County, city parks aim toward joint work

Here is the steeple. Open the door and there are no people.

Isn't it wonderful that the Riverview Chapel now has running water in the kitchen. Splendid advancement for our Citipark.

Isn't it great that we can ride a merry-go-round year round in another key park. Plus, we can get a bit to eat too -- from a corporate vendor, not a pushcart nor a food truck. Yuck to that.

Does it send chills up your spine when you look at the garden and gateway in Highland Park and rest assured that the shrubs and landscaped flowers are going to return to the way it was in the 1920s. How inspirational is that to turn back the clock?

County, city parks aim toward joint work After helping to lift a steeple in one park and build a temporary bridge in another, Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said yesterday that he is investing in the city's play areas and continuing talks with Allegheny County to establish more cooperation on parks.

While accompanying the mayor at the raising of a wooden steeple at the reconstructed Riverview Chapel Shelter in Perry North, county Chief Executive Dan Onorato said they are 'weeks' away from announcing a plan to collaborate on their parks.

Well, I've been barking about parks cooperation for many years. I was named by one on County Council to a task force for one of the parks. But, they only had two meetings and never had minutes of those meetings. Then it died an unspoken death.

There are NO county parks in our part of the county, by the way.

The city and county want to work together on capital costs because there is NO capital budget for parks in the city. There hasn't been a capital budget for parks since the kids who are 18 or so now were born.

Onorato, while on city council, helped to damage the parks. The decline then was advanced.

The band-aids are old.

Maintenance has been postponed for decades.

The last big thing to happen from any elected offical at a park in the city and county was when Jim Roddey was in charge and he took the bull by the horns and ordered "jersey barriers" along stretches of South Park's roadways after a senior driver hit pedestrians. That sums it up, besides the new steeple and running water in the kitchen.

When a real park discussion begins, I'll be there.