Proposed Pittsburgh 2017 Budget: No Tax Increase; Large Improvements (Penn Hills, Mount Lebanon: homes, neighborhood)

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by gladhands

Pittsburgh pessimism

It just gets so frikkin irritating to me, because I don't think most people here (especially those who grew up in the region) realize how much better off Pittsburgh is than the average mid-sized core city, and how much less poisonous the city-suburb relationship is here than virtually all other mid-sized cities in the Northeast and Midwest.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by sealie

PolitiFact's guide to the 2016 presidential candidate tax plans | PolitiFact

You're entitled to your own opinion. You are not entitled to your own facts.

Just had to keep diggin' in to get that last word to boost your Hillary, didn't you?

In any event if this is truly her platform, then she's done a horrible job of disseminating it among an electorate who thinks, especially given her paid Wall Street speeches and her refusal to release their transcripts, that she's not as inclined to hike taxes on the wealthy as her former Democratic rival.

[corpgypsy]

Originally Posted by sealie

Hillary's tax plan hit the middle class less and the upper class more. You can look it up.

Also, can you define how a President would go about rewriting the tax code with the current Congress? It's not so much a pledge as a statement of intent.

Having trouble with repping, this evening.


So here you are:

[Goinback2011]

How is getting a Federal grant to hire more cops - temporarily - any indicator of the health of city finances?

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by eschaton

It just gets so frikkin irritating to me, because I don't think most people here (especially those who grew up in the region) realize how much better off Pittsburgh is than the average mid-sized core city, and how much less poisonous the city-suburb relationship is here than virtually all other mid-sized cities in the Northeast and Midwest.

Hyperbole.

[robrobrob]

Originally Posted by Goinback2011

How is getting a Federal grant to hire more cops - temporarily - any indicator of the health of city finances?

I think you mean getting a federal grant to temporarily pay for more cops.

No way a cop gets hired for only a year. For better or worse the city will be paying for the additional cops.

[guy2073]

Originally Posted by robrobrob

I think you mean getting a federal grant to temporarily pay for more cops.

No way a cop gets hired for only a year. For better or worse the city will be paying for the additional cops.

For years the city has less police than they budget for, maybe the grant will pay for the new police to be trained and equipped.

[lprmesia]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

Walked across the 28th Street Bridge lately? The exposed rebar sticking out all over that thing's sidewalks is a personal injury waiting to happen. A few months ago someone actually filled up a 10-gallon-sized paint bucket with chunks of crumbling concrete and left it there.

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

The Herron Avenue Bridge looks pretty crappy, too.

How much value is added by having both bridges? I know you're in Polish Hill and they have tremendous value and importance to you (and likely to those in and cutting across the Upper Hill as well), but the demand for those bridges when they were built was serving a population and industry that isn't nearly at the same levels. The demand and demographics have changed. Is the positive impact the 28th street bridge is having on land values in Polish Hill able to cover all of the maintenance cost? Is it projected to? Is there a good return on investment? Or would it be cheaper to demolish the bridge and use that portion of the budget to severely improve the Herron Ave bridge (and maybe even make it wider and to add a bike lane, etc.) as well as intersection improvements at Herron/Penn and Herron/Bigelow?

I'm not saying that the bridge doesn't add value, but implying the maintenance cost of the bridge might be more expensive than the value it adds today and for the foreseeable future.

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

Swineburne Street Bridge isn't in the best of shape.

This bridge adds almost no value anymore other than another traffic/bypass option for the nightmare known as Bates Street. Wouldn't it likely be cheaper to demolish this bridge (which would probably add value to parts of South Oakland and 4 Mile Run) and to use eminent domain to grab the few remaining properties on Bates between Blvd of the Allies and 2nd Avenue and make major improvements to that corridor? Especially once the new Greenfield Ave bridge opens in the spring - Swinburne becomes a somewhat redundant bridge. The demand for traffic to move from South Oakland to lower Greenfield isn't huge and has many other alternatives.

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

Davis Avenue Bridge? How many years have Brighton Heights residents been promised that would be replaced?

Again, is this another priority bridge? It not being there adds only a 1 mile detour that has virtually no impact on commerce or traffic. Yes, it did add a certain level of value, but at the end of the day the cost outweighs the value just like many of these other bridges mentioned. Same thing with the Georgia Ave bridge in Knoxville which was never replaced - it added slight value for substantial cost and at the end of the day wasn't worth it.

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

Let's not even begin to mention the deplorable condition many of the city steps are in, and how often do DPW crews salt them in the winter? The litter, especially cigarette butts, is everywhere. So are those weeds sticking out of the sidewalks and curbs. It makes the entire city look like garbage. I refuse to walk around the city on my weekends, when I have a stressful job, picking up other people's cigarette butts. I didn't realize that made me "lazy".

Same with the 28th St Bridge (and many others) in that when a lot of these were built, the city had nearly double the population and fewer people drove. A pedestrian friendly utopia would be wonderful. Having all of these bridges and steps in tip top shape would likely add value and be wonderful to have, but the cost exceeds the value they bring.

I'd love to agree with you and I'd love to see these things completed, but reality throws a really hard punch. More police funding and the increased repaving of roads ARE things that add value at a cost more in line with what the city can afford. Raising taxes is extremely difficult since hardly anyone can or will agree on what things tax dollars should be spent.

[lprmesia]

Originally Posted by guy2073

The city has a police officer at every road construction project anymore, they don't do anything but sit in there cars with the lights flashing. If the city eliminates wasteful spending and poor planning, services will get better and cost less.

Union police onsite at union construction job funded by the same local government? I'm sure most people on here can put two and two together and can likely guess how tough it would be to unmarry something like that.

I would imagine that a lot of non-public events that require police receive compensation from the private entities. For example, for the Autocross events held at North Park part of the condition of the permitting process is that the club pay for the County Police to be present at the event. Same thing is true with things such as 5Ks, "Walk-for-the-_____", etc. While this is the County and not the city - I'd have to speculate the same applies.

[alastad]

They need to lower the taxes.