URA approves sale of property for library - PittsburghLIVE.com

Over-reaching stinks. We have had enough of the broken promises. Cut the chatter. Putting up a library is fine. But don't go and claim that the library, moving from one corner to another, makes a "significant economic generator" and a "resource and beacon" for the economically depressed Hill District. Give us a break.

Perhaps this is why Hazelwood is thriving now, because the library moved to the main street above a laundry. How many new jobs moved there? -- Zippo? --

Now that the Library owns the space for $1, does that mean it can knock down how much it gets in RAD funding?

Furthermore, this is still the sale of a bit of property that won't turn into tax-payer land. I would rather give a lease for 99 years and now sell the property.

I would rather see a net shrinkage of all land owned and controlled by nonprofits. If they take that land, then twice or four-times the land should be made commercial again.

The URA owns a ton of land. The URA has way to much land. That land needs to be liquidated, in due measure. But to give the URA, a holding company, the mission to liquidate but only have the land be owned by nonprofits is even worse than what we need.

I love libraries. I really do. But, I'm not going to look at these transactions with blind spots to our city's overall health and fitness.

URA approves sale of property for library - PittsburghLIVE.com... the five-member URA board approved an $18 million tax-increment financing plan for the $170 million Three PNC Plaza project Downtown. Such plans allow cities to use money generated by increased property taxes to redevelop blighted areas.

The plan must have a public hearing and go before the city and county councils for consideration at the end of this month before it's approved. The Pittsburgh Public Schools board won't review the proposal until March and final approval might not happen until May.

I'm against all TIFs. I would not approve this TIF to PNC.

Nearly all of our town is designated as "blighted." We need to end blight -- by stopping the use and designation of the term, blight. Blight is a paperwork term that leads to more give-a-ways from the government, more eminent domain, more taxes for the home owners. Blight allows the politically connected to get theirs and the rest of the people to pay for it. And, the blight never goes away, it only gets worse.

This game of musical chairs, with a focus on blight, is just another way to confuse the public.