Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Wooing USA cycling

There is an interesting story in the Gazette today about how a moribund rustbelt town in Pennsylvania, so impoverished that it had to close its hospital and lay off its police force this year, plans to try to build an indoor velodrome to woo USA cycling away from Colorado Springs as part of a $125 million redevelopment project. Wikipedia calls the town of Brownsville "the ultimate depiction of how the decline of industry and the rise of suburbanization has destroyed the small American downtown." It's almost totally abandoned.
A spokesman from USA cycling said the chance of moving is "very, very slim."
Poor Brownsville, PA. It should set its sights on something lower. Like anything. How 'bout a Starbucks?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well for one they gotta do something about the name.

A town called Brownsville in a place called the Rust Best sounds about as appealing as living in Chemicalville in the Toxin Basin.

They should rename it something like Happyland or Nirvanatown or Evererect - "where its always hard times and we couldn't be happier".

That'll jumpstart things.

Seriously though ... I do wish them well. Its no fun seeing your town fall apart.