Wall Street West-Kanjorski Brainchild Died And Slips Into Obscurity

There was much excitement when Paul Kanjorski announced he was going to "potentially" bring 1,000 jobs to our area via bombing reclaimed mine- scared land. Instead of mines scarring the land it would now be almost 500 detonations per year. People quickly realized that it is election time and just like the FBI playbook cited by Hans Gruber in the movie "Diehard" Mitchell and Kanjorski were up to their same old "Let's Save The Gipper" tactics.

Yesterday, David Pierce over at the Pocono Record, reported on the death of one of Kanjorski's former "Let's Save The Gipper" tactics, Wall Street West. In this press release from Kanjorski's office in 2006 he promotes a talk he had about Wall Street West at a National Conference on Business Continuity.

Scranton, Pa. - Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski (PA-11) today presented the Wall Street West initiative to 1,500 attendees at the national Business Continuity Conference of the Securities Industry Association in Manhattan. Wall Street West is a concept that grew out of the realization that major financial services firms need secondary facilities in the wake of a catastrophe like September 11.

The Penn Regional Business Center, a division of LTS Builders in Monroe County, recently announced plans to create a financial district in northeastern Pennsylvania that would be fully compliant with federal recommendations for business continuity, and is set to break ground in June 2007.

"Wall Street West is a concept that we have been working on diligently since September 11. Northeastern Pennsylvania is suitably located for backup facilities because it is less than 125 miles from Manhattan, and is located in a different watershed and separate electrical grid. I am pleased that so many local and state officials, as well as community and business leaders in our region, have realized the benefits of Wall Street West. Our area is fortunate to have businessmen like Larry Simon, who took the seed of our vision and planted it with his investment in the Poconos," Congressman Kanjorski said.

Congressman Kanjorski earlier this month met with Simon, elected officials and financial services industry representatives to discuss the establishment of reliable backup facilities in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Simon, chairman of the board and CEO of PRBC, hosted a reception at the SIA conference.

But the press release gets better.

In August 2003, Congressman Kanjorski addressed the SIA Business Continuity Task Force, and several firms expressed interest in Wall Street West. Governor Ed Rendell successfully applied for a $15 million Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) grant for training and education from the U.S. Department of Labor. Additionally, Gov. Rendell recently pledged $30 million to Penn Regional Business Center for low-interest grants and loans.

Taxpayers threw $45 million at this project and it ended up dying a slow death. And that is not the end of the story.

Look at this article that appeared in the Pocono Record back in 2006 by Micahel Sadowski. Again the headlines are from the "Let's Save The Gipper" playbook. $125M PROJECT BRINGING 1,300 HIGH-END JOBS WITH AVERAGE SALARY OF $50,000- 'Wall Street West' in the works

A shovel hasn't even touched dirt yet for construction of the first building, but developer Larry T. Simon already envisions a second building — or more.

That's how confident he is that his pet project, the $125 million, 300,000-square-foot Penn Regional Business Center, will be a success, establishing back-up data centers for financial companies based in New York City.

The numbers being cited for this undertaking — the first "Wall Street West"-designed building in the region — are staggering. At least 1,300 high-end jobs would be created, with an average salary around $50,000, according to those supporting the project. Proponents also say the project, which will be built on 14.6 acres of land, could lead to more than $400 million a year in local revenue.

The state could benefit to the tune of $3.5 to $4 million in income taxes per year, which is part of the reason it has committed about $30 million in grants to the project's construction.

Click on the link in that article to read about the infamous fiber optic network from Manhattan to the Poconos that never saw the light of day. The article is from June 8, 2007.

POCONO MANOR — The key element of the Wall Street West project is in place.

State and federal officials announced that Level 3 Communications of Bloomfield, Colo., will be constructing the $24-million fiber-optic network allowing the Wall Street West idea to become a reality.

