AntiRust

Whooooeee! Them city folk sure is strange!

Ever wonder why people from rural areas view city folk with some degree of skepticism? Maybe they read Slate.

More Redevelopment Stuff: Get It On!

So Pittsburgh is not the only city obsessed with its image.

Baltimore recently unveiled a new slogan aimed at attracting conventions and tourists:

"Baltimore: Get In On It"

Here's how it happened. 

First point: On first read, I thought it said "Baltimore: Get It On." I think that's better.

Second point: Now that you have read the slogan, are you any more likely to go to Baltimore?

Third point: I am no marketing guy, but "it" is a dangerous word. "Get in" on what? It's kind of boring. Or gross if your mind tends towards the gutter. And if it does, well, see my first point.

One of the cardinal rules of Writing 101 is be specific. "Show, don't tell" and all that. Why? Here's why. Baltimore was recently known as the worst place in America for sexually transmitted diseases. It's getting better, apparently. But if you are trying to overcome an old image, you might want to be more specific than "it." Because not many people want "in" on gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis.

Get it on!

Case Study in Convolution: Redevelopment in Charm City

Are there lessons for Pittsburgh here? You try figuring it out. I've never seen something so convoluted. Either way, keep reading: There is a Pittsburgh connection.

A quick run-down: Baltimore is hoping to redevelop a huge chunk in the western part of the city. But a private charitable foundation owns a lot of the property and doesn't seem to want to do things the way city leaders think best. So are we heading for another eminent domain debate? Maybe.

"We owe it to the people of this city to move forward," Chera said. "We were told they have a 'quick take' [condemnation] program. It would be a shame to have this stall indefinitely, and who knows what will happen with the economy?"

Oh yeah? Seizing property is one thing when the current owners operate wig shops, dive bars and check-cashing places. But quite another thing here. And people know it:

Brodie said the city could move to condemn the property.

"That's a last resort," he said. "We never rush forward with eminent domain. With a $2 billion charitable foundation, that's not an easy prospect."

See, $2 billion charitable foundations have lawyers. Good lawyers.

Either way, this is one to watch. The foundation in question does claim to have plans to redevelop the property. So it's not like there's no hope. Which is usually how redevelopment officials justify taking over. Or buying the properties in question.

Nope. Here, the current owner just has different ideas about how to do things right. So who wins? Seems like an epic grudge match.

Oh, and one of the major players in this is Cordish Co. That's the company with big plans for an amphitheater on Pittsburgh's North Side. 

This is a good opportunity to see how they do things...

Last, what's a "quick take" condemnation policy? Is that on the books in Baltimore? Who used that language? Because leaders always claim that eminent domain is a "last resort." Does "quick take" sound like last resort to you? Sounds like a job for these guys. Maybe you remember them. I think George Harris does. Wonder if he's still around and what he thinks of the new plans...

Kinzua: A Fallen Bridge Looks for a Reason to Survive

The Kinzua Bridge was a mainstay of the Northwestern Pennsylvania economy for more than 100 years, first as a vital rail connector, and later as a tourist attraction. Thousands came to see it every year. More than 300 feet high, it was widely considered the eighth wonder of the world when it was built. And you know why if you ever stood on it in the fall.

The state took control of the bridge decades ago and let maintenance slide. (Maintenance is expensive.) Then in 2003 a huge windstorm, maybe a tornado, knocked most of it down.

So what to do with the remnants? Rebuild it? Save what's left and build an observation deck? Here's the latest.

And since I have them... I wrote a short bit about the collapse right after it happened and managed to get access for photos. (Please ignore the crappy, crappy formatting. I hate Typepad. Use something else if you are starting a blog. That whole "what you see is what you get" editing? Not so much.)

................................................................................................................................................................................

These are the good folks in charge of fixing things.

Update: This is perhaps the strangest photo. I am not sure the resolution will be high enough, but here goes: It's from a cemetery a few miles away. The headstone seems to foreshadow the collapse of the bridge, in a way. Now click on the photo to make it bigger and look in the gap in the trees right above the stone...

Thanks for the hits...

To Pittsblog, The Conversation and the City Paper for their recent mentions. It's interesting to see how such things drive traffic on the site.

Cool.

Pittsburgh Redevelopment and the Subsidy Hustle

And so it begins.

What if the state refuses? If so, is the project dead? If not, then why would the state pitch in? That is, does the project DEPEND on state subsidies? No one mentioned that.

And a question: In what just world would someone from Scranton be forced to pitch in money so an upper-class guy from Pittsburgh can have countertops made from granite rather than some lesser material?

That is, the people moving in to this new "neighborhood" have a lot of money. Why don't they forego the subsidy and live in a place they can actually afford. I mean, they can afford a lot. Why do taxpayers have to pitch in so they can have the best of everything?

I'm not saying "don't build it." I am just saying that people should live within their means. And that applies to lawyers and accountants as well as the rest of us. If you can't afford lushly crafted Italian-marble entryway tiles, use something cheaper. Or take out a loan. Just don't mug everyone else for it. Especially in a state that's pretty strapped for cash already.

A Rolling Rock Question: Whither "33"?

As I recall, the famous blurb on the back of the Rolling Rock bottle begins: "From the glass-lined tanks of Old Latrobe..."

