Smell that Pork

April 23, 2006 by Matt Heckman.

Insanity is described as when you do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result. That is my opinion of Governor Fast Eddie Rendell’s announcement at the 9 million dollar taxpayer funded pork project called the Goggle Works on Saturday involving the construction of a twelve screen movie theater at Second and Washington Streets in Reading, PA. $3.25 million of taxpayer money is going into this pork project. As usual Al Boscov and the typical people are singing praises of how this movie theater will be the beginning of Reading’s great return, and the end of crime as we know it. Now in my opening sentence I stated about the term insanity doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Remember that’s the same thing they have said about the Lincoln Plaza Hotel, and that flopped. They said the same thing about the Goggle Works. They said the same thing about Antietam Lake, and now they are saying the same thing about this movie theater. A total of $15 Million in pork was distributed.

Now I have mentioned several times in the past on how Reading will never prosper until they clean up the criminal activity of the city. Until they do that no business that would have a substantial economic effect will ever invest in the City of Reading when they can go to areas like Muhlenberg Township, Wyomissing, Shillington, and so on with less of a liability in their investments.

Besides the fact that nobody will want to visit a movie theater in a crime ridden city like Reading where if you fight back Mayor inner child Tom McMahon will see to it that you get charged to the fullest extent of the law, and the criminal goes free, but not only will you have to pay the eight dollars for a ticket, you will also have to pay for your parking on top of that where you can go to the other theaters and park your car for free. There is only one word to prove why this movie theater idea will not work. That one word is Astor. For those readers that don’t know what I am talking about the Astor Theater was one of the most popular, and most beautifully designed movie palaces up until it closed in the late seventies when crime in Reading began to spring out of control, and other movie theaters were opening in safer areas. From the late seventies to the late nineties the Astor sat falling apart and was a fire hazard waiting to happen. Despite that people were fighting to save the Astor from being demolished to make room for the now popular Sovereign Center. What these people forget to realize is that if there was a demand for a movie theater back then somebody would have made that investment, but there is no doubt in anybody’s mind that kind of investment would not make money enough to generate a return on it.

Take notice that when Ed Rendell, Al Boscov, and these other tax pimps propose these pork ideas they never invest a penny of their own money into it. You never see Al Boscov propose to build a Boscovs in downtown Reading to bring back the city. You never see Al Boscov donate money to the Reading Police to help their efforts in fighting crime. Why? It is because Al Boscov is a smart business man and knows what investments will turn a profit, and any investment in the city would not generate a profit for Al Boscov.

The bottom line is Al Boscov, and Ed Rendell are only interested in their self image, and making themselves look good. For Al Boscov it’s his over inflated ego, and Rendell it’s buying votes for his upcoming campaign. In closing when people want to invest everybody’s money but their own into various projects like this movie theater then you know that like the Lincoln Plaza Hotel, Antietam Lake, and Goggle Works before it are destined for failure. If Al Boscov and Ed Rendell have little faith in this project that they will not put their own money into this, then why should we as taxpayers have faith in them to do the right thing?

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