Hi,
Tomorrow is the anniversary of the plane crash that took baseballer/humanitarian Roberto Clemente (1972), the first modern bank opened by Robert Morris in Philadelphia (1781), Japan’s Namahage is tonight where men costumed as devils go door to door growling “Any good-for-nothing fellow hereabout?” giving sluggards the opportunity to change their ways and Panama assumed control of the Panama Canal. Birth anniversaries include singer John Denver (1943), Uniontown’s general George Marshall (1880) and French painter Henri Matisse (1869).
If you’ve read my blogs, you know I try and be as “green” as I can in life. Besides the obvious newspapers, plastic, aluminum and tin; I also keep a box in the basement for thrift store items, one for Construction Junction building materials and one for Spring Board Kitchen’s culinary equipment-I keep a trash bag for Styrofoam “peanuts” that I give to various shipping companies. Something that’s always stumped me is the Styrofoam packaging that comes with electronics, ceiling fans, etc. Styrofoam is a man made product that is extremely efficient product that because of it’s light weight and strength makes it ideal for safeguarding these product during shipment. But because of it’s man made properties, it basically sits in landfills forever. Did you know 100% of Styrofoam is recyclable? Only 15% of Styrofoam is currently recycled (that’s only 93.7 million pounds-considering that this represents, Styrofoam is extremely light, so the amount of this product we throw away is HUGE). NOVA Chemicals recycles all Styrofoam into all kinds of products, 100%. You can drop off the “peanuts” or hard formed Styrofoam at one of NOVA’s local offices in Moon Township or at Appliance Warehouse in the 500 block of Bingham Street on the Southside (down towards the 10ths Street Bridge). The Warehouse is open 9 am until 5 pm Mondays through Saturdays. It’s recommended to call them first, they also accept freon infused products as well like refrigerators.
Is our city council getting as dysfunctional as our federal congress? For the third time (maybe fourth) they’ve delayed taking action on designating the Terminal Building as historic. Once again, Buncher’s Thomas Balestrieri showed his colors at the latest council meeting when they didn’t give him what he wanted, he said “Kick it down the road and vote on it whenever you want to. In the meantime, we’ll keep sending our rain checks to the URA.” He left with a sarcastic “Merry Christmas”. And walked out of the chambers. What a pompous ass. Do exactly what I want, or I’ll be a sarcastic SOB. I’m surprised the council members don’t take offense at his rudeness. And, by the way, as I predicted he admitted that they weren’t going to “walk away” from their plans to develop 55 riverfront acres they own. In another of his child like tirades, he threatened to scuttle the entire development. As I said awhile back, what developer is going to walk away from 55 riverfront acres they already own. In the latest Trib article, he’s now claiming that they are going to do this commercial development without government subsidies, I’m sure that will change as well. If any of you on city council (most of which never gave me the courtesy of even acknowledging my formal presentation to you through the council website) can’t see what a slime Buncher is, this latest tirade should start to click some buttons, I would think.
Big things are afoot in and around Pittsburgh in the next two years. Already under construction is PNC’s $400M Tower at PNC Plaza between Fifth and Forbes Avenues down at Wood Street with an opening scheduled 2015. Shovel ready and approved is Piatt’s $104M Gardens at Market Square between Forbes and Third Avenues behind the old Aiken’s Restaurant. In the planning stages is $500M development the Penguins is planning on the old Igloo site. Also, in East Liberty, the $100M Bakery Square 2.0 is about ready to get started and ALMONO‘s $1B plan to develop the old J & L Steel location in Hazelwood/South Oakland has finished up the pollution abatement and site leveling is finishing up and next year they plan on starting to install the basic roads and infrastructure (water, sewers, utilities). Outside the city, Consol fracking plans at the airport intend to commence $500M infrastructure works so they can start drilling in about a year. The big daddy of the region is looking more and more as if it may get off the ground, the $3B Shell Cracker may take roots soon. Coal Valley‘s $1B mixed use development in Cecil is making progress and UPMC’s Mario Lemieux Sports Complex $72M complex in Cranberry has broken ground as has the new Chevron headquarters in Moon (they have already did the ground work and the building is actually under construction at the old K-Mart site past Robinson).
The international Computer Sciences Corporation, based out of Virginia is expanding into the Strip and plan on hiring up to 500 persons. We won out out of 400 potential sites for their newest site. CSC specializes in next generation of cyber security, data analytics, cloud computing and system modernization services for businesses. The Strip is their initial location, they are planning to build a $14M, 120,000 square foot facility somewhere in the city. They selected Pittsburgh because of the “livability” of the city in addition to the affordable cost of living and largely because of the qualified pool of potential employees our local universities are churning out. CSC has locations Australia, India, South America and Canada. Pretty good coup for da ‘burg.
Move over Dia de Muertos, Noche de Rabanas is the Christmas Mexican festival. It’s officially celebrated on December 23, but does carry over to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It began in 1897 in Oaxaca city by Jesuit priests and the displays are by far carved radishes. Local radish farmers leave some radishes in the ground long after normal harvesting to generate mega radishes, some reaching over six pounds. These carvings frequently have a religious theme, but they also represent real buildings and many other themes. Check out the images on Google.
I enjoy following food trends, that’s one of the few things I miss by being out of the corporate restaurant scene. And though I’m no where near a vegetarian or vegan, I do limit my red meat consumption and try and watch my diet. Though I haven’t tried it yet, there’s a start up company just outside San Francisco Just Mayo that’s making a plant based egg substitute that’s getting pretty positive reviews. With the cholesterol concerns and the way much of the poultry industry treats the egg layers, I think this may be something to watch.
I have concerns about fracking, I’m not against it, but I’m not for the process until I’m sure we aren’t creating a legacy for our children like old style mining is still polluting our streams after the mine operators made their millions and walked away. Another issue I have with fracking in Pennsylvania is Act 13, the state mandate trying to standardize the laws governing fracking so all the frackers have the same rules to abide by. I’m not against standardized standards, I’m against the way Harrisburg forced this down our throats, it was a one way street. I don’t recall a real public comment period, I just remember Governor Corbett battling the legislature to force this through like he’s been trying to do with trying to privatize the state lottery. With out public comment (citizens as well as local governments), Corbett really alienated a large segment of our state. Local municipalities have the right and obligation to decide where fracking can occur. I don’t want one right next to a church, synagogue, mosque, school or library and that’s one of the things he tried to railroad. If Corbett would have engaged locals before deciding “what we need”, maybe the Pennsylvania Supreme Court may have not struck down Act 13. Thank you Supreme Court Justices. Maybe Corbett will learn a lesson that he’s representing his citizens. 🙂
To end 2013 on a positive note, as a nation, we have reduced our electric consumption to the lowest level since 2001. All this while we have added central A/C to more homes, electronics out the kazoo, more and more in-home washers & dryers, upgraded kitchens using much more electrical appliances etc. It’s predicted that we will drop electrical consumption another 1% in 1014. Could be better, but I love the direction we are going.
I hope you had great holiday and enjoy your New Years Eve safely,
ed
