Recently, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl declared war on the city's potholes as part of his "Renaissance III" plan--numero nueve.Over at The Pittsburgh Comet, the Braminator did a bang-up job reporting about the Mayor's pothole plans, from cold-patch now to warm-patch later, he's aggressively fixing ALL of the potholes in Pittsburgh with about 50 of the Public Works crew.
I don't know about you, but I'm giddy with excitement.
Yes, as I pointed out in the comment space on the blog that former Mayor Dick Caliguiri did a similiar thing in an election year in his "Renaissance II" (but he paved the streets). And a fellow blogger quickly pointed out to me that the paving barely lasted to the election. But in the end, I effin HATE potholes!
And for a city that doesn't have much money and is STILL getting a bad wrap for behind dirty, I think fixing potholes makes things nice and livable for our community. The Mayor is not going over board and paving city council members' streets or candidates he wants elected. He is simply fixing every pothole. Every frickin' pothole: http://www.pittsburghpothole.com/ Elect one for yourself!
Assuming he follows through, this may be an example of good governance equals good politics.
*****
Follow my logic . . .
Pittsburgh has the second largest St. Patrick's Day Parade, next to New York City. Fifteen percent of Pittsburghers have Irish roots.
So, why do the local networks not air the parade? WHY? Why? why?????An estimated 250,000 people showed up downtown for green fun. As the Irish say (or is it the pubs, laddie?) for one day everyone is Irish.
Thousands of Pittsburghers had to move out of the region in the early to mid-80's because of the steel industry drying up. That's a huge reason why Steeler fans are every where in the country! Like the Rose Parade, could this be Pittsburgh's national parade? We have fans everywhere! Philadelphia continually misses out on the Mummers Parade with marketing it nationally. Who doesn't like a Mummer dancing in the Fancy Brigade, doing the Mummer Strut.
Pittsburgh has the added benefit of having an Eat n' Park Smiley Cookie Balloon!!!
So, this is my plea to KDKA, WTAE and WPXI. Pick it up and carry it. Get some sponsors. Put it on your second digital channel if you have to. It's certainly better than the crap you were airing this morning.
Lady Elaine
3 comments:
Could it have anything to do with our parade being less about the floats and more about the drinking?
I've been in NYC on St. Patty's day and there is lots of drinking (if you want to see something scary try watching 5 in-the-bag drunk cops outside a bar smoking IN UNIFORM at 11am, only in NYC on St. Patty's), but when you go anywhere near the parade it is clean as a whistle (thanks to it being on TV).
I kinda like it the way it is, most Pittsburghers aren't made for TV, and that's ok with me.
If they can put the Mummers Parade on TV and make it look family friendly, then surely they can work their magic with Pittsburgh!
Those guys start drinking the night before. I mean, the NIGHT BEFORE. And the parade goers are nuts. If you think we are crazy for green beer, go see yourself a Philly sequins parade on Jan 1st!
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