Downtown shoppers

Sparkle Season plans are out and the city is going to horse-drawn coaches.

Thanks Pittsburgh Downtown Partnerships!

Asking for a break

Asking for a break - PittsburghLIVE.comPittsburgh is asking the state to forgive a $1.2 million penalty...

The city is now in the role of begging. Forgive this. Forgive that.

To forgive is one thing. To forget is another. We can't forget. We can't beg forever.

The headline, asking for a break is a gross under statement. We are asking for too much. And, we are not even asking with an understanding.

Members of city council are headed to Harrisburgh next week. They go blindly. That was a concern they expressed themselves. They don't have a plan. They don't have a clue. They don't have much to agree upon themselves. They are going leaderless. The mayor is absent. The consultant / lobby leader is a baby sitter.

Going to discover is fine. Going to beg is about all they can do. That's all the creativity they can muster.

Summer scores a two-point safety

PA Department of State Election Returns reported that PA's US Senate candiate, Betsy Summer, Libertarian, scored 77,282 votes. That vote total is significant as her party can maintain minor-party status. She needed two percent of the top statewide vote getter, which was Bob Casey (PA State Treasurer race), at 3.29 million votes. Her 77,282 votes is 2.35% of Casey's total.

How about those Stillers?

Wow, the Steelers play the Eagles this weekend. Ruffle feathers! Sack the Eagles!

I'll walk around Heinz Field tailgates, in my friendly way, this Sunday, with the sign, "Fire Mayor Murphy." The pick-up message: its time to Ruffle Feathers and Sack the Eagles.

Today is the first day of the rest of our lives. We need to push onto 2005 races and put a local focus on the political talk and our shared concentration.

Today might not be the perfect time for logical talk, nor spiritual talk -- but rather emotional reflection. Sure, a prayer of thankfulness comes as we've figured out the presidential outcome well before Christmas Eve. Yes.

Emotionally, we can cheer for the Steelers and begin to ramp up for 2005 and a local attention.

UPMC Sportsworks, Fastbreak for Families

On November 14, 2004, from 5 to 8 pm, join us at the North Side's Science Center / UPMC Sportsworks for Fastbreak for Families. Gratis entry, complimentary parking, but you have to pre-register, 412-308-6043 or eHines - at - Fatherhood dot org.

Election Day, 2004

Jon Delano rambled that I'll let you see his words in the comments and pass myself. Otherwise, I'm working and walking polls to meet and greet and generate awareness for 2005 when I'll be a candidate.

Election Night Parties

Got a party, let me know. Or, list them here yourself.

Want to roam to various parties, let's go together. Send an email to Mark.Rauterkus@gmail.com. Or, list your mentions here yourself.

I don't expect that we'll know the winner of the Presidential race by 11 pm or Thanksgiving. But, we'll know if Jack Wagner, Tom Corbitt, Melissa Heart and Tim Murphy won.

Has Many Faces

A Pittsburgh friend, Judith Rubin, Ph.D., has made a new film, Art Therapy Has Many Faces. She did the 51-minute production on her desktop. Wonderful outcome.

I've uploaded fresh cover artwork in PDFs, one for the VHS and another for the DVD. Cover Artwork Directory I don't have a color printer.

Next, efforts on a new web site and blog.

Turnout

PG reported on October 21, 2004: According to nearly final figures, Democrats registered 30,354 new voters after the April 27 primary to 15,792 for the Republicans, a ratio of 1.92 to 1. The total number of new registration, including those from third-party members and independents, came to 60,447, a figure that reflects the high level of interest in this year's presidential race.

So let's review the math:

Total new voters = 60,447.

New Dems = 30,354.

New GOPers = 15,792.

New Third party = 14,301 = (60,447 - 30,354 - 15,792)

The PG fails to say that the sum of the Indies, Libertarians, Greens, Constitutional, Socialist, and whatever else is nearly equal to the Republicans. When you put together the third party block and the GOPers, you exceed the Dems.

The Indie and third party numbers are charging, I dare say.

Trib & AP story on Track Star, Congressal Stars from Kansas

Nice story in the Sunday paper about track star, KS, Jim Ryun. This is an AP story and I couldn't find it in the archives of the Trib. Ryun was a brief part of a book I published, Time Out! I Didn't Hear You. And, he and his wife have been active in the hearing health world. Ryun took part in an online chat at the offices of the News Center. (searching Google) When will Pittsburgh candidates and politicians be invited to online chats?

Wilburn's concert invite for folk

I invite you to our opening of the Calliope Legends Concert 2004-2005 Season.

Kate Long & Robin Kissinger performs, Friday, November 5, at 8 pm at the First Unitarian Church in Shadyside, the intersection of Morewood and Ellsworth. They lead workshops in Story Telling and Flat Pick guitar on Saturday, November 6 from 2-5 pm at the church. http://www.southernohiostoryfest.com; http://www.fiddletunes.com/pages/robin.htm; http://www.fiddletunes.com/pages/katel.htm; www.katelong.com

Future dates:

Mindy Simmons, January 29, 2005 http://www.MindySimmons.com

Kreg Viesselman, February 19, 2005

Mojo Collins, March 19, 2005 with Workshop: Folk and Blues Roots

Steve Gillette & Cindy Mangsen, April 23. 2005

Rachael Allen, May 14, 2005

Calliope Legends Concert is our small venue concerts. Wilburn, a true running mate, chairs the committee and takes complete responsibility if you are not pleased with each performance. So mark your calendars. Don't forget that Calliope main concert series is bring Doc Watson, a fellow North Carolinian, to Pittsburgh, November 19 at the Carnegie Lecture Hall in Oakland. There are a few single tickets left: Proartstickets.oro or 412-394-3353.

