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If you're into collectables this exam you know because it's not about the fascinating collections people acquire. It's about the people themselves. I collect things I wish I hadn't reinvested in our heritage and in our homes with the free market is my garden that I carry and what it can't live without. Brigitte Bardot bikini top album collectors collectors see them in action on a Thursday night at 11:00 here on WQED 30 WQED broadcast of all Q magazine is made possible by grants from the whole of the Everly foundation the Richard King Foundation the Pittsburgh foundation the Gilman foundation the Jewish Healthcare Foundation the Grable Foundation corporate
funding is provided by UPMC health plan. But you always wished your health plan would be quality choice. Access to specialists without a referral. For more information. 1 8 8 8 3 8 3. You Pete and see. And by the members of WQED. Next on q find out why one of Pittsburgh's most popular strip district night clubs is battling to stay open. We'll also meet the man with a Nice's lawmen Pittsburgh plus an insider's look at the hottest new consumer electronics. Stay with us. Q starts right now. Hello
I'm Carolyn Yes. I'm Chris Moore well. Coming up the newest consumer electronics and a day in the life of a man who puts in 100 hours a week maintaining Pittsburgh's nicest lawn. But first tonight's cover story. Well tonight a bitter legal dispute involving one of Pittsburgh's most popular nightclubs the owner of rows of Rosebud in the Strip District is taking the state to court fighting what he calls an outdated law. Have you heard of the noise invisibility law. Well on cue correspondent Michael Bartley his Here now to explain what all of this is about Michael. Well Stacy Robin Fernandez is a mover and shaker in the local nightclub and entertainment business. He's taking extreme legal measures to quote protect rose bud from closing. Fernandez is fighting a noise and visibility citation given by the state liquor enforcement agency. Fernandez believes it's a necessary fight to make
Pittsburgh competitive with other more hip cities. Some say it will work. The first big time a club in the strip starting an entertainment frenzy in this warehouse neighborhood rose bud in particular is considered an outdoor cafe tonight. There's dancing to loud music either recorded or live inside and large open garage doors allow the music to be heard outside. As a teacher and enjoy an open air deck and the open air cafe atmosphere is why rose bud is in trouble with the State Liquor Control enforcement agency we're being penalize now for having sort of an open air facility at Rosebud are being cited by the LCB for having the music or the performers visible from the street and the music within earshot of the street. And so we're being paralyzed and fined by
that for that and we're being asked to close the garage doors or block them out so that it's not an open air cafe anymore. Core an open air cafe club with live music. So we're in the process right now of fighting it in the courts. Rose Bud owner Robin Fernandez says he's determined to overturn his latest punishment leveled by the state. He's been fined a thousand dollars and ordered to close for two weeks because the music could be heard from the street and the band was visible from the outside. State Liquor Control Law forbids noise heard up to 200 feet away from a licensed tavern and live entertainment openly seen from the streets is forbid. Fernandez already beat a similar citation back in 1999 and he's appealing the latest citation to a common pleas court judge at the Allegheny County Courthouse. Whether or not he has to close for two weeks will depend how a judge rules on his appeal.
