Pittsburgh's reputation is taking a hit

[Heit]

Originally Posted by Love2Golf09

I saw another article in the Philly Inquirer about Onorato throwing up his hands with the North Shore Connector and claiming it was already a done deal when he was elected and he couldn't do anything to stop it. Jack Wagner says it's a waste of taxpayer resources and Fast Eddie Rendell called it a "tragic mistake." Where were all these guys a few years ago when this was given the ok? It's been delayed by several years and right now is 75% overbudget. All that for an extra 1.2 miles of railway. What do we say about the Mon-Fayette Expressway? Billions flushed down the toilet for an abandoned highway that goes from West Mifflin to Uniontown.

Our region is getting trashed by the statewide media for our pork projects and our idiot politicians. I can't tell you how many stories I've read about the North Shore Connector and the Mon-Fayette Expressway. It's pretty ugly stuff, but few people in swpa seem to care. We're gonna pay for this. We're gonna get a repuation just like philadelphia...a city full of crooked politicians, corrupt unions, wasteful spending, insane property taxes, and an out of control budget. Nobody in this state wants their tax dollars to go to philly because they aren't trustworthy. The same thing is going to happen here very soon. We've taken in billions and billions of state and federal taxpayer money and have wasted it. We deserve to be given the middle finger by the rest of the state the next time we ask for money. Rendell's budget gave $8 million for a "green jobs" center for the Hill District. I hope that's put to good use...but I doubt it.


Onorato disputes responsibility for Pittsburgh tunnel | Philadelphia Inquirer | 07/05/2010

HA! I have news for you, it's not just "our" town. When politicians/CROOKS are involved this is what happens. Business as usual from the government "of the people"!

[stevo6]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

So PAT definitely participated in the NSC saga, but that was really all Cranmer and Dunn. After they took over the County Commission (this was back when the County was run by a three-person commission), they appointed 8 out of the 9 members of PAT's board, and that is when PAT suddenly halted planning for the Spine Line, and eventually emerged with the NSC plan instead.

By the way, the idea of using this as a connection to the airport never made any sense (you are just going to have to cross back over the Ohio, and in general light rail all the way to the airport isn't really justifiable). Rather, the NSC was all about serving the suburbs, both for commuters coming into Downtown, and for when suburbanites would be going to the planned North Shore venues. In fact not only did Cranmer and Dunn's people at PAT explicitly kill the Oakland part because they thought that was too much of a city project, they also redirected the planned route of the NSC from the North Side residential neighborhoods to the North Shore venues. And they did that basically by mandating the route studies not consider any benefits that would accrue outside the Downtown zone (which included the North Shore, but not the North Side).

Of course it is no surprise this was all about benefiting the suburbs: the suburbs were the political base for not just Cranmer and Dunn but also the feds involved from the beginning (Santorum, Specter, and Hart)--these are all Republicans after all. And while I don't necessarily blame the feds for getting the money, I can't help but think if those feds had their political base in the City and not the suburbs, maybe things could have turned out differently as far as where the funding went.

Or maybe not--Tom Murphy was definitely involved at least as far as redirecting the route to the North Shore is concerned. Of course he was in bed with all the business interests involved in the North Shore, but he wasn't the only one in the City in that position, so maybe things wouldn't have been different with different feds involved. We'll never know.

Good post Brian. I wasn't aware of the Cranmer/Dunn chapter in the story.

It was enlightening to me, when Continental Development was planning their North Shore development, that they had little to no interest in the Connector project. You would think that their plans could have only been enhanced by a relationship to the light rail. I think they saw too much uncertainty in the project.
One caveat I'll add, as a suburbanite, is that light rail by definition is always about the suburbs. Without transit between urban centers and the suburbs you create a city that no one wants to work in (limits to growth and increases in traffic and pollution etc.). If transit were limited only to the city you may have more incentive to live in the city, but it would not be nearly enough to overcome a culture that prefers the suburbs (and it wouldn't be rail).

[BrianTH]

To be sure, I have no inherent problem with commuter-oriented transit projects that would serve the suburbs. I do think we have to be careful about mode choice, however. For longer hauls what you really want is commuter rail, not light rail. And in many cases, given Pittsburgh's topography and population patterns, I actually think the Busway approach makes the most sense for commuters (because you only need the Busway where it is necessary to bypass congestion, which saves on capital costs, and then you can flare out the bus routes to lots of different neighborhoods without them all having to be along a continuous line).

Conversely, I also think we should recognize that just because a transit route is within the City limits doesn't mean it wouldn't have regional benefits. The fact is that the Spine Line as originally conceived--light rail connecting the North Side through Downtown to Oakland and maybe further into the East End--would serve lots of commuters from both the City and the suburbs going everywhere from AGH to Downtown to Oakland, and also students, business visitors, tourists, and so on getting around town. Aside from the direct transportation benefits and increased development potential along the route, that would also free up other transportation infrastructure in the City for use by other commuters and such.

So at the end of the day, it becomes about priorities. As noted above, the NSC isn't a terrible idea, but I also think it would properly be way down a list of possible major projects by priority. That is because it simply won't serve enough daily riders and stimulate enough development and free up enough other transportation infrastructure, all in light of its cost, to justify high-priority treatment.

But again, I am not inherently against transit projects that benefit the suburbs, and indeed recognize the need to keep investing in them going forward.

[sr1234]

Originally Posted by Love2Golf09

Our region is getting trashed by the statewide media for our pork projects and our idiot politicians.

I am sorry, have you not met the resident court jester of Pittsburgh...Ravenstahl? With Luke running the show, how is anyone ever going to take Pittsburgh seriously? I was reminded the other day of Bob O'Connor. His death was the worst event to happen to Pittsburgh in at least the last decade.

[pman]

had the project stalled and not been completed because of cost overruns, it would have been a boondoggle. It remains to be seen how it impacts the region but I don't think it's that big a deal statewide. how many 10 million dollar libraries will it take to serve 8k people a day?

[sr1234]

Originally Posted by pman

had the project stalled and not been completed because of cost overruns, it would have been a boondoggle. It remains to be seen how it impacts the region but I don't think it's that big a deal statewide. how many 10 million dollar libraries will it take to serve 8k people a day?

Libraries are now a money pit. The internet (kindle, online libraries, etc.) has made them obsolete.

[BrianTH]

By the way, I forgot to include Jim Roddey (R), the first County Executive under the new system, in my cast of characters. He got into the mix after the Spine Line was killed, but helped push the Gateway-North Shore alignment along with Tom Murphy. I wonder if Cyril Wecht would have made a difference, but again we'll never know.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by sr1234

The internet (kindle, online libraries, etc.) has made them obsolete.

That may be true in the future, but we still use the library.

[pman]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

That may be true in the future, but we still use the library.

perhaps a better phrase in decline in importance. I'd guess that if you take out internet usage from their counts, counts are down. nonetheless, there isn't any pressing need for new libraries, much less so than new transit or infrastructure investment.

[BrianTH]

I'd definitely agree libraries have declined in relative importance, and that we face a much more pressing underinvestment problem in transit and some other major infrastructure categories.