Category: Civic Engagement
Three Years Later…Judge Rules in Favor of League of Young Voters, ACLU
| August 3, 2009 | Posted by fedd up pgh under Allegheny-County, Civic Engagement, voting |
This is a follow up to a story that has been unfolding since 2006. In 2006 the PA League of Young Voters wanted to run ads on Port Authority buses informing ex convicts that they have the right to vote. The Port Authority would not run the ads. The PA league of Young Voters and…
What are we tolerating and putting up with?
| August 2, 2009 | Posted by engagedcitizen under Allegheny-County, Civic Engagement, Community Development, Jobs, Labor, Location, Mon Valley, Neighborhoods, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Sustainable Development, Urban Planning, voting |
Last week as we left Loew’s and a sneak preview of Funny People, once again we found ourselves appreciating just how awful the design of the Waterfront is. It’s as if the bad mall martians flew in from outer space, landing on one of the most key-critical, history rich and defining sites of Pittsburgh’s past,…
Is Development Really Moving Pittsburgh Forward?
| July 24, 2009 | Posted by engagedcitizen under Civic Engagement, Community Development, Jobs, Labor, Politics, Sustainable Development |
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…
The Billboards Are Back: City Hearing Next Week
| March 5, 2009 | Posted by engagedcitizen under Advertising, Civic Engagement, Community Development, Downtown, Get Involved, Government, Issues, Pittsburgh, Sustainable Development, Take Action |
Remember the big debacle last year regarding a certain LED billboard on a certain transportation center (at the corner of Grant and 11th Streets in Downtown Pittsburgh)? (See this, that, or the other post from last year.) Well, lucky for us, we have a say in the issue. As the City prepares to develop policy…
City Council Addresses Gun Control
| October 21, 2008 | Posted by breen under Civic Engagement, Government, Issues, Pittsburgh, Public Safety |
Last week, Council Members Kraus, Peduto, and Shields introduced an ordinance to require reporting of lost or stolen firearms. This is an issue that has been raised at the state level but House Bill 29 did not make it out of Judiciary Committee this session. It was voted down, reconsidered, and tabled. A City ordinance…
The Writing’s on the Billboard
| August 7, 2008 | Posted by engagedcitizen under Civic Engagement, Government, Pittsburgh, Urban Planning |
The State Ethics Board has decided not to investigate Pat Ford (article) and the controversial billboard on the Grant Street transportation center is going up. Is this good news? These developments beg the question: what was all that fuss about? If we were going to end up right back where we started, what was the…
what we talk about when we talk about change
| August 6, 2008 | Posted by andrea under Civic Engagement, Get Involved, Young People |
I participated in a short brainstorming session this morning at an office downtown in which the subject was how to plug newcomers and young people into opportunities to effect change in the city. You could/would be surprised at how many different ideas people have about what it means to “change” a city (or a county…
Transparency in Local Government?
| June 23, 2008 | Posted by breen under Civic Engagement, Government |
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…
More Buildings to Come Down in Uptown
| June 23, 2008 | Posted by breen under Civic Engagement, Community Development, Environment, Issues, Pittsburgh, Sustainable Development, Urban Planning |
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…
To consolidate or not to consolidate?
| June 4, 2008 | Posted by engagedcitizen under Civic Engagement, Government, Sustainable Development, Western PA |
A better question is: what are we consolidating? The answer to that is unclear in a 2004 poll of Pittsburgh Urban Magnet Project members referenced in testimony before last week’s hearing of the Pennsylvania House Urban Affairs Committee. The terms municipal consolidation and regionalism can have multiple meanings; the most important implication of this fact…
Local Leadership
| April 17, 2008 | Posted by engagedcitizen under Civic Engagement, Community Development, Environment, Government, Pittsburgh, Public Safety, Sustainable Development, Urban Planning |
Yesterday afternoon, over 100 neighborhood representatives met in Highland Park for the Mayor’s Neighborhood Summit. Participants were invited there to, “begin the process of informing and shaping the City ‘s community revitalization policy.” Presentations were made by foundation and URA representatives. However, the discussion was not sufficient to inform and shape policy. In this humble…
Hurdles to Merger
| April 4, 2008 | Posted by breen under Civic Engagement, Government, Pittsburgh |
In today’s Post-Gazette, Rich Lord takes a critical look at the merger proposal, highlighting that: “Neither the 21-page report they presented nor a 60-page RAND Corp. study that backs it dare to predict cost savings or a miracle turnaround. RAND’s researchers wrote that they could not find ‘an incontrovertible case for the link between consolidation…
Merger Danger
| April 3, 2008 | Posted by breen under Civic Engagement, Government, Pittsburgh, Politics |
At a press conference today, Ravenstahl and Onorato announced their joint support for city-county consolidation in Pittsburgh/Allegheny County (view report here). For further discussion of the issues involved in such a merger, I refer to a previous post written when the committee was formed to explore the issue: “This is a mediocre solution that panders…
Learn about the CBA!
| March 27, 2008 | Posted by breen under Civic Engagement, Community Development, Information, Pittsburgh, Sustainable Development |
“What happens in the Hill will affect all of Pittsburgh…. One Hill..One City..One County” This Saturday morning, join leaders of the One Hill CBA Coalition to learn about their current struggle to win a Community Benefits Agreement with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Learn how we can help them win and how the Hill’s victory can help…
CBA Hearing at County Council on Tuesday, March 25th
| March 21, 2008 | Posted by breen under Civic Engagement, Community Development, Events, Gambling, Government, Jobs, Labor, Pittsburgh, Sustainable Development, Take Action |
One Hill CBA Coalition Fighting for Good Jobs and Other Benefits From Arena Development The One Hill CBA Coalition has been fighting since September to ensure that the publicly funded development of the new Penguins Arena returns real benefits to the community. The Penguins are the developer for the arena and the land where the…
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