PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by Urbana

Article detailing Peduto's transit vision.

http://www.pittnews.com/news/article_fc908e94-0e66-11e3-b139-0019bb30f31a.html

Source: The Pitt News

Much more detailed article on Peduto's transit vision than found in any of the "grown-up" papers around here.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Speaking of the tangle of deals on the North Shore, the Pittsburgh Stadium Authority (a public entity which built Three Rivers but now only operates parking) is going to be compelled to build another parking garage as surface lots are being converted to other uses:

http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/4569174-74/north-parking-shore#axzz2d1mikOgU

If you don't know the back story, part of the sweetheart deal for the sports teams was a guarantee of a certain amount of nearby parking. So as the land between the stadiums is developed, the public has to build garages for their patrons to use. This was actually holding up the land development at one point, because the first such garage was sitting mostly vacant most of the time and the Stadium Authority et al didn't want to blow more money on another garage.

On the plus side, with the opening of the NSC the existing garage started to fill up during work weeks, so now they appear less reluctant to build more parking garages. On the minus side, it is a shame we are talking about surrounding that subway station with a bunch of parking, rather than residences and such.

This is such a moronic situation. Is Murphy to blame?

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

Much more detailed article on Peduto's transit vision than found in any of the "grown-up" papers around here.

Yeah, I was pretty shocked at how bad the reporting was during the Pittsburgh mayoral election. There was almost zero writing on actual policies and issues and everything about the horse-race.

[DKNewYork]

Originally Posted by GeneW

Yeah, I was pretty shocked at how bad the reporting was during the Pittsburgh mayoral election. There was almost zero writing on actual policies and issues and everything about the horse-race.

Come to New York! It is all mayoral election all the time...and thankfully very little of it now deals with Anthony Weiner.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

This is such a moronic situation. Is Murphy to blame?

You could fill a small phone book with the names of people involved.

But the Pittsburgh Stadium Authority specifically is governed by a five-member boards, the members of which are appointed by the Mayor of Pittsburgh, and the original deal was made in 2003 when Murphy was that Mayor:

http://www.pgh-sea.com/StadiumAuthority.htm

So yes, Murphy is one of the responsible parties for this deal. Note though the deal was extended and modified (in 2011/12), so it is on Ravenstahl too.

Edit: By the way, some might recall this all got brought up recently in the context of the grand jury investigating the Ravenstahl administration, and there is even a Peduto connection, both through the witness and because he served on the Stadium Authority board (although I have no idea if Peduto was for or against all this at any point).

[GeneW]

I'm of two minds on the North Shore parking issue. On the one hand, having all that prime land devoted to surface parking seems like a terrible waste. On the other hand, if you get rid of tail-gating space down there, those tail-gaters will migrate up the hill into Manchester and Allegheny West where we have to deal with ever more drunken idiots during every home game. There are a ton of little lots along Western, Ridge and Brighton that fill up with RVs and tailgaters every Saturday and Sunday during the fall and losing space down by the stadium is only going to make that worse. The situation also makes it harder to develop new projects in the area since the land owners are making money on empty lots reducing the motivation for bothering to develop anything.

[qwho]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

This is such a moronic situation. Is Murphy to blame?

I think the biggest takeaway from that article is this:

But Steelers games, there was never enough parking on the North Shore, and there probably never will be.

This is true, people will find parking if they want to go to games, and games will still sell out even if people are annoyed with the parking situation.

[Evergrey]

Stiller fans don't need parking right next to the stadium. The games are on Sundays... they have all day to find a spot somewhere in the city and take a boat, trolley, cab or pedi-cab to 3G Capital... I mean... Heinz Field.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by qwho

people will find parking if they want to go to games, and games will still sell out even if people are annoyed with the parking situation.

Originally Posted by Evergrey

Stiller fans don't need parking right next to the stadium. The games are on Sundays... they have all day to find a spot somewhere in the city and take a boat, trolley, cab or pedi-cab to 3G Capital... I mean... Heinz Field.

Yep. And all this is an example of how the slightest perception of advantage (not need, just advantage) to the teams has been trumping general planning principles.

[Evergrey]

http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/4602262-74/million-112-agency#axzz2dCFARJRq

Commission seeks input on new street grid in Lower Hill District


By Tribune-Review

Published: Tuesday, August 27, 2013, 1:45 p.m.
Updated 40 minutes ago

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission is seeking input on plans to develop three new streets and rebuild four others on the site of the former Civic Arena.

The SPC, a 10-county planning agency, will accept public comments on the proposed project at 6 p.m. Tuesday on the fourth floor of Two Chatham Center, 112 Washington Place, Uptown.

