Filed Under: Another Viewpoint || By Jason Togyer
Category: History || By Jason Togyer
Andy Warhol was not from McKeesport.
This is not exactly a news flash, but Tube City Almanac is publishing it anyway for the benefit of bloggers, students writing term papers, journalists on deadline and others who will someday Google "Andy+Warhol+McKeesport."
Andy Warhol was not from McKeesport. He was from Pittsburgh.
Sorry to be such a wet blanket, but there you have it.
. . .
I bring this up because Warhol's brother, John Warhola of Beaver County, died last Friday at age 85. In a post on Andi Cartwright's lively and always entertaining "McKeesport Memories" Facebook page, people were wondering if John was from McKeesport, too.
As the old hunkies used to lament, "O, istenem!"
No, John Warhola was not from McKeesport, and neither was his famous brother, Andy Warhol.
Warhol, the celebrated pop artist who died in 1987, often told reporters that he was from "McKeesport." Indeed, a search of the New York Times archives reveals that Warhol was telling journalists this fiction as early as 1968, and the fib was repeated many, many times by other writers, including in an obituary written by the Associated Press and widely distributed to local newspapers.
. . .
But as the Post-Gazette noted in its own 1987 obituary, Warhol had a habit of giving made-up details to reporters for his own amusement. (He also gave out fictional birthdates and told some reporters he was born in Philadelphia.)
According to the Warhola Family Foundation's website, "Andy Warhol was born on August 6, 1928 in the city of Pittsburgh. During his first six years, Andy's family moved and lived in five different houses."
The website notes that in 1934, "Andy's father, Ondreij bought a three story, yellow brick house at 3252 Dawson Street in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. Andy lived on Dawson Street from 1934 until he left for New York City in 1949."
In a 2005 story for the Tribune-Review, art critic Kurt Shaw interviewed Warhol's oldest brother, Paul, and catalogued some of the Warhola family's other addresses. They lived on Orr Street, Beelan Street and Moultrie Street, all in Pittsburgh's Soho section.
(You'll notice there's not a Rebecca Street or Manning Avenue in the bunch.)
. . .
To be specific, the Andy Warhol Museum says that Warhol was born at 73 Orr Street, and that Warhol graduated from Schenley High School --- not Tech High or the "Voc."
A 2001 article for the Post-Gazette by an old classmate of mine, Samantha Bennett, notes that the Warhol family attended St. John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic Church at the corner of Saline Street and the Boulevard of the Allies in Oakland.
I wouldn't deny that the Warholas may have kin in McKeesport. They were Carpatho-Rusyn, and there was a healthy Carpatho-Rusyn community in Our Fair City. There still is.
. . .
Maybe Andy visited McKeesport from time to time to visit relatives. He could have walked up to Forbes Avenue and caught a Number 68 streetcar, or even down to Irvine Street to catch a 56. But he wasn't from McKeesport.
Look at it this way: McKeesport can claim a Pulitzer Prize winner (Marc Connelly), a Miss America (Henrietta Leaver), two Olympic gold medalists (Rick Krivda and Swin Cash), the CEO of Lockheed Martin (Robert J. Stevens), a prize-winning fashion photographer (Duane Michals), a French Legion of Honor winner (pianist Byron Janis), the co-creator of "I Love Lucy" (Bob Carroll Jr.), the first female commercial airline pilot (Helen Richey), the first American to become a bullfighter in Mexico (Bette Ford), a Congressional Medal of Honor winner (Franklin J. Phillips), a slew of professional football players ... the list goes on and on.
But McKeesport can't claim to be the birthplace of Andy Warhol. And after all, McKeesport has to let Pittsburgh be famous for something, doesn't it?
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Category: News || By Jason Togyer
He's been mayor for less than a month, but Regis McLaughlin has already been faced with a snowstorm and a big federal drug raid. Despite those minor crises and a whirlwind of year-end meetings with local, county and state officials, the city's 21st mayor says he's not overwhelmed.
