Progress Pittsburgh

So yesterday morning a rumor started flying around that Mayor O’Connor had died — which, if it were true, would have been sad news that the whole city would have felt entitled to share & grieve over.  But it wasn’t true, or at least there didn’t appear to be any corroborating evidence to back it up, and there were several forthright denials from people who legitimately ought to have been in the know.  The lack of substantiation didn’t stop the rumor, though, which quickly morphed into a bizarre story in which somehow the Mayor had died, but his inner circle was publicly denying the fact for 24 hours; then even more bizarrely came the variant ostensibly from Calvary Cemetary whispering that not only had the Mayor died, but he’d been quickly buried the same day, and that the news media were on hold to report it until the next day.

Lost your credulity yet?

What I find personally most amazing about this story is the fact that so many otherwise reasonable people didn’t find it totally outrageous or ludicrous.  I mean, what does that say about the Pittsburgh mindset, that people are prepared to believe that Grant Street operates like the Kremlin of the 70s, feeding the public false information about the health of the Great Leader and stashing bodies out of sight?  Furthermore, what does this say about the closeted world of the Mayor’s office, that people would be ready to believe any statement out of Skrinjar’s mouth is really a cover-up?  Who really knows who’s in charge downtown?

How many rumors have you heard about what “really went down” when B J Leber, Susan Malie and Paul Leger were fired?  What about all the speculation about whether Yarone Zober is really in charge or if he’s fighting for his career?  Everyone’s trying to figure out who the mastermind is.  But how credible is it that there actually is any mastermind?  Did anyone honestly believe, when Bob O’Connor was elected Mayor, that there was any brilliant strategist at the helm or behind the scenes?

Meanwhile of course we’re all praying for the Mayor.

National Day of Action for an “Oil-Free” Congress
Where: Frankstown Ave. and Washington Blvd. (one Exxon and one Shell)
Frankstown Ave. & Washington Blvd.
Pittsburgh, PA
When: Wednesday, 28 Jun 2006, 5:00 PM
Link to RSVP: http://political.moveon.org/event/oilfree/9347?id=8137-4250098-ym_zKxv3QX1YYLezNb24jg&t=3

National Day of Action for an “Oil-Free” Congress
Where: Shell Station, Penn and Braddock Avenues
Corner of Penn and Braddock
Pittsburgh, PA
When: Wednesday, 28 Jun 2006, 5:00 PM
Link to RSVP: http://political.moveon.org/event/oilfree/9644?id=8137-4250098-ym_zKxv3QX1YYLezNb24jg&t=3

please join us for the return of P2 happy hours. this event is just for fun!

who: you!
what: eat, drink, be merry, etc.
where: Kelly’s Bar and Lounge
when: Thursday, August 17, 2006; 6:00pm – ?
why: fun!

we will be enjoying some casual conversation and Kelly’s outdoor patio. we hope to see you there!

Check this out, and sign up:  Sprout Fund is hosting an all-day ‘idea roundup’ on Saturday, September 9 to brainstorm about how to build civic engagement in Pittsburgh.  Not only could this be a stimulating day of conversation, if people show up and BRING IT, but it’s intended as a precursor for Sprout’s “Engage Pittsburgh’ RFP — they have $100K to give away to folks who submit proposals to realize ideas that come out of the discussions.  Their grantmaking can only be as sophisticated and intelligently directed as the proposals they get, so if you have ideas for how to build civic engagement in Pittsburgh, plan to bring them with you on the 9th.  Sign up here.

The Post-Gazette has an article today about the release of Rendell’s Pennsylvania Transportation Funding and Reform Commission’s report.  The short story:  we’re short about $866 million for basic maintenance of our current infrastructure, and needed improvements to that infrastructure will cost us an additional $2.2 billion we don’t have.  Everyone should make a point of planning to attend the “listening session” scheduled for September 12 at 10:30 am in the Regional Enterprise Tower (send me an email if you want a personal reminder about this).  Listening sessions like this one are, imho, usually pretty frustrating — it’s a lot of the same people every time, bitching into the ether about the fact that our local leaders can’t seem to prioritize meaningful improvements to public transportation, and you do get the sense that no one’s listening.  Personally, I think part of the problem is that it’s usually just the same handful of transportation nerds that show up to these things — it’s easy to come away with the feeling that the general public doesn’t care, or at least doesn’t care enough to stay informed or show up.  Which is, of course, bullshit:  this is a serious crisis, and it’s going to punch every pedestrian, driver and bus-rider in the region in the gut in the next few months, if the legislature doesn’t get serious about assigning new funding for public transportation and allocating adequate resources to infrastructure maintenance.  So:  we should all show up, for chrissake, and make the event newsworthy for a change.

Keep an eye on political hanky-panky that’ll make lobbying for new highway projects like the godforesaken MFX part of the discussion about funding maintenance and repairs this fall.  Everyone should be clear about the fact that saddling ourselves with an additional $4 billion in new and unnecessary highway construction costs is a non-starter, when what we really need to do is fix what we’ve already got.  K?