Hello again. Now that I have created this blog, I find myself full of things to talk about. As I mentioned in Introduction, I used to live in Pittsburgh, on the southside specifically. There is an issue that has come up there recently (since I left) that is emerging into a disturbing trend. Here is a letter that I wrote and sent to a local paper in Pittsburgh and although not printed in this form, seems to have been used as motivation for this same paper to do their own story about this issue.
For those of you not familliar with this issue, Pittsburgh's southside has long been populated by a variety of businesses. The longest term residents have been bars and restaurants for the workers from the now defunct steel mills. Since the mills have closed, there has been a major cleanup in the city, however, the restaurants and bars have survived and even thrived in this environment. Admittedly, alcohol is a bit of a problem there but at the same time, it is also the sales of alcohol and food which help pay for alot of the taxes generated there.
There is a small minority who has complained about the alcohol problems to the local government representative. This governement middle manager has opted to, instead of going after and curbing the bars business practices, which are the main cause of the problems that the complaints have been about, to go after the restaurants with severe interpertations of laws and zoning rules that even local magistrates havent yet enforced because they are waiting for a ruling on the interpertations of said laws/rules. They are saying that the restaurants, most of which don't even serve alcohol, are the main cause for the alcohol related problems on the southside.
I now submit it to you for your perusal
An open letter to the citizens of Pittsburgh and to the residents and businesses of the South Side in particular:
Pittsburgh has had a long and proud tradition of self made persons of quality and support of those persons thriving in our little corner of the world. Even when Pittsburgh was a small community of just a few hundred back in the late 18TH century, our ancestors realized the talent they had with skilled craftsmen and artisans right there in their local population, and they gave them a free hand in creating the roots of what we now have in our city. Where would we be now if Major Craig and General O’Hara had not been given a free hand to start O’Hara Glassworks on the north bank of the Ohio? Although surrounded by other issues, such as the Homestead Strike, would Pittsburgh have ever become known as the Steel City if not for the efforts of magnates like Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick? Would they have been able to have the achievements they had if they were regulated to having to shut down business or even restrict their business at 10 PM? Granted, what they did led to large amounts of environmental degradation, which we are still dealing with today but, this was not governed by their hours of operation, rather this was brought upon us by the ignorance of the day of how to handle waste materials. Monopolies, anti-trusts and unions aside, one of the things that made Pittsburgh one of the greatest cities in the world in the 20TH century was the ability of its people to accomplish their given jobs at whatever hours those jobs were available.
Many of our residents still around today remember the tragedy of the end of Big Steel in the early 1970's. Unemployment, homelessness, families breaking apart, these were symptoms pervasive in all parts of our city and our neighborhoods. We are still recovering from this, both psychologically and financially. Many of our residents, especially those 35 and under, do not remember these years because they were not around for them, either the heyday of Big Steel or the desolation that ensued when it left. The politicians would have us believe that with Renaissance X and XX etc, we are back on course. Are we? Our population is barely a third of what it once was, our schools are failing, our infrastructure (public utilities) are in disrepair from the neglect of the last 4 decades, even a large percent of our houses are not in the shape we want them in because we cannot afford to fix them properly. This is just a finger through the icing of the cake of our despair. The Renaissance X and XX (not to mention XXX, XXXX and XXXXX) put a facelift on a body with failing health and not much more, especially for the general population of the city except to throw a mostly meat stripped bone to a few small groups. It created a few thousand jobs and put a few zeros at the end of the bank statements of a select few but not much for the other 93% of us.
What, you may be asking, can we do to fix this, it's just soooo much all at once. It's not our fault; this has been dropped in our laps from mistakes of the past. I have heard these said, along with many other things not fit for decent print, when this subject has come up. There are 2 answers to this. The first answer was written by the past. We don't even have half the job that they did back then. We already have a city here; we just have to make it productive and happy again for its residents and small businesses. There are many aspects to this answer but the most important is that we HAVE to stop being so unfriendly to businesses either coming here or even more so, to the ones that start here. Pittsburgh's attitude towards business and business development in the last 30 or 40 years has been ludicrous, and that is being kind. The cornerstone of every successful city for the last 500 years has been the businesses that it either grows or supports. How many have left Pittsburgh in the last 20 years? This brings us to answer #2: Money and steady growth. If anyone thinks we can solve the mistakes of the last 40 years in just a couple years, they are fooling themselves. The recovery will be slow. The children now will probably be parents by the time Pittsburgh is functioning properly for it's citizens again. It took a long time to get into this situation and it will take a good amount of time to get out of it. Talking about changes is nice but actually getting it done takes....
