You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.--Henry Ford

Last year the mayor promised to overhaul Kirby Park. This year he erected speed bumps almost as large as the city’s total outstanding debt every three inches or so and again promised to overhaul Kirby Park.

I choked when I read this in the Voice this morning:

"Motorists need to recognize that the Kirby Park access road is not a through street or a short-cut for people who live on the West Side," McGroarty said. "It is an access road for a park where children play. The speed bumps are only a problem if you're speeding.”

I’ve got a news flash for him, the street is a through street as far as the general public is concerned. One only has to roll down Northampton, hang a left onto bumper alley and suddenly Voila! They find themselves on Market street, Kingston. An access road would lead from one point to one other point and nowhere else, not from one point to practically anywhere else on the west side. Another correction. I have yet to see any child playing on that through street, or anywhere near it for that matter. What little that remains of the park tends to be more interesting to your average kid than playing on the mayor’s asphalt tits. A short-cut for people who live on the West Side? Are they to be included on the mayor’s list of bad, bad people? West Siders can’t vote in Wilkes-Barre. They must be bad. 10-4. West Siders bad/Mayor good. Nice tits.

“The speed bumps are only a problem if you're speeding.”

An e-mail:

******Mark

When the City paved Kirby Park Road 8 to 10 years ago, it was determined that speed bumps were illegal on a public thoroughfare, and they were eliminated as part of the project. McG, once again, does what HE wants AGAINST ALL RULES AND REGULATIONS!!

Taxpayer who knows******

That’s interesting coming from the lead-foot in the old Cherokee. I can’t remember seeing any vehicle travel north on Penn Ave. faster than that Cherokee, although, our DPW director would give it a run for it’s money. Another meaningless and totally useless lecture from the King. “It’s for the children.” Gag.

This is a first. The mayor’s supporters are so fond of saying that city council is to blame also for the terrible state of affairs in this city, despite the fact that the mayor micro-manages every last detail of city business. It’s a totally dubious argument, but consider the feeble source. Now the “It’s all politics” boneheads living among us have taken things to an even more ridiculous height. Check that pic. Now, only city council is to blame? The mayor has taught his supporters well. The truth doesn’t matter, only victory does.

I was talking to another city resident today and we agreed that whenever we run across one of the six, or seven McG yard signs, we have to wonder about the sanity of that resident that supports him. Recently, I’ve found myself doing THIS while out and about on the Rock Stomper. As I whiz past one of the million or so Leighton yard signs proudly displayed throughout the city, I bark out “Leighton!” This new habit has gotten me stared at more than once. If I actually happen upon a McG sign, I grumble “Dumb fu*k!” Only a complete dummy, or one of the mayor’s bumbling gophers would vote for more debt, more crime and further steps backward for this city.

The big story making the e-mail rounds in the city is the mayor‘s promise to "take down every one of Leighton's buddies" after the voters cut the mayor loose only 17 days from today. While the most vocal residents fully believe that he would attempt to take them down, whatever that means, not one of them that I know of is intimidated in the least by the threat. Tom Leighton is not my “buddy.” Tom Leighton is the future leader of this city and I am extremely excited about the future with him at the helm. As far as getting some of us goes, go for it. It won’t change the outcome of the election, it’ll only serve to cement the vicious reputation of one “Vindictive little prick” and his uncaring, self-serving, what’s-in-it-for-me supporters. Do what you will to us, but never forget that we stormed The Bastille when most of the residents of this city were working to renew their Section 8 status. The folks that actually dared to care about Wilkes-Barre’s future are the recipients of not so veiled threats? We were wrong about one thing. He’s not merely the King. In his mind, he’s the King for life.

The mayor is calling on Larry Newman to agree with his assessment that city council has double standards about demolishing buildings after they approved the demolition plans for a fire-damaged 208-214 S. Main St.? Larry Newman? Isn’t this the same guy that the mayor belittled in the press when it would benefit the mayor to do so? Now it would benefit the mayor if his past target for abuse suddenly backed-up his assertions? Can someone please explain to the mayor what “burning bridges” actually means? After that explain cooperation, negotiation and consensus to him. That’s assuming that any of his suck-ass supporters know what those words mean. Council bad/Mayor good. Oh, and Larry no longer bad/Mayor good.

