WDUQ is reporting that construction crews hit a natural gas line near Point State Park shortly before noon and traffic is being re-routed. The Post-Gazette writes that “the escaping gas sounded like a deafening jet engine around the Point.” Yikes!

Sounds like a good time to steer clear of Point State Park. But if you do get caught in traffic there, or happen to be wandering past, take a picture and add it to our Flickr group and we’ll show it off on the site.

From WTAE:

PITTSBURGH — Two Pittsburgh police officers had to chase some unlikely fugitives that obstructed traffic along Fifth Avenue in Shadyside.

There were no reports of injuries to onlookers or the birds.

I have mentioned WTAE’s hatred of doing actual reporting before, but come on. It is called Mellon Park. The video makes it clear that you had a truck right there. Even if your cameraman, reporter and producer didn’t know the park’s name, I bet those police officers did. It is just lazy.

In 1919, when other 14-year-old boys were — hmm, what did adolescents do in 1919? Anyway, Adam K. Bert began collecting stamps. By the time he graduated from high school he had a mail order business, and it’s fair to say stamps became his life. Last week, when he died at the age of 102, he’d been the longest-term member of the American Philatelic Society (he joined in 1926). He once got a stamp signed by President Franklin Roosevelt, and he popularized “bullseye cancellations,” which had previously been of little value. Adam K. Bert had a stamp collecting business in downtown Pittsburgh for 62 years, which closed in 1996. Goodbye, Mr. Bert!

Youngstown, Ohio is like a miniature Pittsburgh. The steel industry gave it life in the earlier half of the 20th century. It showed every sign of becoming one of the country’s most prosperous industrial cities, with a growing population and a popping economy.

But the steel industry left, taking with it 40,000 jobs and over half of its population. People moved away, many of them to the suburbs. Since September 29th, 1977 (called “Black Monday” by the locals), Youngstown has struggled to keep its city together.

Governing.com hosts an article by Christopher Swope which details the recent events in Youngstown, a city with its own young mayor and a refereshing plan for its future: reduce, reuse, recycle, restore.

The point of the article is this: Youngstown is “a size-40 man wearing a size-60 suit,” and it’s time to cut some cloth.

Pittsburgh can learn some lessons from this, and I hope our beloved leaders are watching it closely. Pittsburgh is getting smaller, and maybe that oft-hoped-for population boom just isn’t coming.

The Creative Treehouse is a new space for creative artists. Located in the heart of Bellevue, the Treehouse serves as a kind of haven for local and traveling artists who don’t mind making magic in a dry township.

But that doesn’t really matter. Artists endure.

The BYOB event last night capped a 24 hour marathon in which 30 artists plied their respective trades on 12″ x 12″ canvases. The creations were then displayed on workman cubicle walls, making them the most beautiful cubicle walls in all of Pittsburgh and environs. Carolyn wrote about this event a few days ago, and I was lucky enough to attend. Bellevue is a short distance from my humble house; as a supporter of local art (especially local art in the much-maligned suburbs), I could not not attend.
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I was reading the weblog 2 Political Junkies this morning, and this post caught my eye. There appears to be the suggestion that the Mayor, seen here redding up, was unwilling to reveal his position on contraception.

I was sure that this could not really be the case. Surely it would serve him best to be as straightforward as possible about his views. Right?

After all, this is a town where people take reproductive issues very seriously on all sides of the issue, and it would be irresponsible to dissemble.

So I decided, hey, I have a public forum in which Mayor Luke can clarify his positions and “redd up” the political mess he is in danger of landing in.
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Frances Monahan and Rob Owen have both pointed out how stupid a WTAE story about pole-dancing for fitness was. Owen took the position that it was alright until the reporter tried to pole-dance herself, whereas Monahan took the characteristic view that it was stupid because it followed the rules of TV news.

What neither of them mentioned was that the news peg of the story, that “it was tough to find anybody really doing it in Pittsburgh, until early this year,” as Monahan quoted anchor Wendy Bell saying, was baseless. First, based on this story there still isn’t anyone doing it in Pittsburgh, but instead are doing it in Verona, an independent municipality up the Allegheny a ways.

That is a personal pet peeve, I understand that most people use “Pittsburgh” to mean “Pittsburgh and several hundred nearby municipalities.”

More seriously, they claimed that this service was not available until “early this year.” The studio they are talking about has been open since April or May of last year: I know because the owner bought the beer for her grand opening from me (all pony bottles). It does not seem that it would have been a great hardship for the WTAE reporter, in between bouts of falling on her ass for the camera, to ask the woman who was directing her how long the studio had been in business.

They must have assumed that until they noticed it, this exercise studio did not exist. Eventually babies realize that things exist even when they are not in view; not so local television news reporters.

The specific thoughts that this provoked in me were questions. For instance: Does that guy wear that stupid hat to work everyday, or only when a congressman and a bunch of reporters are coming? Was Altmire warned that he would have to wear that orange life-vest, and if so, why did he wear a long coat? Oh, also:

The Bush administration’s budget proposal contains more than $113 million for reconstruction and rehabilitation of old locks and dams on Pittsburgh’s rivers, but more federal funding is needed for a navigational study of the upper Ohio River where three old locks and dams are in danger of failing.

How much more federal funding? This story has Tim “Not Tom” Murphy estimating what it would cost if this federal funding is not provided, but not even a hint of how much more federal funding “more federal funding” means. Millions of dollars? Tens of millions? Hundreds of millions? A billion? ONE TRILLION DOLLARS?

So, if you are going to talk about money without any indication of amounts, what is the point of this story? A congressman in a funny outfit met an engineer in a funny hat.

Post-Gazette:

He may be the first Steelers coach to live in the city in more than 50 years, according to Dan Rooney. Walt Kiseling, who last coached the team in 1956, was probably the last one to live in the city, said Rooney, the club’s chairman and former president.

That is correct: the coach of the Steelers is a black man who lives in the city. That Perotesque giant sucking sound you hear is the residents of Shaler removing their support from the team forever.

Caveat: he did buy in Shadyside, which, while technically a city neighborhood, looks like a forward operating base for Fox Chapel, where Bill Cowher lived.

What do AIBO the robot dog, the Mars rover and C-3PO have in common? They’re all in the Robot Hall of Fame. It’s online, not in a building someplace, so visiting is free.

The Robot Hall of Fame, a project of Carnegie Mellon, honors “landmark achievements in robotics technology and the increasing contributions of robots to human endeavors.” Both real and fictional robots are eligible, which is how Gort from The Day The Earth Stood Still made the cut. The question for 2007: are the Cylons from Battlestar Gallactica too evil to be inducted?