Category Archive: Legislative / Advocacy
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Neighbors in the Strip Accredited as a National Main Street Program
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Pop City Media
Neighbors in the Strip, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting economic development in the Strip District, has been awarded designation as an accredited National Main Street Program by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The prestigious designation is based on a ten point set of criteria, which ultimately demonstrates that an organization has leveraged local historic and business assets to thoroughly promote revitalization of a neighborhood business district.
Neighbors in the Strip was formed in 1999 by stakeholders wishing to better promote economic transformation in the neighborhood, while maintaining its historic character. A decade ago, “the perception of crime in the strip was very high,” notes Becky Rodgers, Executive Director of NITS. “Looking back over the past ten years, with a lot of hard work from the police, the DA’s office, and the stakeholders, crime has decreased in the Strip by 58 percent. If you want to keep economic development happening, you have to keep crime down.”
In addition to making the neighborhood safer, NITS works with local proprietors to promote business. In fact, forty new businesses are scheduled to open soon, including a public market, which will be opening in August.
“We’re mainly zoned urban-industrial in the Strip, which is sort of the wild west of zoning,” says Becky. “So when a new project comes along, there are certain zoning exceptions that have to go in front of the zoning board, and we go with business owners to the board to support those variances.”
Other factors that lead to the Main Street designation include NITS’ strong cooperation with its partners, which include the City, the URA, and a large number of non-profits, as well as the substantial grant programs they offer. Neighbors in the Strip has played a key role in helping the neighborhood evolve into a residential area in the 2000’s, aided by their Upper Floor Grant, which encourages the residential development of underutilized floors above commercial businesses.
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Source: Becky Rodgers, Executive Director of Neighbors in the Strip
Writer: John Farley -
Movie Money Spurs Vandergrift Spending Ideas
By Rossilynne Skena and Dale Mann, VALLEY NEWS DISPATCH
Monday, July 19, 2010The borough received $15,000 for opening its streets in June to crews filming “I am Number IV,” an action-packed thriller.
Of the money received from DreamWorks, $5,400 has be allocated to parking meters. There are about 250 parking meters on the borough streets, and those meters need constant updates, council president Brian Carricato said.
The average parking meter costs about $110. Fifty new meters will be purchased and will go into circulation where meters are broken or missing.
Council will vote at its August meeting about how to spend the remaining $9,600.
Carricato would like to see the full sum of the money remaining go toward the recreation committee.
DreamWorks wants to see the money applied to something such as recreation, something the town can look back on in 10 years as an accomplishment, Carricato said.
Typically, he said, recreation is an area where budgets can be cut because other things are more essential.
“There’s not too many times that you do have the opportunity to invest back into your recreation department,” Carricato said.
Christine Wilson, a council member who serves as chairwoman of the budget committee, proposed another plan.
She too would like to see the $5,400 go toward meters, and then allocate $6,500 to codify the borough’s ordinances, which haven’t been updated since 1998. The remaining $3,100 would go to recreation.
Carricato said there’s money in the general fund to use for codifying ordinances.
“We have $42,000 from gas wells in the general fund that should be used for codifying the ordinances,” Carricato said, adding that two more gas wells, located near the Vandergrift Cemetery, will be starting up in the next few weeks.
Wilson said that $20,000 is put into the bank up front for each gas well, and that money is supposed to be used for emergencies.
“I don’t like dipping into that money that we’re putting into the bank for emergency-use only,” Wilson said.
The three operational gas wells brought in more than $25,519.30 for the borough between January and June 30, Borough Secretary Steve DelleDonne said. Wells are located behind the municipal garage, on the Ninth Street Alley above East Vandergrift and on hillside dropping into East Vandergrift, Carricato said.
Wilson disagreed with using any of the gas well funds. Carricato said the money from the gas wells is budgeted into the general fund as anticipated revenue.
