Fools For Black & Gold

Ravenstahl and the mayor of San Diego have entered a bet where one of them will end up looking like a moron. Either Ravenstahl will be in Chargers gear with a surfboard ready to jump in the Allegheny River or Sanders, the San Diego mayor, will don Steelers gear and get ready to ski at Sea World.

This is just the latest publicity stunt that I've heard of on top of the Terrible Tree and the bet by Onorato for the Stanley Cup.

I highly enjoy rooting for local sports, but these antics are along the lines of me voting for McCain because he ate at Primanti's. While local politicians should be more accessible than our country's president, I prefer photo ops with babies at charity events. Instead, politicians wave black & gold in our faces instead of facing a bad economy and questionable leadership. Unfortunately, making a fool out of the mayor of San Diego will not make me feel better about Pittsburgh. And Rendell's getup in a Detroit jersey didn't make me feel better about Pennsylvania.

Seriously, is it someone's job to run around finding donations for stupid bets between cities? Do you call in a special consultant for that serious responsibility?

Puke On This

I can't wait to see what Pittsburgh Hoagie has to say about the health department's response to recent allegations about the rate and quality of restaurant inspections.

I have some questions. Dr Dixon says he has enough inspectors yet has only inspected 90% of restaurants. Huh? He says that violations are often minor and unavoidable, but what about the ones that aren't?

You might think that 90% of restaurants is enough. But I don't. Anyone who's ever gotten food poisoning should agree with me.

50% Is Good Enough For Me

Regarding the new Pittsburgh school policy that no student can earn less than a 50% on a test, it is NOT "mathematically sound". However, that does not mean that the program is bad. I'm excited to see administrators trying out new policies instead of just sticking to the same old policies that weren't working. Administrators have their hearts in the right place here, it just remains to be seen whether it will work. The true test will be if the nameless administrators find out it doesn't work, will they back it out? Will they adjust it? Or will they insist on following through with a bad idea?

I see 3 main scenarios in students:
1) The "good student". This student doesn't want to get an F period. They have a caring family and if a bad week happens and their grandpa and dog die in the same week and they skip a test - they get a get-out-of-jail free card. Still, if you have an A or B average and you get a 50 on a test, it will knock you down a grade. Period.

2) The "slacker". This person just wants to get out of school as quickly as possible. Maybe they have other responsibilities. Maybe they just want to loaf at the mall. Well, they still have to pass. If they do as little as possible, and skip a few tests, they could still pass. They could cheat the system. But there are all sorts of ways to cheat the system. If you want to be a "slacker", I don't think this is going to make a difference.

3) The kid who's trying and deserves a chance but their best friend got shot last week and it's thrown them for a loop and they screw up for a month straight. Now they have a chance to make up for some lost time, learn the material they missed and pass for the year.

I think this process working is dependent on a few things though.

First, tests have to be cumulative and get increasingly more difficult during the year. The kid actually has to learn something. For instance, if it's math, and the kid fails the test on long-division and never learns it because the other tests don't cover it, that kid shouldn't pass. Otherwise, you're just pushing problems along.

Second, teachers can't be scaling the grades. A 50 has to remain failing. Students must realize that a 50 is failing.

How is it being implemented? I don't know. I'm sure it varies by teacher, by school and even by student.

What do I know? This isn't "mathematically sound". It's giving a second chance to kids. It's helping kids out. It's a potentially good idea. And the administrators need to work with the teachers to come up with a compromise if it's not working. And if the majority of teachers are upset about it, it's not working as is.

But speaking of good ideas for our city school system, I just wanted to throw out a shout-out to the Pittsburgh Promise. I'm looking forward to seeing your report card in 2009.

A Good Spin

I've got to hand it to him, Dan Onorato took the drink tax loss in stride. He's not appealing the court case (on the taxpayer's dime) and he's making some sense in his smarmy way.

The county budgeted $6.3 million for Port Authority projects this year, money from the county's general bond sales. Onorato wants to add $3 million to that because the authority successfully negotiated a contract with its unions, he has said.

I'm perfectly fine with Dan spending the money on Port Authority capital projects instead of Port Authority operating expenses (if just because it includes my pet project.) I'm even okay with Dan withholding an extra $3 million this year because Port Authority did only request $9 million for capital projects, and I don't exactly trust Port Authority to make the best decisions as to what to do with the money either.

