Lots of important anniversaries tomorrow: The Bill of Rights became effective in 1791, Alexandre Eiffel’s birth anniversary (1832-the designer of the $1M 1,000 foot high iconic structure built in 1889), Uzi Gal’s birth anniversary (1923-the gunsmith inventor of the 9 millimeter sub machine gun), Gone With the Wind’s film premiere (1939), military dictatorship ended in Chile (1989) and Sitting Bull died (1890-after the Little Big Horn when most of his tribe was forced onto Reservations, he fled to Canada and continued his hostility towards the US Army.
Here’s my latest tree for the AGH party this weekend in the Ballroom. If you look closely, the “ornaments” are all small coconut’s I spray painted and then painted candy canes, Christmas trees, Santa Claus and other holiday images on them. (I’ve never claimed to be an artist, but they are cute, I think). 🙂 Where coconuts attach to a palm tree, there’s a collar around it’s neck. When the coconut dries, these “collars” can be pulled off and that’s the colorful small circles on the tree topper.
Speaking of the upcoming holidays, I’ve finished my shopping and bought nothing at a big box. 🙂 But I did go into K-mart for some gift boxes. OMG. First of all, the cashier wanted to know if I had a K-mart rewards card, I said no. She said would I like to open one, I would get 10% off this package of boxes. I said no. She then inquired if they had my e-mail address, they send coupons out to e-mail addresses. I said they didn’t have my e-mail, nor would they get it. The register next to me had a “paper jam” and the cashier asked the customer for her e-mail address so she could e-mail her receipt. Now, I’m one of those annoying people that rip the “You could win $5M by filling out the bottom of this receipt and providing us with your e-mail address” off and leave them on the counters. So in addition to that on the original receipt, there was also a coupon on the original receipt. Then there was two more receipts printed with coupons on. Am I going to turn into one of those recluse’s hiding in a cave? 🙂
Kathleen George, originally from Johnstown has used Pittsburgh as the backup for her crime novels quoting local eateries in her stories. Author of “After Image”, “Taken”, “Fallen”, “Hideout” and “The Odds” now lives in Pittsburgh with her husband Hilary Masters and she teaches Theater at Pitt. You can see a list of restaurants she favors on her web site Kathy George Books. Maybe even buy a book by a neighbor. 🙂
Past guest and good friend Patrick, senior real estate developer for the Mon Valley Initiative is doing some amazing things down in “the Valley”. Every time I turn around, there’s another project completed and successful. He’s like John Fetterman, the Harvard graduate from York, PA that’s such a dynamo as Mayor of Braddock. MVI just completed the Madpnna Del Castello rehab. They turned the blighted church into into four condos that’s affordable housing over in Swissvale. Two of the units has already been sold, they’re priced around $90,000 each. The down side is Swissvale is on the east side of the Squirrel Hill tunnels, the Parkway East is such a nightmare. If they ever finish the Mon Valley Expressway (Interstate 43) that currently ends in Jefferson Hills) it will be HUGE for the Mon Valley. The plan calls for the expressway to come in to the City from West Virginia via Hazelwood with a loop that connects the Parkway East before and after the Squirrel Hill tunnels. THAT WOULD BE FABULOUS.
There’s another of those traveling art shows down in the Cultural Disctrict that looks pretty interesting. Tugboat Printshop out of Lawrenceville is at the Future Tenant Gallery at 819 Penn Avenue. Paul Roden and Valerie Lueth come up with an image and carve it in a block of wood. Then they print these images, from socio-political, to quirky, to hysterical. They are showing finished prints as well as the process to do this through January 31. Normal hours are Wednesday through Sunday Noon until 4 p.m. (Are they followers of my blog? I was just whining about all these art shows droping an hour on Sundays making me make an additonal entry to reflect this. Does the hour really make that much of a difference? 🙂 ). For info at 412.325.7037 or either of their web sites.
There’s a dispute brewing over The Commons Park. The Commons was the first public park in the area and was the center piece for the former Allegheny City. It was originally set (1784) up as a common grazing site for residents (well, it wasn’t for the residents, it was for their live stock). 🙂 In the 1860’s, Allegheny City decided to make The Commons into a formal landscaped park. In 1901, Pennsylvania Railroad buried their line in a deep cut through the park. The bridge over the railroad at Ridge Avenue is structurally defficient and needs rebuilt. There’s a 19 foot clearance from the track to the lowest portion of the bridge, which is fine for regular trains. But not for the double stacked trains that are so common. Currently, the trains that are double stacked have to go along the tracks along the Monongahela River which has the 22 foot clearance needed for them. Under current federal guidelines, all tracks must meet the 22 foot clearance when any modifications take place, like a new bridge. Raising this bridge to meet this standard and meeting grading standards for Western Avenue through the park means starting at the bridge toward my Inn (and in the other direction) those majestic London Plane trees and Ginkoes will end up being four feet below grade. One of the suggestions the engineer/planner made to save these trees that I heard was to put wells around the trees. Even if that happens, the trees would never live having their roots buried four feet. The grade from the railroad into the park will need to be 85 feet (a football field is 100 feet-for reference) on both sides of the bridge. Also, there are a number of bridges along this track that won’t need rebuilt for thirty to fifty years and more. There are two other options besides destroying a large section of this historic park. One is to lower the tracks the four feet and the other is to build a temporary bridge that will last thirty to fifty years and at that point address the entire line as one issue. And not a dime is coming out of any railroad coffers. This drives me crazy that I have to pay (in both added building the bridge expense and aestitics) so the profitable railroads can make even more money.
One more rant, then I’ll quit. The city formally declared the Lower Hill District as blighted on Tuesday, clearing the way for me to pay for infrastructures to aid in the rebuilding of the land. They need us tax payers to pay for new streets, untilities, etc so they can get a developer in to develop how many of blank acres right next to Downtown? Please, the Penguins got a free arena (actually, not free. They paid for 1/3, the casino paid for 1/3 and we paid for 1/3-can I get 2/3 off my next hockey game ticket?). This is not some brown field on the out skirts of the city, this is center city and they certainly do not need subsidized.
OK, that’s it for now. What a less than pretty day. So dreary, but at least it’s almost 50 degrees. I think the Farmer’s Almanac predicted a bitter cold December, tons of snow in January and then bitter cold in February. Glad to see the first part isn’t panning out,
ed
