All Hail The City Chief- Luke Ravenstahl-Best of the best ! Kennedy Organization say's so ! (Pittsburgh: appointed, lease)

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by alleghenyangel

That seriously made me laugh. Try walking around East Liberty at night. I have.

I make deliveries to residential areas of East Liberty quite frequently after dark, and I do admit it can be very unnerving. East Liberty has made laudable progress over the past decade in terms of redeveloment; however, there's still quite a long ways to go.

[PreservationPioneer]

Even walking along the Penn Ave business district in East Liberty at night makes me a little on edge, perhaps unnecessarily so, but that is my gut feeling when I am there.

[BrianTH]

Pittsburgh is a binary star--Downtown is the bigger star (the "primary"), but Oakland is its own smaller star (the "companion" or "secondary"), and that explains a lot about how our city works.

East Liberty's prominence as a commercial center has always been about transportation links rather than location per se. Arterial roads from multiple directions lead to East Liberty, and of course it is along the East Busway.

The East Busway in turn runs along the former PA RR main line. Along with Oakland, that is what explains a lot of the development in the East End--its main neighborhoods radiated out from former stations on the PA RR, and eventually they became nodes in the streetcar network, and now the East Busway and legacy bus routes serve the same basic function.

So the East End both has an identity as the neighborhoods orbiting Oakland, and also as an area well-served with transit (including to Downtown). Whether "core" is the right term for all that is a semantic issue, although I might note that by the standards of an average-size city (Pittsburgh is relatively small), most of the City of Pittsburgh would count as "core".

[wpipkins]

Originally Posted by alleghenyangel

That seriously made me laugh. Try walking around East Liberty at night. I have.

I shop in East Liberty / Shadyside / Waterworks by day and dine and club in East Liberty at night. When was the last time you went to East Liberty? Maybe because I was raised in the city I do not scare easily. East Liberty is not scary day or night.

[Pghuser]

Originally Posted by Blackbeauty212

Boy I bet that award really lit a fire in City Council's ass....seeing as they try to obstruct everything mayor does and continually tries to paint him as loser for their own political gains.

How about when he blatantly ignores Council? WHy does he continually blow off Council President Darlene Harris every Monday for their scheduled meeting?

[Pghuser]

Originally Posted by Lobick

Well, as has been said on this board before, the City is certainly experiencing an upswing at a time when the national economy is clearly suffering. It's unclear what, if any, credit the Mayor should get for this, but he hasn't gotten in the way of it either, which shouldn't be completely discounted.

Personally, I support the Pittsburgh Promise and see it as a benefit to the City. I thought the Mayor's parking/ pension funding scheme was better than what eventually came out of the City Counsel. The attempted tuition tax attempt, while a somewhat ham-handed attempt to address a real issue within the City, at least brought warranted attention to the proliferation of non-taxable entities within the City and the need for additional revenues. He's continued to support the rivers and trails initiatives and the City is much friendlier to bicycles now than it has been. The renovation of Market Square has been far more transformative for that area of the City than I anticipated. There's at least some talk that the City's finances are healthy enough to consider removing Act 47 oversight. The G-20 came off relatively well. There were some civil rights issues but I think that had more to do with reactionary/ paramilitary policing and less with Mayoral direction.

Under Ravenstahl, I think the pluses for Pittsburgh far outweigh the minuses. I'm honestly confused when I encounter the visceral hatred that he inspires in some people. Like I've previously said, most of the criticisms, when actually articulated in specifics (which is rare) seem petty of mis-directed.

How about the blatant disregard for the South Side Flats and that area as a whole? Beltzhoover...Knoxville...etc...

What goes on in the Flats has a big influence in those communities. The constant stream of animals that stream into the South Side every week help to keep public safety services from reaching those neighborhoods that need them just as much as the Flats does.

[Pghuser]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

This has not been the case with Carrick (one of the city's largest communities) at all. Potholes all over Brownsville (don't get me started on the back streets), streets that NEVER ever see a plow, police that don't care and are ignorant of laws (didn't you say you had a bad experience with them in another thread?), and trash all over the road. If anyone doesn't believe me all they have to do is spend some time here.

If anything I've seen the South Hills slip farther into post-Soviet bloc infrastructure levels (within the city limits that is).

Great post! The Hilltop neighborhoods have largely been ignored even they though have a lot of need.

[Lobick]

Originally Posted by Pghuser

How about the blatant disregard for the South Side Flats and that area as a whole? Beltzhoover...Knoxville...etc...

What goes on in the Flats has a big influence in those communities. The constant stream of animals that stream into the South Side every week help to keep public safety services from reaching those neighborhoods that need them just as much as the Flats does.

We've had this discussion before. Your views of the Flats, what goes on during the weekends and the City's response is completely warped and deluded, just like Bruce Kraus'.

As I've previously posted, the best part of moving out of the Flats was no longer having to deal with that joker being my elected member of the City Counsel.

[Blackbeauty212]

Originally Posted by Pghuser

How about when he blatantly ignores Council? WHy does he continually blow off Council President Darlene Harris every Monday for their scheduled meeting?

He probably ignores them because they're constantly working against him....I think a lot the City Councilmen has spite for Ravenstahl simply because he a lot younger than most of them (therefore seen as an inexperienced Joke) therefore not deserving of their respect and again a lot are working against him simply for their own political gains...

I'm not saying Ravenstahl is totally innocent, again he has arrogant issues to deal with, but please don't sit and tell me that Council doesn't actively work against the mayor on almost every issue.

[Lobick]

Originally Posted by Pghuser

How about when he blatantly ignores Council? WHy does he continually blow off Council President Darlene Harris every Monday for their scheduled meeting?

If he's constantly not attending, I guess it really isn't a scheduled meeting is it?

Seems like a publicity stunt on behalf of Ms. Harris.