both need a new place to sit.

So, farewell, then, to the remnants of one of the Mon Valley's worst-ever public works projects ... and that's saying a lot.

The concrete arches of the old Midtown Plaza Mall parking garage are finally down, and Fifth Avenue will be restored to two-way traffic later this year.

Now, it's up to developer Barry Stein to rehabilitate the remaining section of the mall, rechristened the "Boulevard Shops," as in "Lysle."

There's been little progress since Subway, Jackson Hewitt, Pizza Hut and Dollar Bank relocated, but I'm told the ugly arches discouraged potential tenants, and I'm taking Stein at his word that everything else will get a makeover soon, too.

If it inspires some other property owners Downtown to remodel and market their buildings, it's all for the better.

It doesn't help, by the way, that every reporter who comes to the city feels it's necessary to mention that the Downtown area is "economically devastated" and "mostly abandoned."

(Gee, thanks, Moriah Balingit. We hadn't noticed. By the way, you left out "hardscrabble.")

No, we don't need a lighthouse as a warning beacon for boaters.

We need it to attract more "do'ers" and fewer doubters.

"Yes, we can," isn't just the motto of a political candidate, after all.

Posted at 07:10 am by Jason Togyer
Filed Under: Hardscrabble Mon Valley Watch, Mon Valley Miscellany, Rants a.k.a. Commentary | four comments | Link To This Entry

June 23, 2008

Community Center New Goal For Bethlehem Church

In a Downtown area that's lost many of its institutions, Bethlehem Baptist Church remains a refreshing outpost of stability.

For 119 years, the congregation has tended both to the spiritual and corporeal needs of the city.

Its newest project could be Bethlehem's biggest outreach project yet --- a community center and banquet hall Downtown that would serve both the church's 480 members and all residents of the McKeesport area.

The church is holding a golf outing this Friday at Youghiogheny Country Club, Elizabeth Township, to raise money. Tickets are on sale at the church's office on Walnut Street.

"Our next step is contacting an architect, to take what's in our hearts and put it totally down on paper," says the Rev. Earlene Coleman, Bethlehem's pastor for five years and a lifelong member of the church. "We're trying to take each step as God tells us, and we don't want to run ahead."

. . .

Community involvement is nothing new at Bethlehem, whose handsome sanctuary between Seventh and Eighth avenues has been a Downtown landmark for 24 years. ("We still think of it as 'the new church,' too," Coleman says, laughing.)

Bethlehem Baptist has a computer room where members and city residents can learn to use software packages like PowerPoint and Publisher, work on school projects or use the Internet, and until recently the church provided daycare for working parents. (When other daycare alternatives opened nearby, the church was able to discontinue the service.)

The church also has partnered with a congregation in Louisiana to collect clothing and other items for people still rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina.

And two years ago, Bethlehem launched "Project Reach" with the McKeesport Area School District. Four members of the church --- two men and two women --- each mentor 15 freshmen and sophomores from McKeesport Senior High School, monitoring their grades, helping them with homework and personal problems, and making sure they attend classes.

. . .

But the community center, conceived about a year ago, is one of the church's biggest projects yet, at least in terms of capital investment.

Coleman says several people in the church perceived the need for the facility almost at the same time.

"As I said to my building committee, 'I don't know why God wants this, but he wants a community center,'" she says. "As we keep moving along, more and more people share the vision that God is spreading, and this is something he wants to do in this community."

Besides a banquet-type hall, the center that Bethlehem Baptist envisions would also incorporate daily activities for families, children and senior citizens --- needs that the church's own building can't currently serve.

"I have 80 or 90 senior citizens in the church who are still living on their own and taking care of themselves, so they don't need 'day care,' but it would be nice if they had a place to go for fellowship, rather than sitting at home, alone, watching TV," Coleman says.

The church is also working with the McKeesport YMCA to see if fitness classes or other activities could use the facility, she says.

. . .

Although Bethlehem hasn't identified a location for the center, Coleman says it would be somewhere in the Downtown area.

YMCA Executive Director Dexter Hairston is on the planning committee, along with Mayor Jim Brewster, Michele Matuch of the McKeesport Hospital Foundation, and Rob Hammond, general manager of the Daily News and an executive at its parent company, Tribune-Review Publishing.

"We have some really wonderful people working on the committee," she says. "The community has really stepped up and gotten behind it."

Coleman has a renewed perspective on her pastoral work in the city after recently returning from a missionary trip to Johannesburg, South Africa, as she works toward an advanced degree from Pittsburgh's Harty Bible School.

. . .

Previous mission trips have taken Coleman and 23 other pastors to work with churches in Guyana and Jamaica.

There are strong similarities between pastoral work in the developing world and in the United States, she says: "We don't realize that a lot of the same things we do, they also do."

Yet Coleman was inspired by the ability of pastors in extremely poor communities to maintain a positive outlook and a "level of peace and joy."

"Though I don't have much, I'm not focusing on what I don't have," she says. "Even in ministry, we are very blessed in the United States."

. . .

For information about Friday's golf outing, call the church office at (412) 664-7272. Golf tickets cost $150 each or $500 for four people, and include dinner at the clubhouse. Tickets for dinner only cost $50.

In addition, the church will host a cruise on the Gateway Clipper on July 13 to raise money for the community center. Tickets are $51 per person and include dinner and oldies spun by a DJ. Call the church for reservations.

Posted at 07:43 am by Jason Togyer
Filed Under: Events, News | No comments | Link To This Entry