Council favors ending Act 47 Oversight; Teenagers favor Dad giving them the car keys

OK, I come back from my Thanksgiving hiatus to find that (1) the city has opened up the fabulous span of the Hotmetal Bridge which allows people to bike/walk all the way, non stop from the Glenwood Bridge to the PNC First Side center and (2) that the crack addled City Council wants to ditch its parole officer.

The bridge is the good news story, in case you couldn't tell.

Now, don't get me wrong: I understand why City Council wants to have the shackles off. I mean, now that Twanda Carlisle's schemes have been foiled, everyone's going to have to work that much harder to rob the city blind on behalf of special interests. It's not like they can just give money away or anything.

While both the ICA (notice they're not fighting that one yet) and the Act 47 posses are a major pain in the ass, they are the sober David Crosby to the city's alcoholic Lionel Hutz sometimes.

[Was that reference too obscure? Sometimes I can't tell.]

Cutting out the Act 47 crew would be like stopping at step 4 in the 12 step process, which is "make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves," if you weren't already aware. At this rate, the City will have it's ultimate "spiritual awakening" (step 12) sometime around the same time as Lindsay Lohan.

OK, maybe not that long, but a really, really long time.

Hell, City Council telling the State that "it's fine" and "there's no problem" and "I can quit whenever I want to" is only going to lead to the City saying "I'm sorry I threw up all over your carpet, banged your roommate, and crashed your car into the Police Station".

This just won't end well... especially for the carpet, roommate, and car which, to carry the metaphor to the obvious conclusions would be the city roads, Cranberry, and, let's say, USAirways, respectively.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need another gin and tonic to wash out the taste of week old cranberry stuffing.