The mayor spun a few more yarns in the Voice today. The hose dudes are owed back pay. An arbitrator awarded it to them. They are owed that money. Facts is facts, but this is Wilkes-Barre, where facts are no longer part of the equation. Let’s do a few snippets from the Voice:

"Senior citizens all over the country - and no where more so than here in Wilkes-Barre - have to make difficult decisions whether to buy their prescription medications each month or adequate groceries and other necessities because quite often can't afford both."--McG

Yeah, we know, seniors vote. So what are we to make of that off topic blurb? The seniors in Wilkes-Barre cannot acquire the medications they need and must starve themselves because of the compensation rightfully earned by the Wilkes-Barre Fire Department? There’s a word for this insidious implication. Oh, I know. It’s called a lie.

Another snippet from the Voice:

"I think the firefighters need to sit down and examine what is going on in the real world and how many of our residents are barely getting by financially now before they come in and demand free health insurance for life for their spouse and other outrageous benefits," commented McGroarty.

"If I give the firefighters everything they want, residents' property tax would triple," the mayor said. "Our firefighters are brave but the union needs to be reasonable with their demands."

The real world? Is he fu*king kidding me? Does he think that the world according to McG even remotely resembles the real world? Holes as progress. Demolition followed by nothing. Paving the middle of a street. The TAN of the month club. Loan default after default. A city without street lights. A city where the residents complaints are more frightening to the administration than the criminals causing the residents to flee the city. The real world? Is there any way that we could remove the mayor on medical grounds? I realize that it takes all sizes, shapes and physiognomies to run a small city, but this guy might just be three screens short of a Holeplex.

Wanna see the real world, Wilkes-Barre style? Check these pics. This is what happens to private property in the mayor’s “real world,” formerly referred to as the “red-light district” by our police chiefie.

God almighty! What ills plague Wilkes-Barre? The West Siders are speeding. Some “buddies of Leighton’s” need to be crushed. City Council has double standards and the Fire Department is denying our seniors their subsistence.

The city lies in ruins and the boy most responsible for it continues to spin out of control.

One more snippet from the Voice:

"No one cares more for the elderly than the firefighters," emphasized the union president (Tom Makar). "We're the ones who respond when they're having health problems or their home is on fire."

Here, here! BANG! The mayor can vilify the hose dudes all he wants for his own political benefit. The fact of the matter is, when the grandkids are trapped in a burning building, nobody calls the mayor. When some proud senior citizen who’s body is slipping a tad falls and breaks something and lies crying on the street and are totally ashamed by their age-induced vulnerability, they don’t want to see the mayor. When the cars collide, or roll over, nobody dials 821-8111. When somebody that thinks they’ve had enough of life’s trials and tribulations jumps off of a bridge, the mayor doesn’t get wet when the water rescue ensues. When a heart stops, the mayor doesn’t get paged. He doesn’t have to respond to a 10-45 call and remove a body that was a person only minutes, or hours before they were called. When the worst thing imaginable happens to you, or your family, “who ya’ gonna’ call?”

The Wilkes-Barre Fire Department.

Despite the non-stop abuse the mayor shovels onto them every chance he gets, they are only a 911 phone call and four minutes away. They are the “real world.”

Here’s a thought that was sent my way today. We keep hearing that the mayor didn’t raise our taxes, while the city imploded during his failed run as King. He prepares the budget, but needs the city council to okay it before it becomes a part of our “unreal world.” Can it not be said that City Council did not raise our taxes also? Interesting.

Whatever man. It’s Saturday and I have a serious itch to scratch. The sixties are calling to me. I’m thinking Donovan, Mamas & The Papas and maybe some Three Dog Night. Jeremiah was a bullfrog!

And then some more of this:

Goodnight!

If ya’ drop on by, bring earplugs.

TLFM