Category: default || By jt3y

Does anyone really believe that Luke Ravenstahl is qualified to be mayor of Pittsburgh?

I don't have a dog in this fight, of course, and I know next to nothing about Ravenstahl --- or as Will Rogers said, all I know is what I read in the newspapers. For all I know, he's nice to animals, a snappy dresser and as Homer Simpson said after meeting God, "perfect teeth, nice smell --- a class act all the way."

I just don't think that two years as a city councilman, and no other business or governmental experience, qualifies him to be mayor.

What should the qualifications be for that office? I don't know, but like Potter Stewart, I know it when I see it, and Ravenstahl doesn't have them.

And no, I'm not jealous, just because he's mayor of Pittsburgh and I, a few years older, couldn't get elected president of a Lincoln Borough bowling league.

I'm also puzzled by the rush by various elected officials, like Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato and U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, to endorse Ravenstahl's campaign for election.

I'm not sure what they hope to accomplish --- is this merely an attempt to keep the peace between the city, county and federal governments? Do they want to forestall any potential Democratic primary fight? Do they think that Ravenstahl is pliable and that he'll go along with them?

I like and respect Onorato and Doyle, and I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt --- that they see some quality in Ravenstahl that isn't obvious to an outsider.

I'd sure like to see some of those qualities for myself.

. . .

The O'Connor ‘Legacy’: Ravenstahl has been very careful, of course, to associate himself with Bob O'Connor's family and colleagues. No doubt that may help his campaign.

But it always puzzles me to hear people talk about Bob O'Connor's "legacy." There is no O'Connor legacy as mayor --- that's why his untimely death was such a tragedy.

A death alone, even from the disease that claimed O'Connor's life, is not necessarily tragic --- people die from terrible diseases all the time --- but he had spent at least a decade preparing to be the mayor of Pittsburgh, and never got a chance to do much of anything. Fate has rarely been so cruel.

As for O'Connor's few months in office, they were a mixed bag. His public statements struck all of the right positive notes, and I think he brought a real sense of optimism to the city at a time it desperately needs it.

But O'Connor's few public actions while in office were mostly confined to appointing people to offices, and some of those appointments were highly questionable. They seemed motivated more by a desire to find people who were politically suitable or well-connected than by any sort of "reform" impulse.

. . .

Another Brick in The Wal: I notice that the Foodland in Great Valley Shopping Center in North Versailles has closed. From the piled-up old newspapers in the front entrance, it must have happened in late October.

The main culprit, I suspect, is the massive Wal-Mart on the other side of the parking lot. Also vacant is the former Hills store opposite the Wal-Mart on Route 30. It's been empty since the Ames chain went toes-up, of course --- but no one has moved to occupy it. One of the two fast-food restaurants in the parking lot of the former Hills plaza just closed as well, a victim of the lack of traffic, I suppose.

Meanwhile, with the loss of the Foodland, Great Valley --- once a fairly decent little shopping center --- is now "anchored" by two thrift stores.

There's also a good, old-fashioned hardware store there. I'm a regular at the hardware store (I just bought my water heater there) and I'd hate to see them close, but I have to assume that with Wal-Mart across the street, they're hanging on by their toenails.

Wal-Mart's pros and cons have been well debated, and I suppose a Wal-Mart partisan would argue that the Foodland might have been a marginal business, or that Great Valley and Hills shopping plazas have outlived their useful lives, or whatever.

But can anyone deny the obvious --- that where Wal-Mart goes, it tends to suck the oxygen out of all of the surrounding retail stores?

. . .

This Would Be Fun: I was really hoping to call a moratorium on mockery of our outgoing junior senator in the spirit of not kicking someone when they're hurting. (After all, I'm not Rush Limbaugh.)

But it's hard when conservative pundits keep floating trial balloons like this one on the National Review's blog:

AMBASSADOR SANTORUM: How about Rick Santorum for the UN job? Yeah, there'd probably be a confirmation fight. And he may want to take a breather after 16 years in elected office. But it's worth thinking over.

I have a better idea. Rick will no doubt be returning to his lovely home in Penn Hills, and there will be a municipal election for school director next year. The senator has been a very vocal critic of public education, calling it an "aberration," saying that students get a "weird socialization," and criticizing the "clear liberal agenda" of teachers.

I can think of no one better to reform the public education system than Rick Santorum, and I think he should run for Penn Hills school director --- after all, Mr. Santorum is a resident, because he pays taxes there, and he should be able to get up to speed on the local issues very quickly.

Anyway, I'm used to seeing people get elected to school board who seem to hold the system in contempt. Penn Hills might as well get someone who's honest about it.