I grew up in Washington County and my visits to Beaver Falls were few but I remember a quaint, charming town with interesting architecture and lots of trees. I’ll tell you what would help to revitalize a lot of those old mill towns in western PA, would be cheap, reliable commuter rail systems into metropolitan Pittsburgh. If that doesn’t happen soon, even those McMansions planted in those greenfield developments are going to fade away.

The other thing that would help, IMO, would be to begin to encourage people to grow food again. Studies are beginning to show that the areas of the country that are now serving as our breadbasket will not be able to sustain agriculture unless someone invents a new water source. The watertables are getting so low and the droughts so long in the midwest and intermountain west that farming will very soon be seriously threatened. The fear is that those climate changes are permanent, are related to global warming, and will only worsen and spread as global warming worsens. The USDA is suggesting that we begin to plan how to farm in areas of the country where IT RAINS!!! Well, it rains in Beaver County, doesn’t it? This will require some forward thinking on the part of county and state governments regarding marketing the products of local farmers and gardeners, as well as local facilities for “putting food by”: canneries, meat packers, etc. We do it for milk in PA. Why not other agricultural products? We used to have a dispersed food production infrastructure but big agri-business has made the markets not economically feasible for small operations to continue. I recently read of a beef farmer in New England that had to quit raising a breed of beef that his family had husbanded for generations not because he couldn’t sell it, but because the last packing house had closed.

In the era of peak oil, as transportation costs continue to escalate, it will become more and more attractive to grow food locally. And, that train to the city will become a necessity for all those exurban office workers. We should begin this work now!

Welcome “home”. I’m still stuck in Philly.*

Kevin
http://www.pafordemocracy.com

*Philly folks, don’t be insulted. I love it here. But, it’s different. If you weren’t raised in the verdant hills and valleys of western PA you’ll not understand how hard it is to stay here. Except, of course, for my relatively high-paying, relatively secure job. There are few of those in western PA since the Reagan Rustbowl days. Hence, the need for phillydem’s original question. :^)

Those are excellent comments and exactly what I was looking for from KP readers like yourself.

You know one good thing about the western PA diaspora in Philly and the SE is that a growing number of people will lose the “us” vs “them” mentality between east and west.

pd

But I still see a lot of resistance from western PA folks toward anything that comes from Philly, even if it’s a western PA native that’s saying it.

sigh

Kevin

PD –

Welcome back to WPA!

Well, Oakmont CC is getting all the press this week, but Beaver Falls is much more emblematic of what this part of the world is really like…

I have driven through BF for years and wondered what it must have been like during its heyday. That lovely wide main drag and those wonderful, solid bits of early 20th century commercial architecture tell a story; this small city was once prosperous. As you allude to, the question is; can that happen again?

Many of Kevin’s comments echo my thoughts and are spot on. While we can’t sit back and wait for it to happen, I firmly believe that the time is coming when these dormant main streets will once again thrive…because economics (mostly related to oil) will make it a necessity.

Two competing forces are at work. One is the desire by corporate chain stores and restaurants to build cookie-cutter stores from the ground up. They don’t have any desire to re-purpose an older building with a footprint that doesn’t match exactly the one that some architect in Dallas drew up four years ago. Hence, they opt for new development and abandon “downtown.” This wouldn’t be a problem if local companies could infill, but local retail has a very hard time competing anymore.

At the same time, large corporations have turned tail on towns like Beaver Falls, too, so solid job opportunities are lacking.

On the issue of residents being slow to “get it.” Yea, it’s not the center of progressive thought. On the other hand, Western PA has also not suffered from the boom-bust cycle that is evident in many of the most highly touted and “fastest growing” communities around the nation. Seriously; when people praise Vegas and talk about all the growth there I often wonder; “Yea, but why would I want to live in the middle of the flat, freakin’ desert where the summertime highs are in the mid 100s?” My point is that people around here are very much tied to their communities, for good or ill. And in my heart, I think it’s for the best.

Now, one of the main problems I see with the entire Beaver, Allegheny, Ohio, Mon Valley economy is the multiplicity of municipalities. Changing that alone would make a HUGE impact. I honestly don’t think most resident REALLY care about their local councils and such…they just THINK they do. They are, but nature, risk averse. If we could magically eliminate all these piddly little townships and boroughs tomorrow nobody would notice…until they started to notice how much lower their taxes were and how much better their services were!

