[PRCo] Re: living in PA

[Jerry MATT Matsick]

Dennis
Excellent comment - and hey buddy, I have been gone from the burg 48 years and I still
am PITTSBURGH PROUD!   Something about that place.

Jerry M
--
>From the RIVER CITY by the Sea! 
Jerry "Matt" Matsick 
J A C K S O N V I L L E, Florida ! 


-------------- Original message from "Dennis F. Cramer" <dfc1 at windstream.net>: -------------- 


> (note subject change) 
> I am quite aware of the number of visitors who come to Pittsburgh and are 
> pleasantly surprised. There is no better entrance in the country to a city than 
> coming through the Fort Pitt Tunnel at night. But Pittsburgh has paid a price 
> for that view. The smoke is gone and sometimes the haze & humidity leave. Very 
> few people live "dahntawn" and so most evenings they roll up the sidewalks 
> before dark. 
> 
> People have moved to Butler and Washington Counties to avoid the taxes of 
> Allegheny County. You do not want to look at Greene, Fayette, Westmoreland, 
> Indiana or Armstrong Counties due to lack of tax base. Many of the corporate 
> jobs have also moved to subsidized industrial parks surrounding the city, but 
> you cannot get from one suburb to the other by transit without going into town 
> first. Like most cities, transit is set up like the spokes of a wheel, all 
> heading to the city. Consider the route numbers of PRCo, they went from 1 
> counterclockwise around the county feeding into downtown. Many of the Port 
> Authority bus routes serve the same purpose as well as the parkways and routes 
> 65, 28 and 51. The Allegheny County colored (Blue, Red, Yellow, etc.) routes 
> circle the city on routes laid out over 50 years ago on many roads that have not 
> seen much improvement in those same years. Pittsburgh has never had an 
> interstate beltway system. 
> 
> The infrastructure in most of the of the city and the old mill towns in the 
> valleys is shot. Water main breaks abound and forget about getting your street 
> plowed in winter if you live on a side street. Visitors do not notice these 
> things, nor do they notice the aging and declining population. 
> 
> I, like many from western PA, are proud of where we live and enjoy showing off 
> the area. I do not notice that as much in other cities. Most of Pennsylvania 
> west of the Susquehanna is hurting due to a lack of meaningful employment. 
> Working in Wal Mart is considered to be a good job in rural PA. The logging 
> industry is on the upswing as we are into the third cutting of our forests and 
> the coal industry is slowly making a rebound. Thankfully there is a lot of coal 
> left and we will get some work as long as the NIMBYs do not get the way. Our 
> state is one of the leaders in wind technology, but again, the NIMBYs are 
> complaining to Harrisburg. 
> 
> We are losing Lancaster County to housing because that fantastic farmland is the 
> only large area in the state that will pass PERC tests on a regular basis. A 
> percolation test determines how well your septic system will leach water into 
> the ground. Most of the state does not have sewer systems, so your property 
> must pass a PERC test before you can build. The farmland in the Lancaster 
> Valley is the best soil in the state and of course, we are using it to build 
> homes instead of insuring long term farm management. Agriculture is the number 
> one job in PA right now, but it is losing ground very quickly according to 
> several professors from Penn State whom I heard speak last month at the 
> Pennsylvania Envirothon. If we lose all of that farmland, we have lost our 
> number one employer. 
> 
> We miss the trolleys running through Allegheny County, but I remember the 
> greater number of people who complained about the tracks throwing their 
> automobile around and destroying their suspension. 
> 
> A great quote from a few years ago while PennDot was rebuilding the Fort Pitt 
> bridge came from a route foreman of the Port Authority. He was at a meeting in 
> the City County Building as a high level city executive looked out the window 
> and commented how much easier it would be to eliminate the gridlock if we just 
> got rid of all the buses! People here do not understand mass transit like in 
> the east coast cities. We were stupid enough to get rid of the vast majority of 
> the rail service we had too long ago. It is tough to teach old dogs new tricks. 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Dennis F. Cramer 
> Trombone 
> 
> 
>