It was many years back that an executive with the Johnstown Chiefs hockey team lectured me on the strengths of Johnstown.
In his defense, he probably didn’t realize at the time that I was born and raised here. Likely he identified me as yet another hired hand from elsewhere, like him (aren’t they all?). On the contrary, I’m a lifer, having lived all my 67 years and change to date in the Greater Johnstown area.
But unlike too many blind partisans here and elsewhere, I don’t check my brain at the door. I can see the community’s warts as well as its strengths.
At the time, I noted to this hockey guy that Johnstown was losing population radically, was on its collective butt economically and the league of which it was a member was getting too big for Johnstown.
Eventually, I told him, when ownership tired of losing money, the team would be gone. And this came to pass.
The economic situation here prompted me to shift to a Pittsburgh newspaper to secure my future and eventually I retired from that job. But I never moved; just did a lot of commuting.
To repeat, I like it here, which is why I continue to live within a few miles of City Hall. Admittedly, I like it less and less as we become Filthydelphia West, and our collective political leadership becomes less and less confidence-inspiring.
What really irks me is the creature known as Vision Together 2025 or, as I call it, Myopia 2025.
There have been many critics of this operation, most notably in recent years when it was hatching a plan in secret to flood the area with refugees of Afghanistan violence.
At first the Myopia 2025 people denied it all. Forced to fess up, they told us, in effect, we peasants were too stupid to realize how good this would be for us and our community.
The Myopia CEO at the time, another person with roots elsewhere, eventually fell on his sword, leaving the position open until today – with the publisher of the local fish wrapper, bird cage liner print product leaving that job after having been named to the Myopia position.
There is talk – unsubstantiated but not unbelievable – that he got a $30,000 raise to assume this new position, which brings me to one ongoing gripe.
In a word, our economy is depressed. The only growth industry, besides crime and public housing, is our overabundance of nonprofit operations.
Myopia 2025 just happens to be another of these nonprofit organizations, put together to promote this or that, largely on the basis of donations and government handouts. Despite having to pass the begging bowl to remain in existence, always, it seems, they are able to pay the head honchos like royalty.
The boards are populated by business leaders and community elites including elected officials, many of whom also are compensated to work for operations under the nonprofit category, being well-paid in those roles.
A cynic might suggest that all this community activism is less about altruism and more about making a buck in a town that hasn’t been vibrant economically since 1977, when yet another flood sealed the fate of Bethlehem Steel.
Forced into the light of day, Myopia 2025 is having public meetings and going to Uncle Sam for more and more funding. Formed in 2014, the organization’s web site lists seven objectives to be achieved by 2025, hence the name.
Do we dare dream that if they have not reached the goals by 2025, they will move on to greener pastures and leave us backward folks alone? I doubt it.
Sam Ross Jr's site 