Hits and Misses
Courtesy of Jennifer Grocé
Dead and Company concertgoers parked vehicles on the ramp from Route 22 to Route 18 Monday.
Justin Townsend, left, who is a resident at Washington City Mission, holds up a sign in support of the renovation project proposed for Thomas Campbell Apartments in South Strabane that is awaiting federal approval. Townsend and others rallied outside U.S. Rep. Guy Reschenthaler’s district office in Washington asking him to help expedite the approval process.
Mike Jones/ Observer-Reporter
HIT: As Pride Month gets underway and Washington hosts its second-ever Pride festival this weekend, a poll released earlier this week showed the extent to which LGBTQ people have won acceptance within American society. A Gallup poll found that 71% of Americans believe same-sex marriage should be legal. That matches the number who supported same-sex marriage last year, and demonstrates a level of acceptance that would have been tough to imagine two decades ago, when ballot questions seeking to ban same-sex marriage were cropping up in states around the country. To understand how rapidly public opinion has evolved on this issue, a June 2006 survey by the Pew Research Center found that just 33% of respondents supported same-sex marriage, and 55% opposed. Gallup reports that more than 50% of Americans have consistently supported same-sex marriage since the early 2010s. In the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling last year that overturned Roe vs. Wade, Justice Clarence Thomas alluded to the possibility of revisiting the decision that made same-sex marriage legal in 2015. With a strong majority of Americans comfortable with same-sex unions, it’s hard to believe that putting it in the legal crosshairs would be a popular move.
MISS: Anyone who saw the Grateful Dead at Star Lake Amphitheater in 1992 was bound to feel a rush of nostalgia if he or she attended the Monday concert at Star Lake by Dead & Company, the group that consists of Grateful Dead survivors and other, younger musicians. The nostalgia wouldn’t be all about the music, though. There were epic traffic jams on the roads leading to Star Lake when the Grateful Dead touched down there 31 years ago, and history repeated itself with the Dead & Company show. Some concertgoers reported being stuck in traffic for up to four hours, while others parked their cars outside the venue and walked the rest of the way. Some missed the concert entirely. In fairness, concert promoter Live Nation urged people to allow plenty of time to get to the venue, and parking lots opened at 3 p.m. Still, it was yet another parking fiasco for Star Lake, which is located outside Burgettstown. Officials who operate the venue need to find a better way to move traffic in and out, or make sure that only concertgoers with tickets are allowed to enter.
MISS: Action in the U.S. House of Representatives ground to a halt on Tuesday and Wednesday when hard-right Republicans joined with Democrats to reject a procedural measure that would have allowed bills to be considered. The lull would have been a perfect time for Guy Reschenthaler, the congressman who represents Washington, Greene and Fayette counties and other parts of the region, to lean on officials at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to approve a plan to renovate and upgrade the Thomas Campbell Apartments in South Strabane. A fire at the apartment killed one resident more than a year ago, and the money is in place to carry out the work. The residents just need HUD to sign off on it, and made their anger known at a rally outside Reschenthaler’s Washington office Tuesday. Because some residents have had to stay with friends or at the Washington City Mission while the work is stalled, the delay is having real-life consequences. Reschenthaler needs to move this item up on his priority list.