McLaughlin, 76, of Grandview says he's got reliable managers to lean on as he acclimates to the city's top leadership position.
"One thing I learned when I was working in the mill is that you've got to have good department heads," he says. "They're all capable of running their departments, and I've told them that if you have a problem, come to me. I've got an open-door policy."
All of those department heads --- including City Administrator Dennis Pittman, Police Chief B.J. Washowich, Fire Chief Kevin Lust and Public Works Director Nick Shermenti --- will remain in place, McLaughlin says.
. . .
McLaughlin has already got the support and well-wishes of city residents. As he stands talking in front of city hall on Fifth Avenue, drivers of passing cars wave and toot their horns; the mayor returns each wave.
McLaughlin is filling the one year remaining on the term of former Mayor Jim Brewster, who resigned this month after being elected to the state Senate. But McLaughlin hasn't yet decided whether to seek a full four-year term on his own.
"I want to get through this month and next month, and then I'll make a decision," he says. "I do have a lot of good people who've asked me to run."
. . .
Like other Pittsburgh-area politicos, McLaughlin is watching the new state government in Harrisburg carefully. Outgoing Governor Ed Rendell, a Democrat, was generous to McKeesport and other Mon Valley communities, and state money funded a makeover of the city's Downtown Fifth Avenue corridor and reconstruction of West Fifth Avenue in the 10th Ward, as well as the completion of the Marshall Drive Extension.
But Governor-Elect Tom Corbett, a Republican, is preaching austerity, and he's also expected to be more closely aligned with rural and suburban areas than with heavily-Democratic urban communities such as McKeesport.
"It's a new regime, but regardless of who's there, we have to work with them," McLaughlin says.
Brewster's position in the Senate will be an enormous asset to the Mon Valley, the mayor says. "With Jim Brewster there now, it's absolutely going to help us," McLaughlin says. "Jimmy is certainly not going to shun the city."
. . .
A lifelong city resident and graduate of the former Vocational High School, McLaughlin entered politics late in life.
After high school and then a year of college in Wichita, Kansas, McLaughlin took a job at U.S. Steel's National Works as a laborer to help support his mother and brother. He would eventually complete 30 years at National Works, including nine years in management positions.
When the plant closed for good in 1987, McLaughlin retired, opening a bar on Sinclair Street called "Rege's Place," and working part-time for the McKeesport Housing Authority and the city's sewerage authority.
It was former councilman and mayor Joe Bendel --- a longtime friend and fellow high school basketball referee --- who first convinced McLaughlin to apply for a seat on council that had been vacated by the death of Jim Honick. McLaughlin served more than 13 years on council and was the unanimous choice of his colleagues to complete Brewster's term.
. . .
McLaughlin plans a somewhat lower profile than the highly-visible and hands-on approach taken by Brewster. "That's the way I was in the mill, too," McLaughlin says.
That doesn't mean that McLaughlin intends to stay silent; the new mayor is looking for opportunities to boost the city's revenues and to attract new jobs. McLaughlin is working on one proposal to increase the city's income that he expects to announce in a few months.
Rather than the one-time asset sales used to balance the past few budgets, he says he hopes it will provide a permanent, ongoing solution.
There have been other changes, besides the new name on the city directory. A city-owned Chevy Tahoe SUV formerly dedicated to the mayor's use has been turned over to the police department, and McLaughlin has pledged to return $10,000 of the mayor's $70,000 annual salary back to the city treasury.
. . .
A priority remains bringing retail stores back into McKeesport, McLaughlin says, including on the former National Works site, now a business park run by Regional Industrial Development Corp. "I think RIDC has been trying to protect the Waterfront (shopping complex in Homestead), but they can't have it all," he says.
The flyover ramp now under construction at the foot of Coursin Street will make the National Works site more attractive to retailers and other potential tenants, McLaughlin says.
The mill site's largest tenant, a Dish Network call center employing 800, closed in March. A key priority for the city has to be attracting higher-paying jobs to the property, McLaughlin says, including jobs in high-tech fields.