Discussion of what to do next was tabled until the next meeting, Wilson said, at which point the recreation committee will bring proposals of how to use the funding.
Carricato and two others recreation committee will meet to discuss ideas, but as for what ideas they have, residents will be in suspense until council meets.
“We’ve already been brainstorming,” Carricato said.
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Nonprofits Urge Estate Tax at ’09 Levels
By Bill Zlatos
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, July 20, 2010The head of the nation’s largest umbrella group for nonprofits urged reinstatement of the estate tax to 2009 levels to encourage charitable giving.
“Permanent repeal of the estate tax could result in the loss of $1 trillion in tax revenue over 10 years,” said Diana Aviv, president and CEO of Independent Sector, a Washington-based organization composed of nonprofit groups, foundations and corporate-giving programs.
Aviv spoke Monday to about 100 leaders of the region’s nonprofit community at a seminar sponsored by Grantmakers of Western Pennsylvania in the August Wilson Center for African American Culture, Downtown.
The estate tax expired at the end of 2009 and is scheduled to return Jan. 1, with a $1 million exemption and the balance of the estate taxed at 55 percent.
Some senators, however, are trying to reinstate the estate tax sooner under terms that Independent Sector believes could hurt charities.
Aviv favors the reinstatement of the 2009 terms, which are supported by the House and President Obama. Last year, the first $3.5 million of an individual’s estate, or $7 million for a couple, was exempt, and the balance was taxed at 45 percent.
Aviv urged support of the Nonprofit Sector and Community Solutions Act of 2010, proposed by Rep. Betty McCollum, a Democrat from Minnesota.
The bill would create a 16-member council to strengthen the links among Congress, the White House and the nonprofit community. It would create an interagency working group consisting of cabinet members and directors of relevant agencies, and would require the federal government to collect data on nonprofits.
“I don’t think anybody thinks it will be passed this year,” Aviv said. “The hope is that the next two or three years will build enough support to get it passed.”
Aviv contends that nonprofits deserve a seat at the table in Washington. Some 13 million people work full time for nonprofits, or 10 percent of America’s work force.
“I like the idea that the federal government, in addition to mandating regulations, might help the nonprofit sector do what it does better,” said Gregg Behr, executive director of The Grable Foundation, a Downtown philanthropy.
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$17.5 Million for Steel Heritage Sought
dBy Matthew Santoni, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, July 17, 2010
National heritage park promoters want a ramp built at the Rankin Bridge to provide better access to the former Carrie Furnace (background). Sidney Davis | Tribune-Review
Allegheny County officials are hoping the federal government will invest $17.5 million in a project to turn a former steelmaking site into a national heritage park and build a ramp at the Rankin Bridge to lead visitors to it.
The county, city of Pittsburgh, Port Authority and Port of Pittsburgh Commission are among agencies seeking a share of $600 million in transportation grants that would fund projects to reduce congestion, promote economic activity or improve livability.
At Carrie Furnace, the county wants to build a “flyover” ramp from the interchange at the foot of the Rankin Bridge to carry traffic above four railroad tracks that isolated the former steel mill.
“The (current) access is good for emergency vehicles and some other traffic, but it’s over two sets of active railroad tracks, and you’d have to wind your way back there on a couple of little, local streets,” said Bob Hurley, deputy director of the county’s Department of Economic Development.
The county wants to redevelop 148 acres that once housed the blast furnaces along the Monongahela River in Rankin, part of the former U.S. Steel Homestead Works. The project would include homes, offices and light industry, along with a park commemorating the Mon Valley’s industrial heritage, Hurley said.
The Homestead-based Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area, which took over the furnaces, wants to offer public tours of the site to drum up support for a museum, said Sherris Moreira, director of marketing and tourism development. Built in 1907 of steel plate and brick, the Carrie Furnaces No. 6 and 7 tower 92 feet above the river as examples of pre-World War II iron-making technology. They are the only non-operative blast furnaces remaining in Pittsburgh. In the 1950s and ’60s, they produced up to 1,250 tons of iron a day.
