The Curious Incident of the Flood Damaged Personal Vehicles

Not to be outdone, several "old school" Pittsburgh institutions have offered their unique contributions to avoid future drown-in-rain deaths on Washington Blvd.


Kennywood Park has offered to contribute some "you must be this tall" signs from their amusement park, which could be adjusted to ensure that only vehicles that are 6 feet tall can enter the area in the rain. The conceptual basis is that the roadway floods to nine feet, so a person standing on top of a six-foot vehicle would probably survive.

The Pittsburgh Parking Authority (which operates the Mon Wharf parking lot) has offered to manage the public's use of the street in potential flood conditions on a cost-plus basis. "We've been running a paved area that periodically floods for years, and we've never had anybody drown yet", said the spokesman. "Once again, the Parking Authority comes to the city's rescue."

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Finally, a man who was smoking a cigarette in the background stepped up to contribute some anecdotal evidence. The smoking man asked, "Are you all familiar with the story of Silver Blaze, and the implications of the damaged personal vehicles at Zone 5, adjacent to the tragedy?"

While the others stood mutely the smoking man explained: Sherlock Holmes was called in to investigate the disappearance of a valuable horse, Silver Blaze. A Detective was discussing the case with Sherlock Holmes.

Detective: "Is there any other point to which you wish to draw attention?"
Holmes: "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."
Detective: "The dog did nothing in the night-time."
Holmes: "That was the curious incident."


The Parking Authority rep blurted out, "What does that have to do with this fiasco?"
Smoking man replied, "Consider the damaged personal vehicles of Zone 5's police officers".

"But none of the police officer's personal vehicles were damaged."
The stranger puffed on his cigarette. "And in the July flood?"
"No, no damaged personal vehicles in July, either."
"Curious", said the smoking man, who walked out in a pungent cloud of tobacco-smoke.

Fix 2.0 : Solutions from New Pittsburgh and the Creative Class

Local businesses that can be said to represent "new Pittsburgh", rather than the brick-and-mortar "Olde Pittsburgh", converged for a adhoc meeting at Nadine's on the SouthSide to discuss what they could do to keep the obviously crumbling Pittsburgh infrastructure - as demonstrated by Friday's four deaths due to drowning in rain - from affecting their "Burgh 2.0" operations.

The meeting started with CMU ex-pat Dr. Richard Florida, speaking on an iPad via Skype, who cautioned that "the creative class, Your City 2.0, sits on the foundation of traditional city services and infrastructure. Once you start drowning people in the rain, the creatives will be out of town on the next MegaBus, kiss them and their tweets goodbye". The waiter serving the table interrupted to say, "You know MegaBus has wifi, right?"

Scott Bricker, executive director of Bike Pittsburgh, suggested that the nearby Washington Blvd. Bike Oval could be a resource. "If we stored a dozen of these bike-boat kits at the Oval, in times of emergency riders could use their bicycles to save cagers motorists from killer rainfall."


The Sandcastle spokeperson chimed in, "We have a core competency at distributing flotation devices, like the heavy-duty tubes for the Lazy River. We could open a booth on Washington Blvd, ready to hand out tubes whenever it begins to rain."


Michael Cohen, co-owner of Just Ducky Tours, said "with the right incentives, we could establish a ticket office and boarding facility in Highland Park. During normal conditions, we'd target people who on Zoo trips and proceed down the boulevard to the Allegheny River. During non-standard conditions such as rain, we could keep our fleet in reserve to support rescue operations."


Dawn Keezer, Director of the Pittsburgh Film Office, brought an unexpected nugget: "We've been contacted by a well-known local documentary film-maker who wants to shoot a movie about Pennsylvania floods, both historic - think Johnstown - and in the current time."

She said, "Rick Sebak, who you all know from WQED and "Stuff That's Gone", wants to film a documentary called "Rain and Floods". He's asked that we take no action to disturb the current situation, because he'd like to capture the conditions as they exist, today. He'd like to begin filming whenever it rains."

At this point, Richard Florida (who had been listening) asked, "But when it starts to rain and Sebak and his people start filming... How do you handle the logistics of that?"

"Exactly", said the Film Office honcho, with a knowing smile. "Whenever the rain starts and they begin to film, we'll immediately close the streets - because we can close streets for filming.".

Richard Florida said, "It's the perfect creative class win-win paradox! I think you should go with it". After a consensus recommendation of the Film Office's approach, the meeting convened with a flurry of twitter updates and messenger bags.

Bicycle Death on C O Canal near White's Ferry

A bicyclist was killed on the C&O Canal near White's Ferry.




From WJLA:

A falling tree struck and killed a man who was bicycling on the C&O Canal Towpath between Whites Ferry and Edwards Ferry Sunday night.

A National Park Service spokesperson told ABC7 that Neil Reich, 56, of New York, was near mile marker 33 shortly before 7 p.m. when high winds and heavy rain knocked down numerous trees.

Reich was riding his bike with a companion on a two-day bike trip from Harpers Ferry, WV to Washington, D.C.