Glad to have you on this side of the watershed! I may not be the first, but I’d like to suggest that you now officially change your moniker to BeaverDem. Has a nice ring, no?

Piltdown Man

Can’t disagree with anything you wrote, Pilt. An interesting anecdote that downtowns can keep businesses for you. There’s a Sherwin-Williams paint store downtown. Since I’ve decided to patronize downtown businesses as much as possible, I bought paint there. I chatted up the cleck who told me that the store was going to move up with all the big box mall, but that the person who owned the building they moved to downtown gave them a very good deal on rent, so they stayed.

pd

ps – too many folks know me as “phillydem” to change now. :)

After 24 years of democratic control of Beaver Falls, via Mike Veon, now you’d like to ask that this problem be considered a non-partisan issue? I’m sorry, but the voter’s reap what they sow.

The tax structure of our commonwealth does not encourage business growth thru normal means. When a politician shows up for a photo-op with an “oversized cardboard check” paid for by the taxpayers, and gives it to the corporation as incentive to overcome PA’s business taxes, you must realize that is a failed system.

We lived with that failed system for the past 24 years. We are now hopeful that our freshman representative & his colleauges in the general assembly can start reforming our tax codes and create the needed incentive for business to want to be here!

Yes, helping revitalize small towns IS non-partisan. I expect whoever the elected representatives are to work in the best interests of the communities they represent. If you have ideas, then present them.

FYI, two weeks ago, the first week I was in town, I stopped into Marshall’s office and offered to volunteer with writing grant applications or other things to help BF and left my name and number. Despite being told the office would be in touch, over a week later I’m still waiting for a return call.

pd

PD –

“...over a week later I’m still waiting for a return call.”

That, my friend, does not surprise. And it does relate to politics. Unless you are part of the “club,” it’s likely you’ll never hear back. From their perspective, they are wondering, “Who is this guy and why is he trying to upstage us? Hell, WE know how to do these dang thins…we don’t need him!”

Tell you what, you ought to keep note of all your efforts on behalf of BF. Might make an interesting book..

Pilt

No, not in this case, Pilt. I will stop down again this week and be persistent. :) Look, I won’t be voting for Marshall, but I do give him credit for having a main office in downtown BF and he’s a BFHS grad as is his daughter and as am I. That said, he doesn’t strike me as ball of fire and his patron, Perzel, was ousted from house leadership so his chances of bringing home the kind of bacon Veon did are problematic.

Anyway, I hope you will keep giving some thought to concrete things BF and other small towns can do to help themselves and post them here.

pd

PD –

Count on my to give you some positive ideas.

At the same time, don’t imagine for a minute that politicss won’t play a part…

Pilt

There have been a group of us in Allegheny County that attempted numerous times to volunteer our services, but every appeal has been unsuccessful. We have contacted school board members, borough officials, council members, and even the local political party committees yet no action has been taken. After weeks of analyzing, we deduced that change and results will be best achieved by focusing on the community. The neighborhoods are our best chances for success, and when we can rally the residents, we can start holding these people, who don’t take their constituents’ offer of volunteerism, accountable.
The best recommendation for bringing back business is to strengthen the community.

Citizen Driven

While you attract concepts from other people on how to revitalize the area, it would be great if you could post them for others to learn. The only drawback we have found when presenting solutions to these councils, is they can turn a deaf ear. Most will often choose to ignore one person, because that is the easiest course of action for them. Why enact policy and change, if it means more work? When you attend the township meetings, take note of how there is always a rush to adjourn. Bring as much support as possible – make them hear you, and provide additional actions that will be taken if the council fails to work with your programs.
The ideas we have proposed are volunteer in nature. The first was an ‘adopt a plot’ concept where individuals take responsibility for a specified area; for example, a parking lot that has trash floating around, and landscaping that has wasted away. The second was building on the already established high school senior projects that students need to complete to graduate. Rather than always having these projects be a research report, why not have the students formulate a plan and carry it out that involves bettering the community/school district in some manner.
Again, this goes back to the understanding that for business to breed, the community needs to be attractive, clean, friendly, and involved.

Citizen Driven