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When I lived in other places I joked that the best redevelopment project in Wilkes-Barre was the 1972 Agnes flood. It was like living in Noah's Ark when you date things by before the flood and after the flood. I was 12 when that happened and it was an adventure. I was a little boy and helicopters landing at Guthrie Field and people living in tents was neat. Today I know better. The Mayor of Wilkes-Barre has just ordered an evacuation of people living near Solomens Creek in south W-B because of of this rain. We don't have many natural disaters hit this area, toronados and hurricanes are rare and eathquakes are unheard of. But when you are going to lose your house to the forces of nature it doesn't matter what causes it.
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Wilkes-Barre has never recovered from the '72 flood.
A significant reason was the lack of sincere federal interest in rebuilding.
A bigger reason has been the short-sighted "leadership" in the political, business, and financial sectors over the last thirty years.
In that area of the state they seem to be more interested in using their leverage to steer business, contracts, deals, and advantages to friends, cronies, relatives and those who could return the favor, then they are in doing what is best for the community.
That's why so many storefronts and offices are empty in Wilkes-Barre and why they have been for decades.
Maybe the recent downtown development -- moving state office jobs from other areas of the county downtown, the transportation center, and the theatre project, will make a change.
But, frankly, I think that the leadership is basically the same. That means no vision, no integrity, no chance.
I'd like to be proven wrong. If the storefronts and offices are filled up in March, 2007, then I will have been, happily, wrong.
But I am not optimistic.
GORT, Don't worry, be happy. I'mxsure FEMA will come to the rescue. Bush will drop the sandbags himself.
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