This page was last updated on June 11, 2012.
What about Aliquippa train station?; Jolan Douds; Beaver County Times; June 10, 2012.
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“I drive through Beaver often for various reasons, shopping, visiting family, going to the Med Center. As I leave, I always enjoy the train station as I drive by, and I was glad to read there are plans to preserve it.
“As a lifelong resident of Aliquippa, I’ve had the same thought about our train station, as it is the first building you see when entering from Route 51. I’ve wondered why no one has tried to renovate and preserve it.
“Even in its sad state of neglect I’ve always thought it was beautiful. I hope this letter catches someone’s attention.”
[RWC] The only reason for this “critique” is to address comments on the BCT website. One of our local Marxists (his description, not mine) opined,
“Why not make it a train station again. Let’s get our political class to curb throwing away money on useless wars and military hardware, and create some local jobs by building a light rail circulator to connect to Pittsburgh’s Have it run up and down both sides of the river from the Point to Beaver and back, and restore all the old stations along the way. It just might promote a new wave of small business development all along, especially give the potential impact of the new ‘cracker’ plant and its potential secondary spinoffs. You could even have a spur running to Cranberry and Robinson, but the idea would be to make it easier to get to all the old ‘downtowns’ without parking hassles.
“Since mass transit by rail puts far less carbon in the air than cars it’s already a cleaner energy/green jobs program right off the bat. And by all means, put solar arrays on the roofs for powering the station lights.
“But we’ll need some public funding for things we can’t fund ourselves. Unfortunately, some folks think wars in Afghanistan or B-! bombers come first, and there’s nothing left after that. Keep that in mind the next time you’re in a traffic jam on the parkway this side of the Fort Pitt tunnel, or can’t find a decent parking place anywhere near the casino or the Point.”
“Goodness, if some of you guys were around at the time, old General Broadhead and George Washington would have never built that road bringing the market to what became our County. And FDR and the WPA/CCC would never have been able to put together Raccoon Creek State Park. We’d have just left it for some private coal baron to strip mine. Perhaps all the cynics are right. We’ve lost our ability, as a country, to envision big and creative things. All we can do these days is find bigger and better ways to kill people and break stuff.
“Private sector? It’s having the blood sucked out of it by finance capital and the wars. That’s why Spain and the Netherlands, not to mention China, are wiping the floor with us when it comes to the clean energy and green manufacturing of the future. Little Finland’s public schools blows away the products even of our so-called ‘charter’ schools The private sector hasn’t created any net job growth or wage increases in 30 or 40 years--and you think I’m living in the past? Tighten your seatbelts, because your ‘government all bad, markets all good’ neoliberalism is about to bring you a double-dip recession, and an even deeper structural crisis. I’ll admit Obama is not much help--how can he be with Congress blocking most of his stuff?--but elect Romney, and you’ll get there even faster. Socialism, 21st century style, is going to look better than ever as your ‘private sector’ devours itself.”
Other contributors dismissed the idea because of regulations. On a side note, Mr. Davidson wrote, “we’ll need some public funding for things we can’t fund ourselves.” Doesn’t “public funding” come from “ourselves?” When government spends more money, that money comes from our families’ paychecks, pension checks, et cetera, not from some benevolent, extraterrestrial alien.
At the time I published this piece, however, everyone who commented missed the most important issue, CUSTOMERS. There’s a reason local passenger rail service – and private-sector local bus service – went belly-up decades ago. There aren’t enough customers willing to pay the fare required to cover the full cost of service (no subsidies) and/or endure the additional inconvenience (transfers, incompatible schedules, shuttles, etc.) of getting from their front door to the front door of their ultimate destination. Throwing money at local passenger rail service would be a case of throwing taxpayer paychecks into yet another bottomless pit, like the BCTA and the PAAC, only with a much larger taxpayer price tag.
Now, let’s go back to some of Mr. Davidson’s comments. Regarding Brodhead Road and Raccoon Creek State Park, you can find my comments in a previous critique.
As for “‘government all bad, markets all good’ neoliberalism,” Mr. Davidson and I have been down this road before.
Mr. Davidson wrote, “Spain and the Netherlands, not to mention China, are wiping the floor with us when it comes to the clean energy and green manufacturing of the future.” I wouldn’t hold up Spain as an example to follow. Though I can’t vouch for its content, you may want to read a Universidad Rey Juan Carlos study about Spain’s experience with a “green manufacturing industrial policy.” Further, though perhaps not directly related to its “green” policies, Spain recently requested a bailout of approximately $125 billion.
Regarding “Socialism, 21st century style,” you can put any warm-and-fuzzy modifier you want on socialism or any other leftism, but a pig with lipstick is still a pig.
As I do for every source, including me, I suggest you do some research before you accept Mr. Davidson’s remaining assertions as correct.
© 2004-2012 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.