It's a law that's been on the books for a long time and it's there for a reason and that is to protect residential neighborhoods from entertainment facilities moving in and pumping out live music or recorded music all night long I understand that. We're in a commercial sort of manufacturing area that has been taking over in the last few years by a lot of entertainment. There really aren't any residences in this area that this would bother. And so we just don't understand the purpose of the of the citation or the complaint. We feel that you kind of like no harm no foul. We're not really bothering anybody so why are we being penalized. And it's something that we have to fight for because it means we believe it means whether or not our business closes or survives. On Friday nights it's loud music and drinking at Market Square downtown. Local businesses sponsor the event to more or less attract young people downtown. Fernandez says that's great but if it's allowed to happen in downtown at Market Square every Friday night why aren't the clubs who are paying
taxes who are contributing on a 12 month basis. Why aren't we given some flexibility in the summer months. We are there primarily to enforce the law. Early for all the licensees and all the citizens. Jim Zemin is a supervisor with the State Liquor Control enforcement agency. It's his agency that enforces liquor license laws. He asked us not to show his face because he often works undercover. He says it's plain and simple. His agents have to enforce what the law says about prohibiting noise and prohibiting live entertainment scene from outside a license establishment. It can't be considered picking on a person if when you go and do your investigation you do in find fact they're fine they're breaking the law. That's not picking on or harassment that's just good law enforcement. Do you have to follow the letter of the law all the time. But I think what I'm saying is some people argue you know if we're going to keep young people in Pittsburgh for example you got to have these outdoor cafes and bands and the whole thing I mean
does that play into anything or do you just have to go by the book. We try not to get into make value judgments regarding the benefits of the lack of benefits about a premises and what they're doing. We try to be reasonable as far as our interpretations. But to give someone a free pass because they might be beneficial to the city that's not a station to make we leave this to the courts to determine if the law was fairly enforced or what the penalty should be. As for something like market squares Friday night noise Zeman says it's the city's responsibility to enforce their own outdoor Firmin rules because this outdoor activity is not a licensed liquor establishment Zeman says his agents have no authority to shut down this noise. The band that performs in Market Square
is not on a licensed premises. The band is being paid by a merchant's consortium and no licensee is paying the band for supplying any money for the band. So we have no power to charge any licensee for the activities of this band. We do patrol Market Square and we've made several arrests for under-age drinking. Even Robin Fernandez says he has no problems with liquor control and Forsman agents. It's the current law he has a problem with. And if I was to continue the fight to get it changed to get cafe type clubs and non residential areas excused from the noise and visibility rules everybody talks about how great other cities are and all the entertainment options that they have a lot of outdoor cafes a lot of places where you can listen to music outside. You know people strolling by and you know there's activity on the sidewalk activity on the street. Those are the kind of things that young people seem to like and we in Pittsburgh we don't have that many
places like that. So anybody that a lot like us or any of the places that have SE Aldor seating are not permitted to have any music outside at all. That's against the LCB regulations. Well I think those kinds of laws and those kinds of concerns of the air are are what keep people from creating places here that are really dynamic and those are the kind of things that help keep young people interested in the city. Fernandez's appeal will be heard later this summer. Even if he loses he hopes to get some notice from politicians who might think he's right and then put some pressure on the LCB to ease up on noise restrictions in non residential neighborhoods will see what happened. As for the agents go they say look at we're doing our job if somebody complains about noise. We've got to follow through on. Is there any talk within the LCB of trying to change these rules. There is nothing absolutely nothing on the table right now I'm told from a spokesperson in Harrisburg the LCB says the
rules are designed to protect not only residential neighborhoods but nearby businesses who might complain will see if Fernandez and his lawyers can stir up some interest that will be interesting to see if he wins this one again or should be. Thank you Michael. All right. Now Carol has a question for you Carol. OK we're going to begin this next story with a little quiz. There's a guy who was in Pittsburgh. He's 29 years old and he's the youngest person in the country to do what he does. He works every single day and he puts in 100 hours a week. Yet somehow he manages to have the nicest lawn in Pittsburgh. In fact some say it's the nicest lawn in the entire country. Can you guess who he is. Well his story begins with a big bang. My name is Loki order and I am manager I feel minus the Pittsburgh Pirates. That little takes on a little more significance at the park where there's
one really big difference from the old style grass to get to know many people on a lot of people really know how artists today and the kind that he puts in to make it as beautiful as it is Miami and for most people is a guy with a wheelbarrow right. That's what most people think of you know my job mow your mower you get a Wilbur Wright and that this feels really good. All in the last 10 years it's almost become a requirement for groundskeepers to have a degree in her press management on golf courses and baseball fields. My degree is called horse halter thoroughbred. Went from Clinton university mostly from my old school books that I kept from my classes anything that had to do with growing anything whatsoever from turf grass management the weed science the whole culture study of trees which we may be responsible for the trees outside the stadium next year and all your other plant propagation plant
