What pieces of the puzzle does Pittsburgh lack to be a great city? (Progress: apartment, condo)

[bannedintheusa1]

Originally Posted by Katiana

Why are we talking about Jenkintown? Isn't it a suburb of Philly? I could have sworn this was the Pittsburgh forum!?

Since we are talking about Jenkintown for some reason, I looked up some stats. It's an affluent, educated white community.
http://www.city-data.com/city/Jenkin...nsylvania.html

hmm, I think I've heard you talk about Colorado. in the end the reason Pittsburgh PS (and any urban district really) are poor is that upper and middle class actively flee the district. diseconomies of scale if you will.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by nei

Odd. Why won't many students walk (excluding the ones carrying heavy stuff)? Driving sounds a bit unnecessary. At least in the earlier years of high school, many of the closer and even some of the students a bit further (1-1.5 miles) walked.

At my kids' middle school, few walked (or walk nowadays, I've been there when school gets out). A lot of the girls use public transit. Some of the boys may walk/bike. About 1/3 of the attendance area is uphill from the school, making walking a little harder if you have a musical instrument or the like to carry.

[BarqCider]

Originally Posted by nei

Didn't realize that was true in other states, but wouldn't nearly half the students be under 16 at the end of sophomore year?

In NY, you have to be 16 to get a permit, by the time many passed their road test they'd be nearly 17. At 16, you'd be only eligible for a junior license which has a lot of restrictions and supposed to be used only to go to a job. I'm not sure if my school allowed junior license holders to park on school grounds. Anyway, don't know why a high schooler within a mile wouldn't walk unless he got a ride from a friend or was going elsewhere after to class.

in va it was 15.5 to get permit and basically 16 when you could get it. now theres been a lot of changes where I think you have to be 16 and cant have more than 1 under 18 passanger that isn't family in the car and need to be home by 11pm.

they've certainly changed those laws since I had my permit at 15.5 and license at 16 though I didn't have a car to drive to school until my junior year

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by pman

sounds nice but our niece is graduating from jenkintown high (195 students) with a good education. this is the problem with the technocrat approach (you need 1000 students so let's make districts based on that assumption). it simply isn't true and when technocrats are empowered it becomes dangerous. I'd rather see the state work to lower the back end cost of education. does a small district need an HR department or can payroll, HR, etc be outsourced (and is it already?) which effectively let's the district take advantage of economies of scale where they matter.

I've been a fan of the idea of "statewide employment, local control" for awhile. Essentially how it would work is the state would provide benefits and set wages for all school district positions, which would be bargained as statewide union contracts. Districts could make their own decisions regarding who to hire or not, but those who were employed in other districts previously would get their seniority transferred. It allows individual workers the freedom to move around districts without feeling that the "golden handcuffs" at their current job are holding them in place, and frees the districts from dealing with benefits administration, contract negotiations, and most elements of labor-relations (they'd still need to deal with grievances and the like).

[krogerDisco]

Looks like the push is on to finish the Mon-Fay.

Revived Mon-Fayette Expressway plans have some residents on edge | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

[krogerDisco]

And an older article in the Trib about "completing" Route 28

More Route 28 construction eyed | TribLIVE

NORTHERN ‘MISSING LINK'

Some people note that there's still a huge missing link for Route 28 between Kittanning and Brookville, Jefferson County.

When discussions about building a Route 28 expressway began, a four-lane highway north of Kittanning to connect to Interstate 80 was proposed.

That section has never been built, and big rigs and cars still travel the 40-mile, mostly two-lane Route 28/66 to I-80.

The idea of an expressway north of Kittanning has resurfaced several times.

In 2003, Armstrong County Commissioners and state Sen. Don White, R-Indiana, met with PennDOT officials and Southwestern, Northwestern and North Central regional planning commissions about getting the project funded.

White said then that as far as he's concerned, Route 28 isn't finished.

In 2009, when the federal government was offering stimulus money for infrastructure and education, the project came up again.

One of Armstrong County's largest requests was $750 million for the expansion of Route 28 from Kittanning to I-80.

Lack of consensus among the counties involved has been an issue in getting the project underway, as has funding, officials said.

In 2005, it was estimated construction could cost $10 million to $14 million per mile.

So making an expressway connection to I-80 would be about $1 billion. Not sure why the counties along the way aren't united in backing it. Would be a big boost to their economies.

[Agbor]

What Pittsburgh lacks to be a great city, the resistance to change mindset, when they do decide to make a change it is in
micro-steps, insular mind-set along with nepotism. Transit system needs to be improved...Too much goverment, in most
other states the surrounding muncipalities are annexed by the city..All the surrounding river towns have their own fire,police depts. If you get a speeding ticket, you don't know whether to pay in in Emsworth or Pittsburgh..

Pittsburgh could hold 600,000 people, mostly there needs to be an economic draw to make people come here of all classes
not just the people who can afford to pay $3000.00 a month rents for all these apartments they are building around here.

But I think improvments are happening slowly.

[gg]

Pittsburgh is already a "great city". Next.

[wpipkins2]

Originally Posted by Agbor

What Pittsburgh lacks to be a great city, the resistance to change mindset, when they do decide to make a change it is in
micro-steps, insular mind-set along with nepotism. Transit system needs to be improved...Too much goverment, in most
other states the surrounding muncipalities are annexed by the city..All the surrounding river towns have their own fire,police depts. If you get a speeding ticket, you don't know whether to pay in in Emsworth or Pittsburgh..

Pittsburgh could hold 600,000 people, mostly there needs to be an economic draw to make people come here of all classes
not just the people who can afford to pay $3000.00 a month rents for all these apartments they are building around here.

But I think improvments are happening slowly.

Pittsburgh is the poster child for change. The tranformation over the past 30 years is unprecedented. Pittsburgh was left for dead by 1980 and the slow but steady comeback has been good for the city and metro overall. The slow and steady conservative approach allowed Pittsburgh to "think" and prioritize our comeback strategy. It also gave Pittsburgh time to focus on historic preservation. Stagnation is good for conservation of historic structures. While cities were expanding in the 1990s we managed to preserve some amazing architectural landmarks. Show me a city that lost it's entire industry and managed to overcome the obstacles within 30 years. Boston?

[Blackbeauty212]

Originally Posted by Agbor

What Pittsburgh lacks to be a great city, the resistance to change mindset, when they do decide to make a change it is in
micro-steps, insular mind-set along with nepotism. Transit system needs to be improved...Too much goverment, in most
other states the surrounding muncipalities are annexed by the city..All the surrounding river towns have their own fire,police depts. If you get a speeding ticket, you don't know whether to pay in in Emsworth or Pittsburgh..

Pittsburgh could hold 600,000 people, mostly there needs to be an economic draw to make people come here of all classes
not just the people who can afford to pay $3000.00 a month rents for all these apartments they are building around here.

But I think improvments are happening slowly.

I agree with this post. The Yinzer mindset needs to go, like yesterday. And we need to get serious about our Transit, I like how PAT is updating the Bus Stops downtown, but more needs to be done. PAT needs to become more technological. There's still a lot of the Yinzer mindsets within the PAT organization, that's scared of changing the system too much. I heard that off board fare payment for the "T" was met with a lot of resistance, even as it has been proven successful in many other cities. If I was the CEO those people would be out of job, this agency much change. If the "T" is proven successful with Off Board Fare payment, PAT needs to bring the concept to the Busways.

PAT needs its own official iPhone/Android Apps that encompasses TrueTime (Real Time Tracking), Connect Card Management, Schedules and even possibly real time Customer Service.