. . .
"Young people are not going to come back here or stay here so that they can make minimum wage," McLaughlin says. "They're going to leave and go find jobs in their fields."
(McLaughlin knows of what he speaks --- his daughter, Deborah Bazzone, lives in Florida, while his granddaughter, Lindsay, is in New Orleans to attend medical school. His grandson Michael went to George Washington University and also lives out of the Western Pennsylvania area.)
The city will continue to market Walnut Street as its new commercial corridor. Progress has finally resumed on a long-planned retail development at the intersection of Walnut Street and Route 48, McLaughlin says, and state Transportation Department officials are expected to install a traffic light at that intersection.
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Category: Announcements || By Jason Togyer
The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!
The heavens proclaim his righteousness; and all the peoples behold his glory.
Light dawns for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart.
Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name!
(Psalm 96: 1, 4, 11-12)
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Category: History || By Jason Togyer
(This article originally appeared in Tube City Almanac on Dec. 22, 2008.)
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Category: Events || By Staff Report
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Category: Announcements || By Staff Report
Last week, the U.S. House and Senate passed versions of the Local Community Radio Act, which was championed and introduced by U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, a Democrat from Forest Hills whose district includes the Mon-Yough area.
President Obama is expected to sign the legislation, which would lift restrictions on so-called low-power FM, or LPFM, radio stations. These stations, which would be owned by non-profit community groups and governmental agencies, were part of a new class of stations created by the Federal Communications Commission to operate at 10 or 100 watts on the FM band.
But under heavy lobbying from large broadcasting companies and National Public Radio, Congress in 2000 restricted these stations to operating at least four dial positions away from existing full-power stations on the FM dial, effectively blocking LPFM radio stations from being created in the Pittsburgh area and other major metropolitan areas.
A partner organization of Tube City Community Media Inc., Lightning Community Broadcasting Inc., was formed in 1999 to apply for an LPFM license in the McKeesport-White Oak area. Lightning would have created a community-run, non-commercial public radio station serving the Mon-Yough area.
(Tube City Community Media Inc. is the non-profit corporation which operates Tube City Online. The executive director of Tube City, Jason Togyer, is a founding member of Lightning, and remains a volunteer for that group, but is no longer a member of its board of directors.)
. . .
Tube City Community Media Inc. will wait until the FCC announces a filing window before deciding whether to pursue a license, either on its own, or with partner organizations. It has remained in continuous contact with the City of McKeesport, Penn State Greater Allegheny Campus and other interested stakeholders about creating such a station.
We remain convinced that the Mon Valley could support and use a community FM station. Yesterday, for instance, Tube City recorded the holiday concert of the McKeesport Symphony Pops for broadcast over Pittsburgh's WRCT-FM on Friday morning.
There's no reason that a McKeesport-based radio station shouldn't be airing coverage of the symphony, or International Village, McKeesport Area school board and City Council, and other events of interest, including sports and religious programming.
Although there are two stations licensed to McKeesport, they are not covering those kinds of events, and Tube City is not prepared to "buy" or "broker" time to air those events.
. . .
One serious problem that wasn't present in 1999, however, is that many frequencies which could have supported either a 10-watt or 100-watt low-power FM station were sold beginning in 2004 to what are called "translators." These FM stations, with power output ranging up to 250 watts, were originally intended to boost FM radio reception in fringe listening areas.
They are now often used by out-of-state broadcasters (many of them affiliated with conservative Christian churches) to extend their networks. A frequency at 94.1 FM, for instance, that's licensed to Clairton is currently operated as part of the "K-Love" Christian radio network run by California-based Educational Media Foundation.
That would prevent a new 10- or 100-watt LPFM station from serving the Clairton, Glassport and Jefferson Hills area using that frequency. That's unfortunate for Clairton, and for the future of the radio industry, which is no longer attracting new talent or young listeners.
. . .
