Recent comments in /f/Pennsylvania

vonHindenburg t1_jbflrq7 wrote

My dad used to work downtown at a bank here. One night a bad storm knocked out power to a big chunk of the town and took out a big tree in the bank courtyard. We were down there in the pitch dark cutting this tree apart so that nobody tripped over it coming in the next day. It felt a bit dicey with people suddenly appearing on the sidewalk in the small circle of light from our lanterns.

Fun fact: The town was named for another industrial town: Essen, Germany. Monessen = Essen on the Monongahela.

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Excelius t1_jbfj5xm wrote

There's established procedures for that kind of thing, the bigger problem is money. Demolition isn't cheap and a lot of small towns can't afford it without outside help.

Probably every couple of weeks you'll see a story in the Tribune Review about some town in Westmoreland County using state/county funds to tear down some blighted properties. It's very common.

Here's one from last week regarding Vandergrift. Here's one from Greensburg in December. Arnold tore down ten buildings last year, New Ken tore down a dozen in 2021 and another ten in 2020.

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