The county tried to get stimulus money for the project and did not; that application asked for $60 million and included a plan to convert an old bridge over the Mon for cars and pedestrians going to Route 837 and The Waterfront. Officials will still try to get money for the bridge, Hurley said.
The $600 million in transportation grants will be awarded in fall. Others seeking money:
• Port of Pittsburgh Commission, as a government partner for river industries. Cecil-based Consol Energy Inc. wants $44 million to add a coal storage area to its Alicia Docks near Brownsville, and Three Rivers Marine and Rail Terminal near Charleroi wants $1.5 million to upgrade railroad connections. The companies would invest matching money.
• The Port Authority of Allegheny County might reapply for money to start its “Better Bus” or “Rapid Bus” initiative, said spokesman Jim Ritchie. The authority plans to convert nine routes to “rapid bus” service that would have fewer stops, use ticket machines at bus stops instead of fare boxes on buses and get priority at traffic signals in order to make faster trips to Pittsburgh International Airport, Downtown, Oakland, the East End and the Mon Valley.
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McKeesport Will Demolish 15 Homes
Thursday, July 15, 2010By Candy WoodallMcKeesport’s 7th Ward is getting a face-lift.
Despite a poor economy, McKeesport continues to attract stimulus dollars to improve its neighborhoods.
Using a $100,00 from Allegheny County, Mayor James Brewster said the city will raze another 15 blighted homes along Bailey Avenue, beginning on July 27.
“We’re tearing down a house every four days,” he said.
Mr. Brewster has worked to remove half of McKeesport’s 600 blighted properties since he took office seven years ago, calling them fire and public safety hazards.
Old, boarded-up houses aren’t the only things coming down in the 7th Ward.
Cornell Intermediate School is being demolished to make way for the new Cornell Elementary/Intermediate School being built on the same property as part of McKeesport Area School District’s $46.4 million plan to build two new schools and renovate a third.
The Cornell construction will cost $29 million and help revitalize the neighborhood, according to Superintendent Michael Brinkos.
It is being developed as a green building that will accommodate kindergarten through sixth grade, featuring state-of-the-art facilities and technology, he said.
A public hearing was held Monday in the district’s board room regarding the school’s construction plans.
In addition to removing blight and replacing a 94-year-old school with a new one, City Council also unanimously approved an agreement with McKeesport Neighborhood Initiative to begin $1.4 million of housing development in the Seventh Ward.
“That will complement the new Cornell school,” Mr. Brewster said.
A Weed & Seed initiative will offer help in the 7th Ward, which is a target area along with the 2nd, 3rd and 5th wards.
As a local branch snags funds from Pennsylvania’s recently passed budget, it will work to fulfill the goals of Weed & Seed, a national program that seeks to improve conditions in high-crime neighborhoods.
The city’s Weed & Seed will have $75,000 from the state and $8,330 from the city for an $83,330 budget for the coming year, said Dennis Pittman, city administrator.
The money is earmarked for prevention and intervention programs and pairs with law enforcement efforts.
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Group Asks 1-Year Delay in Mellon Arena Demolition
Thursday, July 15, 2010By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-GazetteA group seeking to save Mellon Arena today urged its owner to delay a proposed demolition for one year.
Rob Pfaffmann, a Downtown architect who leads Reuse the Igloo, asked the city-Allegheny County Sports & Exhibition Authority board to give the group a year to develop an economically viable plan to save the Igloo. The SEA owns the building.
“We do not want to see a white elephant,” he said.
Mr. Pfaffmann said the group also would develop a plan to help the SEA cover the operating costs of the building while a more thorough planning process is undertaken and alternatives are studied.
“We should not rush to judgment on this if we have an economic circumstance that doesn’t demand it,” he said.
Mr. Pfaffmann was among about 10 people to speak at the SEA meeting today in favor of saving the building.
