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District 7 spans the Upper East End/Allegheny Valley areas of the City of Pittsburgh and includes the neighborhoods of Bloomfield, Friendship, Highland Park, Morningside, Stanton Heights (north of Stanton Avenue), Lawrenceville, Polish Hill, and the Strip District. On November 5 a special election will be held to determine a new councilperson for this district since our current council representative, Patrick Dowd (D-Highland Park), is resigning to focus on working with a non-profit.
Thus far at least three candidates and/or their representatives have been to our Polish Hill home, and I must say I'm having a difficult time making up my mind. Since this sub-forum helped me in the Democratic primary election earlier this year to choose Bill Peduto over Jack Wagner I was hoping once again you all would be kind enough to give your feedback since we have quite a few members who reside here in the Upper East End/Allegheny Valley.
Some major issues currently impacting District 7 include Buncher's plan to redevelop the Strip District riverfront around the produce terminal; the ongoing gentrification (South-Side-ization, if you will) of Butler Street in Lawrenceville; the Iron City Brewery redevelopment project; stabilization of vacant yet historically significant properties for rehabilitation; and more.
The Bloomfield Citizens' Council just announced that they will be hosting a candidate forum/debate, moderated by Andy Sheehan from KDKA. It will be held Wednesday, October 9, 2013 at 7:00 PM at the St. Maria Goretti Friendship Campus Social Hall at 320 Edmond Street. I hope to attend if I'm not working, and I will hopefully have a better idea of whom I will be voting for in November after this debate.
The candidates?
DEMOCRATIC: Deb Gross, 47, Highland Park.
A friend of fellow Highland Park resident and current councilman Patrick Dowd and endorsed by presumptive Mayor-Elect Bill Peduto, Deb Gross, self-employed as a non-profit consultant, would be another city council ally for Mr. Peduto, who has had a rather adversarial relationship with at least half of the other current city council members but who now has at least two friends on council via Natalia Rudiak in the South Hills and Dan Gilman in the heart of the East End. Deb has also secured the endorsements of many labor unions. I'm keeping abreast of events on her Facebook page, and she seems to be the most aggressive of all three candidates, making me think she wants this job the most. She has her Master's Degree in Sociology from Duke and is married to a CMU employee. They have two young children. Right now I'm leaning heavily towards voting for Deb Gross, especially in hopes that a cordial working relationship between our district and the mayor will result in an even better Polish Hill, but I remain open to other options.
With a slogan of "Policy and Passion Over Politics", Mr. Ceoffe is running more of a grass-roots campaign after he lost his bid to secure the Democratic nod earlier this year to Mrs. Gross. Tony has a wife and a young daughter. Like Mr. Peduto, the hallmark of Mr. Ceoffe's campaign seems to focus around clearing up the "politics as usual" status quo and instead trying to return District 7 to the people. Perhaps I'm obtuse, but Mr. Dowd has been very down-to-earth and easily-accessible to his constituency, even hosting monthly "Council to Go" meetings in various neighborhoods, including Polish Hill, to make himself even more transparent to those who may be unable to venture to meet him in City Hall. Mr. Ceoffe is a Central High School graduate. Mr. Ceoffe is passionate in his opposition to fracking and is very supportive of the city's challenge of UPMC's tax-exempt status. He is the son of a well-known district judge, also from Lawrenceville.
A housing developer and longtime friend and former staffer to State Sen. Jim Ferlo (D-Highland Park), Mr. Fallon is married with no children and also holds a Bachelor's Degree in Marketing from Kent State University. Like Mrs. Gross, Mr. Fallon is also self-employed. His business, Urban Green Development, renovates homes in the East End to make them more energy-efficient. I love his idea of initiating QUARTERLY budgets to help better keep track of city expenditures-to-date vs. revenues-to-date. Mr. Fallon would also be an ally for Mr. Peduto.
INDEPENDENT: Jim Wudarczyk, 61, Bloomfield.
