12-20-2006 What do Walter and Tomzilla have in common?

This just in: Business Improvement Districts have been adopted in retail environments from sea to shining sea, but in Wilkes-Barre…”the proposal doesn’t appear to be in the best interest of most owners,” according to activist/candidate Walter. Nope. Additional servicesin addition…to the services already provided by the municipality in the downtown area may be an attractive idea in towns all over America, but not here.

Typical.

W-B plan concerns activist

WILKES-BARRE – Activist Walter Griffith Jr. is urging commercial property owners in downtown Wilkes-Barre to attend Wednesday’s hearing on the proposed Business Improvement District, saying the proposal doesn’t appear to be in the best interest of most owners.

But, Larry Newman, the plan’s main architect, says Griffith and some others have misconceptions about the plan. Newman, a Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry official, is looking forward to clarifying the situation.

First of all, it was an absolute waste of time for Larry Newman and Mike Lombardo to even meet with the man who has never seen a single private or public municipal plan he liked. At least, not locally. Secondly, in the short-sighted minds of the irrepressible taxpayer advocates, there are no investments in the future, only expenses. To them, long-term planning and eventual dividends are akin to water and oil: they just don’t mix. To the taxpayer advocates, austerity equates with growth. But, austerity provides nothing for the future. And with the downtown poised to make a comeback, right now is the perfect time to propose a Downtown Improvement District. It would be a very timely investment in the future of the downtown. But, predictably so, to hear Walter tell the tale, it’s a bad idea.

Griffith researched the proposal and recently met with Newman and Mike Lombardo, the chamber’s interim president.

Even after the meeting, Newman said, Griffith is still mistaken about portions of the plan. Newman noted that some of the language is complicated.

No, Larry. He’s not mistaken about any aspect of the plan. He’s purposely painting the picture for voters that, 1.) The city is levying a tax on downtown merchants, and 2.) The city is not providing needed services in the downtown. It’s not that he doesn’t understand the less than complicated plan. Hell, an inebriated parakeet could follow this one. What he’s doing is deliberately misrepresenting the facts for his own electoral benefit. That’s why you wasted your time trying to explain it to him, when you could have been doing something productive.

Why is a businessman from Nanticoke so completely worried about the business environment in downtown Wilkes-Barre? Have we seen the horrible state of Nanticoke’s downtown, or it’s threadbare business climate overall? It’s not his ox being gored, so his only possible interest is building some name recognition for the upcoming election.

And isn’t it up to the downtown merchants themselves to either adopt or reject this proposed BID? Is he actually going to stand before them and tell them what they should do with their downtown? This issue is for the owners of downtown properties to decide, not some grease monkey doing business in Nanticoke, a sitting city council person or, for that matter, some soon-to-be second time political loser. It’s ultimately their money, Walter. And it’s their downtown--their livelihood--and it is theirs and theirs alone to adopt or reject. They need you like I need a dose of malaria.

And trust me, they know the details of the plan. They don’t need you to bring them up to speed. And by getting involved, the only thing you might accomplish is to further confuse the issue in the minds of the electorate. But that’s exactly what you were after, wasn’t it? To cloud the issue, bring attention to yourself and appear to be an attractive candidate to the newly confused. It’s subterfuge at best, and you’ll come accountable on election day.

Whew!!! I have not felt this wholly invigorated since the 2003 Tom Leighton versus Tom McGroarty (Tomzilla) mayoral showdown. Screw the Nord End! I’m going to attend the fundraisers of Walter’s chief opponent, once she announces and all of that.

So, what do Walter and Tomzilla have in common? They both need to be kept right where they are: on the outside of city government looking in.

Make checks payable to: Walter’s as-of-yet unnamed opponent

Sez me.

From The Times Leader: Army Corps of Engineers and DEP say plan to partially deflate dam to help fish get upstream won’t do.

Fish may sink plan for dam

Looks like Paul Kanjorski is going to get angry with us again. According to him, gazillions of dollars in economic development would be generated if us silly commoners would just relent and enjoy the dammed sewage and acid mine drainage. In addition, gazillions of tourists would flock to Wilkes-Barre’s orange-stained shoreline to recreate on or in the dammed sewage and acid mine drainage. But we silly commoners “short on brains and long on passion” keep demanding a free-flowing river. He’ll live.

Roughly 500 comments about the deflation solution were submitted to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers -- including e-mail petitions from 450 people titled “Reject the inflatable dam, keep the Susquehanna free-flowing.”

Repeat after me…BANG!!!

Continued uncertainty over the project is hurting the county in the wallet.

The county has spent more than $1 million on studies and permit applications. The county’s expected reimbursement for most of that expense can’t occur until the government either says yes or no to construction, county officials say.

