Pittsburgh City Councilman Patrick Dowd will endorse his colleague Bill Peduto for Mayor today during a 9:30 a.m. press conference on the portico of the City County Building, stating need for next mayor to be able to work with all levels of government.
“Never before has it been more crucial for city and county government to work shoulder to shoulder on issues such as water and sewer system reinvestment, transportation and economic development,” Dowd states as the foundation for his endorsement.
In 2009 a broad-based coalition of faith-based groups, labor unions, environmental organizations, and community leaders came together to help City Council pass three groundbreaking new laws that promised to dramatically change how public dollars are spent on private developments. This package of laws offered fair wages to employees at new developments, cleaner air through cleaner construction practices, and cleaner water through modern stormwater management techniques. City Council passed these laws unanimously and they went to the Mayor’s office to sit on a shelf and never be implemented.
As hard as it is to believe, many City of Pittsburgh employees don’t have official city email addresses. Many of these employees, like those in the Department of Public Works and Bureau of Building Inspection, have jobs requiring significant travel around the city, but there is no reason that we can’t provide them with email addresses to keep them connected to what is happening in their departments or the city as a whole. In this electronic age in which we live, email would also allow them to quickly communicate with staff in other departments
King County Council 8th District Candidates Forum, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from Michael @ NW Lens’s photostream The 14th and 7th Ward Democratic Committees and the 14th Ward Independent Democratic Club will host a candidate forum this Sunday. Appearing at the forum will be mayoral candidates Michael Lamb, Bill Peduto and Luke Ravenstahl [...]
“Operation Red” is a program introduced by Pittsburgh City Councilman Bill Peduto in November and passed by Council on December 11th which will give the City a powerful new tool to fight blight. The legislation works by shaming the worst landlords in the City by erecting large signs in front of up to 10 properties whose owners have received multiple BBI citations and Housing Court convictions but have not yet taken steps to fix the problems. The program eliminates the owner’s anonymity by displaying their name, telephone number, and home address on the signs at the blighted properties. Additionally, the names and contact information of chronic offenders will be broadcast on the City’s cable channel.
The proposed development by the Buncher Company across much of the waterfront land in the Strip District has not yet received City Council approval for TIF financing, however a rezoning plan is making its way through Council and is the first step to the development moving forward. Council will hold a Post Agenda discussion and a Public Hearing on this important development and I encourage you to make your voice heard. The Post Agenda will be held on Monday, September 24th at 1:00 PM in Council Chambers and the Public Hearing will be held on Tuesday, September 25th at 1:00 PM.
What started with a proclamation by Pittsburgh City Council, and continued with setting a world record for the “Largest Hug Under a Tent,” will now culminate on Thursday, September 6, 2012 with Hug-a-Thon Pittsburgh™ Day in our city — when Pittsburgh hugs the world and home-town charities. There will be celebrity huggers at four downtown locations during that day and a gala celebration at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel in Downtown Pittsburgh in the evening. Hug-a-Thon Pittsburgh™ wants you to “Think how good it’s going to feel to hug a fan, hug a constituent, hug a customer, hug a stranger, and put some light in someone’s life!” Hug-a-Thon Pittsburgh™ will raise money for four charities: Cancer Caring Center, Sickle Cell Society, Pittsburgh Passion’s Passion for Life and Operation Troop Appreciation.
The issue of on-street parking is a problem in most cities. In Pittsburgh, many business districts have met their parking capacity. One solution that enables an increased total number of available parking spaces for customers is bike corrals. A single on-street bike corral can hold 10 to 12 bicycles — allowing for a much better customer-to-business ratio. Moreover, it protects what cyclists often use in place of a bike rack — our city trees.
This month, Pittsburgh City Council approved legislation for the City to receive a $130,000 grant from the Home Depot Foundation to fund an expansion of the Love Your Block program. Love Your Block is a block revitalization program which was created to reduce blight in the City of Pittsburgh. The program invites neighborhood groups to propose volunteer-led projects to transform their blocks with a $1,000 mini-grant. The groups also receive support from key City departments. One hundred block revitalization projects will be provided with resources over the next two years. The groups receive the grants in the form of Home Depot gift cards.
