Hi,
Jumping ahead, Wednesday will be the first day of fall. Tomorrow is the anniversary of the creation of the Postmaster General (1789), it’s Mali’s Independence day, it is Mabon one of the lesser Sabbats of the Wiccan year, the start of the Iran-Iraq war (1980), Italo Marchiony invented and eventually patented the cone for ice cream cones (1903), it is Elephant Appreciation Day
The reason for the Trump phenomenon is we as a nation are tired of the lies and graft in our country. Chris Christie privatized the New Jersey lottery and the UK company, Northstar, running it was paid $100M last year. Their performance has been so bad that NJ can cancel the contract. (this is the same company Tom Corbett wanted to bring into Pennsylvania). Northstar hired Christie’s communications chief from his campaign staff at a tune of $450,000! As just one example, every time we turn around, we’re getting fleeced by one of our entrenched politicians.
Which is my segway into what I really wanted to talk about, my hero John Feterman, the mayor of Braddock for the last almost ten years. After graduating from Harvard, he took a position in Braddock through Americorps and fell in love with the gritty town and has been there since. He threw his hat in the ring to represent us replacing Senator Pat Toomey (an entrenched politician) and running against two other entrenched politicians Governor Wolf’s ex-chief of staff Katie McGinty and former congressman Joe Sestak. His website is johnfetterman.com. I spoke of John’s wife Gisel that started that food pantry app in my last blog post, goodness runs in the family. 🙂
Bruce Klein has his tradtional Halloween seasonal show at Photo Antiquities right over on E Ohio Street across the park from me. Spirits Good and Evil and Vintage Mug Shots is a look at post mortem photographs. Last year he specialized in child post mortem photos, this year he has not limit on age. When someone passed away, the family would hire a photographer to capture an image of the deceased (sometimes with his/her eyes closed as if sleeping and sometimes with the eyes propped open).
To continue with the day bed saga, I took the broken springs over to John Groll Ornamental Ironworks to get it repaired. John has done a fair amount of work here. Initially he repaired the big fence in front of my Inn. Basic repairs and then he got the gate to work. He has since been back to do the handicap railings going into the Ballroom and along the Veranda. Also, to get my Certificate of Occupancy to open, the City wanted a railing to the front porch from the parking lot. John made one that matches the railings from the sidewalk up to the front door. He does nice work and is reasonably priced. John’s shop is on Beck’s Run Road and I pulled in his lot, pulled the broken spring out of the back of my Prius. A I entered the shop, John wasn’t there, but his staff member took one look at what I had and somewhat sneered “We don’t work on stuff like that”. He then did a double take and asked if I wasn’t the guy that owns The Parador. He has been here a couple of times for installation work on the railings. And said, “Give me about ten minutes and I’ll fix it for you.” It’s great being local and known, getting the cheapest price is not as important as finding someone that charges a reasonable price and build a relationship with them, it pays off in the long run.
Speaking of work at The Parador, we ordered 35 more replacement windows. They will be installed the last week in October, hopefully I will see a significant reduction in my gas bills this winter (and reduced electric next summer for cooling. This will finish all the large windows and the ones in the kitchens and laundry room.
Here’s the latest picture of Rayzette, she’s getting so big, I almost had to cut her latest choker off. She’s growing so fast,and has anenormous appetite. 🙂
I have changed the occupancy for all the guest rooms, they are all now double occupancy, even the suites. This weekend I’m serving 23 guests breakfast Sunday and Monday, that’ one of the reasons I quit doing weddings, logistically it’ too difficult. The only time I run into this anymore is on Steeler home game weekends. And I always sell out for Heinz Field events, I would be more inclined to let extra persons in the suites on other days. I had someone reserve four rooms and then dropped it down to two, squeezing three people into one room and I’m left with two empty rooms Friday night I was able to sell the two rooms Saturday night. They cancelled the two rooms just before the two week cut off for cancellations, so they avoided the normal deposit they would be charged. I easily could have sold those rooms if they hadn’t been blocked for months
Speaking of guests, I love my guests. There are as in anything, some difficult ones and people that don’t read my Confirmation that has gotten me in trouble on on-line travels sites with negative reviews because people think lodging, 24 hour front desk. Two nights ago I had two back to back phone calls at 1:30 in the morning. When I pointed out to the one lady she was calling a Bed and Breakfast at 1:30 am where the cook/owner gets up at 5:30 am. And she told me I didn’t have to be snippy with her. David & Veronica were just here and brought me a bottle of wine a big ball for RJ and a small ball for Rayzette and two braided wrist bands for Dee & Taymar. Speaking of Taymar (Taymar is Dee’s son and he’s working here helping out mainly with breakfast ). He’s such a nice kid, I use him as my front man and generally I plate the breakfast and he delivers it to the guests. I was so cute a couple of weeks ago, breakfast was basically finished and I was working on the computer when a guest walked in the kitchen and wanted to give him a tip for being so nice. He was beaming, it was so cute. I’m used to repeat guests doing random acts of kindness Two weeks ago, I had first time guests from mid state New York. And they brought a sampling basket of what the area is known for. It’s like when I waited tables and guests would leave 20% instead of the standard 15%. It’s not the money, it’s that someone appreciates what we do. I definately am not soliciting gifts (a review would be nice though) 🙂 Thank you all my wonderful guests.
Is this the year my adopted Northside explodes? It’s long over due. Some New York company bought the high rise apartments a couple of years ago down around the old Allegheny Center Mall, that were running around 50% occupancy and they now have 100% occupancy and waiting lists. I believe it’s the same company that bought the old Allegheny Center Mall recently and is in the process of turning it into a business incubator for small technology companies. One of the companies that regularly send Eileen to me Matrix will be moving into there next spring. I hear they are putting a fitness center in there as well as a Star Bucks and other trendy options the techies look for at much more affordable rent rates than Bakery Square out in East Liberty. Not to mention the convenience of walking Downtown, which you can’t from Bakery Square out in East Liberty. Some developer bought the Workman’s Bank on East Ohio Street and a number of parcels next to it and are planning on building 140 room hotel, retail and restaurants (the anchor will be a restaurant on the first floor of the bank). There’s talk that some developer is finally interested in the Garden Theater block and wants to build a seven story structure behind it for apartments. Personally, I think their plan is hideous, a seven story structure in an area that’s three stories. And they seem only interested in keeping the facade of the old buildings next to the Garden Theater. Although I don’t like the look of what they want to do, just to get something moving there, I will refrain from complaining too much. What I have an issue with is they were talking about was trying to get a variance for parking they would normally be required to have. Parking on the Northside is already at a premium. This is what good planning needs to address, it will only get worse as time goes by. Closer to my Inn, some developer recently purchased the Guchert Building on the corner of North Avenue and Brighton Road for $1M, I believe it’s going to be residential, it’s a really big building I’m sure they will be able to get at least forty units in it. The Hipwell site is home to Smart Solution on the first floor and they are planning and slowly working on residential on the second and third floors. It looks like Andrew is starting site preparation for the next phase of his Brighton Beech condo development, the condo’s they shot Abduction the move with Jason Lautner in it were he was the son of some government agents and they tried to keep him from the evil agents. Not adding to housing growth, Dawar has located on Allegheny Avenue a couple of years ago (behind the fast food restaurants where Gourmet USA used to be a big desert company). Dawar make and create special adaptations of touch screen technologies.
There’s going to be a rally against animal cuelty at the Humane Society at 10 am on October 17 with state senator Dom Costa as host.