According to the companion, Reich stopped to put on his rain coat because of the storm. His companion continued biking along the towpath and stopped later to wait for Reich.

When Reich didn't catch up, the companion went back to find him and had to maneuver around some trees that had fallen. The companion then found that Reich had been struck by a fallen tree.

The companion called 911 and Montgomery County Fire and Rescue responded to the area. The squad had to chain saw numerous trees to gain access to Reich. The tree struck Reich in the head area. He died at the scene.

Our sympathy goes out to his family and friends.

Greiving the Loss of Kazansky's

As one ages and moves well into the second half of life expectancy, your friends start dropping off - first you see your cohort encountering diseases that used to only happen to geezers, and next you're going to funeral homes and realizing that all those graybeards are your contemporaries.

In another way, as you age you necessarily outlast some things. You out-survive them. I feel old when I outlast businesses and institutions. I become uncomfortable when I pass by "stuff that's gone", like White Swan Park. I don't grieve their demise for their own sakes, I grieve their ending because it's a loss for me and also because it reminds me of my own mortality.




I had that selfish, egocentric grieving feeling today when I learned that Kazansky's Deli had gone mechuleh, gone forever, and even worse it closed last May and I didn't even know about it till now.

We had a relationship. We'd been a regular thing once but with kids and jobs we'd moved apart, seeing each other only a couple of times a year. But there was still something there. At least I thought so. This could be the sort of moment John Donne wrote about.

At the end of the day, Kazansky's is closed and my comforts are diminished, and now I need to find a good kosher place for periodic noshing. I have needs. I need a legit Reuben, a knish, borscht, and red cabbage soup. And if I could find a good egg cream, would that be too much to ask for?

I grieve the loss of Kazansky's. Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for me.

Dying to Ride a Bicycle: 4 Dead in 8 Weeks

The WDUQ News Blog, which is increasingly my mainstay source for local news, carries this: PA Bicycle Deaths Double from '08 to '09.

16 bicyclists were killed in Pennsylvania last year, doubling the 2008 death count, says the state Department of Transportation. “While that number may seem low to many people, that’s still 16 people that had their lives cut short,” says PennDOT spokeswoman Alison Wenger.

Unfortunately, there is no context, and I'm not sure how you'd quantify it. Did fatalities double because riding doubled? (okay news) Did fatalities double while riding tripled? (good news) Did fatalities double while riding stayed flat? (bad news)



In Thursday's Post-Gazette we see this unattributed story: Bicyclist killed in Indiana Township accident, and I'd like to repeat it here:

A Hampton man died this morning after his bicycle was struck from behind by a pickup truck on a steep grade in Indiana Township.

Dxxxx Pxxxxx, 52, of Clearfield Road, died at UPMC Presbyterian following the accident, which occurred at 7:11 a.m. on Harts Run Road near Dorseyville Road.

Indiana Township police said Mr. Pxxxxx was pedaling east, or uphill, on Harts Run Road when his bike was struck by a pickup truck that had been behind him.

Indiana Township police said Mr. Pxxxxx's bicycle was in the travel lane, not on the berm, when the accident occurred. They said no charges had been filed against the driver, whose name was not released.

I'm loathe to write about a specific death or accident, because it's a tragedy for all involved. I've removed the name to avoid the family finding this via Google. It's curious and illuminating that the police are protecting the driver's name, and not the victim's name.

I know that people get killed in traffic accidents, in cars and bikes and just walking, and nobody means for it to happen - that's why they're called accidents. What irks me is the uninformed bias in the report, which subsequently misinforms and maladjusts the public's awareness.

Generally media reports blame the rider. Sometimes they blame the rider for not wearing a helmet, or not having lights and riding in the dark - that's a report that indicates some understanding.

Thursday's story presents: He was riding in the lane, not the berm. Of course, Nobody was charged. No news here, move along.

He is allowed to ride in the lane. He doesn't have to ride on the berm. Daylight, no rain, a motorist runs over and kills a bicyclist who was legally on the road. No charges filed.

I'm sure the motorist in this case feels terrible. S/he certainly didn't mean for it to happen. That's not my point. My point is that until newspapers start reporting these deaths without bias, there won't be any improvement in public awareness.

Under the international Vienna Convention on Road Traffic (1968), a bicycle is defined to be a vehicle and a cyclist is considered to be a driver. In a minority of jurisdictions (the states of Arizona, California, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, New York, and Texas in the United States) a bicycle is legally defined as a "device" rather than as a vehicle, but in all cases operators of bicycles share a basic set of rights and responsibilities with operators of motor vehicles.


In Pennsylvania, bicycles are vehicles.
They belong in the street.
Share the road.

• April 7, 2010: Bicyclist killed in Westmoreland County
  
• May 23, 2010 Child Riding Bike Hit By Car in Knoxville, dies of injuries
  
• May 27, 2010: Bicyclist killed in Indiana Township (this story)
  
• Friday, May 29, 2010: Fayette County bicyclist fatally injured.