It could be argued that the FCC, under President George W. Bush, opened a translator application window in 2003 --- and eventually licensed thousands of new translators --- specifically to stop low-power FM stations from taking those frequencies. That's not meant as a partisan statement; it speaks more to the influence of corporate money on regulators and legislators over the past 10 years than to any partisan divide of Republicans vs. Democrats.
The FCC is also now allowing AM stations to translate their signals on FM, which has made those FM translators even more valuable (and more expensive to purchase).
The new legislation specifically protects translators from being bumped off of frequencies by low-power FM stations, making it unclear what frequencies --- if any --- would be available on the FM band for Tube City or any other group.
Preliminary engineering data indicates that at least two low-power stations are possible in the communities served by the McKeesport Area School District, but both would be limited to only 10 watts.
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Category: Events || By Staff Report
Christmas Dance at Palisades: Johnny Angel and the Halos are coming "Dahntahn" to the Palisades ballroom for a special holiday show and Christmas dance. Doors open at 7 p.m. Saturday and admission is $20.
For more information, call (412) 370-2971 or visit the Palisades' website. The show is presented by Triple J Productions.
. . .
Symphony Concert Sunday: McKeesport Symphony Pops presents its 2010 holiday concert, "Come Home for the Holidays," at 2:30 p.m. Sunday in the auditorium of McKeesport Area High School, 1960 Eden Park Blvd.
Featured performers include vocalist Billy Mason, violinist Leah Givelber and trumpeter David Anderson.
The concert will be recorded by Tube City Community Media Inc. for broadcast at 10 a.m. Dec. 24 over Pittsburgh's WRCT-FM (88.3).
Selections will include "The Christmas Feeling," "This Christmas," "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas," "Silver Bells," "The Most Wonderful Time of The Year," and "Con Te Partiro" (Time To Say Goodbye).
Mr. Mason will also lend his voice as narrator for "'Twas The Night Before Christmas."
Rounding out the program are holiday favorites such as Leroy Anderson's "Christmas Festival," "White Christmas" by Irving Berlin, "The Polar Express Concert Suite," and "Winter" from Vivaldi's "Four Seasons," featuring Givelber.
The McKeesport Symphony Youth Orchestra, under the direction of Kevin King, will perform following intermission.
Tickets are $18 for adults, $15 for seniors and $10 for students, with children 6 and under admitted free.
For more information, call (412) 664-2854 or visit the McKeesport Symphony's website.
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Category: General Nonsense || By Jason Togyer
Whenever he's too busy to write, Mark Evanier posts a picture of a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup. It's an old Internet tradition that he apparently made up.
Since I'm half-Hungarian, I post a photo of Scandia's delicious canned goulash instead. At least I assume it's delicious. I've never had any --- but why wouldn't greasy globs of canned pork be delicious, right? It even sounds delicious.
I still think you should be able to buy instant chicken paprikas in McKeesport. Maybe the new grocery store on Walnut Street will carry it, but some how, I doubt that.
We'll be back on track next week, I promise.
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Category: Another Viewpoint || By Jason Togyer
In the interest of fairness, here are two emails I received in the past few days. I have slightly edited them.
I originally had posted a rebuttal to them, but I decided they didn't require responses. Instead, you can take them for what they're worth.
The background is this: I have incorrectly deleted comments from someone who calls himself "Shadango." At least one of those comments came in from the same IP address as a former city councilman who is running for mayor.
That former city councilman is currently banned from commenting, and has attempted to comment here under multiple aliases, using several different computers with different IP addresses.
"Shadango" has now come forward. Based on the email address he sent me, he is not that city councilman. Tube City Almanac regrets the error and I apologize for deleting his comments.
In answer to the accusation being made that I'm either stupid or a liar, it is possible that two different people, both in McKeesport, both using the same Internet service (in this case, Comcast), could wind up posting comments here with the same dynamic IP address. It's unlikely, but it is possible.
To prevent any future confusion or misidentification, I am now banning all anonymous comments.
