Altoona's Untapped Resources

Not very long ago, the Altoona Mirror had a story about Altoona making a promotion video. The video itself is great and long overdue idea, but I'm afraid it may be targeting the wrong people. I would like to point out some things concerning Altoona's marketing efforts and offer some suggestions for all of you to consider.

Depending on how much time you have spent outside of Altoona in Pennsylvania, you may notice that Altoona is known mostly for the Horseshoe Curve, the Curve Ballpark, and the hospital amongst the business community leaders. What about everyone else?

These commercial attributes are good, but there are other unexploited areas that haven't even been touched. Areas like unconventional recreation, automobiles, and road races.

Most people overlook parks that are already in Altoona like Lakemont Park, Valley View Park, or even the many public ballparks and playgrounds. Places like these draw families and friends when they can get together, especially when budgets are tight.

On multiple occasions when I lived in the Harrisburg area, I knew some people (in different social groups) who asked me where I was from. I told them, "Altoona." They went on to say that they buy their cars in Altoona, and will continue to do so because of our unbeatable prices and customer service. This is more than two hours away, but they still make the drive to buy their cars here because of our reputation.

In addition to that, they mentioned the car shows we have throughout the year. Should I mention poker runs for bikers? People take both of these very seriously, and many drive great distances to get to these events.

Another event that happens frequently in Altoona is a 5k, 10k, or 15k road race. These are often overlooked as well, but they attract the most active and hard-working people in the community. Some of the best times of my life were spent sweating early in the morning with another buddy in a town other than my own. Again, people go great distances to do a race they have never done before, and often come back if they liked the run.

Now that I've pointed out some untapped resources, I would like to explain how I believe these could be used to promote Altoona.

Targeted marketing includes knowing your audience and directing your message straight to them. If we are only trying to attract baseball fans, train enthusiasts, and health care professionals and patients, then we can continue to advertise that.

But if we are trying to attract productive, growth-oriented people to Altoona, who value the non-commercial assets that strengthen communities, we need to narrow the scope of city advertising to an extremely targeted audience. When they come to Altoona and have a good time, they will tell their friends and family who will, in turn, make the trip too.

Our reputation is already solid in many areas like baseball and trains, which don’t seem to attract the numbers we’re looking for, so it’s time to reach to other areas to build our reputations even farther. It will take variety of opinions and perspectives to reach agreements on which target markets Altoona should exploit, which is why I offered mine above.

Altoona has the assets, but nobody outside of our city knows about them. It’s about time they hear what we have, and they will bring their business with them.

- Jeff

A Rose by Any Other Name

Posted by Jason Ibrahim

In The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama writes of an experience he has dialoguing with some pro-life protestors at one of his rallies. As he tells the story, he meets them at the front entrance, and says:

"'You folks want to come inside?' I asked.

"'No, thank you,' the man said. He handed me a pamphlet. 'Mr. Obama, I want you to know that I agree with a lot of what you have to say.'

"'I appreciate that.'

"'And I know you're a Christian, with a family of your own.'

"'That's true.'

"'So how can you support murdering babies?'

"I told him I understood his position but had to disagree with it. I explained my belief that few women made the decision to terminate a pregnancy casually; that any pregnant woman felt the full force of the moral issues involved and wrestled with her conscience when making that heart-rending decision; that I feared a ban on abortion would force women to seek unsafe abortions, as they had once done in this country and as they continued to do in countries that prosecute abortion doctors and the women who seek their services. I suggested that perhaps we could agree on ways to reduce the number of women who felt the need to have abortions in the first place."

Now, just from a communication perspective, let me just say: Obama never tried to address the man's implicit question, which is, "Don't you believe abortionists murder babies?" He just pushed forward and assumed he was talking apples to apples with this man. He chose to talk past the protester. (If not, and he agreed that abortion is murder, then he was directly rationalizing infanticide.) As a result, let me give you a small taste of how his response sounded to this man (and indeed, sounds to me):

"I told him I understood his position but had to disagree with it. I explained my belief that few people made the decision to rob a bank casually; that any bank robber felt the full force of the moral issues involved and wrestled with her conscience when making that heart-rending decision; that I feared a ban on bank robbing would force people to rob banks unsafely, as they had once done in this country and as they continued to do in countries that prosecute bank robbers and their accomplices. I suggested that perhaps we could agree on ways to reduce the number of people who felt the need to rob banks in the first place."

But that's just me. What do you think?

