Monday, January 24, 2011

Dowd wants to dissolve parking authority, others

Liquidate! Liquidation! YES.

Pittsburgh city Councilman Patrick Dowd says he may launch a campaign to dissolve the city parking authority, saying that body and some other authorities are stuck in a no man's land between independence and subservience to the city.

Mr. Dowd said he would prefer making the parking authority, Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority and Urban Redevelopment Authority more independent of city government.

But if that can't be done, he said, he'll consider taking steps to dissolve them and bring their operations under city control. He said he'd start with the parking authority, which was drawn into last year's pension bailout controversy.

Read more: http://post-gazette.com/pg/11024/1120264-53.stm#ixzz1Bz2wvqNW
For years, I've been saying the same things -- sorta.

Pittsburgh should get rid of all the authorities. Nuke em all. Take them apart, brick by brick.

This may take some time, say 1 to 5 years. Don't be stupid and give the assets away so that the rich get richer. We don't need some no-bid contracts and those wire pullers swooping in to build a Mon-Valley Toll Road over the once public process.

But Dowd wants to make the authorities MORE independent of city government and that's just wrong. What's that about? Wishing upon a star? To make the URA more independent of city government comes when developers are private firms that choose to develop and invest as they so choose. That's more independent. But, that's not an authority any more, that's the marketplace at work.

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