Of course, neither does the state. A year ago, the auditor general said we "can no longer wait" on reforming Port Authority's board of directors. Yet nothing has happened. Might as well put the money where something is actually being done with it, inefficiently though it is.

More Money For Dan to Justify Spending on Roads

Allegheny County has been awarded $5.5 million from the Housing & Economic Recovery Act of 2008. Pittsburgh has gotten $2 million - the minimum permitted under law because the city and area have barely been hit by this national crisis.

It's ironic to me that Allegheny County is whining about needing to increase property taxes when the rest of the nation is severely suffering with foreclosed homes and abandoned properties. Shouldn't we be doing relatively well? Why is the county having a hard time balancing its budget? Does it have to do with a new sports facility?

Well, Allegheny County, here's some extra money for your budget. Under the act, the money is intended for "states and localities to buy foreclosed homes standing empty, rehabilitate foreclosed properties and stabilize the housing market." I'm sure that Onorato can find some way to justify spending this money on roads and bridges. Houses are adjacent to roads after all, and you can't have a stable housing market without nice roads.

I will end this post with a (lengthy) plea to County Council:

I don't care if you raise property taxes, but pretty-please-with-a-cherry-on-top, re-assess property values. I'm echoing the Pittsburgh Comet here and I whole-heartedly agree with him.

Heck, you may find out that you don't need to raise the millage rate if your collecting money on housing values that actually reflect the cost of housing in this area. Pittsburgh and Allegheny County did not as a whole experience the housing boom of areas like Boston and San Francisco. However, certain neighborhoods have, like the South Side, and certain neighborhoods have had plumetting housing values over the past 6 years. It's ridiculous to double-penalize folks who live in houses whose values have dropped significantly, while double-rewarding folks like me whose property values have increased. Make me pay my fair share. Because I guarantee that I'm not about to make a donation in good faith to the county.

Judge Olson is My Hero

The drink tax funds are only to be used for Port Authority.

(The busman already posted this news, but I still needed to express my gratitude.)

Just to make this more than a 2-line post, I'll add some justification on supporting this decision besides just wanting Mr Onorato to lose and my smart card fanaticism.

If Mr Onorato can decide to use this money on anything "related to transit", what's to stop him from habitually collecting more than he needs and just adding another meaningless tax? We will never have "enough" money for repairing roads and bridges in this county. And aren't sidewalks related to transit? And water drainage? And snow plowing? Doesn't the County Executive need his own H2 to drive around the county and inspect transit issues? Would it really surprise you if next year similar items showed up under ways to use the excessive drink tax? Would it surprise you in 5 years if they raised the drink tax to pay for more and more road repair while limiting the amount of money to Port Authority.

The Port Authority last month [October] asked Allegheny County for $9.9 million to leverage more state and federal funds for capital improvements, but County Executive Dan Onorato said the agency will get $6.3 million "and not one penny more" next year.

No, Dan, not "one penny more", how about a few million more? Or do you want to drop the drink tax to 5% now? Not that I'm gloating.

Oh, wait, I'll wipe that shit-eating grin off my face while the county wastes more money that won't be given to Port Authority while appealing this ruling.

Pgh Is My City

I started this blog a little over a year ago angry about the county's ineptness involving the drink tax. Anger quickly followed about the highly-anticipated but shamelessly inept report about merging the city and the county. I wanted merging of city services (for instance dog licensing) but I thought and still think that Pittsburgh is a city. Pittsburgh is my newly adopted city. Pittsburgh is where I've fallen in love with the Steelers and the library, where I've been to baseball games and gallery crawls and seen countless magnificent fireworks displays.

But Pittsburgh is different for everyone. Some fight for it. Some are just learning about it. Some have given up on it, but they all have an opinion.

Pgh is a city of hills and ours looked down on the Allegheny R...

Pittsburgh is a city of hills, breakneck curves, complex intersections and lousy drivers. ...

I know Pgh is a city.....I know it's not in the middle of small-town Iowa...so where exactly is the diversity?...

Pittsburgh is a city that "stands up and looks you in ...

pgh is a city that is losing population and is DESPERATE for new people ...

Pittsburgh is a city with character unlike any other. ...

In closing, I guess, you can say PGH is a city where you can afford your dreams. ...

My New Year's blogging resolution? Keep doing it.