“There’s no do over. Once it’s gone, it’s gone and it will never be back again,” said Nancy Motz Cosnotti. “If the Civic Arena is gone, then part of Pittsburgh will be gone and I don’t want that.”
Reuse the Igloo also would like to see the SEA open the arena’s distinctive dome as a demonstration to see if it still works and to determine the cost of operating it.
SEA Executive Director Mary Conturo said no vote has been scheduled yet on a demolition, favored by the Penguins, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and county Executive Dan Onorato.
She said the SEA is still in the process of reviewing options through an ongoing historic review process.
Asked whether the SEA would agree to a one-year delay, board chairman Wayne Fontana said the request would be taken under advisement.
“I’m not adverse to anything at this point,” he said.
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Could New Teams Save Old Mellon Arena?
Wednesday, July 14, 2010By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-GazetteFor some, it’s a pipe dream. For Aubrey Bruce, it’s a mission.
A former music promoter, Mr. Bruce hopes to save Mellon Arena by recruiting an arena football team, a Women’s National Basketball Association team and an American Basketball Association team to play there.
It’s debatable which is the biggest challenge.
Still, Mr. Bruce, who writes sports columns for the New Pittsburgh Courier, has formed Seastorm Sports Management Group with hopes of salvaging Mellon Arena by recruiting teams to play under its iconic silver dome.
“We understand that it is going to be a hard road to climb,” he acknowledged.
Mr. Bruce has talked to Rob Pfaffmann, the Downtown architect who is leading the effort to save the Igloo about his ideas. He also plans to make a presentation to the city-Allegheny County Sports & Exhibition Authority as part of the historic review process, but has yet to do so. He said his main objective is to rescue Mellon Arena, which was slated for demolition as part of a plan by the Penguins to redevelop the property with offices, residences and commercial ventures.
“Our goal is to save the Civic Arena,” he said. “It’s symbolic of Pittsburgh shedding its industrial skin and moving into the electronic age. It’s a very important symbol, I think, of Pittsburgh.”
Mr. Bruce has had some preliminary contact with the Arena Football League about his idea, but has yet to talk to Commissioner Jerry Kurz or an owner or prospective owner with any interest in placing a team in Pittsburgh.
However, Mr. Kurz, at a news conference in February, did say that the 15-team reconstituted league, under new leadership after folding last year, had an interest in expanding into Pittsburgh and several other cities by 2011.
Linnea Coulter, manager of media services for the Arena Football League, said she had talked to Mr. Bruce about a month and a half ago and forwarded his information to Mr. Kurz. She said she has not heard anything since then.
Mr. Bruce has had no formal contact with the WNBA, but said he had spoken with a marketing representative with the affiliated National Basketball Association. He said he also had talked to Joe Newman, the American Basketball Association CEO. The ABA currently has a team in Pittsburgh, the Phantoms, which played at Carnegie Library in Homestead last season.
Neither Mr. Newman nor Ron Howard, director of WNBA communications, could be reached for comment.
While Mr. Bruce readily acknowledges that he has yet to get anything close to a commitment from any of the leagues, he believes teams would be interested in playing in a redesigned Mellon Arena with seating for 5,000 to 6,000 people.
He is hoping the SEA, which owns the old building, will issue a moratorium that would prevent any demolition for at least a year.
There are big obstacles, however. Unclear is who would pay the millions of dollars to renovate Mellon Arena or foot the bill for the costs of operating and maintaining it. The SEA has estimated that insurance and utility costs alone could run as much as $100,000 a month. Mr. Bruce believes rent from the teams would pay part of it.
The former promoter also may have to battle the Penguins ownership, which isn’t keen about the idea of keeping two arenas side by side. And an arena football team could fill open dates at the new arena.
Penguins President David Morehouse said Tuesday that revenues from arena football and WNBA and ABA basketball would not pay for the cost of redoing and maintaining the arena.
