There are a few topics/subjects that arouse the normally even-keeled Mondesi's House readers into a frenzy. One, as you've obviously seen earlier today, is outgoing ESPN Radio personality Mark Madden. Another is any mention of the words "Pitt" and "Penn State" in the same sentence. And recently, another local celebrity seems to be throwing his hat into the ring of controversy on a regular basis. His name? Mayor Luke Ravenstahl.
The Mayor angered many when he openly discussed his ticket dilemma for the Stanley Cup Finals games in Detroit. He angered even more with the Penguins banner conundrum. And today, in his latest installment, it was revealed that he travelled to Detroit with a bodyguard at the city's expense.
"You're sending him to Detroit with 20,000 rabid Red Wings fans, and you're not going to send security?" said Public Safety Director Michael Huss.
I know Detroit has a little rep for being somewhat of a rough-and-tumble town, deserved or not (and as I reminded everyone last week, it was home to the famous Pacers-Pistons "Malice at the Palace"), but I highly doubt that "roughing up the Mayor of Pittsburgh" was on any Wings' fan's agenda for games one or two. The story keeps going, though...
Mr. Huss said it was his decision to have the city provide a Chevy Impala, gas, and two nights in a hotel for Detective Dominick Sciulli, who will receive some overtime pay for his work on the trip.
Wow...good thing the city didn't cough up for tickets after all, because this trip looks like it has a rapidly-expanding expense ledger. But it gets even better...
Mr. Huss said that once Mr. Ravenstahl got to Detroit, the city's police provided an additional bodyguard. Detective Sciulli was able to attend the games free of charge, as a courtesy extended to security professionals.
So Mayor Ravenstahl, a strapping former college football player all of 28 years old, was escorted to a hockey game by not one, but two bodyguards?
In all fairness, if by some miniscule chance a Detroit fan would've attempted an attack on Ravenstahl, everyone would say how ridiculous it was that there wasn't any security and that they should have known better in Detroit. In fact, I'm guessing that it's pretty common to have a major city's Mayor flanked by security at selected events.
The bottom line is that everything Ravenstahl does comes under a microscope, and if that includes expensing gas (which, as you probably noticed, is a little high these days), car use, two nights at a hotel and overtime pay for a bodyguard so that the Mayor can watch some hockey in a different state, it's going to get discussed.
13 comments:
At 28 years old, he's only proven that he's the same old politician.
Luke was the kicker at a Division III school, which is one notch below tackling dummy (see Rudy) and one notch above community college intermural team captain on the Totem Pole of "Strapping Former College Football Players."
How many Wings fans out of 100 could recognize the Pittsburgh mayor?
I would be surprised to find one.
This guy is clueless. He personally served up that nice softball with his ticket debate.
Something like that stays behind closed doors. He had to know that he would be unable to accept a ticket, but yet the moron openly debated the issue with the media and all but lobbied for the right to accept a free ticket!
Didn't this guy ever watch "The West Wing"? CJ Craig (press secretary on the show) would never have let POTUS make such a statement publicly.
Luke has a bodyguard with him wherever he goes anyways. And I'm sure that bodyguard gets overtime pretty regularly. I saw him at a W&J football game with a bodyguard (hopefully it was his designated driver too.) This is more of a non-issue than all of the things that he is scrutinized for.
Scrawler,
I played with Luke at W&J. We won the conference every year that he was our kicker. He set multiple kicking records for the school. I would say that he is one notch above Rudy and one notch below 3rd string Pitt QB Kevan Smith. Smith may have had a scholarship handed to him for no reason, but he embarasses himself on TV every time he gets on the field and still has to do all the things that make D1 athletics a full time job. He only gets above Luke because he gets to go to school for free.
Scrawler's right... he's a kicker, which doesn't make him a football player. He's a kicker.
But seriously, you'd think someone in that office would tell him to keep his mouth shut about things more often. Half of his gaffes are based on common sense, which makes him perfect for politics.
To repeat, he was a kicker, not a football player. I'll debate any mo-fo about this point all day.
That is all.
Mondesi's House is turning into "politics blog" and "Mark Madden Pandering" blog.
If there's two things I hate, it's shock jocks and politicians.
And no, I don't just hate one parties worth of politicians. I'm not one of these people that has my head so far up my political party's (I don't have one BTW) ass that I think everything our guys do is right and the other party can't possibly do anything good. Newsflash: It doesn't matter what party they're from. They're ALL self-serving assholes. Don't be their bitch.
THEN we have the Madden worshipping Manbeardouche pulling one of his mentor's tricks by calling me out for no reason. Hey, you worship a guy who's only skill is using half-truths to piss other stupid off. Congrats! The only bad thing about him getting canned was not hearing his take on the NHL Finals. As for the rest of his act, there's a hack in every other city in this country that tries the same shit. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...
Koz's Pens articles are still good (even though today's was WAY too negative), and the news and stuff are cool, but the political crap and ManbearMaddenblowjob (if you have a problem with me, come to Tampa, we'll have lunch. I don't play this anonymous internet slamming people shit kid) shit is making this place much less enjoyable.
I am OUT.
Luke needs to quite "playing" Mayor and actually start to do the job. It is not all about fringe benefits, David Letterman and sporting events. The City is a complete disaster financially and what has he done to fix it.
How about working on keeping the students from the excellent local colleges to stay in PGH instead of running away for jobs elsewhere. Wouldn't it be nice if the reason for so many Steeler bars across the nation was not due to the fact that Pittsburgh was losing population as fast as the Pirates were dropping games?
Luke if you are reading this blog it only cements the problem... get back to work. Forget about getting Pens tickets and focus on getting more people in the area with jobs that allow them to buy Pens tickets.
EWWWWW, the big boys are talking about politics again. Ewwwwwwwww, Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
I have a theory, the Detroit and Pittsburgh PDs sent "guards" to protect the city from a guy with a history of making trouble at sporting events. Let's not forget he's been "detained" for disorderly conduct before. It's either that or Pittsburgh had money to waste... take your pick.
Burgher Jon - great point on the Steeler game snafu for Mr. Mayor. That was the epitome of carelessness judging by what I read in the P-G.
Lou Lipps - what's the deal? Sounds more like Tim Worley's your homeboy with that post.
All of you Luke haters really need to get over yourselves. Each and everyone of you would take advantage of the opportunities given to you. And reading about the passion shown to all of the Pittsburgh teams on this website, all of you would not only go to the games, but say that it makes you a better mayor because of the loyalty shown to the city and keeping in touch with your voter base. What a holier than thou attitude.
Whoa now... there's a difference between going to the games (which no one is faulting him for, but probably in supporting) and making a public issue about how you're getting the tickets instead of just biting the bullet and paying for them out of your own pocket (i.e. the Detroit trip).
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