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From Mills to Chinatown By Mary Anne Novak, Member, Christ Lutheran Church Duquesne, PA. Being one of the
lifelong residents of the Mon Valley area, I clearly remember when
the area boomed with industry and provided the livelihood for many
families to put their sons and daughters through college. When the
whistle blew at 3:00 p.m., chaos from traffic abounded and men lined
the bridge across Rt. 837 waiting for the gates to release them
from their day shift. When production was at its best, the mill
never shut down…it rolled on continuously day after day, week
after week, year after year. Christmas and Thanksgiving were just
like any other day. Today, my own children find my historical vignettes
hard to fathom. In the 1980s, U.S. Steel closed their doors on 90%
of the Mon Valley’s steel industry, moving in the direction
of cheap imports with American banks to build the 3rd World steel
and Today, all that my children see are the decay that remains in Duquesne and the fancy shops and awesome mega-movie theater at Homestead’s Waterfront Mall. In the not too distant future, gambling casinos will become part of the landscape as well. The leveled land in Homestead and the crumbling steel decay in Duquesne are stark reminders of the disgusting changes for American workers. The economy, which used to feed the families of American workers, now feeds China’s economy. In fact, the Waterfront Mall should be more appropriately called “Chinatown” for two reasons. Not only does China now produce more steel and aluminum and export it to the U.S. on American’s invested dollars in their trusted local banks, but the products you buy in the mall are predominantly from China. The U.S. still refuses to trade with Castro, a harmless country claimed to violate human rights, but chooses to do business with China, a far more vicious country with a horrific human rights track record. Today, you can’t buy a ball bat, sneakers, or even a horseshoe game without the “Made in China or Taiwan” label on it. It’s a sickening feeling to be on the new “Main Street” sipping a $3.75 Starbuck’s coffee sold by a waitress making minimum wage plus tips, while at the same time knowing this is the same spot where the blood, sweat, and tears of generations of steelworkers charged furnaces, poured steel, and rolled our steel for the Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State Building, and World War II ships. The photos tell the story of planned changes. The most sinister change is that the government, through the Federal Reserve System along with American banks, refused to upgrade the American steel industry; and now, the new Federal Community Reinvestment Act, is placing $200 million in funds for brownfield cleanup, and the building of malls and disgustingly bland, yet expensive motel-like housing. Not only does this new Act relieve the old companies of the expense of cleaning up their own sites; it becomes the 3rd world merchandise outlet storefront. You can’t
drive through Homestead on Friday and Saturday nights at 7:00 p.m.
and not see how cars from all areas of Pittsburgh drive past boarded
up storefronts on Homestead’s 8th Avenue only to cross over
the railroad tracks into the Chinatown Waterfront. Unemployed or
retired steelworkers continue to live in ghetto conditions up the
hill where U. S. Steel Company managers once lived. However, that
also will soon be redeveloped, and retirees, blacks, and brownfield
casualties will be pushed further into unsavory neighborhoods making
way for upscale newcomers. The whole destructive process of death
and renewal was a deliberately planned venture at the expense of
people. It is now marketed as a success story over the graves of
the mill workers and their families. To this day, churches and many
other institutions have not recovered from the devastation and probably
never will. Who needs local churches and schools when you have the
Internet and privatization of education? The community, as we Who’s paying for the new “Brownfield” reinvestment? Taxpayers once again. Companies that have moved in are given years of deferment as incentive, and federal tax breaks (if any are felt by middle and poor families) quickly go to higher assessments on local property, school, state and other taxes far beyond the federal tax rebates thrown our way. So come on down
to the Waterfront Mall. Pass the little steel monument of the 1892
strike for a historical perspective, and buy some China products
you can pay with your savings account money. Smile at your federal
officials whether they be Democrat or Republican, as they are the
same rich 3% of America who are really in control of all local Chinatowns.
What a legacy of deliberate “sell out” to be handed
down to the next generation. It just may be the beginning of technological
warfare for our children and theirs to grapple with in the years
to come. How narrow the vision becomes when prompted solely by the
almighty dollar. |
Then
Homestead dies - Waterfront born
No more hot ladel moving by, this little switch engine is now just a memorial.
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