tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481330.post114089592300130359..comments2023-10-24T11:05:25.288-04:00Comments on Mark Rauterkus & Running Mates ponder current events: Student crowds Downtown discussedMark Rauterkushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17157914569686528007noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481330.post-1140896179461394952006-02-25T14:36:00.000-05:002006-02-25T14:36:00.000-05:00Student crowds Downtown discussedCity officials wo...Student crowds Downtown discussed<BR/>City officials worry about several safety issues<BR/><BR/>By Gary Rotstein, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette<BR/><BR/>Mayor Bob O'Connor is organizing a meeting of school, police and Downtown officials next week to discuss safety precautions that may be needed due to the large number of students who congregate each weekday in the business district.<BR/><BR/>The planned meeting follows an incident Wednesday afternoon in which one teenager shot another in a dispute, but it has to do with an ongoing situation noted by the mayor, by business owners and by others, said Mr. O'Connor's spokesman, Dick Skrinjar. Other than this week's shooting, officials said, students have not been involved in other recent violence Downtown.<BR/><BR/>The mayor "has concerns about the safety of having large numbers of schoolkids on the sidewalks, and overcrowding with the kids spilling into the streets," Mr. Skrinjar said. "Mixing pedestrians and automobiles isn't a good idea, and overcrowded sidewalks are causing some of the students to walk into the streets."<BR/><BR/>Representatives of Pittsburgh Public Schools, the Port Authority, city police and the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership are among those expected to discuss the issue and possible ways of addressing it, Mr. Skrinjar said. The meeting date has not been set, as schedules were still being coordinated.<BR/><BR/>The school district provides about 4,500 Port Authority bus passes to high school students. A school transportation official said at least 2,100 use those passes Downtown, either to attend one of the three schools located there or to transfer between their own neighborhoods and their school destinations. Nothing prevents other students with or without passes from also coming Downtown once the school day ends.<BR/><BR/>Bob Grove, a Port Authority spokesman, said the biggest throng of students is typically at the intersection of Wood Street and Liberty Avenue, which is convenient to the schools, a busy bus stop and nearby fast-food eateries. For that reason, he said, the transit system's police officers are present at the location every afternoon. Wednesday's shooting was several blocks away, at Sixth Street and Penn Avenue.<BR/><BR/>"The issue's not new to us," Mr. Grove said. "The volume of kids Downtown today is not appreciably different than in recent years, maybe a little higher because enrollment at the three Downtown schools is a little higher."<BR/><BR/>About 1,100 public school students attend either the Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, known as CAPA, or the City Charter High School or Northside Urban Pathways Charter School, which is also Downtown, despite its name.<BR/><BR/>Mary Ellen Solomon, a spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, said discussions also took place last year with city and school officials about the number of students clustering in the Golden Triangle. They led to no actions, she said, perhaps because both the city and school administrations were undergoing change.<BR/><BR/>She said Pittsburgh's Downtown should still be perceived as "one of the safest urban centers in the country," and will be helped further in summer by the partnership's hiring of "ambassadors" who will walk the streets and serve as extra eyes and ears for police.<BR/><BR/>(Gary Rotstein can be reached at grotstein@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1255.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com