Sunday, October 23, 2005

Insanity's example -- THINK AGAIN slogan might be best as "think at all!" Land isn't able to be hidden.

This is nuts. On one hand we have an elected official who says the answer is 40. On the other hand we have some of the most powerful institutions in the region saying the right answer is 14 percent.

What gives between 40 and 14?
Just who owns that doggie in the limo? - PittsburghLIVE.com Doug Shields criticized Mayor Tom Murphy for saying 40 percent of the city's land is controlled by nonprofits. The nonprofits contend that figure is much lower, perhaps 14 percent.

It would be great is someone did the necessary homework so we know where we are. You can't get to where you want to go if you don't know your present location and course. Hey, we can't get on the right track even -- to use Bob O'Connor's pea-brained slogan -- if we can't find the rail yard.

The rail yard was taken out and replaced with a jail that is over filled.

Seems like the region is behind bars now -- too dumb to know better.

How much land is occupied and owned by nonprofits?

How much land is occupied and owned by the city?

How much land is owned by the URA?
Playground, school, apartments. Figure out the space of each is just a matter of math.

We need to know. I've called for those audits in the past. They need to be done.

And, what about the watchdogs? How about if the Trib does some homework too. Put up the chart and research. Do some more investigative reporting.

As a citizen I can make some educated assumptions. I think that half of the 'nonprofit land' is owned by the city and the URA. That's way to much. I think that the city's URA owns more than 7,000 parcels of land. The URA should liquidate that land, even selling some of it on eBay.

I also have called for a moratorium on land expansion by the nonprofits.

Finally, we need to know the trends. How much land was in the ownership of the nonprofits in the past, year by year, for the past 50 years. And, where is it going in the future.

The Salvation Army wants to purchase a 34 acre park in Brighton Heights for $100. I don't know if it is wise to give up so much land for so little when the nut of getting past this year's budget is so hard to crack. The city expected $5-million from the nonprofits and much less is to arrive. And, we're at November and little or nothing has come in so far.

Criminals generally rob from the poor. The city is poor. Lock the doors as the next wave of institutional thieves are arriving.

I don't want my city to be desperate.

I don't want my city to be dumb.

I'm not going to raise my family in a dumb, desperate landscape. So, I'll do my best to fix the situations. Let's 'think again.'

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