Pothole "blitz" (Pittsburgh, Reading: neighborhoods, school, landlord)

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

Perhaps I'm a youthful idealist with a Pollyanna vision of Pittsburgh in my mind, but I don't think there's truly THAT much corruption, waste, patronage, etc. going on within city government these days.

Perhaps for forgot about Nate Harper, the PPD, UPMC, Luke Ravenstahl, Port Authority, unlimited mayoral campaign contributions etc.

What about at state level? As much as you pretend Pittsburgh is a little Utopia, plain ol' Pennsylvania corruption has a direct effect on our city just as much as anywhere else in this state.

Also don't forget what I posted in another thread:

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

Our property tax compared to home values are some of the highest in the United States. Our parking taxes ARE the highest in the United States. Our wage tax is higher than all the surrounding municipalities and is above average for US cities. Our "drink taxes" are so high that it puts at Canadian prices for booze. Why do you think so many huge corporations left the city and moved to the burbs? High taxes aren't working obviously.

[sealie]

Not to fear, ATC, the downtown corporations have the property assessment end of taxes under control. BNY Mellon shaved $70M off of their assessment, no problem.
Pittsburgh takes heavy hit from final assessment figures - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Now they just have to figure out who's going to pick up the slack...hmm...

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Originally Posted by sealie

Not to fear, ATC, the downtown corporations have the property assessment end of taxes under control. BNY Mellon shaved $70M off of their assessment, no problem.
Pittsburgh takes heavy hit from final assessment figures - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Now they just have to figure out who's going to pick up the slack...hmm...

From the article:

In the past year, some of Pittsburgh's biggest commercial properties have won substantial tax breaks from the county, shedding a combined $1.4 billion in taxable value. That's more than four times the amount saved by city residents, who reaped only $385 million upon appeal.

That hurts to read. These companies have armies of lawyers to exploit loopholes and do who knows what else to avoid taxes. Yet SCR wants to actually shift the tax burden to the people instead of the corporations.

[Girl.In.The.Woods]

Originally Posted by Girl.In.The.Woods

We hit another huge pothole tonight on Hoffman Road coming back from Ross Park. Another instant flat tire (first one was in December on Fifth Avenue). Won't know until tomorrow if the rim is busted again as well.

You shouldn't have to own an off-road vehicle to drive in this city. It's freaking pathetic.

Only plus this time is last time we dropped $500 on tire and rim insurance.

Tomorrow, that policy gets tested at the Subaru dealer that sold it to me.

Update:

Today's bill: $227 for a tire with a cut sidewall. Minor cosmetic damage to the rim that I'm stuck with.

The tire and rim insurance company (MAP) paid the entire thing to the dealer while I was there.

But I really didn't need this four hour headache and stress in my life due to sucky roads, again.

This entire area is hosed. 19 & 51 are a disaster for anything other than 18-wheelers.

[Pghuser]

Our city roads are a disaster, pure and simple. I'm not even sure how or why the city allows cars to travel Brookline Blvd at this point.

[WPANative]

Originally Posted by Pghuser

Our city roads are a disaster, pure and simple. I'm not even sure how or why the city allows cars to travel Brookline Blvd at this point.

I'm originally from Erie, and Erie folks think their streets are bad, which they can be, but they've never seen anything until you've seen Pittsburgh streets. In all of my 36 years of living in Erie County, I never so much as bent a wheel. I've bent three wheels in less than 8 years of living in Pittsburgh

[gg]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

From the article:

In the past year, some of Pittsburgh's biggest commercial properties have won substantial tax breaks from the county, shedding a combined $1.4 billion in taxable value. That's more than four times the amount saved by city residents, who reaped only $385 million upon appeal.

That hurts to read. These companies have armies of lawyers to exploit loopholes and do who knows what else to avoid taxes. Yet SCR wants to actually shift the tax burden to the people instead of the corporations.

You can't really blame them. The largest building downtown was the USX tower and now has UPMC written on it. I don't have a problem with companies getting breaks. Maybe that is the climate that works best. What if all our companies had the same situation as UPMC? Look at how huge they got over the years. Look how many employees they have which helps our city. What about University of Pittsburgh? Look at the revenue we get from them in this city via all those employees, students and such. Companies are taxed a lot to be honest and sometimes I wonder if it would be better if we let them grow as big as possible for growth in the city. It sure worked for UPMC.

Like it or not, the better off companies are in any region, the better it is for the economy as a whole. We lost a TON of companies over the years, maybe we should try and keep the ones we have. There is always another city waiting to give them a better deal.

[sealie]

The point I was making is that the taxpayers are probably going to be making up that shortfall one way or another, and since as ATC points out, the wage+property tax bills for upper middle class homeowners are through the roof, with a five figure bill not being out of the question, it's not an issue of a bunch of cheapo yinzers that need to stick a crowbar into their wallet and pry out a tenner. $10 per every man, woman, and child in Pittsburgh would cover the road salt budget - just the salt, not the application of it or the pothole repair. There are eventually limits to how much people are willing to pay in taxes, yinzer or yuppie.

[zman63]

Money seems to be the motivating factor. Unfortunately, the city is broke...

Years of neglect create potholes aplenty in Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

[Aqua Teen Carl]

This comment from that article gave me a chuckle:

Some of my fondest childhood memories growing up in the Pittsburgh area in the 70's are of my dad swerving to avoid massive potholes after the winter thaw, and swearing up a blue streak about it. Touches my heart to hear that not much has changed in the last 35+ years.