Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Letters, We Get Letters

Former Allegheny County Republican Committtee chair and former Allegheny County Commissioner Bob Cranmer bonks me on the head this morning as "yet another ivory-tower academic." Since I worked pretty hard to become an ivory-tower academic, I'll take that as an unintended compliment.

Cranmer is shocked, SHOCKED to discover that my series on "The Story Behind Pittsburgh's Revitalization" didn't praise HIM lavishly. (From what I can tell, Cranmer didn't read the whole thing; he only read the short piece that was re-published in the Post-Gazette.) He's writing ostensibly in defense of former Mayor Tom Murphy, whose unblemished record of success apparently missed my ivory-tower eyes, but of course Cranmer is stalking his own legacy. It's curious that the Post-Gazette published his letter to the editor without pointing out that Cranmer claims credit for a current "renaissance" of Pittsburgh.

It's tempting to return Bob Cranmer's favor and describe his little piece as characterized by the modesty that we expect from a local pol. Instead, I'll say this: Sorry, Bob: It's not about you.

9 comments:

Schultz said...

Isn't Cranmer one of the geniuses who killed the Spine Line?

Mike Madison said...

One and the same.

EdHeath said...

Um, your link for Mr. Cranmer's rebuttal is an interesting one on the Mt. Lebanon's choices in airing President Obama's speech on education, not actually anything to do with Cranmer. The correct link, as far as I can see, is http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09286/1005005-109.stm

Gotta sit down and read your whole series sometime.

Stephen Gross said...

Gosh... A ten-part series? That sounds like a lot of reading. Well, I'm not an academic. I just need an executive summary. Then I'll form an opinion.

Mike Madison said...

Ed, thanks. I've fixed the link.

Bob Cranmer said...

Well Mike, as I recall it wasn't about me what I wrote was about Tom. For you ego's sake I'll add back in a line I deleted from the draft:

"Those who can do, those who can't teach." --touche.

Bob Cranmer

Mike Madison said...

Ha! Touche indeed. A real zinger.

Bob said...

On another note I had nothing to do with "killing" the spine line concept to Oakland, the Authority Board at the time decided that the project was no longer a priority. As I recall I wrote a letter to the board stating that it should be. You people should really get your facts straight. The Port Authority is not a department of county government but is a stand alone entity, as is the airport and Alcosan.

Mike Madison said...

If people want to re-live history from nearly 15 years ago, here is one relevant news story about what happened with the so-called spine line.

Here is another one.