Answer sought on parks

How would it feel if you went on a trick-or-treat voyage and knocked on 25 doors and nobody was home. I can live with 1 in 5 being home. But, to have a complete shut out sorta stinks.

Trib story: "They also complain that they get only vague answers or no answers at all from Onorato on what progress has been made. "

Folks, the parks budget for 2006, according to one oversight board, is set to $0. Zippo. We need to jump start this parks and recreation discussion ASAP. How about November third?

The non-profit is a bad idea. Moving parks to a new, public entity is a fine idea. Chatter is welcomed.

Wishing for Gov and PCTV 21 coverage

Rob Owens, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - A & E - TV/Radio, I really wish you'd look into the story unfolding about the RFP for the city cable television breau.

I had called Penn State University and tried to coax them into putting a proposal together for the RFP. They considered it at many levels. However, when they got their techie invovled, as they should, a tour request was made and denied by the city. The PSU folks asked to see the TV facilities and equipment. They missed the one tour date as the RFP was hardly visible.

The worse part, the city said it would be showing "favortism" if they gave a tour to a possible RFP participant. Get out!

When you are going down the tubes -- anyone who comes to save you is welcomed.

Dale, Rodney, Tom.... Thanks for proving again just how well you don't play with others.

Bogged down for Bloggers Touchdown

Sorry I could not make the recent bloggers function.

I asked for a copy of the "minutes" and got this reply... via email ... if you peek at the comments.

Net movie with political impacts

Some trusted friends aquired the rights to freely distribute Stolen Honor on the internet, www.unitedtruth.com.

There are no ads, no banners, no sign-ups. It's a 100% gratis download. Bandwidth should not be an issue. Back-up site

Any techies out there willing to be "mapmaster?"

We've got blogs, a Wiki, web server (just upgrading), mailing list, fax on demand, OpenOffice.org, a parks position paper, campaign song, and an ambition of a book or two. But, what I really want, besides the database management part (right Bob), is a concpet mapping tool such as Cmap Tools, http://cmap.ihmc.us/

See the comments to learn more and see their latest news release.

Interested, email me. We've got the server space.

Do hit all the blogs

Transportation

eVote

Sunnyhill

This is my main blog, but there are others, listed above and along the blog roll to the left side.

A weakness of Blogspot and Blogger (same company) is the lack of a feature that tags each article with different topic areas. When you have a lot going on, it doesn't all fit into one blog.

I think that the eVote effort could explode with election day. We knew this wasn't going to be resolved. The fix was in and it wasn't what we wanted to see. Marilyn Davis, Ph.D., a net friend and from Northern California was there at ground zero. She saw the people from the US Senator's office. See could see what was what.

I won't tell you what you are missing if you don't go there too -- just do it.

Mom's rally and Saturday's walk in the park

I've done a good job at staying OUT of the national race. For myself, I've been putting a focus on local issues and staying neutral otherwise. However, my oldest boy is gung-ho for Kerry. Perhaps I'll satisfy his political fix by taking him to this event this week end.

MOMS FOR KERRY RALLY THIS SATURDAY

Mothers across the country will gather in a demonstration of unity and support for John Kerry and our children. Special guest: Geraldine Ferraro. It is slated for Saturday, Oct. 30, 2004, at 3:00 pm at Frick Park, Braddock & Forbes.

By the way, Erik's mom, my wife, is in DC working and will be home late Saturday. Perhaps my wife has more in common with Geraldine. I might connect better with the moms and kids.

I do like the park setting too. I bet not many of the moms or dads there will be aware that the Citiparks budget for 2006 is slated to be $0.

Come to think of it, if we have great weather, perhaps we could go early and set up some badminton. We could "ruffle feathers" and collect email contacts.

Liquidation Signals Lord & Taylor's Final Days

ThePittsburghChannel.com - News: "PITTSBURGH -- Four years ago, hopes were high when Lord & Taylor announced it was moving into the old Mellon Bank building on Smithfield Street.

Today, the shelves are being cleared and a liquidation sale has begun at the latest major department store to leave Downtown and take taxpayer dollars with it.

Indeed, the times have changed in terms of hopes and perceptions being put forward by the media. The mayor was on a high in 2000 and 2001, in some circles. The new stores, the big roof at the convention center, and all the other corporate welfare deals. The city was flush with building jobs too, earning support from the construction trade unions too. Jobs were being filled by out of state workers.

But to the ones who were watching with more attention to detail and better senses of forcasting, things were not so good. Some knew that these projects were going to flounder and fail.

The African-American Workers Union picked for the first weeks of construction at PNC Park. PNC Park would open just weeks before the 2001 primary.

Heinz Field was to be home to the Pitt Panthers, but the lease to use the pro stadium was not signed until after Pitt's home stadium was demolished. Some knew it wasn't smart to take college football off of the campus every day of the year. Pitt would turn into a J.V. program to the Steelers. Heinz Field's first season was the same fall season of Mayor Murphy's re-election.

The Convention Center would open too, but someone forgot to build the darn hotel. So, we've got an expensive white elephant that can't ever be put to use at capacity as we can't accomidate the convention goers. Then came the pass-throughs.

Shop to you drop has new meaning in downtown these days. Four years ago, the media got drunk on the Mayor's costly bricks and mortar efforts. But for those of us who cared to stay involved, we knew big-time trouble was at our doorstep.

City's credit rating dips below a rock, at bottom of river

PG: S&P rates city's credit as 'watch' While supporting the nonbinding plan, Councilman Sala Udin still voiced worry about it, saying defaulting on the pension payment could have 'very serious consequences.

Duhh!