We were going to hustle to get one more Interview up, before the big vote tomorrow, in the event that anyone is interested. But we didn’t. It’ll be up soon.
UPDATE: Burgess 39, Kirkland 32, Carlisle 21, Taylor 3
Aside from that, have a great weekend.
Local new media ingenue Agent Ska is trying to connect some dots at her blog, The Ideas Bucket.
She is straight-facedly reporting that Mayor Ravenstahl’s geographic whereabouts once again are suspiciously unknown for an evening in late January.
Furthermore, it is alleged that the Mayor was quite likely in Utah, enjoying the Sundance Film Festival with the likes of Ron Burkle, Sienna Miller, and Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Worst of all, instead of taking pics and video of his experience, and assembling an awesome scrapbook to share with us, he decided to tell more fibs.
This is usually the point at which The Comet warns of gaping story holes and rampant speculation; we are unilaterally raising the Fact Checking Alert index to the color of the surface of the sun.
But it seems a pack of studs from the MSM are already sniffing around, so we should have this or not by next week.
The P-G’s Ann Belser reports on Dan Onorato expressing “a little frustration in trying to govern and constantly having the judiciary block us as we try to deal with a home rule government.”
At issue are rulings on property tax assessments, and on a ballot referendum on the office of county Sheriff.
County Councilman Dave Fawcett, R-Oakmont, said the decision should be appealed. The office, he said, “was created during the time of Thomas Jefferson when they felt that every office in the land should be elected to avoid tyranny.”
Editorial Aside: Actually, we haven’t warmed to tyranny.
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A P-G Editorial lauds the Oak Hill development compromise struck between Hill District leaders, and the University of Pittsburgh and the Mayor’s office, as a model for citizen action for other communities.
Editorial Aside: Maybe we should have given this more play. (You see? We can self-flaggelate just like the Old Media!)
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Two good reads on the TRIB opinion page. Columnist Eric Heyl speculates on the subway tunnels and fancy eateries popping up on the North Side in light of “the post-apocalyptic atmosphere the North Shore typically assumes from the final Steelers game until baseball season begins in April.”
Also, a dynamic duo representing the Allegheny Institute darkly contemplates the use of RAD money to save public transit. We can not find any actual recommendations in the piece, however, unless they are well-buried.
The District 7 race is turning into the Battle of Helms Deep. There will be orcs and elves, trolls and humans, wyverns and mastodons with barbed wire on their tusks.
We arrived at this city council race a little late and a little clueless, like most of the blurghosphere. Then a quick skim of Patrick Dowd’s website revealed this blurb …
MAKE OUR NEIGHBORHOODS SAFER. Enforcement is the beginning, but we have got to do more. I am committed to using incident data more effectively…
and right away, our hearts went all a’ SWOON!
The Comet itself will not be providing much coverage of the District 7 race, so as to retain journalistic credibility. We refer you to the rest of the mainstream burghosphere.
… play the DCeiver game!
Here’s a little exercise for the men on the interwebs. Click the link at the end of this blurb, and just spend thirty seconds with the image, then pop back here. I’ll wait. Doot-de-doot-dee-doo. Hey! You back? Good. Question: What did the sign Jenna Fischer was holding say? You don’t remember a redacted word, do you? I thought so. [Oh No They Didn’t]
VisitPittsburgh says in the Pgh Business Times that we didn’t lose a step with the Convention Center collapse, and:
[CEO Joe McGrath] said he believes revenue generated once Don Barden’s casino opens in 2008 will lead to a hotel adjoining the convention center in the future.
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P-G columnist Brian O’Neill is irritated by the county property tax assesment appeals process. Editorial Aside: Pay your taxes and enjoy your home.
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The TRIB’s Jason Cato reports that we’ll still definately get to elect a county sheriff. There are three Democratic candidates: Acting Sheriff William Mullen, Anthony “Tony” Costa, and Damon J. Brown.
We met Damon Brown, ever-so-briefly, at a candidates meet & greet at the Pittsburgh League of Young Voters. He handed us a small card that highlights his experience:
* University of Pittsburgh Police Dept
* Pittsburgh Police Dept
* United Nations Civilian Police in Kosovo
* Police Trainer in Iraq, Dept of State
* Police Trainer in Afghanistan, Dept. of State
According to the card, his priorities are efficiency, accountability, safety, and continuous training. In the photograph, he is looking smart in a United Nations military beret.
