Category: Shameless Horn-Tooting || By

Posting has been light at the Almanac. In case you've been wondering what we've been doing, we've been building a website for International Village.

Point your browser at McKeesportInternationalVillage.com. If that's too much to type, InternationalVillage.info also will work.

The website was built at the request of the International Village committee and is being donated to the city by Tube City Community Media Inc. (me) and Skymagik Internet Services (my friend, Tom Schroll). It's a work in progress --- I have a lot more yet to add.

If you're wondering why we have two URLs, City Councilman Dan Carr, who chairs the International Village committee, felt that ".com" domains are preferable to ".info" domains. I can't argue that. But we also wanted a shorter domain for people using Twitter or mobile devices.

. . .

And I have another project I've been working on. Michelle Wardle-Eggers, executive director of McKeesport Heritage Center, and I are trying to start a Mon-Yough counterpart to the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council that will help network McKeesport-area arts and cultural groups.

We held our first brown-bag meeting a few weeks ago, and more than 20 people showed up. The next time someone tells you that people in McKeesport "don't care," you tell them they're full of crap.

The name is the McKeesport Regional Cultural Association.

We should have more information shortly. Who knows if it will take off? But you can't do anything if you don't try. The address is McKeesportCreates.org.

(There's nothing on that website yet. It's very much a work-in-progress. It will eventually host a mailing list and links to information about the Mon-Yough's many cultural groups. Thank you to Derrick Brashear for donating the web space.)

. . .

Yes, it's a massive conflict of interest for me (supposedly a reporter) to be doing stuff on behalf of the city I cover. Go tell it to the Columbia Journalism Review. Post a complaint on a message board. Cancel your subscription, and I'll refund your money.

It needed to be done. So Tube City Community Media Inc. did it. It's right there in our name --- "community" and "media." And it's in our bylaws (which I have around here, somewhere) --- promotion of the McKeesport area.

You want "fair and balanced"? Sorry, bub. This website is hopelessly biased toward the McKeesport area. It won't win me any journalism awards, but it makes me sleep better at night.

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