Beginning immediately, you can withhold your name from publication at Tube City Almanac, but you have to give me a real name and a real email address and/or phone number. If I don't know who you are, I will ask for your real name before making your comment visible.
This is a similar policy used by most newspapers that accept letters to the editor, and which require verification before publishing those letters, but will withhold names upon request.
And I will continue to delete or remove comments and to ban commenters for any reason, especially when the same handful of people are monopolizing this forum.
Emails after the jump.
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Category: News || By Jason Togyer
(Second of two parts)
Evaluated strictly using the raw numbers --- standardized tests as mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act --- McKeesport Area School District is struggling. According to state Department of Education reports:
(McKeesport Area does better than many peer districts statewide where the achievement gap is much more severe --- across Pennsylvania, students of color lag white students by 23 points in reading, and 19 points in math, according to PDE reports.)
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Category: News || By Jason Togyer
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Category: News || By John Barna and Jason Togyer
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Category: News || By Jason Togyer
Allegheny County's second-largest city has a new mayor.
At Tuesday's meeting, city council unanimously elected Council President Regis McLaughlin to fill the remaining year on the term of former Mayor Jim Brewster. Brewster officially resigned Tuesday night.
McLaughlin, 75, has served on city council since 1998, when he was first appointed to fill a vacancy left by the death of Councilman Jim Honick.
Brewster, 62, was elected in November to the state senate seat vacated by Sean Logan, a Plum Democrat.
. . .
Retired from U.S. Steel's National Works and the owner of the former Rege's Place, McLaughlin has been a member of the board of the city's sewerage authority since 1991 and currently serves as its chairman. He is a resident of the city's Grandview neighborhood.
Brewster's resignation is bittersweet, McLaughlin said.
"If you think it's sad for him to leave, it's sad for me to see him leave, because I won't have anyone to fight with," McLaughlin joked.
. . .
Reading aloud from his resignation letter, Brewster thanked council, department heads and employees for saving the city from possible Act 47 municipal bankruptcy.
(Listen to former Mayor Jim Brewster read his resignation. MP3 file, 30 minutes.)
When Brewster took office in 2003, city council was sharply divided and engaged in open battles with former Mayor Wayne Kucich, who earned the enmity of several different political factions by firing and demoting department heads and shuffling employees. Thirteen police officers and firefighters who claimed their demotions by Kucich were politically motivated sued the city, winning $600,000 in damages.
Brewster cautioned council and his successor not to allow that type of factionalism to return.
. . .
"The leadership that elected officials must provide, the image that you project --- is it to be one of chaos, disagreement, vindictiveness and anger?" he said. "Or is it going to be one of vision, harmony, unity and balance?
"You have the answer to these questions in the palms of your hands," Brewster said.
While acknowledging that much work needs to be done to reduce the city's crime rate, demolish vacant buildings, pave roads and attract new business, Brewster said the city's future remains bright "if the right path is taken."
"Put your personal feelings aside, put your personal agendas aside, and do what's right for the City of McKeesport and the people who live here," he said. "It's a great city with a great history, great resources and great people."
. . .
Also Tuesday night, the new senator put to rest a potential controversy over $83,500 in wages and compensation that were deferred during his time as mayor.
Brewster asked that the money owed him instead be divided equally and donated to two dozen local charities and civic organizations, including the Carnegie Library of McKeesport, the McKeesport NAACP, the planned Noah's Ark Community Center, Auberle and the Womansplace shelter.
"The money will be used to help the youth, families and disadvantaged of McKeesport," he said, adding that he would work with the organizations to "determine how the money will be used."
Despite leaving the mayor's office, Brewster remains an important figure in city politics, retaining his chairmanship of the McKeesport Democratic Committee and keeping his district senatorial office in McKeesport's city hall.
. . .
Former city councilman Dale McCall was appointed to fill the year remaining in McLaughlin's term. A retired guard at the Allegheny County Jail, McCall served on council from 2001 until 2009, when he lost a bid for a third term.
One councilor suggested that instead of appointing McCall to the seat, resumes should be taken from interested applicants.
