Demolish. That word is what I want to hear from the Mayor's office only about itself. Nothing else.

Could this be an April Fools Day story, just a bit early?
Sadly, I think the story is truthful. I fear the worst. And, the worst is yet to come.

City of stairways may lose some of its character - PittsburghLIVE.com By mid-summer, the Public Works Department expects to provide city officials with a list of 60 to 100 staircases it recommends be demolished, said Rob Kaczorowski, the assistant director of public works.

Demolish! Stop already.

The city is being taken apart, step by step.

Don't demolish the steps. Don't do anthing else Tom Murphy, except leave.

The city's steps are a treasure. These people don't know how to be stewards.

We need to take care of what we have. We need to make infrastructure repairs a top priority.

These steps are a transportation issue.

The steps matter greatly. The steps need to be repaired. The roads need to be repaired. We need to take care of what we have. We don't need to be doing wrongheaded projects elsewhere such as a rebuild of the Gateway Center T-Stop to make it "glass enclosed."

The steps are a great example of what we need to do well and do right. The steps are not going to be as sexey as Michael Diven offering to give away a big cardboard check to a new umbrella development company in Beechview. Diven has his priorities in the wrong places. The steps crumble. The neighborhoods crumble. The character of Pittsburgh is being destoyed. The urban density is being hijacked.