Lancaster is Hit with the Ugly Stick...Again

Lancaster City seems bound and determined to repeat history. Certainly, those who run things around here have not learned from it. Three and a half decades after the Brunswick Mall debacle, I watch my beloved hometown rush headlong towards the finish line on the Lancaster County Convention Center, a bloated, hopelessly optimistic, and inherently doomed "city revitalization" project which has been the epicenter of controversy around these parts for nigh on a decade now.

Anyone who has lived in or around Lancaster since 1970 knows the joys of the Brunswick Mall. Conceived as an urban renewal project in 1965, it saw the razing of a full city block of vintage architecture in favor of what has come to be known to locals as "The Concrete Monstrosity." It was envisioned as a hotel and business space with a mall full of shops, two outdoor courtyards for public gathering and a enclosed skywalk bridging North Queen Street so that folks could safely cross; the final result was outdated virtually upon its completion. At first, shops did appear in the storefronts and efforts were made to use the courtyard spaces on a regular basis, but after the novelty wore off, the city was left with a block-long patch of the ugliest concrete construction imaginable, looking like nothing more than an abandoned Stalinist block building, and inspiring just as much cheer. In recent years, renovation has finally begun on the area in an attempt to make the area more attractive, but at this point it is simply putting makeup on a pig.

You would think with such a glaring reminder of misguided "renovation" and poorly spent funds still marring the city, developers would be much more cautious when a similar project came about. Sadly, you would be wrong.

I won't go into the history of the debate over the proposed Lancaster County Convention Center - you can read a nice summary of that history here and here (scroll down to the comment by ArtieSee near the bottom of the page), or do some Googling. I won't waste time talking about the fact that building a convention center on the edge of a rundown and, at times, extremely unsafe part of town with inconvenient parking at best will do no favors towards encouraging repeat business. I won't even go into the fact that, at this point, a project that was sold to the city at a $74 million budget as an "economic boon" is now looking to clock in at just under $200 million (all but $11 million of which is taxpayer funded), and is expected by some estimates to lose $1 million a year.

No, I will instead limit my commentary to this: the thing is frickin' hideous! Once again, Lancaster is trying to "revitalize" via tons and tons of concrete. This time, though, instead of spreading it out, they're piling it high! This will be one of the tallest buildings in the city when it's finished later this year. And rather than completely demolish vintage architecture (in this case, the former Watt & Shand building, which had been on the National Register of Historic Places), they decided the thing to do was to gut it, leaving the facade standing, and plop the tower of concrete inside of it. Oh, and little to no apparent effort was made to match the design (or even color) of the original building, much less the surrounding edifices.

Construction is scheduled to end this spring. I have no doubt that, initially, the Center will see much use, much as the Brunswick Mall did in 1970. But, what happens when the novelty wears off? We're going to left with yet another expensive, hideous reminder of urban renewal gone bad and concrete gone wild.

RIP Lux Interior

Sad news from Glendale, CA: Lux Interior, lead singer of the legendary psychobilly band the Cramps, has passed away at the very young age of 60.

The Cramps spent the better part of three decades making some of the most crazed, manic, and at times downright hysterical music to ever be committed to vinyl or CD. From the early singles like "Human Fly" and "The Way I Walk" through more recent raveups like "Bikini Girls with Machine Guns" and "Surfin' Dead", the Cramps brought a campy B-movie sensibility to every sound they made, and Lux was the perfect frontman for their off-kilter groove.

Though band members came and went over the years, Interior (born Erick Lee Purkhiser) and his wife/guitar player Poison Ivy Rorschach (Kristy Marlana Wallace) were the core of the band from start to finish.

Reports are that the cause of death was a pre-existing heart condition.

In Lux's memory, here is one of my personal favorite Cramps tunes, "Garbage Man":

This is the "New Washington"?

So, President Obama has been in office all of 15 days. Wonder how he's liking the job so far?

Today saw two more nominees for important positions on Obama's team bow out due to tax payment issues: Senator Tom Daschle, nominated for Health and Human Services Secretary, and Nancy Killefer, nominated for Chief Performance Officer, both voluntarily removed their names for consideration for those respective positions due to the fact that each has failed to pay taxes in the past. These withdrawals are of course happening shortly after news broke about Treasury Secretary nominee Tim Geithner's extensive unpaid tax debt.

Psst...Mr. President...you may want to amend your vetting process for future appointees to include the question, "Have you paid your taxes?"

Couple these withdrawals with President Obama's half-brother, George Obama, being arrested on drug charges over the weekend, and it's a fair assessment to say that this has not been the best weekend the new Prez could have asked for. (By the way, what is it with Democratic presidents and their siblings? Should George Obama's "incident" be a surprise after the country has been subjected to Roger Clinton and Billy Carter?)