physiology. This is a great book. Diseases of turf grasses not really what you call light reading but then this isn't your ordinary yard you don't diagnose right disease when you spray the wrong thing you can lose your field to be in trouble. That's an understatement. Fortunately it's been mostly compliments for the youngest groundskeeper in Major League Baseball and now he's considered one of the best in the business. The pirates hired him away from the Chicago Cubs Triple-A affiliate in Iowa that's where he first met his two assistants. Richard Roth and Steven bridges they both have degrees in her friend's management and no way I can do without them. I mean maybe if I broke a leg they could do it. Luke rich and Steve were full time. Around there also two full time seasonal workers and the living part timers who were demons. Yes Luke really does work a
hundred hours a week when the pirates are at home. Although it really isn't how much better the way. Maybe down to about 60 hours to feel who cares. Sod replacement and chemical applications. I've got an apartment here at the park and I stay there. Did he just say apartment every night in the ballpark. Oh yeah. We can show you this place like a little bitty hotel room apartments kind of a glorified name for here this is it and this is again it's just a small little room take shape but you never see it. You know 11:30 12:00 at night this is where I come in and pretty much go right to bed watching TV maybe a little watch baseball tonight. Check out our BIOS's heels. But wait there's more. We get everything here we need from hideaway mum and washer dryer. They've basically put a TV in almost every room and so they know that the hours we put in and they know that I'll get my workout in a sort of before happier if we're taken care to sleep each night. Much of this I don't want to seems gone but I stay here when there are winners or
my neighbors probably think of the Pittsburgh Pirates made a big mistake hiring me as a head groundskeeper because I don't take care of my lawn. Like I do my yard here but I'm just not home enough. I going up to my pride just an average love it. Nothing like people wish that you know. Took a couple of times about how I feel with Grant the words because of the firecracker you feel sorry for him but he's been victimized by that I meant right. Well actually at this point we do have some in effect just call a slowest rationally and obviously that benefits a pitcher to the pirates count on Luke to do more than just make the place with nice. It's awful tough for a hitter to get ahead through our infield grass but they don't get the ball over the grass. There's a really good chance they're going to get out of her. If you see the bar at the
infield grass here PNC you can literally watch it slow down. Now we've got the grass really short. Committee either way. But right now we're working on working with the coaches and the commanders. That's the way they want to the strategy has to be working. The team is playing here fire ball park and into the real high grass and we've got a lot of Sake about that you're in the club and you get a lot of ground balls a lot of the ground balls like her last year that is now growing and moving out of that and they will do that right. Yeah it's actually about an eighth of an inch shorter just because the guys would like the bottom one of them a little quicker so they can get to faster. Well I think right now our grass will do nothing both in field and out you know you know guys have most of the
medal are out and they'll you know pretty good. Good for you to get your charge Imbrie are feels grown about and I give an inch a day at least sometimes a quarter inch and it's grown a lot. And even though the Allegheny River is just your hundred and thirty three feet away from home many home city writers use on the field and see Park River water isn't good for the grass. Although actually the dirt gets more water than the grass Luke waters the dirt to seven times a day. We spend 70 percent of our time on the dirt the grass is the easy part the dirt is another way to can affect the game like for example and from the plate we keep that fairly soft ball so if it was hard and a player hit a ball off the front plate they could actually bounce on the second baseman right when your pitcher as far as back there gets in the very back there is exactly the way I like it we've talked about it
or where my feet go what kind of holes I like to dig my feet in the way I set up and I'm certain counts against certain hitters and where might put holes are the dirt back there is is there for me in the woods I mean with the kind of things that I need to get back there. So like it said it would be better if it were you know to mark what he did on the River Walk right time were in my office here and I come in here several times a day if there's a threat of rain and check the radar. There's whether movement in and we've been watching this all morning. We did have an incident. I came very close about four inches from the field where some lady and I had too good of a time and thought she was going to Liberty to us and she was coming into the service tunnel here at the stadium and
she drove down at fairly decent speed into this town. Came right down past my office and luckily stand a warning track and hit the wall. She tried to turn around and came about four inches from the grass which was very soft at the time that it had snow on it was wet and so that could have been very bad but it turned out that she stayed on the warning track priorities. Anyway back to the other guys the weather service said there's still a chance of some development coming. I mean yeah you are. Tonight we bring you the song
BNC park grounds crew feel maintenance and quality care 24 hours a day or night. I'm going to guide out of bed before 2:00 in the morning for the carbine so I guess it is true for me and how good a great they've done this so many times they got it down and they got a far far not so quick and they know exactly what to do so without them I'd be nothing when Bill to me and you know how them a lot of credit. At the risk that this isn't exactly the kind of day we
