I guess I'm a Road Geek!

OK, here's an admission...I'm an infrastructure kind of guy. I'm one of those people that whenever they build a new road, I want to drive on it within the first 24 hours of it's being built. I collect maps. I have a pretty sizeable collection. I've loved maps since I was very little. I was always "The Navigator" whenever my family took a trip.

I love roads.

I just found a website that totally fuels my obsession, and found some people that are more obsessed than me. It's PAHighways.com. It is the work of this cool dude Jeffrey J. Kitsko of Latrobe. Among Road Geeks, he is most honored. And he's built one amazing website. Within it's pages are details upon details of the history of planning, the construction schedule, and little know facts about every Interstate, US and major PA road in the state. I'm dumbfounded where he got all of his information, but it's all there.

Several years ago, my obsession got the best of me and I spent an afternoon at the old Erie Public Library on S. Park Row looking through old Erie Times-News clippings on area highways. I don't know if they still have clipping drawers at Blasko, but I found out some cool things, like how they titled the expansion of US 20 to four lanes from Girard to the Ohio Line the Erie County Thruway or Turnpike or something like that. There was also great gnashing of teeth when the state planners decided to put I-90 three miles south of the city, instead of through it (can you imagine 4-lane overpasses cutting off our view of the bay?!?!). There was also the big stink area residents put up that defeated the plan to put an I-79 interchange at West 38th Street...which would have been helpful right around 2006.

A cool thing that I had long forgot but Mr. Kitsko had on his site was that the original designation of I-79 was to stop at I-90, and a I-179 was to go north, parelleling PA 99 to around Kearsarge. Weird, huh! Thank goodness they kept I-79 going, and now we have the beautiful Bayfront Parkway from there.

What's the big deal about roads? Highways have made us prosper, see more of this great country, and share experiences with our families. One of the weird things about being a road geek is trying to get into the head of a person traveling across the country before the Interstate Highway System. What was it like in the early 1950's to drive from Boston to Chicago, having to drive through all of those little towns, including on our Buffalo Road, Broad Street, 26th Street, and Ridge Road? It's seems quite romantic and difficult at the same time.

All this to say great job Jeff Kitsko on an awesome website for road geeks...like me.

A Tale of Two Eries

I was driving across West 12th Street on Easter with my father-in-law who lives out of town. As we entered the West Erie Plaza area he mentioned, "Boy, there are alot of closed up buildings here." As I looked around at the old BP, Shebang, Eckards, and countless other properies complete with "For Lease/Sale" signs, it occured to me that when it comes to retail and economic activity, there are two Eries.
The one we hear and brag about is the Erie of upper Peach Street. The Lowes, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy retail district, plus all of the Scott Enterprises hotels, restaurants and Splash Lagoon. It's the Erie that people from outside Erie County know...those people with excess discretionary income. Thank God they come here!
Then there's the other Erie, the funky, boarded up, broke Erie. West Erie Plaza, Liberty Plaza, even parts of the Millcreek Mall (what happened to SteinMart, the Regal cinemas, Ames, Blair outlet). This is the Erie of the dollar store and Value City. It's a real, troubling picture of our true economic condition, and it should concern everyone regionally.
Notice that most of the boarded up places I mentioned are in what's supposed to be coveted Millcreek. I think the township has definately peaked, and is being passed by in favor of Summit for commercial development, and Fairview and Edinboro for residential. I've been saying for 10 years now that with the money available from the federal and state governments, the urban core will experience renewal, but the immediate suburbs will suffer, creating a donut effect of vital core, surrounded by trouble, then wealth in the sprawling distant townships.
It's lousy planning, of course, but no one seems to have a will to really get tough with a comprehensive county-wide growth, or maybe it should be called a counter-stagnation plan.
What my father-in-law saw is the true indicator of the really poor condition of our regional economy, and the need of a regional approach to development, tax policy, and getting our economy moving.

What's the future of broadcasting?

A friend of mine asked me about what I thought the future held in terms of radio and television broadcasting, especially considering all of the emerging technologies in the mix. I thought you might want to hear what I shared:

Mike,

In a nutshell, I think that TV and radio continue to be a robust business, yet very different than the industry I entered 23 years ago. In a lot of ways it's better: more stable operators, better wages, more accountability, better programmed stations. In many ways it's worse: worse at public service, less connection to community, less opportunities for jobs for young people (when one announcer can voice track two dozen stations from central location, it's hard for a kid to get a break).

I differ with you on the promise of satellite. I think in both TV and radio, it's huge. But it may soon be eclipsed by internet radio, and the I-pod and podcasts. The entrance of fiber to the last mile will only make more bandwidth available, not change what's on the data streams.

All of this diversity will make not only each format, but each technology into a niche. I-pods will attract young people, true lovers of music, and business travelers. Terrestial radio for activists and low-income consumers. Satellite for high-income consumers. I think the technology chips will fall as they may.

Finally, if I had the cash to pick up a station with a footprint over a viable community, I would grab it. Because if I got the programming right, I could play in all of the above technologies except satellite. And that's the great thing about creating good content and spreading it around. And remember, one analog FM station means three digital ones...and that's cool!

God bless,
Joel