Construction will begin on the 600-mile fiber-optic line within the next 12 months and be completed 12 months later, according to Jeffrey Allen, vice president of management for Level 3 Communications.

There are more links in this article.

Related Stories

East Stroudsburg group wins Wall Street West grant

With fiber-optic network coming, local developer can begin building

Scranton lands first Wall Street West jobs

Business center planned for Independence Road

Wall St. West developer gives pitch to NYC firms

'Wall Street West' in the works

Two Poconos projects promise jobs

Back to the Pierce's article on the closing of Wall Street West.

In its closing press release, WSW officials pointed to an organization formed in 2009 — the Pennsylvania-based National Center for Organizational Continuity — as a natural successor to Wall Street West for regional job-skills training and development.

"The National Center for Organizational Continuity is an interdisciplinary training and research collaborative," states the NCOC website. "It is dedicated to ensuring the nation's workforce obtains and maintains the high demand skills required to ensure both public and private sector resiliency in the event of a disruption of any scale or type."

The sole phone number listed on the Organizational Continuity website this week was disconnected. E-mails to a web address listed on the site went unanswered.

About all those promised jobs..well...let's quote Martin Luther King "I had a dream" then I woke up to reality. A politician like Paul Kanjorski will say anything and do anything to keep getting elected including blowing tens of millions of our hard earned dollars on Tomfoolery. To jerk around with the emotions of the unemployed or those aspiring to stay in our area borders on villain type behavior like Hans Gruber.








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Unemployment In NEPA UP TO 10.3%

The Times-Tribune published the latest unemployment figures for NEPA today.
With all the stimulus money that has been spent unemployment increased by three tenths of one percent to an 18 year high of 10.3%. Yet Congressman Paul Kanjorski states this is the "best economy of all mankind". He won his first term to Congress by convincing voters Frank Harrison was out of touch with his district. One would have believed Kanjo learned an important political lesson that year.

Over at my buddy Gort's blogspot he critques Chris Carney's press release about investigating the BP Gulf Spill mess.

I'm sure his subcommittee has jurisdiction on this but I think there are about a dozen Congressional Committees already investigating the spill.

There is an environmental disaster in the making in Pennsylvania that Carney hasn't said much about that has already seen his neighbors in Dimock living with water buffaloes because there wells have been poisoned.

Carney's release is a classic political tactic of wagging the dog to divert voter attention away from the real problems he and his cohorts have failed to address with billions upon billions of dollars, namely permanent job creation.

Senator Dominic Pileggi was right on point about the economic impact that loss of the stimulus money will have on Pennsylvania. He predicts a $4 billion to $5 billion dollar deficit in the state budget. Brad Bumsted called the stimulus money "crack cocaine" for the state governments.

Look at this comment by Ed Rendell. "Ladies and gentleman, the stimulus program is working and working big-time in Pennsylvania," Rendell said at a news conference last week. It seems the Democratic Party as witnessed by Rendell and Kanjorski's comments has an agenda to keep telling us how rosy the picture is despite the bad economic data. But he didn't fool Bumsted.

And Rendell says the poor public has been misled. A recent poll showing 64 percent of Americans oppose the stimulus bill is just a shame, Rendell adds, and it's not the voters' fault. For once you are right, Ed. It's Nancy Pelosi, Chris Carney, Paul Kanjorski, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama who head the all star cast of the "Great Stimulus Robbery" of the American public. Only the misleading roles also include you.

Chris, forget the well in the Gulf. How about getting NEPA out of the well of economic despair and create more jobs. Kanjo, isn't it time you quit taking the limousine rides paid for by campaign money and walk the streets with your constituents. Ed Rendell, please ride off into the Comcast sunset and leave the important decisions to the next governor.

The budget was $22 billion when Rendell took the reins and it has climbed to $28 billion. Eachus doesn't get that the state needs to go on a diet so maybe its time to trim the fat by rejecting those for re-election. That's a diet we all could stay on.