Category: default || By jt3y

Regular readers of the Tube City Daily Drivel ... I mean, the Tube City Almanac ... know that when I write of Our Fair City, I always link to its home page at www.mckeesport.org.

I don't mean to brag, but thanks to those efforts, when you search for "Our Fair City" on the web, Our Fair City is consistently among the top 30 results, beating out Portsmouth, Va.; Garland, Texas; San Diego, Calif.; and Cambridge, Mass., for the honors of being America's Fair City. At least on the Interweb.

(That other city somewhat north of Our Fair City doesn't even show up in a Google search for the words "Our Fair City." Ha!)

So I was delighted to see recently that Our Fair City had redesigned its website. According to a message from Mayor Brewster, the new design was done by some students at Carnegie Mellon, and it's really quite attractive.

It also includes an interactive community calendar, information about the McKees Point Marina, and links to other Web sites in and around Our Fair City. (No link to the Almanac, but what are you going to do? We may be Number 4,322, but we try harder.)

All in all, it's a big improvement over the old site, which itself was a big improvement over no site at all.

Still, this wouldn't be the Almanac if we didn't find some nits to pick, would it?

So the first thing that I found unusual was the banner that decorates the top of the page:




That's a handsome bridge, if I do say so myself.

And unfortunately, not anywhere within 50 miles of Our Fair City. In fact, if I had to hazard a guess, I strongly suspect that it's the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge over the Susquehanna River, which is about as unlike any bridge in the Mon-Yough metroplex as you can get. And I know that only because we took a family trip out the Lincoln Highway from Irwin to Lancaster one year.

If anyone from City Hall happens to read this, yours truly will gladly contribute a picture of a suitable bridge --- be it the Jerome Avenue Bridge, the 15th Avenue Bridge, one of the stone bridges in Renzie Park, or the McKeesport-Duquesne Bridge, gratis, for you to incorporate into your Web site. You know the address.

The other teensy-weensy thing that someone might want to address is this paragraph on the history page:




Um, oops. Given that he's as popular around City Hall right now as General Sherman is in Atlanta, someone might want to fix that.

We've been pleased to offer this free advice as a public service of the Tube City Almanac, where misteaks are unpossible!

There are much more egregious errors about Our Fair City to be found on the Interweb, like this one from Yahoo! Maps:


(Click for larger view.)


Let the record show, your honor, that Yahoo! is sending users over a bridge that was torn down in the early 1930s.

To their credit, they do warn people: "When using any driving directions or map, it's a good idea to do a reality check and make sure the road still exists." Well, they're not kidding!

Would it be impolitic to call them a bunch of ... yahoos?

...

To Do This Weekend: In remembrance of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Holocaust survivor and White Oak resident Sam Weinrab discusses his personal experiences at 7:30 p.m. today at New Light Congregation, 1700 Beechwood Blvd., Squirrel Hill. Admission is free. Call (412) 421-1017. (More in the Post-Gazette.) ... Genesius Productions presents "Monk-y Business," at St. Anthony Hall in Mon City, at 8 p.m. today and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Call (724) 258-9710. Admission is $10. (More in the Herald-Standard.)