Progress Pittsburgh

As if you weren’t having enough fun with the Race for PGH 2009 – Netroots Nation is bringing all kinds of candidates from all over the country here to Pittsburgh.

Here are the details about James Perry and the event in Pittsburgh, August 14, 2009, 5:30-7:30 at the Firehouse in the Strip District. (RSVP on Facebook)

We have all watched the post-Katrina recovery of New Orleans from afar, and some of us have been personally involved. Whatever your relationship to this place, you have a unique opportunity to meet an inspiring, hard-working, brilliant and NOLA born and bred change-agent who is running for Mayor – James Perry. Let’s welcome James to town by showing him that Pittsburghers care about the future of New Orleans on Friday, August 14th.

The Perry campaign will welcome contributions large and small.

He will be joined at the fundraiser by Melissa Harris-Lacewell, an associate professor of politics and African-American studies at Princeton University,who co-authored a piece in The Nation magazine with James this Spring. Harris-Lacewell is a regular contributor to The Nation and also TheGrio.com, as well as a frequent commentator for MSNBC and CNN.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090330/harris-lacewell_perry/

About James Perry:

James Perry is currently the Executive Director of the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center and a candidate for Mayor of New Orleans. Mr. Perry has worked tirelessly to ensure equal housing opportunities for all citizens of New Orleans. Recently, he won a lawsuit against St. Bernard Parish for trying to implement racist housing policies and has testified six times before Congress on behalf of the citizens of the Gulf Coast. He is a member of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the National Fair Housing Alliance, the Historic District Landmarks Commission, and the Louisiana Housing Alliance.

For more information, visit: http://jamesperry2010.com/

Related reading

• New Orleans Mayoral Candidate Makes Chicago Stop (chicagoist.com)

• RT @Pazzler: add @kevinacklin if you aren’t following yet. best mayoral twitterer. For shame @fatherdok @LukeRavenstahl ! Step it up! #
• RT @Pazzler: @progresspgh To be fair, since I tweeted that, Harris has come through with @Harrisforpgh #
• RT @tvmichelle: http://twitpic.com/c5bez – On tour of Bayer with Mayor and County Executive. G20 talk and new fed grant for Bayer #
• Best way to spend campaign contributions? RT @Harrisforpgh just bought 2 balloon towers from balloonatics… for the party tonight… #

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• Pop City – City passes ordinance to encourage green building http://ow.ly/isg3 #
• is it true that @harrisforpgh has started TV commericals? #
• Study finds no increased economic development in city-county mergers – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://ow.ly/iAjN #
• RT @randyfrancisco: Coal Piles up as demand cools: http://tinyurl.com/mmov7b #
• Post-Gazette’s early returns feautres an @ProgressPgh post on blogs coving the mayors race #raceforpgh http://ow.ly/iAEU #

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• RT @mygov365: RT @pgPoliTweets: Legislature may let counties raise sales tax. http://bit.ly/F9rux #
• New Poll: What do you think about chaining the doors at the mayor’s office? http://ow.ly/iqPD please rt #
• RT @illyrias: Welcome to the mayor’s race @harrisforpgh! [pghisacity] http://bit.ly/18E0OE #

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We have been trying to keep tabs on the Race for PGH 2009 here and noticed that there are some interesting posts from not the usual political bloggers about the upcoming mayoral race.  Here are a few of the new blogs who are stepping into the Pittsburgh political blogosphere…

• Politics and Place - A Rare Foray into the Political: If He Loses, This is How He’d Lose
  • Let me be perfectly honest. I don’t think Luke will lose. But, I think he couldlose. And if he does, this is how he would lose:
• What Would Vannevar Blog – G-20 in Pittsburgh: Luke’s Real-World Moment
  • If I may, the conditions described set the stage but don’t ring the bell; they’renecessary but insufficient. For Luke to not be elected, there needs to be an event, either (1) a significant, understandable scandal (a bag of cash rather than complex financial derivatives), or (2) an obvious failure of leadership attributed to the Mayor’s office.Holy Cow, Batman! What’s that? The G-20 in Pittsburgh on September 24 and 25th? Zowie!
• Pittsburgh Polemics – The Mayor’s Race: Strange Football Connections
  • Luke Ravenstahl, the incumbent mayor, rode along with the Pittsburgh Steelers during their Super Bowl Victory parade last February. Camcorder in hand, looking somewhat dwarfed beneath the Steeler’s Quarterback, “Big Ben” Roethlisberger.

Know of any other blogs who are writing about Pittsburgh politics – please share the link below in the comments

Last week over 100 protestors entered city hall to talk to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl.  Mayor Ravenstahl was no in the building but someone from his office chained the doors shut.  See photos and additional coverage on 2 Political Junkies.