Instead, McCall was selected by 4-2 vote, with Councilmen Darryl Segina and A.J. Tedesco dissenting.
. . .
City council also approved the 2011 municipal budget. The $19.5 million spending plan includes no tax increase, but does call for increasing the municipal fee for garbage collection and other services by $20 per year.
In addition, the budget will require the city to refinance debt to close a $750,000 shortfall, city officials said. The budget passed 5-2, with Tedesco and Councilwoman V. Fawn Walker dissenting.
McKeesport expects to end the year with about $500,000 cash on hand, said Dennis Pittman, city administrator.
(Download a summary of McKeesport's 2011 budget. 2.1 MB, PDF reader required.)
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Category: News || By Jason Togyer
City officials will consider refinancing up to $31 million in debt to close a $750,000 hole in the 2011 budget.
The move comes after the Municipal Authority of the City of McKeesport told administrators that it's unable to pay a so-called "host fee" for its sewage treatment plant in the 10th Ward, which would have left the $19.5 million spending plan unbalanced.
Council is expected to vote on the budget at tonight's meeting. The session --- at which state Sen. Jim Brewster is expected to formally tender his resignation as mayor --- is slated for 7 p.m. at the public safety building.
. . .
Councilors are also expected to appoint an acting mayor to complete the remaining year of Brewster's term, though that action isn't on the preliminary agenda presented at Tuesday's council work session.
Although Council President Regis McLaughlin is believed to be the favorite, McKeesport's home-rule charter allows council to appoint any registered voter who has lived in the city for at least one year. If McLaughlin or another council member is appointed to the vacancy, the remaining members have 45 days to fill the vacant council seat.
. . .
The bonds to be refinanced were first issued in 2005 to satisfy city pension obligations and replace old debts. But those bonds were issued when investors were flocking to the stock market, said Dennis Pittman, city administrator.
With the economy struggling, municipal bonds are more attractive, and because interest rates are lower, the city would save money and could balance next year's budget, he said.
"We don't know, specifically, the amount yet," Pittman said, "but there should be enough of a spread to make it worthwhile." Not all of the bonds need to be refinanced at the same time, he said.
. . .
The bond refinancing is a one-time-only fix and doesn't address the city's declining revenues. Expenses have already been cut nearly a million dollars since 2008 (the 2009 budget was $20.3 million) in part through layoffs and early retirements, while delinquent payments and assets such as the city's sewerage system have been sold to balance previous budgets.
And any bonds touched next year couldn't be refinanced again for another five years, Pittman said, which puts the 2012 budget into question.
The preliminary spending plan holds real estate and wage taxes at their present rates, but increases the municipal service fee for garbage collection, street lighting and other services by $20 per year to $280. Senior citizens pay a discounted rate of $220 annually.
. . .
In Other Business: Council is expected tonight to ratify a decision by the city Planning Commission that clears the way for a new supermarket at the corner of Eden Park Boulevard and Walnut Street.
The 18,000-square-foot market and a more than 100 car parking lot will replace the former S&S Taxi Co. garage and vacant Keystone Auto Parts, along with a machine shop and a fitness studio. The site also once held an Eat 'n Park drive-in restaurant and Paul Jones Dodge.
Demolition of the existing buildings is expected to begin early in 2011, said George Haberman, senior project manager at Civil and Environmental Consultants of Robinson Township, local engineers on the project.
. . .
Although both the developer and the city remain under "non-disclosure agreements" and are unable to release the name of the tenant, Tube City Almanac on Nov. 18 reported the store is one of the first in a series of planned "Bottom Dollar" discount supermarkets. The chain is a recently created division of Salisbury, N.C.-based Food Lion.
Published reports in the Tribune-Review and Post-Gazette indicate Food Lion has also purchased a former Foodland location in Penn Hills, apparently for use as a Bottom Dollar store.
Haberman said Tuesday the developers are awaiting approval from the state Department of Transportation before construction can begin.
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