A Horse is a Horse...of Course

Posted by Jason Ibrahim

Here's some breaking news from the Humane Society. Apparently, A horse from the Fair Dinkum Farm in Evansville, WY was on its way to Illinois recently, enroute to be slaughtered with nine of its fellow kind. In the middle of the trip, Snickers gave birth to a new foal, Willie, while on the truck.

The Humane Society opines:

"The surprise birth of this Miracle foal underscores one of the most gruesome aspects of the horse slaughter industry -- the fact that mares heavily pregnant and due to give birth are are shipped thousands of miles in crowded trucks to be butchered-their unborn killed and cast aside, never living to take a single breath or see the light of day." [Emphasis mine]

Soon after, the Illinois Senate passed a resolution banning horse slaughter in the state. While I have mixed feelings about the merit of this resolution, I think that something needs to be done to protect unborn foals on their way to slaughter. In fact, I call on the Junior Senator from Illinois to take the next logical step, and work to extend the ban to slaughtering unborn horses, not just in Illinois but across the whole country. (After all, the equine abortionists did have to cross state lines to perpetrate this ugly deed, since there were probably no facilities to terminate a horse pregnancy at the Fair Dinkum Farm.)

But then again, that's just me. What are your thoughts?

Epilogue: This is a previously unpublished piece that I wrote several months ago, before Sarah Palin's vice-presidential nomination. In light of her candidacy, and the inspiring story of Sarah, Todd and Trig Palin, this is yet another issue that distinguishes the candidates.

Disclaimer: The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of ILoveAltoona.com or its advertisers.

Student Homes Ordinance Violates Property Rights

By Jeff Neff

(Note: This issue is a current issue before Council. One of the team members of ILoveAltoona.com, Matt Garber, is a Councilman. The following opinions are not necessarily representative of Matt's.)

Let's talk about property rights. This entire issue of mandating who can live where in the city of Altoona has me wondering if city politicians really believe that this is the way to protect property owners' rights. Freedom and liberty are rooted in property ownership and this ordinance will destroy hopes of having the freedom that owners should have. This is not a debate. This is a Constitutional Right under the U.S. Constitution and the Constitution of the State of Pennsylvania. Please look into these.

Before I begin telling the political side of this argument, I'll give you a common sense argument. Why would a person live next to a college campus and expect not to have parties nearby? Seriously, think about the sense in punishing the entire city for a few complainers who would rather inconvenience everybody else instead of make a tough decision to move someplace else- or not to have moved there in the first place.

Isn't it funny that this ordinance is intended to prevent growth? Altoona is known, or at least claims to be known, as a college town. Why on earth would city officials pass an ordinance to prevent student housing growth; especially in a time when the housing market is so volatile?

Does the city really need to get involved with something that does not concern them? Certainly some officials believe that it is their job to meddle in these affairs or else this ordinance would not have passed in the first place, but the truth of the matter is that it is not the City of Altoona's job to control Penn State's students. Penn State should be able to handle their students without help from the government. Instead of letting campus officials pass the buck to the Altoona City Council members, why don't city officials put the people in mind first?

Concerning the U.S. and PA Constitutions, you must understand that private property ownership and the pursuit of happiness are inseparable. The Constitution does not include a clause for "college towns" with neighbors who insist on telling others what they can do with their property through pushy big government ordinances. There are already existing laws for noises violations, disturbances, and other annoyances. Anything further is just big government getting in the way.

If a landlord's vision for The American Dream includes owning rental property (anywhere he chooses), then he is pursuing his dream. If a homeowner decides that he disapproved of how another person is using their property and uses coercion to make them stop, it is infringing the rights of the other person. Unless that homeowner is misusing the property at the entire city's expense (for instance, a drug dealer safe-haven), there is no justification for using government coercion to bully a homeowner around.

If the plan is to make the nearby houses worth more by restricting landowner rights; then the market is no longer running itself, and there is nothing better for an economy than a free market.

I see no examples of how properties proximal to the Altoona campus are negatively effecting society-at-large, because we are talking about properties which affect an extremely limited amount of people who should have a basic knowledge of what it means to live right near to a college campus.

The choices are clear: Compromise constitutional principles and reason or discontinue the ambition to grow Altoona as a college town and forfeit Altoona's free market. While we're at it, why don't we propose an ordinance to limit the amount of Sheetz stores in Altoona since they attract kids, cars, and are just too loud for neighbors when they say, "Welcome to Sheetz, pump 3." It only makes sense when big-government politicians let a little power get to their heads.

