The story of a trashed island on the Ohio River

Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh

Fig. 1. Along Mifflin Road in Pittsburgh’s Hays neighborhood. Photograph by author, December 1, 2020.

Brunot Island is kind of an oddity. You can only get to it by boat or train. But it has cars on it—I see them occasionally as I drive by on Pennsylvania Route 51. It’s mostly been trashed by industrialization, like much of Neville Island, further downstream. It turns out to have a history.^[1]

Jonathan D. Silver, “Blaze on Brunot reignites interest in historic Pittsburgh island,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, July 25, 2023, https://triblive.com/local/blaze-on-brunot-reignites-interest-in-historic-pittsburgh-island/

Housing

Fig. 2. Most of the homeless encampments I’ve seen around Pittsburgh have been on the North Side. This one is downtown, right by a Parkway (Interstate 376) onramp. Photograph by author, May 22, 2023.

Mark Belko, “A new Downtown? More residential, retail a must as concerns grow over possible office building defaults,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 23, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/business/development/2023/07/23/downtown-pittsburgh-residential-retail-office-building-defaults-jones-lang-lasalle-real-estate-pittsburgh-downtown-partnership-downtown-neighbors-alliance-vacancies/stories/202307230124

Stephanie Ritenbaugh, “’There’s a mismatch’: Office vacancies continue to climb in Pittsburgh region,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, July 24, 2023, https://triblive.com/local/regional/theres-a-mismatch-office-vacancies-continue-to-climb-in-pittsburgh-region/

Jake Blumgart, “Here’s why Philly’s empty offices likely won’t become apartments anytime soon,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 25, 2023, https://www.inquirer.com/real-estate/real-estate-market-changing-office-buildings-apartments-20230725.html

Neoliberalism

Banking

Commercial real estate

Fig. 3. “The iconic Crescent stands as recognizable landmark in the upscale neighborhood of Uptown, Dallas.” Photograph by Dallasedits [pseud.], July 5, 2016, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and Credit Suisse, 2023

Fig. 4. “The monument sign in front of the parking lot of the Silicon Valley Bank headquarters at 3003 West Tasman Drive, Santa Clara, California.” Photograph by Minh Nguyen, March 13, 2023, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lauren Thomas et al., “Banc of California Agrees to Buy PacWest as Regional Lenders Seek Strength Together,” Wall Street Journal, July 25, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/banc-of-california-pacwest-in-advanced-talks-to-combine-d9e48a1f?mod=itp_wsj&mod=djemITP_h

Illiberalism

Fig. 5. Photograph by Joachim F. Thurn, August 1991, Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F089030-0003, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE.

Barney Jopson, “Spain faces uncertain political future after election deadlock,” Financial Times, July 24, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/4ed90f29-5191-4197-a39b-13982eec86c9

Martin Wolf, “Modi’s India is moving in an illiberal direction,” Financial Times, July 25, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/bf591089-6e9d-4cf9-ac80-8c63e3b12f42

Gilead

Right-wing militias

Police White supremacist gangs

Fig. 6. Photograph by Lorie Shaull, April 1, 2021, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.

The Pittsburgh white supremacist gang chief has decided his force can ignore the ordinance passed to prevent secondary traffic stops.^[2] I had seen that the force had resumed enforcement of secondary violations on a flimsy context.^[3] The current explanation isn’t much better. The chief claims the ordinance conflicts with gang accreditation.^[4] I don’t understand why he gets to make this call, but Mayor Ed Gainey just rolls over and plays dead.

Elizabeth Szeto, “City efforts to address racial bias in traffic enforcement have reduced the number of stops, but disparities remain,” Pittsburgh Public Source, July 25, 2023, https://www.publicsource.org/pittsburgh-police-traffic-stop-disparity-accountability-race/

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

Fig. 7. “Jake Angeli (Qanon Shaman), seen holding a Qanon sign at the intersection of Bell Rd and 75th Ave in Peoria, Arizona, on 2020 October 15.” Photography by TheUnseen011101 [pseud.], October 15, 2020, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Kate Brumback, “Giuliani concedes he made public comments falsely claiming Georgia election workers committed fraud,” Associated Press, July 26, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/giuliani-georgia-election-workers-lawsuit-false-statements-afc64a565ee778c6914a1a69dc756064

Israel

Jeremy Sharon, “A time for reason: Will the High Court strike down government’s reasonableness law?” Times of Israel, July 26, 2023, https://www.timesofisrael.com/a-time-for-reason-will-the-high-court-strike-down-governments-reasonableness-law/

COVID-19 Pandemic

Fig. 8. Cartoon by Peter Brookes, October 3, 2020, via the Times, fair use.

Lena H. Sun, Lauren Weber, and Hayden Godfrey, “Doctors who put lives at risk with covid misinformation rarely punished,” Washington Post, July 26, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/07/26/covid-misinformation-doctor-discipline/

^[1]Jonathan D. Silver, “Blaze on Brunot reignites interest in historic Pittsburgh island,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, July 25, 2023, https://triblive.com/local/blaze-on-brunot-reignites-interest-in-historic-pittsburgh-island/↩
^[2]Elizabeth Szeto, “City efforts to address racial bias in traffic enforcement have reduced the number of stops, but disparities remain,” Pittsburgh Public Source, July 25, 2023, https://www.publicsource.org/pittsburgh-police-traffic-stop-disparity-accountability-race/↩
^[3]Kiley Koscinski, “Pittsburgh Police resume secondary traffic stops despite city ordinance against them,” WESA, January 12, 2023, https://www.wesa.fm/politics-government/2023-01-12/pittsburgh-police-resume-secondary-traffic-stops-despite-city-ordinance-against-them ↩
^[4]Elizabeth Szeto, “City efforts to address racial bias in traffic enforcement have reduced the number of stops, but disparities remain,” Pittsburgh Public Source, July 25, 2023, https://www.publicsource.org/pittsburgh-police-traffic-stop-disparity-accountability-race/↩

Irregular Bullshit