Progress Pittsburgh

From today’s Harrisburg Online:

Andrea Robinson is charged with producing the 2008 Democratic National Convention as an icon of environmental political correctness…the Wall Street Journal tells of her travails trying to find a supplier for 15,000 “fanny packs” made from organic cotton, by union labor in the United States…fuggedaboutit…Denver Democratic Mayor promised the “greenest convention in the history of the planet“…but the Convention also promises no fried food and each meal will have three of the following colors: red, green, yellow, blue or purple, and white…the food will be organic or locally grown…

More information is available on the convention’s website.

An article in the Wall Street Journal from a year ago illustrates how the proliferation of casinos is not the answer to our public revenue problems. This excerpt from today’s Harrisburg Online demonstrates how the credit crunch is further stunting the anticipated windfall:

A Sub-Prime Mess of Another Sort??…construction workers and others are preparing to walk away from the Pittsburgh-to-be casino – Majestic Star – as the license owner – Don Barden – delayed and delayed a requirement to present a $780-million financing package to the State Gaming Control Board…contractors have not been paid for work performed in April and May…Moody’s Investor Service – the national credit rating firm – reported this week that the Mount Airy Casino Resort – the Pocono Mountain casino owned by indicted Louis DeNaples - is a “very high credit risk” according to the Wilkes-Barre Citizens Voice…the Philadelphia Inquirer reports Susquehanna Financial Group decided to suspend its investment rating of Penn National Gaming sending a message that a deal to acquire the Berks County gambling giant by Fortress Investment Group and Centerbridge Partners may be jeopardized…

ProgressPittsburgh has made the Pittsburgh City Paper. Today’s City Paper has an article about DraftChelsa2009.blogspot.com and mentions our poll at the end of the article. I thought it would be interesting to keep track on how the votes are going. Hopefully some city paper readers will visit ProgressPittsburgh and vote.

Here are the numbers thus far…

CityLIVE! Series
Getting There… from Here: Transportation Solutions for Our Region
Speaker: Sanjeev Shah, Steven Bland, Chelsa Wagner
New Hazlett Theater
July 24, 2008 6:30 p.m.

Is the auto the most convenient and efficient way to move people around our region? Can new technologies and policies help unite the region and contribute to our urban vitality? Can we use transportation to grow the city, and the region, in the right way?

The Pittsburgh region is ripe for innovation. New technologies present exciting opportunities to move people and goods around more efficiently than ever before. Light rail, extensive riverfront trails, an efficient bus system, car sharing are all heading in the right direction. But that’s just a start. Getting it “right” requires creative planning.

Join us for a charged discussion on how to get from here … to there.

And as a bonus, because we believe that everyone should have a hand in the planning process, we’ll unveil a project which will allow everyone in the region to have a voice in the role of land use and transportation planning, whether you are an urban planner, environmentalist, architect, policy maker, transportation expert, biker, boater or skater.

Get going …. get involved! rsvp@citylive.org

There’s a guy in Youngstown, Ohio, named Phil Kidd who leads a community organizing movement called Defend Youngstown but he also works for city government there and what’s remarkable is that he runs another blog to make his work activites public: 44503 LIVE. This guy actually submits his time sheet to the world. Now, that’s accountability and transparency. If only…

Many a Pittsburgh resident has seen the sad shape of Pittsburgh’s Uptown (a.k.a. Soho) neighborhood today. It’s sprinkling of old buildings awash in a sea of parking lots. And all of those parking lots are owned by one man, Sal Williams. Many a community advocate has been puzzled and stymied by this accumulation of parking lots. An article in the Pittsburgh Business Times indicates that more parking lots (i.e. further destruction of the Pittsburgh urban fabric) are on their way.

http://nullspace2.blogspot.com/2008/06/parsing-primary.html

by Chris Briem

So, I suppose it’s time to parse the primary data a little bit more. The problem with looking too deeply at the results from April is that there isn’t anything to really compare the voting patterns to. The obvious comparison to the spring 2008 primary would be results from the spring 2004 primary which was the last presidential cycle. The problem of course is that in 2004, the primary had been locked up by the time the Pennsylvania primary came around. Contrast that with 2008, and no matter whether you thought the electoral results were already won by BO, the media played up the whole election as the biggest presidential primary in Pennsylvania ever Given that, any comparison of the two elections (2004 vs. 2008) is by definition an overinterpretation. Nonetheless, maybe there is something to glean from comparing the two elections. More »

