Remember when the city was desperate for revenue a few years ago, and there was all that talk about selling "naming rights" to public assets, like parks and bus shelters?Nothing unusual there from the formerly long-haired Chris Potter. But with his annoying gift of ferretting out more information than we simple bloggers can get our hands on, he adds:
Looks like Mayor Luke Ravenstahl beat us to it.
In the past week, Pittsburgh households started getting big postcards about garbage collection. There, beside the injunction to "Redd Up Pittsburgh," was a photo of Luke Ravenstahl, smiling like someone who didn't have to help sort the recyclables. Days later, KDKA-TV aired a report which noted that the city's 3-1-1 help line identifies itself as "Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's response line."
No surprise there. The service is identified the same way on the city's Web site (www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us), which might as well be Luke's MySpace page. The Web page features a slide show of 10 photos of Ravenstahl -- Ravenstahl posing with kids, Ravenstahl posing with a crossing guard, Ravenstahl doing a grip-and-grin with police. The photo featured at the page's center almost always depicts the mayor as well.
Ravenstahl didn't invent such practices, of course. The Web site's PR value was already being amped up during the late Bob O'Connor's brief tenure. And attaching your name to a clean-up campaign has long been one of the advantages of incumbency. Back in the 1970s, Pete Flaherty urged us to pick up trash "For Pete's Sake." Sophie Masloff emblazoned trash cans with the words "Sophie's Choice," apparently seeing some kind of connection between litter and the Holocaust. Even the fastidious Tom Murphy did it ... although to satisfy his ethical qualms, apparently, he came up with a slogan so boring no one remembers it.In his last few paragraphs, Potter outlines the big pile of crap that Mayor Luke made for himself to step in:
That mess involves Dennis Regan, an O'Connor appointee and confidante whom Ravenstahl inherited -- and later tried to put in charge of public safety.See?
Regan's promotion was thwarted when police Commander Catherine McNeilly accused him of intervening in disciplinary matters. Initially, Ravenstahl neatly swept the matter under the rug: An investigation supposedly found no wrongdoing, but Regan resigned anyway.
But when McNeilly was demoted a few weeks later, the other shoe dropped -- into a pile of dog crap, and with Ravenstahl's foot still in it.
Go read Potter.
For those who are interested, Commander -- I mean Lieutenant -- McNeilly has indeed filed suit against the city. Happened just today.
ReplyDeleteThanks to 2PJ for the mention, and for all you do.
-- Chris Potter
But with his annoying gift of ferretting out more information than we simple bloggers can get our hands on, he adds:
ReplyDeleteRavenstahl didn't invent such practices, of course. The Web site's PR value was already being amped up during the late Bob O'Connor's brief tenure. And attaching your name to a clean-up campaign has long been one of the advantages of incumbency. Back in the 1970s, Pete Flaherty urged us to pick up trash "For Pete's Sake." Sophie Masloff emblazoned trash cans with the words "Sophie's Choice," apparently seeing some kind of connection between litter and the Holocaust. Even the fastidious Tom Murphy did it ... although to satisfy his ethical qualms, apparently, he came up with a slogan so boring no one remembers it.
This was all on the roboto board.
This was all on the roboto board.
ReplyDeleteI know. I'm the guy who posted it there.
-- potter
So this name branding is nothing new. You people over here are so damn obsessed.
ReplyDeleteQuite to the contrary, Matt H. You are the one who is obsessed...with Bob O'Connor and now Luke Ravenstahl. If anyone says anything positive about Peduto (or Lamb or anyone outside of the O'Connor/Ravenstahl camp), you argue against them. Yet if anyone dare question anything Luke does, you are offended.
ReplyDeleteBig talk from someone who posts as Anonymous
ReplyDeleteAnd there's nothing anonymous about "Matt H"? Regardless, anonymity does not change the fact that my comment was on target.
ReplyDelete1) None of the previous mayors had the audacity to spend unnecessary cash in their capacities as mayors of a DISTRESSED MUNICIPALITY!!!!
ReplyDelete2) None of the previous mayors did it in the same blatantly political manner. One stuck his name on vehicles, one on standard literature, one on garbage cans - vehicles, literature & garbage cans the city would've bought/used anyway - not completely unnecessary billboards and superfluous & expensive literature!
3)As for O'Connor, the only thing he did was plaster his face on billboards - tacky, but since he did it AFTER he won the election, it's a very different scenario.
4) In the cases of Sophie, Murphy, O'Connor & Flaherty, it "looked" like a duck, but it didn't quack or walk like a duck. In the case of Luke, it's screaming "I'M A DUCK!"
5) Anyone who values good government initiatives should care about this & not shrug their shoulders just because someone else did something vaguely similar in the past.
Denny regan hasn't gone anywhere. He's still very much a part of luke's inner circle. Peas in a pod - both got lucky, neither earned their stripes. The only question is who is the bigger fraud?
ReplyDeleteDennis Regan was very visible at both Council's Christmas party and the Mayor's Dem Committee get together at the Heinz History Center.The mayor is flaunting his relationship with the thoroughly disagreeable Mr.Regan.If they're lucky they'll be sharing the defendant's table in Catherine McNeilly Federal whistle blower's lawsuit.
ReplyDeleteI can see all of Bill Peduto's lemmings are on here ripping Mayor Luke.
ReplyDelete