So does Budweiser just keep that? Can they? I suppose the recipe is still "from" there.

Or do they just dump the whole thing? I can't see them doing that. It has a lot of marketing cache.

So do they come up with a new slogan that has something to do with Newark, where they will reportedly be brewing it? Do they take care to make sure the words add up to 33?

"From the highly-efficient mega-tanks of Newark..."  ?

By the way, my pals and I always sort of laughed about the whole "pure water" shtick on the back of the bottle. My sister went to St. Vincent's in Latrobe, and at least during those years the stream running through town occasionally had an orange tint to it.

But we drank the stuff any way. Ran beautifully through my tap system at college. Far better than Budweiser products. I could never really figure out why. But there it is.

At any rate, drink Straub. (See below.)

Screw Rolling Rock. Drink Straub.

Forget "33" and all that rubbish. Go with the beer that invented "born on dating." No additives. No preservatives.

Drink Straub. Good, local Pennsylvania stuff.

Come on. Form an opinion about brownies versus greenies. (The beer comes in bottles of both colors. And people who prefer one often refuse to drink the other. Heh. Even better, when I was a bartender we had it on tap. People would come in and say, "Give me a Straubie." I'd say, "Brownie, greenie or draft?" And occasionally one would say, "Draft? Huh. Is it brown or green?" It was neither, see. It was in a keg.)

When I used to take it to college in Connecticut it used to disappear out of the cooler first, even before the fancy imports.

And to some people it WAS an import. That is, when I was looking at colleges way back in 1837, my parents took me to see Boston University. We stopped at a local eatery for lunch. It had an extensive beer menu. My dad did a quick perusal and noted Straub on the import list right next to the Belgians. Cost something like six dollars. He laughed and ordered one, only to discover that it was about six months old. Which is bad for Straub. (No additives, no preservatives. Which accounts for the born on dating.)

Last, when I was 19 I did a summer community service fellowship in Millvale. Lived in Oakland. Snuck into Thirsty's on Dead night. Drank all the Straub. All of it. Next time I went they remembered me. Never carded me again.

Thanks, Straub.

At any rate, do Pennsylvania proud. Drink a Straubies.

Yeah, I know Rolling Rock sold out to Big Beer a while back. But there was something special about the glass-lined tanks of Latrobe. Served me well when I was in Baltimore, I'll tell you that. But no more.

Straub! Straub! Straub!

UPDATE: I should have added these few snippets about Straub: You want local charm? Go to St. Mary's, where Straub is brewed. Ask someone about beer. Sheesh! In St. Mary's a lot of people have kitchen sinks that pour "hot, cold and Straub." See, they remove the little sprayer thing from the sink, then run a refrigerated line from the basement for a tap system. Awesome.

You can drink for free at the brewery. At a room known as "The Eternal Tap." Awesome. Rumor has it that the tap used to be on the outside of the building. Which must have been even cooler.

Rumor also has it that members of the Straub family--which still owns and operates the brewery--used to have underground lines connecting their homes directly to the tanks for a constant supply. I have never confirmed it, but I prefer to think it's true. One of those things that's too good to verify.

Oh, St. Mary's is also the "carbon capital of the world." They make a lot of car parts. Also home to the world's smallest chapel. And Elk County Catholic High School won the state championship this year in boys basketball (Single A).

The coach of that team? Aaron Straub. 

Industry Versus Upscale: What's a Waterfront For?

Check out this extremely interesting case pitting industry versus nightlife in Baltimore.

I think you can make the case for either side here. Baltimore is, or at least was, an industrial place. It's a port. And a lot of people work at that port. So a few years back, concerned about the insatiable appetite for waterfront housing and eateries, the city decided to make sure some of that waterfront would be available for old-school industries. It's a zoning kind of thing.

Well, a bar owner bought a parcel of land inside that industrial zone just as the policy went into effect. And now he wants the city to make an exception.

I'm torn. I like industry. And I can't imagine the city making an exception to, say, allow a steel mill at the Inner Harbor. And you need to make sure you are allowed to build what you want before you plunk down cash on a property. I mean, didn't this guy have a lawyer?

At the same time, this guy is trying to refurb a building. One that he bought. If an industrial-minded guy had wanted the building he could have bought it. But such an owner did not buy the property. If the highest bidder wants to build a bar...

On the other hand...

On the other hand...

This is a pretty telling case study, I think, because it's going to keep happening in "post-industrial" cities like Baltimore and Pittsburgh.

Revitalize This: So What WILL Pittsburgh's Casino Do?

Holy crap. This is really incredible.

Guess who doesn't think a casino is a good way to revitalize a neighborhood?

Um, one of the main guys in charge of revitalizing Pittsburgh.

Doesn't this rise to the level of a scandal? Or something to that effect?

My gosh. I want to read it over and over and over. Out loud. Truth has a certain ring to it...

[City of Pittsburgh Planning Director] Ford said that casino would be close to areas that need to be revitalized, but questioned whether it would have that effect. "We found no evidence that a casino has ever been a stimulant or a catalyst for the revitalization of any neighborhood," he said.

Ever. Any neighborhood.

Look, I'm not making this up. He really said it.