Reopen West End station, residents urge - PittsburghLIVE.com

Zone 3, Zone 4, and police stations in general have been the topic of many discussions.

I wanted to attend this meeting mentioned in the article. We had a candidate conflict that same night. I did talk to a half-dozen people before and after that meeting to get the scoop. And, I talked to a few in the media as well.

Reopen West End station, residents urge - PittsburghLIVE.com: ".

'If you can't fill it properly, just leave it alone. Leave it closed, and we'll join our friends in the suburbs,' Norene Beatty, president of the West End Elliott Citizens Council, told Woodyard.

District 2 Councilman Dan Deasy, who represents the area, said officials also are discussing opening a mini-station or substation in the West End or moving the South Side station into the more accessible West End.

Although some in the audience said the idea makes sense, others said they don't want to shift their problems to another part of town.

'We're not here to pit neighborhood against neighborhood. We are not here to close Zone 3,' Romaniello said."

When a certain person in the race said he was fighting "vo-sif-er-os-ly" for the Zone 3 police station, I was joining the struggle with our neighbors to the west to save zone 4's police station. Imagine that.

There were not many from the South Side fighting for Zone 4 nor to de-rail the WEHAV program. I did my part. And, for payback, of sorts, is the great talk we hear from citizens there now. They want a full service station and they don't want to take the other station, such as zone 3's station.

Those are big words and big concepts. And, the idea of moving out is not an empty promise either.

Recap of my stances: Re-open the Zone 4 station. Move the Zone 3 police station to a part of the now closed South Vo Tech High School. Move the EMS back to the South Side after the Police are able to relocate. Perhaps, due to the size of the pending move from Schenley High School into South Vo Tech for one year, it might make sense to make some of these moves, other than a re-opening of Zone 4, in stages over a few years. There is no HUGE rush. Rushing into decisions is costly with overtime. And, if we didn't spend large amounts of money on silly development projects that don't really work, we'd have plenty of money left over for the basics, such as police, roads and recreation.