And yet, I continued to wonder, as my husband was winding his way through this design-flaw filled space, how have we managed to do it again?  The Steelers have invited the very same developers, the same poor designers, to do their “magic” on a piece of public land central to our city’s north side.  Talking bad about the Steelers is kind of like insulting your mama in this town, but let me just point out that the Steelers are a privately owned commercial enterprise.  Why would a sports team have so much power and leverage in decision-making about public land?  After all, they are not elected, are they?  And why would this publicly owned land be sold for a song to a commercial enterprise with little to no public oversight or accountability?  Especially without any clearly defined benefits to people living in the surrounding communities the development will affect.  Aha!  you say what about about the over site boards, the Planning Commission and the Sports Authority– aren’t they publicly accountable?

Well, let’s just see:  The mayor appoints individuals to the Planning Commission, the Sports Authority, the Water and Sewage board, Port Authority oversight, and the Urban Redevelopment Authority, not to mention the the Zoning Board of Adjustment, the Historic Review Commission and the Shade Tree Commission. Millions, if not Billions, of dollars are in the hands of these individuals — not to mention the long term political and economic implications of their decision making.  Their appointments are supposed to be given rigorous scrutiny by City Council, and yet in the last July 2009 go-round, the Council gave the mayor 5-4 support without any hearings or review of his appointments.

At a May 2009 Planning Commissionmeeting, 170 people showed up, in the middle of a work day, to give testimony regarding the negative impact proposed development will have to their neighborhoods in Pittsburgh’s north side.  We are talking about the afore mentioned, Steelers proposed development designed by Continental Development of Columbus Ohio, the authors of the Waterfront.  Do you think the voices of 170 people made a bit of difference to the unelected, appointed members of the Planning Commission?  And do you think they made a difference to the mayor?  (who was essentially appointed and never has had to work his way through the rigors of an election campaign cycle, that is, be responsive to voters)  In the words of John Belushi, “noooooooooooooo”

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by what we are capable of tolerating, myself included. But there is some part of me that has to beg the question to my fellow participants in democracy, “Why are we putting up with this condition as a city and as a region?” We won’t tolerate pushing aside the democratic process of public accountability in our national government.  We proved that as a nation in our last election cycle.  But somehow, when this top-down, Executive dominant way of doing things that we associate readily with Bush-Cheney is at our own back door, we easily hold our collective nose and look the other way.   Just why, oh why, are we putting up with this condition?

There is a near showdown happening in Braddock around the mayor’s race.  The current Mayor John Fetterman is facing a challenge from a candidate who is supported by some of the Braddock council members.

Here is the Post-Gazette article on the race: Braddock Mayor Has His Critics

Here is a letter to the editor froma  Forest Hill’s resident in support of John Fetterman: 

Your Monday piece about Braddock Mayor John Fetterman was timely considering the upcoming primary (“Braddock Mayor Has His Critics,” May 4). As a council member of a neighboring municipality I would like to report on some changes I have noticed in Braddock since Mayor Fetterman’s arrival.

Obvious aesthetic changes include: basketball courts, murals, re-paved roads, trees, an urban garden, UPMC additions, new housing and several revitalized buildings on historic Library Street. Practical additions have included a stronger youth program, a jobs center, a vegetable-based fuel business, a district art show, a farmer’s market, creative artists space and the return of the annual street fair.

While it is true that many people have worked to keep Braddock viable since the loss of the steel industry and no one disputes that, Mayor Fetterman’s unique character and dedication have created a buzz that has generated grants for the town, politicians’ attention and movement on the much-delayed neighboring Carrie Furnace development and Rankin bridge repairs next to the popular Waterfront.

The residents of Braddock would be well-served to embrace the change that their mayor has helped them realize and work with him to continue to move their neighborhood forward.

STEVE KARAS
Forest Hills

Some more blog reading about Braddock…

• Rebuilding America’s Ghost Towns (oxdown.firedoglake.com)
• Artists from University of Wisconsin and Beyond Light Up Braddock this Weekend (iheartpgh.com)
• Revitalizing A Rusty Old Town (cbsnews.com)
• Steel town trying to rebound from bottom (cnn.com)
• a view of a grim economic future: Braddock (bripblap.com)

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

So what to do? Members of Congress, here’s what I propose:

1. Transporting Americans is and should be one of the most important functions our government must address. And because we are facing a massive economic, energy and environmental crisis, the new president and Congress must do what Franklin Roosevelt did when he was faced with a crisis (and ordered the auto industry to stop building cars and instead build tanks and planes): The Big 3 are, from this point forward, to build only cars that are not primarily dependent on oil and, more importantly to build trains, buses, subways and light rail (a corresponding public works project across the country will build the rail lines and tracks). This will not only save jobs, but create millions of new ones.

2. You could buy ALL the common shares of stock in General Motors for less than $3 billion. Why should we give GM $18 billion or $25 billion or anything? Take the money and buy the company! (You’re going to demand collateral anyway if you give them the “loan,” and because we know they will default on that loan, you’re going to own the company in the end as it is. So why wait? Just buy them out now.)

3. None of us want government officials running a car company, but there are some very smart transportation geniuses who could be hired to do this. We need a Marshall Plan to switch us off oil-dependent vehicles and get us into the 21st century.

Do you want a private-public partnership to pay half of the $3.6 billion cost of completing the Mon-Fayette Expressway?

Click here to vote at the Post-Gazette.com 

The responses have shifted in the past few days

• A. Yes, the road needs to be completed -
  • Feb 4 – 341 (55%)
  • Feb 11 – 1163 (45%)
• B. No, let the state fund it
  • Feb 4 -  57 (9%)
  • Feb 11 – 258 (10%)
• C. I oppose the entire project
  • Feb 4 – 219 (35%)
  • Feb 11 – 1192 (46%)

Onorato take lead for the county leg of the Mon-Fayette road

“The Mon-Fayette will provide linkages and open up old industrial sites to jobs and commerce in the south, and its Squirrel Hill bypass will provide important traffic congestion relief to Pittsburgh’s eastern suburbs.”

So it is one thing for the Chamber Alliance to support this sort of backward thinking on economic development, it is another for the Allegheny County executive to support the idea that building super highways is the best way to stimulate the economy.

I am really disappointed that this is Dan Onorato’s stand on the MonFayette  – for someone that is supposed to be creative and forward thinking about improving the region – this is the complete opposite of forward thinking.  Super highways are as old-school as it gets.  Haven’t we learned anything in the past 50 years – big roads don’t work.  Super highways don’t easy traffic, they create traffic.  Why aren’t we thinking about other modes of transportation.

If Dan Onorato wants to run for PA Governor he needs to show the rest of the state that he has creative ideas, that work for economic development – not supporting an old idea that is tooo expensive and has no funding source.   I don’t think that supporting bad ideas like the MonFayette is going to help Dan Onorato gain support around the state.