“If an arena football team came to Pittsburgh, they would want to play in the brand new Consol Energy Center,” he said.
Mr. Morehouse also questioned the viability of plans floated in an effort to save Mellon Arena. “There are all kind of cockamamy ideas out there. The question is: Does anyone have anything that’s financially viable?” he asked.
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Operation Safety Net to House Homeless on S. Side
Tuesday, July 13, 2010By Meredith Skrzypczak, Pittsburgh Post-GazetteMoving from riverbanks and alleyways into apartments with bedrooms and bathrooms will become a reality for 16 homeless individuals currently living on the streets of Allegheny County.
The move will be made possible by a federal grant awarded to a local agency last week for construction of housing on the South Side.
Operation Safety Net, which provides services such as medical treatment for the homeless, received $1.69 million for the construction of Trail Lane Apartments on Ninth Street on the South Side.
Operation Safety Net is sponsored by Pittsburgh Mercy Health System. The money is part of $14 million in funding across Pennsylvania announced last week by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan. A total of $3.3 million was given to agencies in Allegheny County to address homelessness in the area.
The apartment program will help the chronic homeless population, said Linda Sheets, program director for Operation Safety Net. These are individuals who have been living on the streets for at least one year and have some mental illness, she said.
They are often the most difficult to reach and house, but Ms. Sheets said she is expecting full occupancy in the apartments by summer of 2011. Case managers and social workers for the agency already have high-risk individuals in mind who would be good candidates for the housing.
Ms. Sheets said she is most excited about “giving each one of these individuals a chance to have a place of their own.”
Housing will be offered to the 16 individuals for as long as they choose to stay. Staff will help them look for employment and apply for disability income. Once they get a job or are approved for disability, they will be asked to pay 30 percent of their income to cover program fees, which results in a type of rent payment.
A sort of “haven” for the homeless, the apartments will be located on the third floor of a new building, with administrative and training offices on the second floor and a primary care physician and dentist office on the first.
The services provided will not be mandatory, nor are the homeless required to stay, but Ms. Sheets said she hopes the residents will take advantage of the services such as mental health care.
“When a street homeless person leaves the streets and enters into a housing unit we’re very pleased,” she said. “However, when they also want to receive the additional treatment, that keeps them from returning to the streets.”
Over a two-year period, the total cost for the apartments and associated staffing costs will be just over $2 million. Construction could begin as soon as this summer, said Mike Lindsay, housing program administrator for the Allegheny County Department of Human Services. Mercy applied for the grant in mid-2009, he said.
Ninth Street already is home to Mercy Behavioral Health facilities with a pharmacy, shopping and grocery stores nearby. The location is ideal for the 16 future apartment residents looking to become more integrated into the community, Ms. Sheets said.
Some residents in the neighborhood said the inclusion of the apartments for the homeless would be an “over-saturation,” given the existing facilities in the area.
Nancy Wells, 62, a South Side resident, said she agrees with the cause but would not support a homeless population moving onto her street.
“I feel this area is already contributing to helping people in the community,” she said.
A nearby bridge has anywhere from five to 20 people living underneath on a given day, said Ziad Khalil, owner of Zeeno’s, located just minutes from where the apartments would be built. Mr. Khalil would support any program that might lower that number even if it means homeless individuals moving into his area. He said it could bring “positive change.”
Earlier in the year, Jane Miller, director of community and government relations for Mercy Behavioral Health, conducted community meetings to gauge residents’ reactions.
“Nobody came,” she said.
Since then, there has been no opposition, Ms. Miller said, and soon-to-be neighbors of the homeless shouldn’t be worried.
“We share the world with people with mental illness,” she said. “People who are coming here are being treated.”
Dr. Jim Withers, medical director and founder of Operation Safety Net, said this is just the start of support for the homeless.
“You can get people from the streets into housing, but that’s just the beginning of the story.”