Active choice for City Council's Special Election

Active choice: Blotzer deserves a seat on City Council She parts company with Ms. Smith on the question of the city's fiscal overseers, and we share Ms. Blotzer's concern that removing the state constraints too soon could imperil attempts to keep reducing the city's extensive debt load."

Too soon!

Pittsburgh is under the thumb of TWO sets of OVERLORDS. They arrived with glee two mayors ago. The city council special election in a few days is for a seat which was filled twice since the OVERLORDS arrived as well.

The Post-Gazette might want the city to be under the thumb of OVERLORDS for a generation or more? When would it be prudent to show the OVERLORDS the door? I understand that Castro is in his first term in Cuba, but how long does oppression need to linger there and here?

Self government works for me -- and it should work for this city. I don't want my kids to grow up in a place where the citizens elect figureheads who don't really have any power. That's called a puppet government.

Those who want the OVERLORDS to stay are against self-determination. The Post-Gazette editorial board is in that camp -- and same too is a women who seeks to sustain the OVERLORDS presence, Georgia Blotzer.

That is un-American. That is anti-Pittsburgh. That is not the way to freedom and liberty and justice for all.

Pittsburgh needs to elect responsible people who are going to be prudent with the public funds and act is different ways from the ones who drove the city to its ruins. We have to build our city and our neighborhoods to withstand the selfishness and the hopelessness. We need to make hard decisions, ourselves, with our own interests and priorities in place.

The OVERLORDS have failed Pittsburgh. They have done nothing. They don't even meet. They are only here to insure that the big finance types do not get burned with a bankruptcy. I don't say we need to go bankrupt -- but -- we need to think again and use all of our creativity to craft solutions that work.

We need to fix Pittsburgh -- and I feel that those who want to hunker down under the umbrella of OVERLORDS are going to shrink Pittsburgh.

The active choice is to expel the OVERLORDS. That's what Theresa Smith wants, as do I. The active choice is about engagement, and that was the mission of the Parents Engagement Resource Centers (PERCs) of Pgh Public Schools. Theresa Smith ran one of the five PERCs in the city, until the new Superintendent, Mark Roosevelt, axed them. Mark Roosevelt wasn't interested in "engagement" nor "active parents" nor "self-determination."

I know that Theresa Smith knows about engagement. The proof is to understand the engine behind the victory of an election(s) of Dan Deasy.

Here is another point about words and the Post-Gazette's editors.

The special election has one candidate who is a Democrat, one who is a Republican and the others who are not Ds and not Rs -- but might be independent. Just to know, there are not third party candidates in this race: No Libertarian. No Green. No Socialist.

PG miss-reports: The abbreviated schedule has not prevented three Democrats from joining the race: Georgia Blotzer, 59, of Mount Washington is a retired special education teacher; Brendan Schubert, 25, of Westwood is a city zoning administrator;

Wrong. Blotzer and Schubert are not Democrats. Not now. Not in this race. Or, if they say they are, they lie. I don't know if they lie and miss-lead -- but I expect that the P-G did.

In a special election, the D party gets ONE SLOT. That slot was earned by Theresa Smith. The others are not Dems.

P-G reported, wrongly again: Ms. Smith has her party's nomination, conferred in a December vote by members of the Allegheny County Democratic Committee. Mr. Schubert also sought the party's backing, but Ms. Blotzer did not.

The December vote for the nomination for the special election was not by members of the Allegheny County Democratic Committee. Read the by-laws, editors. People in Scott Township, Plum Boro and Hazelwood did NOT vote for the endorsement. The Dems have a committee that lives in the district of the special election -- City Council District 2. That's much unlike what was reported.

Finally, P-G editors. Put the entire audio file of the endorsement meeting online. Don't only put up the 'highlights.' Why try to hide and trick the readers and voters?

Audio Remarks:

G. Blotzer explains she that she is running for public office on a just hatched idea that was recently given to her, with an initial cold reception of the candidate. She fails the "fire in the belly" test. She fails the planning and preparing test too. More than a year ago, people in the district knew that the State Rep was departing and Dan Deasy was seeking that post, hence that there would be an opening in city council.

The other worry for me is that she wants to be in there to 'legislate.' She hints, again, to the points I've made about over-reaching. Really get in there and legislate. She'll be quick to float folly -- and more of that is what is NOT necessary.

Brenden, 25, is a young 3rd base coach. Meanwhile, Theresa Smith is a league organizer and founder. He has experiences in city planning -- and that department is one of the worst in this city.

Frankly, I don't want to put my health into the hands of a doctor who has suffered from cancer -- and died -- just because he knows the ropes if things take a turn for the worst. Some say the city's planning office shouldn't even exist. Some have taken its steering wheel (Pat Ford) and driven that department within the URA and hit some might big speed bumps. Planning should happen at the county level -- some champion. Planning prevents piss-poor performance. But, Pittsburgh has the later due to bad planning and a cancer-choked planning department. I'd much rather see another from Public Works get elected to council than folks from the planning department.

Brenden might be an angel that emerged from hell. To be sure, he has been around the bases more than just his time in city planning -- but -- not much more.

Chris Metz is also in the race due to recruitment efforts of others. Serving on council may or may not be a passion of his. Politics must be, but holding a local elected office is suspect.