More on the Port Authority cuts

In this week's "Getting Around" column, Joe Grata points out:

In 1975, John T. Mauro, the executive director of the Port Authority wrote:

"By this stage of the 20th century, with a lengthy history of transit failures to look back on, it would seem that our community and political leaders would have come to understand this one universal fact: The long-term answer to financial problems of public transportation cannot and will not be found in cutbacks in service and in the work force, nor in fare increases.

"These stopgap measures have been tried repeatedly in the past, and they have proved to be regressive and self-defeating. Such steps, if tried again, will certainly lead to the complete downfall of this and other public transport systems."

So why is the Port Authority working to eliminate 124 of 213 routes in the system? Make the routes smarter, yes. But don't eliminate them altogether!

Next for Pennsylvania: Putting Its Cards on the Table

Stupid slippery slope... They said that it would only be slot machines. Then why is everyone calling them "casinos" instead of "slots parlors"?

Read the article.

Unfortunately, I know people like this...

You Look Like You Could Use Someone To Talk To On This 5-Hour Bus Ride

Do you mind if I move your coat? This happens to be my third-favorite seat on the bus. Numbers one and two are already taken. Those are...

Unfortunately, I know people like this...

What I'm reading

I received a bunch of books for Christmas and I'm looking forward to reading them this year. Here are the books that I'm planning on reading:

1. Armageddon's Children by Terry Brooks
• A fiction book from one of my favorite authors
  
2. Big Dead Place by Nicholas Johnson
• A book about Antarctica
  
3. 1776 by David McCullough
• History of the Declaration of Independence
  
4. John Adams by David McCullough
• The well-known biography of John Adams
  
5. The Aquariums of Pyongyang by Kang Chol-Hwan
• This odd book is written by a man who survived the North Korean gulags and escaped to South Korea.
  
6. The Day the Universe Changed by James Burke
• James Burke was the host of several PBS documentaries, including "Connections". This book explores the way inventions influence history.

Does anyone have any books that they would suggest? Please post your suggestions in the comments!

Harry Potter

Well, I know that Heather likes Harry Potter. I've read the books as well. They're a fun and easy read; great for children. Anyway, the big news today in the Harry Potter world is that the title of the new book will be "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows". Sounds spooky, doesn't it?

Pedestrians say city gives them 'don't walk' signals

Pedestrians say city gives them 'don't walk' signal

I'd have to agree with almost every assertion made in this article. Living in Mt. Lebanon, I walk to the T Station every day, a 1/2 mile in each direction. Sometime's its a real challenge getting safely there, with the cars not paying attention, running stop lights, running stop signs, etc. When I get off the T at the Wood Street station, I only have to cross one street, Sixth Avenue at Liberty Avenue. However, it can take several minutes to cross the street here with the cars turning right on red, etc. Considering that both Pittsburgh and Mt. Lebanon have a vested interest in keeping pedestrians safe, I hope that some workable solutions come out of this.

Real time Light Rail information

Real time information is currently offered for riders of the Washington, DC metro system. Why can't we add it here in Pittsburgh? Our system is much less complex then DC and we already have the signage in place at all of the high level stops. Port Authority?

PA lacks paper backup to voting electronically

Seriously, Pennsylvania should have fixed this long ago. If I recall correctly, Pennsylvania actually has a law that forbits the use of paper backup systems.

Really, how hard can this be? I grew up in Alabama. In Alabama, we used the scan-tron type fill in the bubble ballot. It was pretty straight forward. I don't recall it ever being a problem. Here's the way things should work:

You have an electronic voting machine. Just like the ones we use now, it handles your vote for each election, making sure you didn't miss any elections, etc. Then, instead of simply recording your vote, have the machine print out a scan-tron type ballot. Then, the voter can take the ballot, look over it to make sure that everything is correct, and then feed it to the scan-tron machine and walk out. Something wrong on the ballot? Simply tell a poll worker who will cancel the old ballot and let you start the process over.

This way, you get to vote electronically (which everyone seems to like), yet you have a voter verified paper trail. Because the computer printed the ballot, there are no problems of hanging chads or other such nonsense.

It seems like such a simple concept; can this really be that difficult?

Bridge work to reroute South Hills transit

When the Pittsburgh LRT (known locally as the "T") was closed for recent repairs to the South Hills Tunnel, I noticed that they were doing additional work on the bridge over Highway 51. It didn't appear to be a part of the original project, but it looks now like they were evaluating the bridge's condition.

It appears (like many of Pennsylvania's other bridges) that the bridge is in very poor condition. As such, it will be closed for nine months, beginning in March for repairs. It's actually noticable when you're riding the "T" as the condition of the rails goes from very smooth to very rough in the matter of seconds near the Dawn station.

As a commuter on the "T", I take this route to work every day. We'll be inconvenienced by about 10 minutes per trip; instead of going north to work, we'll go south and move to the Overbrook line. But even with this inconvenience, I'm glad that they are addressing the situation. It show's the Port Authority's support for the LRT system going into the future.

Wish list

Every year, people ask me what I want for Christmas. For your convenience, I have a wish list at Amazon.com. You can see it by clicking here.

Even more Abigail Pictures

Getting track of each week after she was born was getting a little tedious, so for now I'm going to twice per month, starting with "Early November". I'm sure I'll get a system down eventually!

Dick Cheney on occupying Baghdad

"It would be dangerous. We’d get mired down inside Iraq in a conflict that’s been raging for generations in the interests of trying to dictate who’s going to govern in Iraq. That is not something that we are prepared to see American forces do." - Dick Cheney

"For the US to get involved militarily in determining the outcome of the struggle over whose going to govern in Iraq strikes me as a classic definition of a quagmire." - Dick Cheney

Huh? These words were spoken by Cheney in a 1991 NPR interview. Check out this NPR report.

More on Abigail

Hi all! It's been a busy few months since Abigail was born, so I've been out of the loop, but she's been doing wonderfully! Heather has been taking her maternity leave from work since she was born, but she is due to return at the beginning of December. That's when I'll begin my FMLA leave from work. From what I've been told, its one of the best experiences that a dad can have and I'm greatly looking forward to it.

Also, I've updated my main web page at http://www.clarkbhm.com to include two new feeds; the first feed is entries from this very blog. The second feed is of articles that I found to be interesting or amusing. Let me know what you think!
Matthew

Abigail Pictures

Abigail Pictures are available online at http://www.abigailclark.com. Enjoy!

Abigail Clark

Hello all,
For those of you who don't already know, Heather and I are proud to announce the birth of our first child, Abigail Clark. Abigail was born on Wednesday September 6. Mother and baby are doing well!
Matthew

First Penguins game

Heather and I went to our first Penguins game last night. We won! You can see a recap of the game here.

Steelers win the Super Bowl

In case you were living in a cave in Afghanistan last weekend, you missed our very own Pittsburgh Steelers winning Super Bowl XL, their first Super bowl win since January of 1980. Heather and I were able to catch the game despite being in Charlotte for my grandmother's funeral.

On Tuesday, February 7, an estimated 250,000 people crowded downtown streets to catch the Super Bowl victory parade. You can see my pictures from the parade.

Grandmother's Funeral

If you didn't know, my grandmother passed away last November in Charlotte. On February 4, we had a memorial service in Charlotte. This memorial service also acted as a family reunion as this was the first time I had seen several of my cousins in fifteen years. Pictures of the reunion are available online here.

Commuting in Pittsburgh

See this article in the Post Gazette for a great report on "Commuting in Pittsburgh".

Steelers win!

In a game for the ages, the Steelers upset the Colts in Indianapolis. You had to see it to appreciate it. We're off to Denver!