Po-tay-to, Po-tah-to

Posted by Jason Ibrahim

Last week, Vice Presidential candidate and Delaware Senator Joe Biden used his command of the past to interpret the present, providing Katie Couric with wit and wisdom for our troubled financial markets from the Great Depression of the 1930's. Biden said, "When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened.'"

There are a couple aspects of Professor Biden's lecture that should make us want to cut class, namely:

1. Roosevelt wasn't elected president until 1932. It would be well over three years between the crash of 1929 and his inauguration in 1933.
2. His famous "Fireside Chats" were conducted over the radio, as television had by that time just been invented, and was decades away from either 1929 or 1933.

There's nothing unusual about politicians misspeaking, even in public. Everyone remembers President Clinton's infamous "that depends on what the meaning of 'is' is"; President Bush has even made misspeaking a central part of his "strategery", causing his opponents to "misunderestimate" him. The granddaddy of them all though, for those of us born since Nixon's resignation, was uttered by J. Danforth Quayle in Trenton, New Jersey. While officiating a spelling bee, the vice president corrected a contestant's spelling of "potato", to which he affixed an extraneous, trailing "e". The media and fellow politicians ate this up, of course, subsequently lambasting Quayle for his gaffe. Many of his detractors claimed, with tenuous logic, that a man who could not spell the word potato was unfit to be making high-level executive decisions for the country. Leaving aside the valid etymological debate, I can see at least one significant difference between the Quayle and Biden blunders.

What makes Biden's anti-historical revisionism the height of irony is this: Biden is being sold to us as the experience on the ticket. In the 1992 election Dan Quayle was by far the more untested of the candidates. His running mate, George H.W. Bush, was already president, had had previous executive experience as the vice president for eight years, and as the head of the CIA before that, not to mention prior legislative experience as a Congressman. No one in his right mind thinks that Obama, a man whose previous credentials include only 11 years in deliberative, legislative bodies-and 0 in an executive position higher than a lemonade stand-is fit to be Chief Executive without a little help from an old hand. Obama's campaign staff understands this, and, in large part, it drives their selection of Biden, the six-term Senator from Delaware. If these kinds of missteps are the experience Obama and Biden wish to bring to the executive branch, well...can I see my other options?

Thankfully, our founding fathers put in place a robust and well-planned government that could withstand four or even eight years of Obama (although our founding documents would seem rife with misspellings to our modern eyes.) I hope that, if elected, Messrs. Obama and Biden would rise to the challenges put before them-but I also hope it won't come to that.

Now that you know my opinion, what's yours? Drop me a line and let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of ILoveAltoona.com or its advertisers.

How the Government Wastes Your Money

By Jeff Neff

Today, let's look into how the government works -- or doesn't. Having spent over six years working for the government, I've seen how wasteful and greatly unproductive the government really is. We can talk all day about the great things our federal, state, or dare I say local governments have been doing for us with our own dollars, but I want to share some things with you that go to show how wasteful our government really is as compared to privately owned businesses.

Now understand that the majority of government employees are ordinary people who aren't necessarily wasteful people themselves, but the way the system is set up invites the abuse of tax dollars.

A big difference between privately run businesses and government organizations is the actual management of money. When a restaurant owner finds that his employee has been stealing small amounts of food over a period of time, he corrects that employee. Or sometimes the owner may allow his employees to take home a few extra pies or meals for free. Either way, if the employee steals the food or if the food is given to him; the owner takes a financial loss. This doesn’t have to apply to the food industry only. Companies who do allow freebies usually limit how much is handed out, and do it sparingly.

Any company with a payroll must deal with managing their employees' schedules and a great deal of time goes into avoiding paying out too much overtime. Of course it is sometimes needed, but private businesses would rather limit its use. Doing it this way leads to saving money and the better use of employees' time.

Between "freebies" and overtime pay, private companies tend to get the most out of their money. What about the government? This may apply to any level of government, but in my federal experience over the last six years, freebies are handed out like candy.

While restaurants adjust for how much food they buy and sell, they always try to minimize how much food is actually thrown away, while the government only increases its size and production of materials.

For a government entity, money saved is money wasted. If they do not deplete their budget, their budget is decreased the following year. This is not a myth or a joke. Money allotted for a specific purpose must be spent to ensure future funding. In a certain place I used to work at, money that was saved in my department throughout the fiscal year was given to all employees as a bonus for Christmas, only after management vehemently searched for ways to use the majority of it for useless purchases.

We had unnecessary office renovations. We got new vehicles, printers and computers to replace ones which were already in perfect condition. Ever heard of a government surplus auction?