Money. Nothing will take place because of money in grants or special projects by our illustrious government. That money is already there. We paid it in taxes etc, it already belongs to us. If one area of the city gets more, that means another area of the city goes without their fair share. It becomes a merry-go-round of robbing Peter to pay Paul. No, this money has to be generated by the citizens and the businesses they start themselves. This, after all, is the basis behind a free market society. Just relying on the government to decide who gets what out of the communal pool has been tried before. The experiment ended when the wall fell in Germany in 1989 and the Soviet Union went bankrupt and into dissolution in 1991. Our secret, which they never got the idea of, was the small community centered small businessperson and the economic and cultural boon they bring. Everywhere from small town, USA to the street corner of the biggest cities here, the small businessperson has been there to provide services, office supplies, flowers for the prom and funeral alike, foods, photos (memories), hardware, pretty much everything we have come to rely upon to make our lives easier. Due to the nature of our economic model, some of these small businesses have grown into giant conglomerates such as Wal Mart and Home Depot. Nothing against them for doing that, that’s great that they have had that level of success. Obviously the market supported them making the right decisions to get to that level. Their success does however make it harder on the other small businesses around to have their own success. However, that is just the way it is in the wilds of the business jungle. Our local government does not seem to see it like that however. They have seen fit to interfere and (once again) over regulate the small business, especially on the South Side.
We all know the South Side. We have probably all gone there at least once for an evening. Whether it was last week or last decade or even last in 1957, only the names and faces have changed, the South Side is the South Side. On the face of it, the South Side is composed of small boutiques, confectioners, bars, restaurants, a handful of professional offices and a couple small strip malls. The south Side wears one hat during the day, that of a home to many residents going about their daily business, and another hat at night, that of revelry and the exuberance of young adults letting loose, granted sometimes a little too much but.... anyway, I digress. The South Side has its counterparts in practically every American city in the USA. Washington DC has Georgetown, New Orleans has Bourbon Street etc. If it were not for these havens within the city, the goings ons in these areas would instead be spread throughout the city. It wouldn't just go away, our little experiment with prohibition proved that. The happenings of that sort on the South Side are a sociological habit that has been around for centuries with mankind and population centers. The residents of the South Side moved there knowing what the hat was that was worn at night. Even the oldest resident there cannot realistically claim shock and surprise as they are not older than the steel mills with all the bars that were around then for the workers. None of this is new, it has been going on longer than all of us have been drawing breath. The South Side is something else as well, something far less tangible. How many of us can close our eyes right now and remember something about our experiences on the South Side? I can. The South Side and the memories it provided for me back in my 20's helped form who I am today. It was part of my maturing years as it was for numerous generations preceding my own as well as for those that came after mine. I would be a different person today, probably knowing alot less about human nature and the lessons of life if it were not for the South Side. Now there are people, politicians, which want to change our South Side. They think that if they take away the spirit of the South Side, the alcohol related issues will go away. Two things they don't realize: 1) The alcoholism will not go away, it has always been there, it likely will always be there at least in some small part. All that will go away will be the social drinkers, the ones that aren't the real problem people. The ones that are the problems generally cannot afford to go anywhere else and 2) If you slap your hand down in a puddle, the water doesn't go away, it just scatters all over the place. The same thing will happen if you kill the South Side night life, it will just go to surrounding neighborhoods and create little problems all over the place, thus becoming much more expensive to contain and control. One other thing will happen as well, if that puddle of water is slapped and the revelers scatter to surrounding neighborhoods, the bars on the South Side will start to lose large amounts of money as well. As they, evidently, are some of the major money makers on the South Side, can the South Side afford for them to take that kind of hit?
