Thank You to the Candidates

Congratulations to the winners of the Pittsburgh Democratic primaries.

To Mayor Ravenstahl: You have earned this victory through rampant spending and incumbency, but also through showing that you can work with Council over the last few months. I was very happy to see you parternering with Peduto and helping to institute some reform changes. Please continue to work with council. I'm sure that last night while you were at Hofbrauhaus, you made some flowery speech about the future of Pittsburgh. If you succeed in the general election this Fall, then I expect that in 4 years, we will have LED street lights, mandatory green building codes, the first tracks laid for a line between Oakland and Downtown, a manageable pension system, and real transparency in city contracting, city maintenance, and campaign donations. Please don't disappoint the constituents that have decided you are worthy of the Democratic nomination.

But most importantly, thank you to all that ran in this election. You make our election process respectable and responsible. Even if you didn't win, you are still contributing to the city by bringing new ideas to the forefront. I am glad that Dowd still has a position in the city as councilman. I hope that he keeps up hammering Ravenstahl when he disagrees with him. I also hope that he can work with Ravenstahl to make this city a better place. It is unfortunate that Carmen Robinson does not have a fall-back position in the city. I greatly admire her motivation and determination to become mayor of this city. I sincerely hope that Ravenstahl (or someone else in a position to do so) sees her connections with the community and initiative and can find her a position someplace in our city government. If not, Carmen Robinson, you must run for another position as soon as you are able.

Screwing Around With Campaign Finance Reform

Just yesterday, I received a press release from Kevin Evanto detailing how Dan Onorato now supports the stricter campaign finance reforms that Pittsburgh city council has passed. Instead of just ignoring this issue, he's picking up the ball and following the city's lead. This is also in spite of county council members like Amanda Green who say: "It's not a priority for me. I'm not hearing from constituents that it's a priority for them either." I'm happy that Dan has decided that ethics are a priority for the county.

However, it's only fitting that within hours of making me pleased, I learn that precious Dan bursts my bubble by giving a "loan" from his campaign war chest to the war chest of precocious Lukey. Thanks to PGH Comet for pointing this out. Lukey, whose million dollar safety net had previously dwindled to around $350,000. If the way he's managing this campaign is indicative of the way he's managing the city, he definitely needs to be displaced by Dowd who is working with a war ottoman of less than $75,000. But more importantly, how can you take a "loan" from the county executive while both of you are claiming to support campaign finance reform? Am I sensing that a loophole to the new law has already been found? Or is this another thank-god-i-vetoed-the-campaign-finance-reform-bill-last-summer exception?

Maybe Doc Harris or another independent will have a chance in this race as poor Lukey will be out of money and all he'll have to show for it is a black and gold themed website built in North Carolina and some tired commercials.

Or maybe Dowd or Robinson (who both happened to use Pittsburgh design firms to build their websites) will pull out a victory in this David and David and Goliath race.

Whatever the case, Danny-boy is clearly rooting for Lukey, leaving us all to wonder why. Does Danny like posing with Luke that much? Is he afraid Dowd or Robinson won't issue nice soundbites with him? Is he trying to stop Luke from moving on to the Governor's race? (hahahahaha) Or maybe he just wants someone in his pocket when he reaches the highest office in the state? Whatever the case, it's another week of questionable ethics in Pittsburgh. But wouldn't Peduto be out of a job if everybody started playing by the rules?

Biking For Mayor

Even if biking is not your thing, it is still worth-while to peruse Bike-PGHs mayoral interviews. The candidate responses are classic.

Robinson: Terse and to the point, but I think most of us would like to see her giving some longer answers as she is still the unknown quantity in this race. Still, I agree with her ideas. Let's kick some cars to the curb and get some bike lanes on 5th and Forbes in Oakland.

Ravenstahl: Repetitive. Can he be more boring? In answering almost every single question, he manages to mention the bike coordinator and the 2 bike lanes that have been striped in the city. Good things yes, but I'm not satisfied.

Dowd: Well thought out answers. And he bikes to work on a regular basis. I especially like his idea of a city-run network of urban bike rental. How about some city bike lockers while we're at it?

Kudos to all the candidates for taking the time to respond to Bike-PGH.

Bike-PGH can't endorse a candidate because they're a 501(c)3, but I have a strong feeling that if this survey is any indication, the members of Bike-PGH will be voting for Dowd.

4 Reasons to Vote for Ravenstahl and 1 Reason Not To

I have a confession. I voted for Lukey last election. I didn't think DeSantis was the person for the job and I'm still not convinced he was. He was different from the status quo, but different isn't always better. I also didn't watch last night's debate - though I hope it's available on youtube sometime in the future, and my excuse for this one is that I'm in Peru. As an aside, I also wrote this post while sitting on a bus in Peru, so please pardon the lack of supporting links.

So why would I consider voting for Ravenstahl again?

1) Publicity. Pittsburgh suffers nationally because of a lack of publicity. Lots of mid-sized cities share this plight. But Ravenstahl seems to appeal with some sort of national boy-wonder charisma - getting lots of media attention with his stunts. Is there anyone else running for mayor who has the ability to launch us onto the national stage? When's the last time a former president fund-raised for a Pittsburgh mayor? Of course, if he were running against John Fetterman he'd be dead in the water on this count. Maybe after John fixes Braddock, he can move on to Pittsburgh?