All during his campaign, Obama told us that it would not be business as usual once he got to Washington, that he would hit the ground running and we would start to see immediate change. So, someone wanna explain to me how this is not typical Washington political embarrassment?

Still Here

Yeah, I know, almost a week since my last post. Patience, friends! I have a few posts in the "almost ready to go" bin. Stay tuned!

Ya Gotta Believe! Steve LeVeille is Coming Home!

For those who fear their voices are never heard; for those who wonder, "What can I, as one person, do to affect my world?"; for those who love local AM overnight talk radio; for all of you, I am pleased to pass along some fantastic news:

WBZ 1030AM in Boston heard us! Steve LeVeille will be back on the air!

The news was announced today that LeVeille and Lovell Dyett with both be returning to the Boston airwaves this weekend, with Dyett's return in the Sunday morning 4:30-5:00AM slot, and LeVeille returning Monday night in his old midnight-5:00AM slot!

If you are unable to tune into WBZ over the airwaves, the station provides live streaming audio over their website, www.WBZ1030.com!

Door-to-Door Encyclopedia Salesmen Are OK, Though

Saw this post at Burbia.com, and laughed out loud. Jerry, it seems, has been a little less than neighborly. Follow the link to see a close up on the fine print. Classic stuff!

Would YOU Take a $4,000,000 Raise?

The Phillies' website is reporting that first-baseman Ryan Howard is seeking $18 million for 2009 in arbitration. The club has supposedly offered Howard $14 million, which is a $4 million raise from 2008.

The question that GM Ruben Amaro, Jr. needs to answer is how valuable is Howard's overall contribution to the club? Last year, Howard played the first half of the year like he was Dave Kingman - hitting around .220 and striking out a whole lot, with some towering, majestic home runs strewn among the mediocrity. The second half he came back and began playing like the Ryan Howard who should have been paid $10 million, culminating in a .281 average over the last 10 games of the season, pulling his overall average up to .251 for the year, to go with 48 home runs and and 146 RBIs.

Those power numbers are right in line with past seasons (47 HR, 136 RBI in '07; 58 HR, 149 RBI in '06), but his batting average has tumbled from .313 two years ago. Add to that the fact that his defense is iffy at best, and do you really have an $18 million player?

I happen to like Ryan Howard, and I'd like nothing more than to see him stay with the Phils. So far, the club has come to arbitration-avoiding deals with Cole Hamels, Greg Dobbs, Ryan Madson and Shane Victorino. Can they bridge the $4 million gap with Howard before arbitration? Better question: should they?

Another Blow Against Local AM Radio

The World of Isaac is reporting that Detroit station WDFN 1130-AM in Detroit, MI will have switched to an all-syndicated content station as of 3:00PM today. All local shows cancelled, all local talent let go.

Sad days.

#44

The pomp and circumstance has not yet begun to wind down in Washington DC tonight. There are balls to be attended, more speeches to be made, and celebrations of what many are hoping will be a new, better chapter for our country. Once the party is over, however, the hard work begins.

As I noted during this morning's live blog (thank you again to those who were here), I did not vote for Barack Obama. I happen not to agree with his politics. While I think all Americans want to see the same ends achieved, I personally don't believe the means by which Mr. Obama seeks to achieve those ends are the proper way to go. Still, I want to see President Obama succeed. I would like nothing more than to be proven wrong, for if I am, we as a nation will be in a much better place.

President Obama is outstanding when it comes to delivering speeches full of sweeping emotion and go-get-em attitude. His "Yes we can!" slogan and his calls for "hope and change" are straight out of the Positive Affirmation playbook, and his speech today fell right in line with that attitude. To hear him speak today and not be caught up in the enthusiasm would have been impossible. To hear him speak today and not ask "How can I help President Obama rebuild this country?" would have been unthinkable. And, as I noted earlier today, that speech was pitch-perfect as far as what he needed to say...today.

Where Mr. Obama has always fallen short, in my eyes, is when it comes time to get to the detail. How, exactly, are we going to face the challenges before us? What, precisely, is the Obama Administration going to do to bring about the change and maintain the hope that he has talked about for these many months? It's great to shout to the rooftops that the old internal political divisions that have sometimes cuffed our hands are obsolete, but what does President Obama do when those obsolete divsions inevitably cuff his hands from the things he wants to accomplish? Is he prepared for those battles?

I do not envy President Obama the job he has begun today, and I hope that he does have a few tricks up his sleeve for when the going gets tougher, because it will. And it will be in those toughest of situations that we will learn whether this change is one for the better, or whether we have once again fallen for the old "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss" routine.

Live Blog: Inauguration of Barack Obama