There is one major difference between the South Side and places like Georgetown and Bourbon Street however. That difference is in the late night support businesses that exist. Once you leave a bar or a show in Georgetown, there are numerous places to stop and get a bite to eat. Bourbon Street, well, at least pre-Katrina, was a 24 hour place pretty much. If you wanted something and had the money, you could get it. What is being created on the South Side is a street (East Carson) with nothing but the glow of businesses in operation showing outside. In Georgetown, you have vendors, street performers and other numerous diversions, not just bars. New Orleans has music and smells of cooking food coming from everywhere, not just bars. These areas are alive, vibrant communities at night. These are also communities that are made up of a small commercial district surrounded by a larger residential district, much like the South Side. We have had propositions of legislation lately that will turn the South Side into a strip of bars with a dead street. This will make no sense of a party or celebration atmosphere like the other cities mentioned, this will create a row of bars that will exist only to serve drinking for the cause of drinking. Forget social drinking, if there is nothing social to do, you're drinking to get drunk. First, the South Side Street Spectacular was killed and now they want to take away an important aspect of the night life. Would New Orleans have killed Mardi gras? Would Georgetown shut down as soon as the fireworks on the 4TH of July were over?
Some of the main causes for drinking to excess are anger, despair and frustration. The first one tends to be brought on by too many continuous trials of the 2ND and 3RD ones. Again I refer to the question posed earlier, Has Renaissance worked for everyone? One way to get out from under the cloud of despair and frustration is to make an economically viable city for everyone. Give everyone a real chance to succeed. Leave these small businesses alone and let them thrive. If they grow and stay, they will hire people to keep growing. When people are given a chance to make a real chance to make a real life for themselves and their own, they're not going to be as frustrated. Maybe they won't be so likely to drink to excess (to forget their present situation for a little bit) and urinate on Mrs. Finklestein's roses. Maybe they won’t be angry drunks because their life presently is on a bad downturn and shouting and screaming outside Carson Towers at 2 AM. Granted, there are those who I really hope and believe are a minority, that are going to frequent bars and drink to excess regardless of what we do. These people need help and treatment. However, I believe that many of our South Side revelers would not be quite so exuberant (read: drunk) with their activities if their lives were just better off, even marginally, like having a chance at a decent job. Making laws to restrict the local small businessperson will not help this, it will actually make it worse. A restricted businessperson is not likely to hire others or grow their business in that environment.
To round all of this up, as I am sure you're tired of reading by now, 1) Pittsburgh was founded and made great by people willing to go out and work when the work was there. 2) Pittsburgh's South Side is Pittsburgh's "party" scene, it has been for decades and will not change, nor should it. At least now you know where it is and it can be held within boundaries. 3) A good portion of the alcohol and behavioral problems that are experienced on the South Side have been contributed to heavily by social problems such as business closings and the ensuing result of cut hours or worse, unemployment. 4) There are other cities that make their "South Side" work just fine by NOT restricting the businesses that thrive within it. 5) The government should not dictate anything in a free market economy to restrict the small business (unless were talking about a huge ecological impact or something similar) as the market will decide what should thrive and what should not, it always does.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Public libraries
I grew up in the time that libraries were generally viewed as the repository of information. Adults went there to research how to fix things, students went there for school papers and the like. There was a weekend guest that would lecture about something most weeks. It was also a place for young children to go to for stories to be read to them by volunteers.
The internet has greatly impacted the niche that the libraries of the 70's and 80's filled in our societies. This is an improvement with being able to research from the relative safety and security of our homes. This is not meant to bash the internet at all but what role should the library take in our lives now?
When was the last time anyone went to their public library?
I was just at our local one here yesterday. There was a meeting going on about what to do for the future of the library. The general concensus seemed to be to turn the library into more of a local community center. In my own hometown back east, the library has teamed up with the local senior center. This is all fine and good but it leaves very little room for one of the few jobs the library fills for the public, stories for the children, as the unrelated young and aged dont tend to mix very well in many circumstances. Indeed there are rules in place for the very young to act more like young adults. Thats alot to expect of 5 year olds.
Is this to be the fate of our local libraries?