MEDIA ADVISORY: Monday, June 16, 2008, 6:30pm, Press Conference
Pittsburgh Board of Education 341 S. Bellefield Avenue – Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Save Schenley Advocates “Speak Truth to Power”

CONTACTS: Tim Stevens: (412) 758-7898 and Kathy Fine (412) 361-7904
Visual for Press Conference: Large Poster with Report Card that show grades for the School District Administrators, School Board, Students, Parents and Community.

ADVOCATES DEMAND THAT SCHENLEY HIGH SCHOOL BE SAVED FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS AND THAT ALL SPENDING STOP UNTIL THERE IS A PLAN FOR COMPREHENSIVE HIGH SCHOOL REFORM. More »

The news is a few days old, but Tim Murphy, who represents Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District, is one of 14 Republican members of Congress refusing to endorse John McCain.  Maybe he’s hoping that we will forget his unwavering support for the George Bush agenda and for John McCain’s 100-year war.

Remember this oldie from Tim Murphy?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwh-OCFCOTc[/youtube]

Murphy’s opponent in the Fall is Democrat Steve O’Donnell.

Today, Governor Ed Rendell signed the recently passed smoking ban into law (link). The state-wide ban will take effect in 90 days, or on September 11, 2008. Get ready to breathe easy.

Finally, after much to do, the Pennsylvania General Assembly has passed a smoking ban. A compromise bill, devised by a Conference Committee of House and Senate Democrats and Republicans, passed the House last week and passed the Senate yesterday on its second consideration. The new bill bans smoking in public places but includes a host of exceptions. More »

On Tuesday, June 3rd, Pittsburgh City Council passed a bill to implement local campaign finance reform (article). On Monday, June 9th, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl vetoed that bill (article). An attempt today to override the veto failed in Council (article).

Campaign finance reform, at whatever level, is a mechanism that levels the playing field for political interests. Those contractors or developers who might otherwise give large sums with the expectation of receiving favors from a successful candidate are put on the same level as those who might have less to give, such as individuals and public interest advocacy organizations.

Mr. Ravenstahl objected to the fact that the mayor would be subject to the same contribution limits as council members. “True reform would cap City Council races at one-ninth of what may be contributed in races for citywide offices,” he wrote.

The limits imposed by campaign finance reform are on the amount an individual or organization can contribute to a campaign, not on how much that campaign can raise. The issues raised in the last six months regarding corruption in the city’s development process are emblematic of the ethic promoted by an unchecked campaign finance system. This legislation is progress stymied by an administration that might have a young face but certainly does things the old way.

The emails have been flying this morning about the new blog on the scene – http://draftchelsa2009.blogspot.com.  Maybe this anonymous blogger was inspired by our post last week about the mayor’s race.  With just about 11 months to go until the 2009 primary election – many Pittsburgher’s are wondering if someone will challenge Luke Ravenstahl for mayor.  The founder of the DraftChelsa2009 blog is anonymous.  Mark Rauterkus posted about this on Saturday and stated that he is not the person behind the blog – he is running a poll on his blog asking if and when Chelsa Wagner should announce her bid for mayor.

Pittsburgh is featured in a recent series on grist.com. I think that this article provides a very fair assessment of Pittsburgh’s “greenness”:

The Smoky City has become a poster child of sorts for urban revitalization, although it still hasn’t achieved the eco-notoriety of larger metropolitan areas. As home to the nonprofit Green Building Alliance, Pennsylvania’s second-largest city has seen a boom in sustainable development, and it’s been hailed as a leader of the green-building movement — ranking third in the number of green buildings in the U.S., just behind Portland and Seattle. Efforts to redevelop riverfront brownfields have met with some success, and the city has gained new attention for its recreation access. But the challenges of its post-industrial legacy remain: The city was recently given the dubious honor of worst air quality in the nation, and sprawl is an ever-looming foe. Pittsburgh may no longer be “hell with the lid off,” as it was once dubbed, but residents and advocates acknowledge that it seems to linger in a sort of purgatory.