[Poll=18]

Today’s post-agenda on Community Benefit Agreements held in Pittsburgh’s City Council Chambers had some in the audience all a-twitter.  Here’s what happened:

Today, City Council held a post-agenda to give residents the opportunity to speak about the issue of Community Benefit Agreements in the City and other recent events.

The Acklin campaign posted a video of Kevin Acklin’s remarks:

Kevin Acklin: CBA Remarks Before City Council from Acklin for Pittsburgh on Vimeo.

• Dok Harris is holding a campaign kick off event this eve at Ventos Pizza – anyone else have details? Early Returns http://ow.ly/iikM #

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• city employee who chained the door from the inside for a time to keep the protesters out. @bobmayo – WTAE Pittsburgh http://ow.ly/i6Xd #
• RT @rescuejobs: Protesters demand Pittsburgh mayor create jobs: AP PITTSBURGH – Staff in Pittsburgh Mayor have c.. http://bit.ly/4yBbLM #
• RT @NsideUnitedPGH: Protesters storm Ravenstahl’s office demanding jobs on city projects
  http://bit.ly/yMRQp #
• Good Question – Why Aren’t any of the Mayoral Candidates Talking about Transportation? @lukeraventahl @kacklin http://ow.ly/i7nW #
• Interesting….Frank Lagrotta has a blog (with google ads too) Politics as (NOT) Usual http://ow.ly/i7ov #
• RT @bobmayo: Mayor’s chief of staff Zober met inside with media as protestors were still gathering. He said he and the mayor met with them #
• RT @Bram_R: Yarone Zober on film and answering questions, even from bloggers: http://bit.ly/pkNw4 #
• why is Yarone Zober speaking for the mayor – why isn’t mayor luke ravenstahl issuing a response? #

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So while the battle for heath care is being waged on a National Level it is interesting that some things have also been brought to light here in Pittsburgh about development and jobs. Here is a quick summary…

Last Week

It has been an interesting frew weeks in Pittsburgh.  Last week Northside United staged a protest to demand better jobs for the North Side outside of one of the buildings managed by Continental Real Estate on the North Shore – click here to read the previous blog post about last week.

Friday at the City County Building

• Morning – Over 100 protesters arrived on the 5th floor of the city county building to talk to Mayor Ravenstahl about jobs
  • From WPXI - The protesters said they want the mayor to address the problem that many of the new developments, subsidized by taxpayer money, have created low-wage jobs, keeping Pittsburgh families in poverty.
• Doors to the Mayors office were chained-  A city worker chained and padlocked the door to the mayors office from the inside – the mayor WAS NOT inside the office
  • From PGH City Paper - A half-dozen city police officers showed up, insisting on clearing a path to the door — even when the door itself was padlocked. (The lock was eventually removed.)
• Protesters Leave City hall, promise to return at 2pm
• 2pm Protesters return to City Hall, No Luke RAvenstahl
• City Councilman Doug Shields invites protesters into city council chambers
  • From PGH Comet - Reportedly at some point Council President Doug Shields swung open the doors to City Council chambers with the announcement, “Your government is ready to listen.” Thereafter began an impromptu unofficial hearing participated in by Shields, Bruce Kraus, Darlene Harris, and Bill Peduto chief of staff Daniel Gillman, in addition to representatives of the coalition.
  • Video is available here
• Yarone Zober makes a statement on behalf of the mayor
  • PGH Comet has 2 youTube clips of Yarone Zober’s statements
• Mayoral Candidate Dok Harris Releases a Statement

The City needs to develop a comprehensive policy to ensure that development that is publicly funded or subsidized in any way provides good, family-sustaining jobs.  It is imperative that the community has a seat at the table to guarantee that development benefits the city residents and neighborhoods; not just the developers, politicians, and their supporters.

From day one of my candidacy I have expressed my life long views that workers deserve fair wages and fair treatment. In my administration it will be a priority to guarantee good jobs in all publicly-funded developments. We will work with community leaders to protect the needs of our neighborhoods and to improve Pittsburgh’s economy by protecting the middle class.

• 2 Political Junkies has a summary of media coverage of today’s events

Some questions

• Where was Luke Ravenstahl today? If President Obama can take the time to talk to the white house press corps about the Cambridge, MA police, then why isn’t Luke Ravenstahl available to talk to Pittsburgh citizens
• Have any of the members of Continental Real Estate contributed to Luke Ravenstahl’s campaign?
  • Walnut Capital – one of Ravenstahl’s biggest campaing contributors
    • From the Trib - Ravenstahl’s biggest donors run Shadyside development company Walnut Capital. President Todd Reidbord and manager partner Gregg Perelman donated $10,000 each. Reidbord is a member of the city Planning Commission.
  • Walnut Capital has received public funding for Bakery Square Project
    • From PGH Comet - Walnut Capital already qualified for public Tax Increment Financing for its Bakery Square project without even the usual strings attached in regards to labor agreements. It is a fact that Walnut Capital is the City of Pittsburgh’s number one campaign contributor, and that one of its two owners, Todd Reidbord, sets development policy as a senior member of the City Planning Commission.
• Is all of this developer driven development, supported by public money really good for Pittsburgh?  Is there another model that might work better to move Pittsburgh forward.  Is it possible that continued retail, office and hotel development isn’t really what is needed.
  • From the Post-Gazette in Feb 2009 - The gloomy retail climate prompted one expert, Burt P. Flickinger III, managing director of SRG Insights, to predict 2,000 to 3,000 shopping malls and shopping centers nationwide could go belly-up this year
    • Even in the city – there is vacant retail space in every business district from the new South Side Works, to Walnut Street, to the East Side development to Downtown – yet we continue to develop more retail spaces – who is going to rent these spaces and open up shop?

