Allegheny Almanac

Finding My Distance, by Julia Wendell: a year in the life of a three-day event rider

Finding My Distance: a year in the life of a three-day event rider

by Julia Wendell

399 pages, with glossary of equine terms

2009 Galileo Books

Zen And The Art Of

Horse Maintenance

book review by Chris Lareau

Thirty-five years ago, a philosopher got down to the nitty-gritty of mechanics and wrote "Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values." The unusual book by Robert Pirsig was written as a novel but was basically a memoir that sold five million copies.

Wendell's unusual memoir published this year is also an inquiry, but this time the narrative is delivered through the filter of an accomplished poet and instead of detailing the minutiae of two-wheeled rockets it is about the four-legged variety. The juxtaposition of learned literature and nuts-and-bolts by Pirsig now has an addition to this type of genre. Rather than contemplating something as elusive as Truth, Wendell picks one aspect of life, Victory (paradoxically, a word that never appears in the book), and gives us its anatomical details as perhaps no one but a poet could ever do.

Retro Summer For Warren's Youth

by Chris Lareau

School's out and the lazy, hazy, sunny days of summer await Warren's youngsters. But don't go to the pool.

It's closed for repairs. For the entire summer vacation.

Not since the late 1960's have Warren's children had to travel to Youngsville for the social and athletic summer fun that only a public pool offers. That was when the county's first public pool opened, 11 miles from Warren in Youngsville. But this year getting there will be a lot easier thanks to our modern public transit buses. For a quarter you can go downtown and ride to the pool from the TAWC station nextdoor to the Bi-Lo grocery store. It's a deal that most enterprising kids won't want to pass up.

But don't leave your folks out. Bring them along for a dip in the pool, too. If they say they're too busy try not to nag them. Instead just use these magic words:

"It's fun to ride the bus."

If the Youngsville pool gets too crowded, there is an alternative, one we used when I was a kid. Pack up the station wagon and hit the beach. Both beaches are closer than the Brokenstraw Valley Pool. Despite what the road signs say, Kinzua Beach is 8 miles from the city limits on Route 59 and Chapman Beach is 9 miles away near Clarendon. Just turn right at The Towne Tavern. And unlike previous years, both beaches are free this summer.

It will cost more than a quarter in gas to visit Kinzua Lake or Chapman Lake, but if you are looking for wide open spaces where kids can run and play and picnic it could be the best ticket in town.

Kinzua Beach was so popular in 1967 that traffic there backed up all the way to Central Avenue inside Warren on a Sunday afternoon. I'm not kidding. We lived on Central Avenue. And this was before the Route 59 area next to the dam had all those beautiful waterfalls. They are spectacular. With all the rubbernecking at the dam maybe they should lower the speed limit there to avoid accidents. Back in 1967 the New York Times called Kinzua a "Recreation Haven" in its travel and resorts section.

City of Warren, Pennsylvania expecting renaissance this summer

GroWarren Office at 310 Second Avenue in Warren, Pennsylvania

also of interest: Photo Tour of Victorian Warren, Pennsylvania

by Chris Lareau

In the late winter of 2003, if memory serves me well in my sixth decade, Warren Pennsylvania's hospital was losing money, drawing on its reserves to maintain operations. According to its CEO, John Papalia, this was the result of a local slumping economy. Large businesses were going out of business.

The once busy city of "15,000 Friendly People" had become decimated times three with the population dwindling down to the 9,000 level.

At a speech given that year at the local Holiday Inn to Warren's business and civic leaders, Papalia pretty much read them the riot act. The gist of his talk at an "Eggs and Issues" breakfast was this: do something about the local economy or we might lose  our hospital. Although Warren General Hospital's reserve funds were healthy, they wouldn't last forever.

Loss of a community hospital might make the area unlivable. Those in attendance responded. Really responded.

This July, just six years later, construction begins on an extensive Allegheny waterfront and a visionary streetscape downtown. If architecture is any measure, Warren should be experiencing a re-birth as one of the most valued places to live on the Allegheny River. Local residential real estate is turning over rapidly and Victorian homes are being expertly restored.

In a year or two, this nationally recognized "Green City" will soon have a river walk across its entire downtown from the East Side to the South End. Downtown will be restored to its original Victorian splendor with the removal of telephone and power lines and an enlarged park-like setting at The Point in front of the signature flat-iron building that has always been Warren's center.

If all goes well, this won't be a place just to live and work, it will be a joy to visit.

If hospital executive John Papalia gets credit for being the "midwife" of Warren's recovery, former bank chairman John Hanna just might be credited with fathering the New Warren. Hanna is best known for building a small savings and loan company into a major regional bank, Northwest Bancorp, which is headquartered here.

Hanna's bank put financial muscle into Papalia's stimulating speech, anchoring a building boom that stretches from downtown up Market Street, north to the New York border. Buildings were torn down and condos and apartment buildings sprang up on The Allegheny. With nowhere to shop, local residents were given Warren Commons on Market Street just north of the city. Beyond that a large office park burgeoned next to the country club. And construction continues on the Warren-to-Jamestown Road (Market Street) with a newly-opened Hampton Inn and health services centers.

The building boom was called Impact Warren and its results are about to bear fruit with another hotel downtown and a convention center complex on The Allegheny called the Kinzua Riverfront Convention Center.

The end result of it all this decade will be to take one of the country's great rivers out of a neglected and dilapidated backyard and make it a showpiece front yard. This has already captured national attention in the New York Times.

Daily coordination of the progressive trend is now centered at the Second Street office of GroWarren, housed in a restored classical-style bank building, manned by its non-profit manager named Chris Cheronis.

This is not a once-and-a-while-open storefront. It's open every weekday where visitors can drop in to get the latest info on the New Warren. Cheronis is always on the phone but between calls, she is full of the latest news.

There's a free all-day rock concert Saturday and Sunday on Liberty Street in the new Arts Center. There's a car show Sunday at Betts Field in the South End. On Saturday night you can see a classical concert in a 19th century opera house called the Struthers Theatre.

Wait, there's more. Don't miss the new Artisans Store in Youngsville or the newly opened Tybout House arts and crafts consortium on Market Street. There's even a new hot dog stand next to Hallmark Cards on Liberty Street.

The local transit system just got new buses and is enhancing its schedule. The Farmer's Market starts next month on Second Street. A free outdoor concert series, Music In The Park, continues its spectacle starting next week at The Point.

She is as busy as a mother hen coordinating all the interest building. Cheronis is a one-woman nerve center. Hospital chief Papalia might consider her just what the doctor ordered.

Warren is growing and just watching it happen is free entertainment you don't want to miss. With beaches open this summer at Kinzua and Chapman lakes nearby, come July 4th and August Fair week, the seasonal population just might reach the once  proud number of 15,000.

For those smart enough to eschew urban sprawl (you won't find an interstate highway in this neck of the woods--of which we have a half-million acres), rush-hour traffic, and the high cost of living, this gem of The Allegheny might be just the alternative they are looking for. With local unemployment recovering from a recent 9.9 per cent to 7.7 per cent, Warren is now open for business and looking better than ever.

 

Chris Lareau is the editor of Allegheny Almanac. Photo copyright 2009 by Chris Lareau