Sen. Arlen 'trippin'' in the W-B

The following caught my eye this afternoon, and for one specific reason.

The link: Specter tours Intermodal; will seek funds for sidewalks

The text: U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter Monday said he still has the clout to deliver funding to cities like Wilkes-Barre and Mayor Leighton has asked him to do just that.

The five-term Democrat was in town to tour the still-incomplete Intermodal Transportation Center and to announce that he will try to get the city an additional $500,000 for the Streetscape Project.

“This is a tremendous addition to the city,” Specter said. “Mayor Leighton has asked me to get some additional funding for sidewalks on the Public Square which I understand haven’t been replaced since the food of 1972.”

The Intermodal cost has risen to more than $28 million and $13.2 million of that is federally funded. The 752-space parking garage is now slated to open on March 1, but the bus terminal and lobby won’t open until late May or early June, the mayor said.

For the whole story, read Tuesday's The Times Leader.

As I had stated in that "I still believe" post of mine, those red paver bricks haven't been replaced since they were laid in place after the Agnes flood. As I also noted, despite having oodles and oodles of palletized replacement bricks on site, there was never any maintenance to speak of done as those "sidewalks" disintegrated.

And I reiterate, the city had been on auto-pilot for far too long.

And where none before him had bothered, who's working to have them replaced? And who's always striving for more and more infrastructure improvements? Why, that would be one Mayor Tom Leighton.

I don't really have much time for this today. But before I make my escape from this electronic Never Never Land...

This one damn near floored me.


From Not Cease From Exploration:

I've found that I've had a tendency of late to sit here and write about politics, politicians, policy, people and other things on the outside (not all of which start with "p" by the way). Now I don't mean to imply that those are easy targets, because sometimes that kind of stuff actually requires a fair amount of mental lifting in order to pull off to any great extent. In fact there are many very well exceptionally written political blogs in NEPA (Gort, NEPArtisan, Mark Cour's blog among others)...stuff that is amateur only in the sense that the writers don't get paid to write.

Dude, as appreciated as they may be, kind words about me are not allowed as per the NEPA Blogging Council by-laws. Please refer to section 3, page 37, and you'll see that you have clearly violated the terms of agreement. If you persist with this sort of ill-advised malarkey, you can expect to be censored by the council when next they meet over a couple of thousands beers.

Now wise up!

Later