This explains the amount of overtime given or mandated to government employees, since the money seems to just appear out of nowhere. Supervisors don't worry about budgeting when all they are concerned with is spending as much money as they can.

This is why new taxes appear and why existing taxes are increased.

What kind of savings can we make in our local government? That’s a question our local officials need to ask themselves when they oversee budgets. Does the city really need new vehicles, computers, or other "replacements" for its departments? Ordinary citizens like us can bring wasteful spending like this to their attention by attending council meetings, writing a letter to the editor, or simply by voting out the wasteful spenders.

Instead of finding new ways to spend money, we need to start saving money first.

Jeff Neff

The Mortgage Crisis

By Jason Ibrahim

I like to be in America,
OK by me in America.
Everything free in America
(For a small fee in America)
--West Side Story

Lots of people in the media nowadays like to refer to the "mortgage crisis", which they state as if not knowing what they mean-or worse, disagreeing with their interpretation-is tantamount to being an uncouth barbarian. The fact of the matter is I have a hard enough time keeping up with what the crisis of the week is, so anything I can do to separate the fake crises from the real ones is progress to me. It's also a fact that I don't think there is a mortgage crisis at all. Before you burn me at the stake, let me explain.

I do think there's a subprime mortgage crisis, but I think this began when subprime mortgages were instituted, not now that they're coming unraveled. Basically, a subprime mortgage occurs when a person or group of people decides to borrow more money than their means allow, and a mortgage company colludes with them, at usurious rates, for sure, to give their customers their own overzealous slice of the American Dream.

Let's just pause right here and make one thing clear: this is a voluntary agreement. No one's forcing the borrower to sign the document, and no one is compelling the creditor to lend the money. That means if the borrower defaults on the loan, he has no one to blame but himself. If the lender has to file bankruptcy, his own decisions brought him to that point. (If the government deems the lender "too important" to go out of business, well...more on that later.)

So what about me? Who am I to criticize people just struggling to get ahead, when I probably inherited the money to pay for my house when my wealthy great-uncle, the owner of a vast pancake-flipper-selling empire, mentioned me in his will, right? No, actually, I too have a mortgage, but one that is well within my means to pay; I didn't opt for the Altoona Taj Mahal. I get up and go to work every day; I'm thankful to God for my house and my job.

There's a quaint old saying that has gone way out of style over the last couple decades, the idea of "living beneath your means." I think it's the key to understanding the subprime crisis, on both sides of the transaction. I think a lot of people nowadays take that to mean "living beneath your worth," because if there's anything that our increasingly consumerist, image-obsessed popular culture is telling us, it's "what you have is who you are." In contrast, "living beneath your means" suggests exactly the opposite: that your character, your work ethic and your perseverance go a long way to determining your standard of living.

Someone that was undoubtedly in favor of the value of thrift was Abraham Lincoln. He wrote, in a strongly-worded letter to his shiftless brother in 1848,

"You are now in need of some ready money; and what I propose is, that you shall go to work, "tooth and nail," for somebody who will give you money for it....I do not mean you shall go off to St. Louis, or the lead mines, or the gold mines, in California, but I mean for you to go at it for the best wages you can get close to home, in Coles County. Now if you will do this, you will soon be out of debt, and what is better, you will have a habit that will keep you from getting in debt again....You say you would almost give your place in Heaven for $70 or $80. Then you value your place in Heaven very cheaply..."

In a way, both the lender and the borrower in the subprime crisis are like Lincoln's immobile brother. The borrowers are perhaps hard-working, honest people, but they have no appreciation for the fruits of their labor, and pine away for $70 or $80 while hundreds of dollars are wasted on all kinds of luxuries, when they could store this away for savings.

Meanwhile the lender has picked up his ax and shovel and headed for the Promise Land. If gold has a scent, these people have noses for it. Unfortunately, the gold in their mines is the same gold at the end of the rainbow. Did they really think they could get something for nothing, hawking high-interest mortgages to people who've demonstrated an inability to pay them? All good delusions must come to an end.

Or do they? Our leaders in Washington have determined that the best people to shore up these lenders-by the way, encouraging more subprime borrowing-are you and me. Through federal bailouts, we now own very minute portions of companies like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and others. Only the government would say, "Let's see, you obviously can't handle money, so the best thing to do is...give you MORE money!"

Maybe what we really have is a subpar governmental crisis.

--Jason

Disclaimer: The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of ILoveAltoona.com or its advertisers.