Fight Card

Going Upstream

The aims of this position paper is to ask City Council to reverse some very strong tides. City Council is being asked to think, delay, unravel plans and buck-up against:

• the U.R.A.
• (and in turn the Mayor),
• UPMC,
• the Rooney's,
• Dr. Freddie Fu,
• the Pitt Athletic Department,
• Oxford Development, and
• one esteemed neighborhood group and its site-steering sub-committee.

Many Goliaths

Taken together, the tides that flow out of the quarters of the above group presents formidable opposition.

The URA, Oxford Development and UPMC draw upon professionals insights with years of experience in such developments. Five months have passed since the news-making event hit the public regarding a "Sports Performance Compound." What's more, the bulldozers and graders have already been working on the sight since January. The heavy equipment is there with the joint blessing of URA and UPMC. These folks want quick progress, and they fully anticipate quick approval and implementations. Football fields are needed by August, 1999. A delay of game is going a costly set-back, they'll be sure to say.

David's Attack Comes In The Cloak of Darkness, Regrettable Darkness

David of the Old Testament fought against the giant Goliath. David was alone in his fight. Sure, the first draft of this position paper began with a lone voice, but the release of the position paper to the public ends the presumption of a David-and-Goliath fight. The position paper is a living document. Allies are being welcomed. Others are flocking to the fight, and the weapons of wisdom and reason are being sharpened and leveraged into the arsenal of ideas. So, as the days progress and the public hearing comes closer to the present, the lone-voice is long gone.

History of Lone Voice

Mark Rauterkus, a concerned citizen, begged repeatedly to get an invitiation to the planning table. Claiming local roots and some knowledge of sports facilities, the South Side Planning Forum's Steering Committee meeting in late January 1999 included a stranger to the inner sanctum. The community access issues for the UPMC plan were were "nebulious at best." Things were not settled and had yet to unfold in much detail so said UPMC and the URA.

That late January meeting would mark the first and last invitation to the world of closed-door meetings of the planning players for Mark Rauterkus. All the other insights would have to come via monthly public meetings, the media and direct contibutions to this living position paper.

The fight brews in the cloak of darkness. The UPMC plans are secret plans crafted in private. To the public, the UPMC plans, like the Pitt Athletic Director's plans, are unknown. What are they going to do? Is this a "done deal?" So little has been revealed. To dismantle a plan cloaked in isolation and on short notice is a feat. For example, a site map that marked the proposed purchase of UPMC land has been requested since November, and none has been furnished as of March 1, 1999.

What is to come from Pitt, as a reaction to this open position paper or otherwise, is anyone's guess. But, something from Pitt is sure to come. Pitt moved with spitefulness and its Police Force to restrain Free Speach already. Pitt's reaction to Student Government's move of delivering complementary T-Shirts with Save Our Stadium messages was appaling.

Everyone loves easy choices and "no-brainer" decisions. At first glance everything might appear to be in good order to allow City Council to go with the flow and approve the URA proposal. The UPMC agenda is strengthened by the push and pull of the Goliaths running in the cover of darkness. But, after the entire discussion is opened and after visible alternatives are set forth, the decisions to delay and even reject the sale of land from the URA to UPMC for its plans is going to be easy and obvious.

Beyond a Fight

For City Council to garner the five votes to put an abrupt roadblock into the pathway of development, low-cost to development to the city's treasury even, just because it gets to witness a fight and some fur fly is silly. The fight waged here is against the process. The fight illustrates to City Council its sacred role in the developmental approval process. Pittsburgh's global leadership for development issues has to include City Council and has to include the citizens' ideas.

The Goliaths are driving the development steamrollers. The Goliaths are flattening our collective futures. They need to stop their bulldozers and graders on the site.

The aim of the position paper isn't to fight with a David-vs.-Goliath

City Council can grab onto some of the philosophical messages and re-build the next projects to a higher level, as suggested here. The vision for stretching our collective wills is lurking in the pages ahead. Its the cutting-edge solutions that are craved the most by the people, not the fight against the Goliaths.

Delay of Game

City Council, "Blow the whistle!" Call a foul. Order a delay of game penalty. Please pour over this information and help to uncover additional information. Let's work together to put a light onto all the viable alternatives and ground them in known philosophical justificiations. Let's reach to new heights, building upon what is good. Let's tackle some risky, tricky, tough, and global problems by leveraging our insights and our top instititions.

1. Within this position paper we suggest better solutions that leverage the Pittsburgh Steelers in creative ways to significantly improve our public school system.
2. Within this position paper we suggest better solutions that leverage UPMC's fiscal clout to better integrate Pitt into the South Side.
3. Within this position paper we suggest better solutions that leverage the unique flavors of the South Side so our quilt of community has stronger fabrics and brighter small-business enterprise.