As the calendar assumes control and the center of gravity meanders east, attention begins to turn toward sorting the flotsam, which includes the aspirations of law firms that expected to be paid from a torrent of cash at the consummation of the Not-So-Great InsolvenCity Parking Garage Sale.
Could one local firm be looking at a $4 million loss? Several other firms seem to be in line for smaller but nonetheless large hits. All of those firms may be looking at alternative sources of payment for their work, or at prospects concerning retribution. (If they were UPMC doctors rather than lawyers, of course, the partners could label the unpaid invoices "free care" and categorize the amount as a charitable contribution to the community.)
It is too early to wonder whether citizens will ever learn which local levers were assisting which business and political interests during the parking-and-pensions wrangling?
This is Good-Bye - For Now
2 weeks ago
10 comments:
Couldn't the lawyers just write it off as pro bono work and use it as a charitable contribution?
far as i'm concerned if infy says its time for the epilogue, it's time for the epilogue
what's a epilogue?
Infy:
You may well be right. We're headed out of the section of the Greek Literature labeled "comedies" and into the section labeled "tragedies."
Onward and downward, I suppose
Downward?
Is there any reason to believe InsolvenCity's situation is about to get worse?
More apparent, perhaps, but not worse.
Infy:
The structural deficiencies are and have been apparent to almost anybody who has bothered to look at it from even afar, but yes, it will become more apparent still.
It's the other things, far more contemporary and far more insidious in nature that will compound, exacerbate and yes, make the situation worse.
Worse than a billion-dollar sinkhole?
Worse than ineffective, poorly advised, overmatched elected officials?
Worse than an emigration-ravaged population, a crumbling infrastructure, and the consequences of decades of poor decisions on major projects?
A contemporary, insidious threat worse than the chronic failures?
Bristol Palin was eliminated from Dancing With The Stars, so what could be worse? Mothra? Double-secret probation? Decepticons?
The return of Tom Murphy?
Infy:
We're already on double-secret probation. LOL.
By billion-dollar sinkhole are you referring to the tunnel to the casino? LOL
Chronic failures wouldn't refer to the future fate of our crumbling infrastructure?
Overmatched elected officials? Talk about your double-edged swords.
You know it took 28 years and two movies and three reincarnations of Optimus Prime and somehow we're still stuck with the scurge of the Decepticons. Guess it so true what Yeats said in his classic poem:
"The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity."
Tom Murphy, like it or not, like Richard Nixon, will be judged more highly by historians than by his contemporaries.
Fading memories and generosity of spirit might remove some of the stink from perceptions of Murphy and Nixon, but the people who knew them best had it right when they reviled them.
Murphy does not deserve to be classified with Nixon. Nixon was a reprehensible person as well as an ugly leader. Tom Murphy was merely a failure.
Infy:
I'm no Nixon lover, but he did create the EPA, made the Clean Air and Water Acts happen, create the CDBG program, normalize relations with Red China.
His biggest problem was that he hated himself more than his detractors.
Murphy failed to redevelop Fifth and Forbes, failed to keep us from going broke, failed to create better relationships with Harrisburg either while he was Mayor or while he represented the the 20th District, but he did save Manchester from destruction that was to be caused by the redesign of the North Shore Expressway.
Converting a slag heap in the Nine Mile Run (along with supporting its' remediation) are to his credit, as is the trails system we have along with restoring Schenley Plaza to parkspace from a concrete parking lot also inure to his tenure as Mayor.
Not singing his praises, Infy, but I see both the good and not so good.
Just saying.
Richard Nixon accomplished a number of good (or better) things. But Nixon was a vindictive, small, hypocritical bigot who lied, cheated, abused power and fought as much against freedom and democracy as for them. Those points, and others, dwarfed the good he accomplished.
Tom Murphy also accomplished some good things, perhaps enough to constitute a substantial fraction of the enormous harm he inflicted. It is too early to determine whether Tom Murphy killed Pittsburgh, or merely severely wounded it. Murphy did not, however, exhibit a measurable fraction of Richard Nixon's ugliness or lawlessness.
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