People may also submit written comments through Sept. 11 to Two Chatham Center, Suite 500, 112 Washington Place, Pittsburgh, PA 15219.

The Sports & Exhibition Authority is seeking a federal grant of up to $18.7 million for the $33 million project, said Mary Conturo, the authority's executive director. It has secured $15 million from the state's Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program. The SPC would need to amend its long-range transportation plans to serve as a pass-through agency for the federal funding.

[glowrock]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

Stiller fans don't need parking right next to the stadium. The games are on Sundays... they have all day to find a spot somewhere in the city and take a boat, trolley, cab or pedi-cab to 3G Capital... I mean... Heinz Field.

I see what you did there!

Aaron (Glowrock)

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/4602262-74/million-112-agency#axzz2dCFARJRq

I might submit a written statement stating support conditional on the private alleyways portion.

[BrianTH]

The latest release of labor market conditions for the Pittsburgh MSA is available here:

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=552914&mode=2

It is a pretty good report--employment growth was strong again, and the unemployment rate went down a bit (since we are now consistently hitting new employment records, the only reason the unemployment rate is still elevated is that the the local labor force has been growing in size). The main sources of year-over-year growth are the usual suspects these days, led by Professional and Business Services and Financial Activities, and recently also Leisure and Hospitality. Mining and Logging, as usual, was big in percentage terms but not so big in gross terms. Government remains a consistent drag on growth, but that is now mostly federal (it used to be much more state and local).

[themaguffin]

Speaking of the labor market and upcoming Labor Day... I'm going to go off topic for a minute...

If it bothers you that I'm going off topic, please skip now.

This hurts me as I'm a big fan of the beer and even though not W PA, I was glad to support a PA beer, but no more.

This asshole Dick Yuengling (like Dick Mellon) has disdain for working people and loves the Governor. It's especially fascinating when kids fortunate enough to be born into such privilege use that privilege to influence policy that hurts working people. What a fucking piece of shit.



Brewer Yuengling talks Corbett, taxes, unions

[Grego43]

Originally Posted by themaguffin

Speaking of the labor market and upcoming Labor Day... I'm going to go off topic for a minute...

If it bothers you that I'm going off topic, please skip now.

This hurts me as I'm a big fan of the beer and even though not W PA, I was glad to support a PA beer, but no more.

This asshole Dick Yuengling (like Dick Mellon) has disdain for working people and loves the Governor. It's especially fascinating when kids fortunate enough to be born into such privilege use that privilege to influence policy that hurts working people. What a fucking piece of shit.



Brewer Yuengling talks Corbett, taxes, unions

Thanks for that, Themaguffin...I've just sworn off drinking another drop of Yeungling...and I drank a lot of it.

[chiaroscuro]

Originally Posted by themaguffin

Speaking of the labor market and upcoming Labor Day... I'm going to go off topic for a minute...

If it bothers you that I'm going off topic, please skip now.

This hurts me as I'm a big fan of the beer and even though not W PA, I was glad to support a PA beer, but no more.

This asshole Dick Yuengling (like Dick Mellon) has disdain for working people and loves the Governor. It's especially fascinating when kids fortunate enough to be born into such privilege use that privilege to influence policy that hurts working people. What a fucking piece of shit.



Brewer Yuengling talks Corbett, taxes, unions

Not all working people belong to unions. Or want to.

[DKNewYork]

Can anyone offer pics/info/status report on construction of Scott Hall at CMU?

[GeneW]

Getting back to the parking issue. This showed up in my Twitter feed today:

Did Progressive Parking Policies Propel Pittsburgh Past Detroit?

Policies enacted by Pittsburgh have helped discourage solo car commuting. The city issues a 40 percent tax on parking throughout the city. It’s the highest tax of its kind in the country, and at one time it was an even higher 50 percent. In 2006, the Pittsburgh City Paper reported the city was generating about $44.5 million a year from parking taxes — more than it was making from taxing resident income.

[DKNewYork]

Originally Posted by GeneW

Getting back to the parking issue. This showed up in my Twitter feed today:

Did Progressive Parking Policies Propel Pittsburgh Past Detroit?

I saw the DCStreets blog as well and was amazed to read that the city, in 2006, took in more revenue from parking taxes than resident income taxes. A couple of questions come to mind: Is that income tax rate absurdly low or unable to be raised without state approval? (I never lived in the city proper so not sure about that.) And do we think that Pittsburgh's highest-in-the-nation parking tax was motivated by the progressive notion of encouraging mass transit patronage or simply a mayor's or city council's attempt to get more money from suburbanites?

[themaguffin]

Not all working people belong to unions. Or want to.

Nobody said that they do, or did want to. That wasn't the point.