Mr. Wudarczyk works as a customer service representative in the Strip District and holds a Bachelor's Degree in English from Edinboro University. I do take issue, though, with one of his assertions that he "obtained 500 constituent signatures from every neighborhood in the district". Neighborhoods like Polish Hill and the Strip District both contain very low residential populations, and I'm going to remain a skeptic that he secured 500 signatures from each of these neighborhoods unless I can be shown proof of this. I have not seen even one Wudarczyk sign here in Polish Hill, where our entire population isn't much over 1,000. If he's going to lie while campaign, he'll lie in office, too.
LIBERTARIAN: Dave Powell, 42, Morningside.
Mr. Powell is a systems administrator at Pitt and the county chair of the Libertarian Party. He holds a degree from Pitt and has a wife and two children. His opposition to red-light cameras certainly resonates well with me. He's also supportive of legalizing marijuana, which bodes well for most of my friends, neighbors, and colleagues here in the East End. He's also supportive of taxing land at a higher rate than buildings in an effort to stop "land-bankers" and to promote more development in the city. He also wants to chiefly focus on solving the city's unfunded pension obligation crisis. He's currently neck-and-neck with Mrs. Gross for my vote, even though I know he's not likely to win, despite his great policy ideas.
This must be a hotly contested race. In 5 years of non-student ghetto living in Pittsburgh I have never once had a candidate or campaigner come to my door, let alone three for one race.
Mr. Wudarczyk works as a customer service representative in the Strip District and holds a Bachelor's Degree in English from Edinboro University. I do take issue, though, with one of his assertions that he "obtained 500 constituent signatures from every neighborhood in the district". Neighborhoods like Polish Hill and the Strip District both contain very low residential populations, and I'm going to remain a skeptic that he secured 500 signatures from each of these neighborhoods unless I can be shown proof of this. I have not seen even one Wudarczyk sign here in Polish Hill, where our entire population isn't much over 1,000. If he's going to lie while campaign, he'll lie in office, too.
I wonder if he means he collected 500 signatures in total, with all of the constituent neighborhoods represented in that total.
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LIBERTARIAN: Dave Powell, 42, Morningside.
Mr. Powell is a systems administrator at Pitt and the county chair of the Libertarian Party. He holds a degree from Pitt and has a wife and two children. His opposition to red-light cameras certainly resonates well with me. He's also supportive of legalizing marijuana, which bodes well for most of my friends, neighbors, and colleagues here in the East End. He's also supportive of taxing land at a higher rate than buildings in an effort to stop "land-bankers" and to promote more development in the city. He also wants to chiefly focus on solving the city's unfunded pension obligation crisis. He's currently neck-and-neck with Mrs. Gross for my vote, even though I know he's not likely to win, despite his great policy ideas.
I'm always skeptical when candidates run on issues that their office will have little to no control over. Do we really care what a city councilman thinks about weed? Other than that though, he sounds like a good candidate. And having a Libertarian in city politics would bring an interesting perspective to the table. Also I work in IT and am biased towards sys admins .
Of course I don't live in this district, so my opinion doesn't count for much.
I'll probably vote for Gross. Despite still having some reservations about Peduto, I think it's good overall for our portion of the city to have a council member who will work with the new mayor, rather than be an impediment.
Ceoffe ran in the primary against Dowd last time around, and failed miserably. This is one strike against him in my book, because Dowd was fairly unobjectionable. Worse, however, was it was well known that Ravenstahl was supporting his primary campaign because Dowd was an enemy of Luke (but not allied with the Peduto faction either). This heavily signals to me he is of the "machine" faction on city council. Pittsburgh doesn't need more young good-old boys elected.
I attempted to ask Tony on Nextdoor Lawrenceville about why he primaried Dowd, and if/why he sought Luke's support, and he refused to answer, saying he'd only tell me in a private conversation.
This must be a hotly contested race. In 5 years of non-student ghetto living in Pittsburgh I have never once had a candidate or campaigner come to my door, let alone three for one race.