• Infinonymous: Unsolicited Advice For Kevin Acklin http://ow.ly/i0w6 #
• BBI is currently an organization in distress…Accountability of inspectors, who are unsupervised much of the time http://ow.ly/i6cS #

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• Kevin Acklin and his campaign team are now blogging http://ow.ly/hQNL @kacklin #

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Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondent has the press release from last weeked protest and the PGH Comet has a posts about the protestors that were arrested last week.

• The protests took place outside the Delmonte headquarters
• The Delmonte HQ is managed by  Continental Real Estate
• Continental pays their building service workers poverty wages with no health benefits.
• The statdium authority has sold some of the land around the stadiums to  Continental Real Estate to develop
• Northside United wants to make sure that with the new development better jobs with fair labor and benefits are part of the package

Here are the details on the rally that is being organized for Thursday, July 23, 2009

North Shore Development Rally, July 23

The fight continues to ensure that Continental Realty, the developer of a hotel and amphitheater on the North Shore, agrees to a

Community Benefits Agreement that will benefit impacted Northside communities.

Join us for a rally …

5:30 p.m., Thursday, July 23
Calvary United Methodist Church
971 Beech Avenue  Pittsburgh 15233
(Beech and Allegheny Avenues)

Sierra Club and others are joining Northside communities in seeking:

Silver LEED certification for the hotel and amphitheater

Diesel emission controls on all construction vehicles

Parks and open spaces.

For more information, contact Tom Hoffman at tghoffman2@gmail.com or visit:

www.alleghenysc.org

www.pittsburghunited.org

With the Race for PGH 2009 moving very slowly this summer (Is there even a race or does Ravenstahl have it all locked up?).  Looks like some things are happeing in the next years Race for PA.

Don Cunningham, who is currently the Lehigh County Executive, has dropped out of the race for governor.

From the Post-Gaezette – Dan Onorato ($4 millinion +) has a lot more money than Jack Wagner ($325,000) in his PAC.

Here is the latest email from Dan Onorato’s campaign manager Kevin Kinross…

Dear Friends,

As Dan Onorato continues to prepare Southwest Pennsylvania to host this fall’s G-20 economic summit and lay the groundwork to run for Governor, I wanted to give you a quick update from the campaign trail:

Building Strength in Southeast Pennsylvania

Today, we picked up a major boost in the Philadelphia suburbs when Senators Andy Dinniman (D-Chester) and Daylin Leach (D-Montgomery) said that Dan Onorato should be Pennsylvania’s next Governor.

Sen. Dinniman said that: “In this recession, it is absolutely critical that our next Governor understands how to create the 21st Century jobs that will make us leaders in the new economy.  That’s why I’m backing Dan Onorato.”

And Sen. Leach said that: “Even if it means challenging members of his own political party, when Dan sees corruption or government inefficiency, he will get in peoples’ faces and demand change.  That’s exactly what we need in Harrisburg.”

Both Senators also said that Dan would be the strongest Democrat to take on the Republican nominee.  Read more about these key endorsements

Taking a Strong Stand Against Discrimination

Last week in Allegheny County, Dan signed the region’s strongest anti-discrimination ban into law – sending a clear message that discrimination against anybody is wrong, always.

The new law bans discrimination on the basis of gender, race, mental or physical disability, religion, ethnicity, national origin, age, educational status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.

All of our citizens need to know that they are fully protected when it comes to employment, housing and public accommodations. This law doesn’t infringe on anyone’s religious rights, but it does make sure that everyone feels welcome to work here, raise a family here and be part of our community.

Expanding Our Fundraising Lead

Thanks to your help, when it comes to raising the resources needed to win statewide, Dan continues to outpace his potential opponents. In fact, Dan has raised more than all of his potential Democratic and Republican opponents – combined.

Check out this recent article: “Onorato far outpacing Wagner in the money game.”

But we know this race will soon be targeted by the national Republicans, so your help now is critical. Please help us expand our grassroots base and make a contribution today – every little bit helps.

Thank you for your continued support.

Kevin Kinross
Campaign Manager
Friends of Dan Onorato