Clippings from September 17th – September 18th

Here are some blog posts, article and links that you may have missed.

• Quiet Desperation – Have we heard the last from Pat Ford? – Views – Potter’s Field – Pittsburgh City Paper – Pittsburgh – The latest episode of the Grant Street Follies, you may have heard, is that the Urban Redevelopment Authority is paying executive director Pat Ford $93,000 to stop working for it. That's a lot of money to pay someone for not working, even in city government. So there's widespread suspicion that Ford — who wrote a fiery resignation letter alleging a "culture of deception and corruption" in the city — got the money because he knew too much. Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's administration, critics speculate, was trying to buy Ford's silence.
• $101,000 settlement not ‘hush money,’ Ravenstahl says – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review – More on PatFordGate – is it possible that Luke's office is being investigated and he doesn't know it. Many people seem to think Luke is being investigated – kind of wierd that he keeps denying it.

  "I'll answer it today, and I'll conclude my answering it today," Ravenstahl said. "The answer is no, I haven't been questioned, nobody has been questioned, and I think it's unfair and unrealistic for you all to continue to ask that question over and over and over again without any facts, without anything but a suggestion by my political adversaries."

• WIKIREUSE – a wiki about big box building reuse – WIKI-REUSE: SO COMMUNITIES CAN TELL THEIR LOCAL STORIES ABOUT BIG BOX REUSE. TO POST, EMAIL YOUR FINDINGS TO WIKI@BIGBOXREUSE.COM.
• Volunteers | Ayanna Lee – Ayanna Lee is looking for volunteers to help door-knock.