Corey O'Brien's 'Main Street Program' press release

From the e-mail inbox via Cory O‘Brien For Congress:
　
PROJECT MAIN STREET

Providing a Foundation for Economic Prosperity

Traditionally, Main Streets were the social and economic epicenter of our communities. Since the decline of coal, however, our Main Streets have been neglected, jobs have been lost and our hopes have been dashed. It is time that we find a new sense of hope and optimism for our communities.

That is why I am proud to announce my plan for a new revitalization and job creation program: “Project Main Street.” As a member of Congress, I will lead the way to launch Project Main Street. Project Main Street will revitalize our Main Streets, utilizing existing money and programs such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation to improve infrastructure and encourage job growth in the hearts of our communities.

Read more at Obrien’s campaign Web site: Project Main Street

Sounds kind of familiar to me.

That comment will probably result in my abrupt removal from the candidate’s e-mail list. Bummer. It’s not as if I’ve ever come across as one of the zealously faithful democrat party myrmidons, right? Thing is, I don’t even know how my name ended up on that list.

But the truth is, this imitative is not very much unlike what the Leighton administration is attempting in this town. And I’ve heard other local level and state level politicos go on and on about the Main Street program possibilities. It all seems kind of familiar to me.

Although, I guess there’s no sense in busting on Cory O’Brien’s stones for jumping on the Main Street bandwagon. If researched, funded and implemented correctly, I think it can only help to revitalize our municipalities and suspend the decades-long tide of reverse-gentrification. It certainly can’t hurt.

And it sure as heck beats Paul Kanjorski’s ill-fated tomfoolery: federal funding to his family to develop water-jet technologies that now play about as big a part of this area’s historically flat economy as does King Coal.

And as a paddler, I would be remiss if I failed to mention his environmentally short-sided and aesthetically-challenged plan to stretch a $14 million rubber condom of a dam across the Susquehanna River at Wilkes-Barre.

A dam that would have been mounted right where the river is at it’s most environmentally challenged…at the Wyoming Valley. A dam that would have had us recreating on, perhaps in raw, untreated sewage spills, algae blooms and all sorts of marauding, floating, inanimate objects too numerous to mention here. Yup, the Main Street initiative sure beats all of that ill-conceived malarkey.

So even though it sounds awfully familiar, perhaps Cory O’Brien is on to something here, something that isn’t a laughable pipedream a la Paul Kanjorski.

Throw a fresh coat of paint, a couple of reworked signs and some new concrete Main Street‘s way?

Why the hell not?

Later