Post-Gazette city beat reporter Rich Lord has a bug in his bonnet over the contract for traffic lights awarded to CLT Efficient Technologies Group of Carnegie. The Mayor responds:
“Through this effort we are reducing the cost of government, becoming more efficient and protecting the environment,” the mayor said in the statement. “Not only will we be upgrading our traffic lights, but we’re doing it without costing the taxpayers one single dollar.”
We are reminded that during the “Ron Air” feeding frenzy, acting Mayor Ravenstahl kept trying to use “no cost to city taxpayers” as his ace.
We weren’t clear on its relevance to that issue at the time, but we heard it ad nauseum from both Onorato and Ravenstahl in reference to the new Penguins arena.
There is another Rich Lord piece on the topic of the new arena, involving Council’s capping of the city Amusement Tax. In it we find:
There is no city or Allegheny County tax money going to arena construction, but the city and its authorities could be involved in paying for necessary road and sewer work.
“No cost to city taxpayers” does not always mean what it seems to mean, nor is it always the end of the conversation.
This from the web space of Tony Pokora:
Tony Pokora calls for the City Controller candidates to schedule a series of three debates in Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods.
“Ideally, all three debates would be televised,” Tony added, “but realistically, we’re working to get one Controller’s debate on the air in May.”
You’re telling me these guys all don’t want to be on television!?
Two of his opponents from a formerly crowded field are now working on his own campaign. He says he has contributions totalling $20,000 in the bank, which is real money for a city council race. And this Saturday, the Democratic Committee of District 9 will meet once again to decide the party’s official endorsement.
We asked Ricky Burgess about his experiences with the ACDC. “I have to commend the committee for putting the endorsement up to a vote once again” he said. After the original choice was disqualified, they could easily have anointed Leah Kirkland, the second-place vote-getter.
When asked what he hopes to accomplish on City Council, Burgess was forthright in aiming to win assets for his home district. He says a “layman’s glance” at the capital budget shows District 9 — including Homewood, Brushton, Lincoln-Lamirer, and parts of Friendship and Point Breeze — is grossly underrepresented.
This can be taken as egregious; minority districts enable the city to get Community Development Block Grants (CDBGs), either directly or indirectly, but then the city turns around and spreads the assets throughout its entirety.
We spoke much about poverty, violence, and relations with law enforcement. He has a four-point model for combating these problems — prevention, intervention, prosecution, and reintegration — and sees a special role for training and subsidized employment.
Burgess is windy and long-spoken like the community college professor and preacher that he is. When we touch a nerve, only a little eye-twitch clues us in. For example, when asked about the B.E.A.R., he chose his words very carefully. “We have to be careful we don’t traumatize the community.” he said.
He desperately seems to not to want to go negative. He says his neighborhoods could be helped a lot simply with “competent leadership and capable management.”
Burgess spoke much about consensus-building, and having the city respect the community consensus on issues of land-use and development. We asked, basically, how hard is it to reach that consensus? What if it never seems to materialize?
We got a little eye-twitch. A lifelong member of various community groups, both secular and spiritual, he just doesn’t see the difficulty the same way we do.
He goes so far as to promise a comprehensive, actionable “Capacity Plan” for public safety and economic development, within his first 100 days in office.
A fan of the burghoshere, Ricky Burgess says he regularly enjoys “The Carboholic Ball,” among others.
The P-G’s Rich Lord tells us of a lucrative city contract being awarded with almost no competition, to a frequent vendor who is politically juiced and has made regular campaign contributions. Then again, the city sent out many invitations for bids, and only got two responses. Then again again, it was Christmas.
Joe Smydo of the P-G reports that suggestions to push back the start of the school day drew hearty applause at a gathering of Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt, and “about 170 parents, teachers, and community leaders.” No word on any student attendance. A 9th grade civics class on Pittsburgh was also a popular idea.
God, having closed the door of the Garden Theater, opens a window to Scores Nightclub. TRIB columnist Eric Heyl considers the attempt to open a strip club along Homestead’s main drag. Editorial aside: if we are going to have a strip club, the city could do much worse than a Scores (link fully safe for work).