Here’s the scoop. We’d all love to live next to a large body of water. And, as a matter of fact, I have lived with Harveys Lake abutting my back yard, as well as the Atlantic Ocean. Living at the largest natural lake in Pennsylvania was just flat-out boring. They ought to just erect the gate at Grotto Pizza and get it over with. Oh, and that “Whites Only” sign, too. Trust me, I speak from experience. And living near that much bigger body of water was absolutely amazing for a sprat barely ten, but if sure was way too windy most of the time.

But with that having been said, did you ever hear anyone carry on ad nauseum about the benefits of living next to an open sewer? During certain months throughout the year, depending on the level of the river, it noticeably stinks. And the freaking thing is still a free-flowing river. Do we really want to dam that river and allow the bacterium, the feces, the acid mine run-off and God only knows what stagnant to any degree?

The “county” should have listened to the multitude of experts that were saying from day one that this rubber condom of a dam was an ill-advised fool’s errand, if not, an ecological disaster in the making. Instead, the “county” did not dare defy the good congressman and bought into that Gannett/Fleming study hook, line and sinking feces. And now we’ve got over $1 million at risk of being lost? Tom, Tom, Steve, Greg, Todd…don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Uncle Paul’s shiny rubber toy was a clusterfu>k from the get-go. Forget this nonsense and push him to acquire significant federal funding to address the sewage outflow nightmare, and then later on, the mine run-off calamity. Priorities, guys. They say you can’t shine sh*t, but you guys have been trying for years.

And how stupid was that?

From the e-mail inbox im all about the surveillance mr orwell. people anymore cannot be trusted unfortunatly.

anyways, curious, whats the big gift for the kids this year?

rXXX

Christmas? Well, only half of the kids and half of the grandkids are going to make it here, so it’s kind of toned-down when compared to previous years. I’m leaning towards buying some educational electronics for the older two grandrodents. And time-tested traditional toys for the younger two.

I kind of got a late start on things after learning just before Thanksgiving that part of the brood was relocating to another state. (Dubya’s fault) At first I was a tad angry. Then the anger gave way to a mild bout of depression. But I’m all better now and planning on visiting South of the Mason-Dixon line next year, y’all. Iffin’ you’re real nice to me, I’ll bring you back some moonshine that doubles as a liquid paint remover.

Oh, no! Wilkes-Barre is about to become my worst Orwellian nightmare come true! What are we gonna do? I know, I know. How about if we go to the next city council meeting and act like a horse’s ass? You in?

I heard the dumbest fu>king thing on WILK the other day. Now, I know Nancy Kman absolutely hates it when men refer to women as being chicks, but if this wasn’t chick-speak, then I don’t know what would qualify.

Okay, Mel Gibson got plastered recently, then got pulled over by the fuzz and immediately launched into some insane anti-Semite diatribe. As a result, our less than stellar co-hosts, Nancy and Kevin, bash Mel Gibson as if he were George Bush’s Mini Me every single chance they get.

As for myself, I could care less what Mel Gibson does or says, as what he does or says has no direct impact on my life. Plus, why should Gibson be hated for what he said, while we all but ignore the anti-Semite hate-speech emanating from the stone-aged Middle East at an increasingly frenetic and frightening pace? Simply tell Gibson to take a number and wait his turn. He’s sure to be waiting for quite a long time.

Anywho, back to Chicks Gone Braindead.

Nancy speculated about Mel Gibson’s mental health, saying “he’s got issues and must have nightmares,” simply because his recent spate of historically accurate movies have been ultra, ultra violent. Let’s see, there was The Patriot, Braveheart, the Christ movie (name escapes me) and now Apocalypto. Blood, guts and just a sprinkling of gore for sure.

The thing is, throughout man’s bloodied history, he’s been chopping off limbs, heads and any other appendages he could think of on the fly. He’s impaled people. Hung people. He’s raped, impaled and then hung people. Guillotined people. Killed those of another color. Killed those of the other tribe. Killed those from the other religion. Made eunuchs of people against their will. Shot people through the eyeball. Shot people through the gizzard. Sprayed their towns with toxic substances. Eaten people. Nuked people. Eaten nuked people. Fire-bombed people. Gassed people. And even sacrificed people for some made up god’s sake, who might come to them in the image of a Slinky. Metal, not plastic. Don’t be silly.

Now, put that last paragraph in a present tense, and it still holds entirely true.

So, Nancy…in your mind, Mel Gibson is a nut-job simply because he accurately portrays man as a violent, savage and merciless beast??? (???)

Typical chick.

And Gibson’s next project? It’s a gentle love story for the ages tentatively titled “Gettysburg.”

Photo deleted so as to not upset the thin-skinned any further

Later