Friday, December 4, 2009

Weird Pittsburgh News

3 Weird Pittsburgh News Bits that caught my eye this Friday

1) A church bought by a controversial billboard company may become a national immigration museum. Perhaps Lamar wants to clean up their bad name around these parts? Perhaps they'll move the unfinished electronic billboard to the vicinity of the church and finally clean up the mess that is the lighting of the Grant Street Transportation Center?

2) Both Russell Crowe and Jake Gyllenhall are self-proclaimed fans of Pittsburgh. Jake Gyllenhall went so far as to show off his (presumably fake) Pittsburgh Steelers tattoo. After the Sienna Miller fiasco, it's a shock to hear celebrities speak well of the city. I guess they left their hotel rooms.

3) The county and Judge Wettick appear to have agreed on a timeline to *gasp* reassess property values. This is my favorite unexpected news of the day. County Executive Onorato has been on a high horse about refusing to perform anything even tangentially related to a property reassessment, even if it's requisite to taxing county residents fairly (and is required to follow the state constitution). This about face makes me breathe a sigh of relief. But the following caveat makes me wary: "[P]roperty owners would have to pay taxes before appealing [property assessments]."

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