Category: default || By jt3y

Yesterday's Almanac highlighted a story in Sunday's Tribune-Review that detailed the trials and tribulations of eight members of Duquesne's 1993 state champion football team; they were convicted for their roles in a $13 million multi-state drug trafficking ring.

A few days later, Duquesne City officials responded. How? Why, by blaming the media, of course. (Hey, it works so well for the President, right?)

Jennifer Vertullo explained in last night's Daily News:

Councilors said it was thoughtless and tasteless to print 12-year-old news. (Mayor Phil Krivacek) said it was nothing more than an opportunity to sell more newspapers.

"It's the bad news that sells papers," Councilman Tim Petrisko said. "The good news doesn't sell."

Stop. Right. There. If that hoary old chestnut is the best you fellers can come up with, then we're off on the wrong foot already. Bad news does not sell newspapers. No one ran out to the newsstand Sunday morning hoping to see a story about eight former Duquesne High School football stars. If the Trib sold any extra Sunday papers because of that story --- other than a handful in Duquesne and West Mifflin --- then I'll gladly eat a Sunday Trib at high noon at the corner of West Grant Avenue and Second Street.

(In fact, with circulation slipping at all but a new newspapers, a lot of highly-paid executives right now are trying to figure out just what, exactly, does sell papers.)

Personally, I think obituaries, box scores, lottery numbers, horoscopes and (in the fall) high school football round-ups sell newspapers --- at least local newspapers. Some people say that names and photos sell papers; when the newspaper does a story about the high school musical, for instance, and prints the names of the cast members and their photos, you can almost guarantee that every member of the cast and their families will buy copies of the paper that day. But bad news doesn't sell newspapers.

Also, let's go back to the idea that it's "12-year-old news." The people in the story are in prison right now. Their families are dealing with the aftermath, and will be, for years to come. So it's not "12-year-old news" to them.

Or are the mayor and city council denying that there's still drug dealing going on in the Mon Valley? Because I can introduce them to a few people in Burns Heights who would say otherwise.

And if it was "thoughtless" and "tasteless," then one wonders why the families and friends of the people who were put in jail decided to talk to the Trib. Back to Vertullo's story:

Krivacek asked where newspapers and television stations are looking when good things happen in Duquesne. He asked the same of skeptical residents.

That last sentence slays me. "Skeptical residents." One suspects they're skeptical because they see what's going on in their neighborhoods, despite attempts by elected officials to run around painting smiley-faces all over the landscape. Who are they supposed to believe --- politicians or their lyin' eyes?

The "good things" reference makes me laugh, too. There's plenty of good news about Duquesne in the newspapers. When Duquesne police Sgt. Dan Burns wrote a book about the city two months ago, the Post-Gazette had a story and a photo. Last week, all of the newspapers and TV stations ran stories about Kennywood's plans to redevelop a brownfield and the old Kmart plaza in Duquesne; two weeks ago, I read about improvements in the Duquesne school district.

And here's a lengthy story from last week about the creation of a community crime watch in Duquesne, with a quote at the end from (wait for it) Duquesne Mayor Phil Krivacek.

I suspect that the mayor is right when he says there are many "good things" happening in Duquesne that are going unreported. Does anyone from the city call the TV stations and newspapers to alert them? Personally, I can't count how many times during my mediocre journalism career that people told me about "good things" days or weeks after they happened. Rather than getting defensive, perhaps the city should go on a so-called "charm offensive."

I bow to no one in my belief that the Mon-Yough area has much to recommend it. That's why I started Tube City Online 10 years ago --- to promote the Mon-Yough region on the Internet. I grew up running around with friends in Duquesne and West Mifflin, and I'm still in Duquesne on a regular basis. I think the Mon-Yough area has gotten the lousy end of the stick for 20 years, and I've long grown tired of newspaper stories about "depressed Mon Valley milltowns."

But I'm also not blind to the real problems, including the continued drug problems in every community in our region. (As that loathsome Trib article pointed out, heroin has become an issue in communities like North Huntingdon, Irwin and Latrobe.)

Denying our problems, or chastising the media for reporting what we already know, is not the first step to solving them.

...

Jonathan Barnes reports in the Post-Gazette that officials in Our Fair City are close to a deal for the old McKeesport National Bank building at Fifth Avenue and Sinclair Street. Erected in the 1880s, the bank building is a registered historic landmark and was designed by the famed architectural firm of Longfellow, Alden & Harlow.

The city plans to move its offices out of the 1960-vintage municipal building on Lysle Boulevard and the Peoples Building and consolidate them at the National Bank building. About 40 percent of the National Bank building would remain rented to tenants, and the city would occupy the rest.

Historically, it would be an appropriate move. City offices were in both the National Bank building and the Peoples Building (formerly the Peoples Union Bank building) at various times before the municipal building was constructed in the late 1950s.

On the other hand, it's too bad the previous administration sold off the Peoples' Building, at what turned out to be about half of its market value. They could have consolidated the offices over there, couldn't they? But it's too late to cry over spilled milk, and I'm glad to see the National Bank building has a secure future.

By the way, I happen to like the funky '50s aluminum, tile and glass architecture of the municipal building --- but I realize I'm probably the only one.

...

To Do This Weekend: Jimmy Beaumont & The Skyliners play the Renzie Park bandshell, 7 p.m. Sunday ... McKeesport Little Theater's production of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" continues, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday ... William Dell & The Wee-Jams perform at Gergely Riverfront Park, Water Street, 7:30 p.m. Sunday.