2) Grand Ideas. Ravenstahl has lots of grand ideas. He says things off-the-cuff like windmills and redd-up, government transparency and sweeping crime-fighting programs. It's good to have these grand ideas. However, our incumbent has failed on follow-through on most of these items, as many will state and I assume brought to light in last night's debate.

3.) Pittsburgh Promise. One particular idea that seems to have been successfully accomplished during Luke's tenure is the Pittsburgh Promise. While it's funding is currently shaky, it is there and it has already assisted hundreds of Pittsburgh high school students with their college education. This is a very worthy goal.

4.) 311. I admit it. I'm lazy. I hate looking up phone numbers and scrolling through lists of archaic city departments. It's so much easier to call 311 and tell them my problem. Unfortunately, as it stands 311 is a one-way system and needs to be improved upon. If a problem is not resolved to your satisfaction, there needs to be potential for feedback. Currently that is not happeneing and there are lots of 311 calls repeated wasting the time ofo ur citizens and city workers and ultimately our tax dollars.

Why I won't vote for Luke (again)

1.) Superficiality. Luke favors the superficial rather than the down-and-dirty. He'd rather pay millions for security cameras or buy $250,000 of trashcans to install on streets littered with relics of old trashcans than deal with major issues the city faces like PWSA bonds, the pension crisis and crime. Instead, we get witty press releases and manicured joint statements with Dan-the-tax-man. Voting for Luke is like voting for the football captain as the home-coming king back in high school.

Carmen Robinson, one of his adversaries, skewers the mayor on his stance on crime. A former police officer and current lawyer, she's someone who knows a thing or two about crime. She thinks security cameras are a waste of money and wants more better-armed beat cops walking our streets. Sounds good to me. Thanks to the Comet for his solid interview of Carmen.

Councilor Patrick Dowd, the mayor's other adversary in the up-coming election, wants to deal with the pension crisis and the PWSA. I could go on about him and why I like ideas, but I've already done that.

Councilor Bill Peduto has grand ideas that are well-researched like commuter rails and energy efficient street lights, but he's decided to stay out of the ring this time around.

I want a mayor and council who work together to create a stronger Pittsburgh. I don't want a mayor who looks good, but fights with council, says rash un-researched ideas, refuses to compromise, refuses to admit his mistakes and certainly doesn't learn from them all the while profiting from his status as mayor while Pittsburgh stays on the same path.

Happy Meals?

So McDonald's bathrooms downtown are hotbeds for drug dealing? Little Junior gets his happy meal while Mommy gets some Xanax? Seriously, I expect this story to come out of Cranberry or Wexford. I expected that the downtown McDonald's would be peddling heroine or cocaine. In Mt Lebanon, I'd expect to find high school students peddling marijuana in the bathroom.

Seriously, though, I'd rather that a restaurant known for its kid-friendly antics is not associated with drugs in any way even if they're just muscle-relaxants. When drug dealers feel they can peddle in the bathroom, it's a sad reflection on our own police enforcement. People have been complaining about drugs in the downtown area for years.

"I know that we do get complaints from pedestrians and other businesses about drug activity that's an ongoing thing down there," said city police Sgt. William Gorman of the Hill District station, which patrols Downtown.

But now that there's some "positive development" downtown?

"The continuing cooperative effort that has been under way to keep Downtown a destination for families depends in large part on there being confidence in public safety," Mr. Zappala said in a statement. "I and other officials will not tolerate any type of criminal behavior that erodes that confidence and interferes with the positive developments taking place Downtown on a daily basis."

Well, I guess it's better late than never.

But it definitely makes me take Carmen Robinson's words to heart regarding downtown development.

"It shouldn't be just lofts in the Strip District and where the Penguins are building," said Carmen Robinson, a Hill District attorney who also is running for mayor. She said any renaissance hasn't hit Lincoln-Lemington, Homewood, Brookline or Carrick, and vowed to back community benefits agreements guaranteeing jobs and investments to neighborhoods in which subsidized developments sit.

It's great to see police cracking down on downtown drug dealing, but it's sad to see the correlation between expensive luxury condos and police enforcement. Maybe when the "renaissance" spreads to Homewood and Carrick, the cops will clean up those drugs too?

She's Nobody's Boy

I have alluded to the candidacy of Carmen Robinson twice before, but now I've been moved to devote an entire post to her.

So far in the blogosphere, I can count the blog posts about Carmen Robinson on two hands.

They fall into 2 categories:
1) "Who is she?" (Back in December) From Matt H, Busman's Holiday, Burgher John, and Thoughts on Government.
2) "Hmm... There's another candidate. She seems cool." From Burgh Chair and Rauterkus & Running Mates

It appears Carmen is pretty busy. She may not be buttering up the blogosphere but she's attended the Pittsburgh Hip Hop Awards ("to a roaring crowd"), has thrown a fundraiser, and has a decent website with *gasp* information about herself and her candidacy. Yes, she has had a website with content up since at least December 27. As a note, Lukey and our-savior-thank-god-someone's-running-against-Lukey Dowd still do not have any content on their websites. On top of that, she has a judicial clerkship and is running her own law practice. But you should be reading about her yourself.