like to have felt we did everything we could to get the game in a new me you never know how it's going to turn out even by looking at the weather forecasts of yours have to go with what's handed to you and follow yours. Let your X-ray screening the sexes. Let us know commoner six are such right. I will never complain about yard work ever again. Incidentally those giant green mowers that you saw cost twenty thousand dollars. That is not your average Sears special Chris. Speaking of gadgets though tonight we're looking at some of the newest from the world of high tech and I'm here with Dr. Frank Viggiano a professor of consumer products at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Welcome back Dr. Vee How you doing. Well we got tonight all kinds of new stuff. Now Ray will start with speakers speakers OK in the
home and work towards the mobile mobility and smaller If These Walls Could Talk right. An article that I did in an electronic House magazine on in-wall speakers and of course I want to explain that in a wall and in ceiling are pretty much the same thing of the first product you're holding up is manufactured by a company called Sun ants and the problem has been that people have to put two speakers in various rooms of their home to get stereo sound. It's more this is more expensive now what Sony has come out with something called a single stereo technology. Two speakers here stereo put it in the hallway bathroom closet area where you don't need to have two speakers. You basically economize and save the money and still get the stereo sound. Wow how much some like the group meets between 250 and $450 seems like they're right and also I just want to show our viewers will quick it's got a grill you can paint them any color you want to match the walls etc. match the decode by Sony with these big rectangular these big eyes are made by a company called lawn and they're called the elite speaker and what I'll do is if you go ahead you want to hold one up that's fine. One is Cherry as you can see this is the cherry finish here and I also brought one in. That
is natural. Now when I turn the speaker back over so you get an idea of what we've got here is for some hardware this is some serious stuff it's not. It's pretty heavy but the idea behind it is you can put it into your study. You can put in the living room a home theater and the benefit is you could match the wood which you never could do before. Most speakers you can now match the wood to the decor of the home kind of system you need to drive these. Well you're going to probably need something at least a good four five hundred watts to really get the punch out of it that you want. OK all right what's next we're going to get we're going to mobility what we have here this is this navigation system is the newest thing that's out and I just want to mention that most of the people who have navigation are using nav Tech this this is the company that basically started it and from the time that you leave the house around the corner you know door to door this is what they do so they supply the data. OK. So this whole piece goes in your car somewhere it goes in your car and there was that awful I mean this is the software this oracular wanted for BMW. They make them for all the major car manufacturers but they're nothing more than a CD-ROM or DVD. Now they pretty good I'll give you directions we're going to tell you where your they tell you where they are by voice and they actually guide you you know turn to turn
on down the road. Door to door will tell you exactly what's the end of I won't want to be going to places I don't want to live I know what I want to show you know this is the No this is manufactured by Clarion and it's called the joy ride and we have a videotape that's going to show some of the components that match it up. OK you'll notice this is the head and you know this goes in the dashboard here this piece that goes in the dashboard allows you to have AM and FM. It allows you to basically determine when your navigation unit although in the back seat for the children we have a we have a nine inch DVD one seven inch DVD. This is Toy Story this play now so you get an idea to look at the color you look out clear. Look at this are the children in the backseat watching this while you're navigating the entire see the car here with the family up front so you keep the kids happy and still find you I made my clarion call my wife was not going to ask for directions. I thought we got a camera. This is kind of cute this is one of the neatest things I've seen along cause a little bit of camera. Yeah this is me in the middle I mean actual smart secret cam this is the Minox OK little Minox camera and you lose this is the film that's going to feel small That's how you put it inside you get to develop There's
24 exposures 36 exposures and I mean Chris just like a regular here on my digital right. You know when I crank it you can hear that hear the shutter. OK but it's really neat it's made manufactured by Minox lika who has been in our industry has been noted for probably the best overall cameras in the world of football. Beautiful wooden box. We're going to take you to sit there. There was good as a 35 millimeter I got to send them into them for processing. Just can't go around your corner store it's going to exactly this is me this is this is called sea life and it's by Steiner cameras underwater cameras underwater cameras of two hundred sixty four feet deep with outlandish. Oh yeah with the flashing this even moves around so if you need to get you see if you need to get an angle and you just absolutely it was made by STEINER It's called SEA LIFE OK. And what I thought we'd get into a little bit too is some of the Palm Pilot devices you know it's very popular today so I brought a bunch of things in. And I want to mention that if you're going to tell me this thing is yes you got what I mean. Yes that's what I though I still have my day but I wouldn't want to show basically some of the major manufacturers look at this is this is a handspring this is a visor prism. It's a color unit it also has module capabilities.
