August Recess: Around the Blurghosphere

Gotta hand it to the P-G's Radical Middle; it keeps following its favorite stories to their bitter, bilious non-ends. Read its latest on the Penguins' continuing mission to bring transformative, destination-caliber development to Uptown around the Consol Energy Center in the form of a TGI Fridays and hopefully a Subway.

THOUGHTS: On the one hand, these things take time, especially in a global recession, and a little promotional bluster is not beyond the pale. On the other, given this understandable sort of pace, why the darn the torpedoes sprint towards Civic Arena demolition? Maybe we're not all looking at the same calendar.

More on development: the brand new mysterious blog 3 Murky Rivers posts long-form concerns regarding the much-anticipated Allegheny Riverfront project in the Strip District -- it seems old buildings just can't profitably enough be adapted for reuse, even when folks are still using them. New construction remains king.

The utterly indispensable Nullspace has been following the spate of local television reporting (!) on fallout from the Pittsburgh Water & Sewer Authority's attempted and unsuccessful water line insurance program (1, 2, 3) <-- use these links as your portal. Money analysis quote:

So let me get this right. An insurance/warranty company, a new and undercapitalized insurance/warranty company at that, taking in $5/month is about to be able to shell out nearly $10K per property on more than 20% of the insured. There is a business model for you. If you really think that was going to happen, that Brooklyn Bridge is still for sale on some infomercial somewhere. I think I am beginning to appreciate how they got themselves into the bind with the variable rate bonds. (Null Space)

Nothing to do about it but laugh -- conceivably during Happy Hour.

15211.org tips us that Pittsburgh Magazine includes Mount Washington in its list of the "12 Top Neighborhoods" in and around the city, with special mention of the Shiloh St. business district running perpendicular to Grandview Ave, and its new restaurants, shops and art dealers. A distinctive honor, for also making the list of top Pittsburgh "neighborhoods": the North Side and the South Side.

"One Pittsburgh" has been pretty active lately, as befits activists. Read its piece comparing the crimes and punishments of Dwelling House Savings and Loan malefactors as compared to those at JP Morgan Chase, and its bird-dogging of America's Most Important Supersenator Pat Toomey. Not having materialized yet: any signs of local political entanglements. Perhaps we've read this gang wrong?

Are you listening to the new 90.5 FM WDUQ, Essential Public Media? You're not alone -- but you might be getting lonelier, points out the City Paper Slag Heap. Where is the intensive local / regional coverage and the citizen-journalist-led Internetty goodness already, we wonder with sincere impatience? If we want to hear about Rick Perry, Michelle Bachman and the S&P downgrade, we could just spin the dial like a roulette wheel and make do wherever it lands.

Ginny Montanez is at it again, raising money for children with cancer and promoting a benefit 5K run in Irwin, PA this Saturday by means of publishing pictures of her during her "awkward phase". She has a sister she calls "Tina Fey", but really, the similarities between young PittGirl and young Liz Lemon are striking.

Finally (as the ostentatious badge to the upper-right alerts all of you) the Pittsburgh Comet has been nominated for "Most Valuable [Local Affairs] Blogger 2011" by CBS Pittsburgh, which I think most of us know as Channel 2. I've decided that I want this. Go vote daily, (and vote also for our blogroll bronies under the "Lifestyle" and "Everything Else" categories) and I'll do my best to keep things valuable around here.