Pittsburgh's real problems (Liberty, Jacksonville, Mexico: construction, college, living)

[right-here-i-say]

Pittsburgh's biggest problem is their liabilities. Govt workers like PAT Transit employees retire and collect absurd pensions. The average age of a retiree is in their lower 50's and received unheard of benefits and pension.

So what does PAT do? Cut service. They would rather have 500 people with no service than cut a pension from somebody who isn't working.

This is happening all throughout Pittsburgh and the State. They cannot fix/build roads the right way because so much of their money goes to people who aren't working. In 10 years or so, the State budget will have to double to pay the unfunded pensions. The Post Gazette had a huge discussion on this topic in the past year.

[burgh-grl]

Originally Posted by ChapmanPlace

The litter problem stems from the "poor me" and victim mentality; the refusal to take responsibility for one's own life, living situation, education, behaviour, and even, yes, trash. The general philosophy screams "Let my trash, attitude and behaviours be someone else's problem. Why should I have to clean up my own trash (mess), pay my own bills, pay for my own education, etc. etc.? The world OWES me the American dream and I'll take what I think I DESERVE!" Parent's don't teach children personal responsibility, or to appreciate life, the blessing of being born in America, the privilege of being able to work and get an education to improve living situations, the honour of having a home and neighborhood to take care of, etc. etc. It's all taken for granted and people do not appreciate or care for what they take for granted. It's sad, but watch TV for 10 minutes or talk to a few kids - it's a "MeMeMe Gimme, I deserve it" culture. Love thy neighbor... ?

In the absence of good parenting, and/or when faulty thinking dominates, fines are great teaching tools. The laws are on the books - let's start fining away and use that money to get the city cleaned up. Just a little tangent of MHO

Beautifully stated! THANK YOU!!

[sbrobbie]

Check out
ilovemountains - End Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining
This makes you think about what greed does to the beauty of that land, and also how it affects the future for our children. We need energy, however we need to think out of the box, get rid of litter and vote for more E85 gas stations. I just moved here, and there are only 3 in Pittsburgh. I have an E85 mini van, and well, I am gonna bug the legislative for cleaner gases, and find alternative energies so my daughter has a decent place to live out her senior years, she is only two. Parents need to teach there children to throw trash away, lol the next step would be showing them to put bottles in one trash container, paper in another.. lol Baby steps. My daughter throws her trash away, never told her to, she just watches mommy, kids do what there parents do apparently.

[kpoeppel]

I agree, Pittsburgh's biggest problem is the entitlement mentality. See the following article for a prime example: Monthly Review December 2005 Charles McCollester | Pittsburgh—The Glory and the Gutting.

The author even goes as far as trashing suburban professionals and institutional nonprofits like Carnegie Mellon. Supposedly they are responsible for Pittsburgh's budget problems...instead of out-of-control spending at the Port Athority, public schools, and elsewhere. I'm sorry, but if it weren't for professionals and world-class institutions like CMU, what would Pittsburgh be?? The author apparently thinks that businesses and residents exist primarily to pay taxes, and it is taxes which create prosperity. Incredible.

[kpoeppel]

Valt:

One day you are going to die. Chances are you will die from a heart-attack, cancer, or old age...not from a coal power plant.

Open your eyes and you will see that there are bigger problems in the world than a little smoke. One very big problem is the number of people in the world living in poverty without electricity, a problem which could be solved by coal (or nuclear or hydro) power plants.

If you really fear pollution so much, than move to an underdeveloped nation with a "pristine" environment...filled with disease, hunger, and poverty.

[poetic_badger]

The city could be made cleaner by writing some littering tickets, you could use the meter reading folks double their productivity and make some money along the way to a cleaner city.

[Drover]

That's a nice idea in concept, but there's a problem in its execution: in order to write litter tickets, as a practical matter it is necessary to have full police power, because the only way to know who to write the ticket to is to demand identification. Only law enforcement has that authority, and law enforcement needs the tools of the trade to back up its authority (guns, cuffs, nightsticks, and the like). Needless to say, fully deputizing meter maids so they can write litter tickets seems a profound misallocation of resources.

[tommygoat]

Young people are pigs and we're all going to die from the falling sky! LOL

[VALT]

Pittsburgh is probably the eye of the global warming storm that is brewing, intellectually at least.

Those on one side say "to hell with a little extra smoke, as long as we have economic development. Besides, there is no confirmed scientific data to support the claim that it hurts the environment, anyway." (sounds like the cigarette makers years ago)

Those on the other say 1) there is loads of scientific data 2) in the long run, the problems caused by the extra smoke is going to cost more to clean up than to fix now 3) being green is good for business, because you tend to attract more of the creative class which is powering the economy of the future anyway

I must admit, I am stopped by the first group at times, thinking maybe I am just overreacting.

Still, in my mind, this needs to be solved, here, now, now that I am here in the eye of the storm...

[Katiana]

VALT, your first argument has been around for a long time. I have posted this before, but maybe it bears repeating. My mother came to the Pittsburgh area from Wisconsin as a new bride in 1948. At the time, the mills were running full blast (no pun intended), people heated with coal and soot filled the air, blew in under your front door, etc. Whe made a comment to someone about it being dirty there, and did she ever get blasted! She was told to never complain about the dirt again, that it was everyone's bread and butter and she should just shut up about it! It was a few years later that Pgh's city leaders "discovered" that the dirt was bad for their image and launched "Renaissance I".