I've received literature on our front doorknob for Deb Gross and Tony Ceoffe, Jr., and judging by all of our neighbors with Tom Fallon signs I'm just presuming he also made his rounds. I never even heard of Wudarczyk or Powell until I did some more digging via Google to find out that they were actually in the race.
Nobody was planning to even oppose the incumbent Patrick Dowd, but then when he announced he was stepping down everyone flooded onto the ballot.
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Originally Posted by ferraris
I wonder if he means he collected 500 signatures in total, with all of the constituent neighborhoods represented in that total.
If this is what he had intended to say, then he was grossly misquoted in an article I read.
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Originally Posted by ferraris
I'm always skeptical when candidates run on issues that their office will have little to no control over. Do we really care what a city councilman thinks about weed? Other than that though, he sounds like a good candidate. And having a Libertarian in city politics would bring an interesting perspective to the table. Also I work in IT and am biased towards sys admins .
I was also thinking it would be refreshing to have someone in office that doesn't have a (D) next to their name just for a change of pace, and we all know the local Republican party has no clue what it is doing. I mean Josh Wander? Really? He's already sold his house in Squirrel Hill and is somehow going to play mayor while living (doomsday prepping?) in Israel?
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Originally Posted by ferraris
Of course I don't live in this district, so my opinion doesn't count for much.
Well, while you can't vote I would still keep abreast of what's going on in other districts. District 7 has a lot of political clout, and it's not entirely unlikely that whomever wins this seat may then try to propel themselves into mayorship. I follow politics throughout the city for this reason.
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Originally Posted by eschaton
I'll probably vote for Gross. Despite still having some reservations about Peduto, I think it's good overall for our portion of the city to have a council member who will work with the new mayor, rather than be an impediment.
I'm friends with Theresa Kail-Smith, who represents the West End neighborhoods. She was publicly supporting Jack Wagner via social media and told me that "Bill holds grudges". I asked her if she was then concerned at all about Bill holding a grudge against her supporting his mayoral opponent if and when he ascended into the mayor's office, and she stood her ground. I personally would just be worried that if Peduto really is a "grudge-holder" that anyone living in a neighborhood represented by a councilperson who favored Wagner will be neglected. I do think Natalia Rudiak being an ally for Bill Peduto will really strongly benefit the continued revitalization of Brookline and Beechview.
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Originally Posted by eschaton
Ceoffe ran in the primary against Dowd last time around, and failed miserably. This is one strike against him in my book, because Dowd was fairly unobjectionable. Worse, however, was it was well known that Ravenstahl was supporting his primary campaign because Dowd was an enemy of Luke (but not allied with the Peduto faction either). This heavily signals to me he is of the "machine" faction on city council. Pittsburgh doesn't need more young good-old boys elected.
As far as I can tell Ceoffe is running largely on name recognition because of his father's position. That isn't a reason to vote for him, in my eyes.
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Originally Posted by eschaton
I attempted to ask Tony on Nextdoor Lawrenceville about why he primaried Dowd, and if/why he sought Luke's support, and he refused to answer, saying he'd only tell me in a private conversation.
I also would love to know what Ceoffe had against Dowd since I thought Dowd was an above-average city councilman.
I attempted to ask Tony on Nextdoor Lawrenceville about why he primaried Dowd, and if/why he sought Luke's support, and he refused to answer, saying he'd only tell me in a private conversation.
That's not a difficult question, he really wanted the job.
I didn't care for Mr. Dowd at all, he presented an idea a couple of years ago to eliminate the city subsidy to water consumers in areas serviced by Penn-American (to equalize their rates with PWSA water customers).
Rather parochial view, this has been around for decades to make up for the fact that the city never extended its water system to include most of the city south of the rivers, even though the whole city paid for it. Its "parochial" as he was pandering to people in his part of town, rather than taking a citywide look at the situation.
"Council by district is regressive and divisive. A majority could freeze out other districts without recourse".
Mr. Stone ended up winning the primary in 1981. The great thing about at-large elections was that every councilman was responsible for the entire city.
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