Furthermore, they are moving into a facility that should be a youth hostel. Pittsburgh could use a youth hostel. We had one. It was miss-managed by a bunch of weenies on the Youth Hostel Board. They drove the facility to the brink and beyond.
Then the URA took over the building. The URA should have done some URBAN REDEVELOPEMENT there. But no. The URA only sells the building to the city. That isn't what urban redevelopment looks like. That is a total failure.
The building should be put back into the hands of a private owner. Do a joint partnership if you must with the building. Make it into a B&B. Make it into a teacher's quarters for out of town teachers to lodge. Make it into a Ronald McDonald's House for families who have kids staying in area hospitals.
The URA, again, failed the city.
The city, again, failed the taxpayers.
The police, again, move to a station that isn't ideal.
The only ones who make out are the folks who do the churning -- perhaps a few contractors.
Council OKs $1.8 million for Zone 3 police station - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Pittsburgh City Council today tentatively approved a $1.8 million plan to renovate a new Pittsburgh police station in the city's Allentown neighborhood.
The Warrington Avenue building is owned by the Urban Redevelopment Authority and once served as a youth hostel. If council members approve the renovation plan in a final vote Tuesday, the city will own the building.
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6 comments:
Mark:
perhaps what is even more interesting is the stance of Mr. Bruce Kraus on this one. When there was a proposal to move/close Zone 3 previously, Kraus ran around the South Side saying Zone 3 should not move or close...
What happened this time?
I guess its not important to him, so its not important to anyone else.
Chalk this one up as a loss for the South Side.
Thanks for the brave fight Mr. Kraus.
I think you need to address the fact that there was a shooting last month at a bar on the same block as this new police station. Cute B&Bs don't tend to like to open up where there are shootings.
A great location for a hostel would be down on the South Side Flats - an area where there is convenient bus service and lots of nightlife. I've stayed in hostels all over the world, and Allentown would have been the scariest one I've stayed in. We want to give foreigners a positive impression of our city.
There are shootings throughout the city. Police stations don't prevent shootings. Some police stations have been targets of shootings.
More police could be a key to preventing more shootings. You can't afford more police when you are paying for dry-wall and building fix ups.
What's to say that the SS Flats would be the next place for the shootings too. Using your logic, perhaps there would have been five fatal shootings on South 18th street around the police station in 2008 had the station not been there.
Silly reverse logic.
Emotional decisions can't drive this city. It will fail.
A Hostel in Allentown was a horrible idea.
The board folks who managed the hostel were the terrible ones.
It is a great place for a youth hostel.
Hostels are never designed to put located in prime locations. They are not to be "The Ritz."
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