Should they maybe find a way to integrate themselves with the internet. I know there are many that are online and have their own websites to see if a book is available etc but I am talking about a much more aggressive approach. E-books. E-books dont deteriorate over time or with usage. They have no grafitti plaguing their pages. Late fees would be a thing of the past. How could it be late, you're not actually checking anything out? 20,000 people could be reading the same book at the same time. How many times have you heard someone complain that the print was too small? That complaint.... gone with font management (especially for the elderly). Granted some of the older books would have to still be kept in a local repository which could be ran by local governments. The employees are already in place, they run the larger libraries now.
You might ask, what about the poorer segments of our society, the ones that can't afford computers at home. Pretty much every library I have been in in the last 10 years has an area that is essentially an internet cafe. Expand these areas and have, say, 1/3 of the terminals as dedicated to reading and not web browsing.
There could still be a children's area where stories can be read and kept.
This would open up far more room for other activities in the buildings that currently house the libraries in their dysfunctional state. It would also cut overhead costs after the original set up costs along with decrease the building costs for any new branches. Before it is too late, let's help the library move into the 21st century before it becomes a dionosaur, too big and clumsy to maneuver in todays world.
Jack
The internet has greatly impacted the niche that the libraries of the 70's and 80's filled in our societies. This is an improvement with being able to research from the relative safety and security of our homes. This is not meant to bash the internet at all but what role should the library take in our lives now?
When was the last time anyone went to their public library?
I was just at our local one here yesterday. There was a meeting going on about what to do for the future of the library. The general concensus seemed to be to turn the library into more of a local community center. In my own hometown back east, the library has teamed up with the local senior center. This is all fine and good but it leaves very little room for one of the few jobs the library fills for the public, stories for the children, as the unrelated young and aged dont tend to mix very well in many circumstances. Indeed there are rules in place for the very young to act more like young adults. Thats alot to expect of 5 year olds.
Is this to be the fate of our local libraries?
Should they maybe find a way to integrate themselves with the internet. I know there are many that are online and have their own websites to see if a book is available etc but I am talking about a much more aggressive approach. E-books. E-books dont deteriorate over time or with usage. They have no grafitti plaguing their pages. Late fees would be a thing of the past. How could it be late, you're not actually checking anything out? 20,000 people could be reading the same book at the same time. How many times have you heard someone complain that the print was too small? That complaint.... gone with font management (especially for the elderly). Granted some of the older books would have to still be kept in a local repository which could be ran by local governments. The employees are already in place, they run the larger libraries now.
You might ask, what about the poorer segments of our society, the ones that can't afford computers at home. Pretty much every library I have been in in the last 10 years has an area that is essentially an internet cafe. Expand these areas and have, say, 1/3 of the terminals as dedicated to reading and not web browsing.
There could still be a children's area where stories can be read and kept.
This would open up far more room for other activities in the buildings that currently house the libraries in their dysfunctional state. It would also cut overhead costs after the original set up costs along with decrease the building costs for any new branches. Before it is too late, let's help the library move into the 21st century before it becomes a dionosaur, too big and clumsy to maneuver in todays world.
Jack
Introduction
Hello everyone. Im 40, live in Tucson, AZ, at least for the next few months. I will hopefully be moving to Maryland soon. I have a job waiting for me. That is also where I grew up at and most of my friends are either there or in Pittsburgh except for a few that I have made out here.
I created this blog just to give a few people along with myself to put forth ideas and hopefully get rational feedback about them. I'm not much into politics although I wont dismiss or delete any political postings on here as long as they stay sane and civil. Religion is fine as long as there is no crusade or jihad declared. Basically any subject is open for discussion and I will try to encourage anyone to post anything they wish to talk about. The only thing I don't want is juvenile rantings or abusive postings.
Anyway, welcome to my blog and I hope to see you post soon.
Jack
I created this blog just to give a few people along with myself to put forth ideas and hopefully get rational feedback about them. I'm not much into politics although I wont dismiss or delete any political postings on here as long as they stay sane and civil. Religion is fine as long as there is no crusade or jihad declared. Basically any subject is open for discussion and I will try to encourage anyone to post anything they wish to talk about. The only thing I don't want is juvenile rantings or abusive postings.
Anyway, welcome to my blog and I hope to see you post soon.
Jack
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