The screens are incurring now screens are in color the in color it has it has module capability. This will allow you to actually go out on the Internet. I have another one that also allows you to go with the sky that's over here this is it yes but I have you're walking you can walk right have GP s and so forth as a display of maps and every displays of maps in fact if I turn this on I believe probably if we it's maybe hard to see it with a light in the studio but we've got a map of Indiana and I was like basically page down and press it exudes into the street level you know this guy. This is by Sony you sued can see it out there you've got it you know and if you go away and if I keep going in here you can see if I can get closer I'll just I'll just You'll see how fast we go into the. And you go back into the city get closer and closer going to start to see snow you see the first right down to the zigzag. Right. Their home address their ground there isn't very close I can tell you that this is this is a Sony Clie which is right next to it this is a new color product by Sony and this product is just introduced it's only been out about a week. Really consumer friendly in terms of use. They are consumer friendly the nicest thing about them is being able to download and so forth and what about the price.
Prices are very comparable in certain sections but this is by Paul. OK BYE MOM. And one of things that I want to show to this is that this is kind of neat. There's a couple of cases that are made by easy cases and these are probably the finest cases that I've come across I want you to see this when you open this up. This battle Velcro here and you close it it's called a slipper but the benefit is your protection overall and the last thing I want to show you if we have a second or so just this is the RCA e-book I want you to see this is very real and if you take a look at this guy the neat thing about it you know if you see Time magazine and so forth so you can read you time ago you books and all those you download all your books in here this will be the textbook of the future and instead of buying books you're going to be buying that not to be thanks a lot really appreciate you being here I hope you never run out of batteries. Right now European see past the local events in the community calendar. Before we go we want to tell you what own cues David they were going to be doing on the prairie
dogs burgers and I smell a truth that is happening tomorrow on PC and C from 10:00 a.m. until 11:00. Well that does it for now. Have a good evening. Good Iraq. You know you read these broadcasts of all AQ magazine is made possible by grants from the know what is going to the absolute foundation to Richard Kingsmill and foundation the McEwen foundation the Pittsburgh
foundation.
Series
OnQ
Episode Number
2108
Contributing Organization
WQED (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/120-719kdg13
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Description
Description
--Rosebud (Bartley) --Mr. Grass Pkg (Natsound/Joc) --Dr. Viggiano Live (Electronics/ Nath)
Broadcast Date
2001-06-13
Created Date
2001-06-13
Genres
News
Magazine
Topics
News
Media type
Moving Image
Duration
00:29:44
Embed Code
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Credits
AAPB Contributor Holdings
WQED-TV
Identifier: 18958 (18958)
Format: Betacam: SP
Generation: Master
Duration: 27:59:14
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Citations
Chicago: “OnQ; 2108,” 2001-06-13, WQED, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed May 23, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-120-719kdg13.
MLA: “OnQ; 2108.” 2001-06-13. WQED, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. May 23, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-120-719kdg13>.
APA: OnQ; 2108. Boston, MA: WQED, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-120-719kdg13