I recall the conversation clearly.
Me and a friend of mine were up on the top of Woodsdale Hill one summer afternoon because there used to be a tall radio tower, a small and cinder block building for some station’s transmitter, and an outdoor outlet that let us plug in a radio so we could listen to afternoon Pirates games.
Sometimes there were more than a few of us, but on this day, it was just me and Scotty rooting on the “Battlin’ Buccos”. It was in the late 1970s, after all, and the Pirates were always competitive. And Willie Stargell was my hero.
I told my friend my father had taken me to some day games before. Heck, he even lied to the nuns at St. Mike’s a few times, telling them I had doctor’s appointments when his boss gave him the seats for doubleheaders at Three Rivers Stadium. I told Scotty I wanted to do the same thing when I worked in downtown Wheeling.
“You’ll never work in downtown. My Dad said it’s over here in Wheeling.”
I didn’t really know what he meant by “it” or “over,” and my Mom told me it was “nothing but nonsense.” But then I heard it again, the second time in high school – “once you go to college, you’ll never move back” – and I knew there was a steel strike, and that some of my favorite businesses were closing in downtown. More friends, like Scotty, moved away, too.
And I did, too, and believed we were gone for good after I had climbed a company ladder to Pittsburgh. But, 20 years ago, we had the chance to come home near the same time our son was discharging from the U.S. Army following three infantry deployments to the Middle East. And we came to a struggling Friendly City with a mostly vacant and rotting downtown. It was ugly.
But it’s ugly no more. Despite the naysayers and “ghost town” tale-tellers, not only are Main and Market streets – and all roads in-between, too – getting the long-awaited makeover that, finally, is only a year away from completion.
See, it started with changing the rules under former mayor Nick Sparachane, then making moves (thanks to new rules) under the McKenzie Administration, and then former mayor Glenn Elliott and his two councils continued inherited projects, navigated a pandemic and the spending of millions of federal relief funds, and enhanced public safety by implementing a User Fee tax to finance infrastructure and two new headquarters for the city’s fire and police departments.
That’s the real, accurate account without omission in an attempt to change history. It is what it is, we are what we are, and we got here over decades, not years, because of successful baby steps and not because of one person, a single agenda, or a lone idea.
Now, current Mayor Denny Magruder and the City Council of six members are the new stewards of the $37 million, state-financed streetscape, and those folks also will continue with ongoing initiatives already set in motion.
But they’re looking for something, too. The “What’s Next.” The newest piece of the puzzle that solves our retention and recruiting problems – finally – so our kids can stay close and our neighborhoods can grow.
Is it jobs? Of course, we’ll always need more employment. Do we need more affordable housing? Absolutely – more than ever, in fact. Do citizens need to market more. Yup.
It’s all of the above – and much more – and politics should never determine who’s right, who’s wrong, and who did what in the history books on the city.
