Chatting With Mimmo

I stopped into Mimmo's pizza on Public Square the other day to chow down on a few cuts.  While waiting for my slices I engaged in a conversation with the owner Mark Bronsburg.  After a few seconds of idle chit chat, the talk turned to why the city of Wilkes-Barre was cutting down all of the trees on the north side of the Square and down E. Market St.?  Mark informed me that the city is replacing all of the sidewalks like they did on the opposite side of the Square.  The only difference is that the jug heads from the city are not going to configure the parking the same way.  You see, on the West side of Public Square the parking is facing the businesses which allows for more spots.  On the Mimmo's Pizza side they are not going to do that.  This has business owners like Bronsburg are baffled and ticked off.  "It doesn't make and sense at all.  By changing the parking to the way it is across the way will allow for more parking which means more business.  I guess the city doesn't care about us business owners on this side!"

Mark, you are so right!  The cement heads in Wilkes-Barre's City Hall only care about one thing, lining their greasy pockets with cha-ching.  These idiots couldn't plan a one man Chinese Fire Drill on a dead end street.  As both Mark and I noticed, there is plenty of room to change the parking set up to accommodate more spots.  Why they don't do it is way beyond me.  However, I have a guess.  The other side of Pubic Square (not a typo) has all of the bars and night clubs.  These businesses the city cares about because they can rake in the tax dollars.  Also, politically connected Frankie Rodano has his pizza place there.  Don't get me wrong here, I am friends with Frankie and I am not bashing him.  All I am saying is the squeaky wheel gets all of the grease.  Politics as usual here in NEPA.  Anyway, it looks like Wilkes-Barre got some casino money to fix the sidewalks which is a long time coming.  I give them a one thumb up for that, but another thumb down for not using their pea sized brains to do it right.