Pledges grants

Can we get it right once in a while, please.

I am in favor of safe pedestrian avenues, walking to school, crossing guards, ped bridges, curb cuts, bike lanes, and cross-walks. There are few if any that are as jazzed about sidewalks. The urban life needs clean and safe passage.

I've pushed strollers around town to a point that the tires went bald. Pittsburgh stinks in its surface treatments. Oh the stories that I'd tell -- for another day.

So this is great news:

Rendell pledges grants - PittsburghLIVE.com: "repair sidewalks and curbs and put up signs and maps in Oakland's Fifth and Forbes avenues corridor."

But the sticking point for me is that there are no schools around Fifth and Forbes, other than the colleges and universities. If we had an elementary school or middle school in town, that would be a different matter.

Fifth and Forbes needs a serious touch up. The present administration has starved that area by design. This area needs extra help, but it should be from the city, not the state.

When we burn money from the state, it is still our money. I don't care if you take it from the front pocket or back pocket, it is still our money. That money came from us, the taxpayers.

We need to take care of what we got. We can't punish areas like has been done at Fifth and Forbes and with other parts of town. We can't let our guard down so far. These sidewalks and curb cuts need to be a much higher priority.

Philadelphia & Saidel tops campaign cash list

Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/01/2005 | Saidel tops campaign cash list: "Philadelphians got their first glimpse of some of what really matters: the money.

Oh my gosh. Think again. What really, really matters is NOT the money. Money can't buy you love. Money can't buy you talent. Money can't buy you health. Money can buy you the friends that you might not really want.

New campaign-finance reports reveal who of the dozen or so rumored Democratic mayoral contestants spent time actively raising money last year.

At the top of the heap: City Controller Jonathan Saidel, who has raked in nearly $194,000, ending 2004 with nearly $380,000 in the bank for a campaign committee...

I'm on the task force that is working on a new suite of laws for Pittsburgh's campaign finance reform matters. We meet for the second time tomorrow.

The City Controller in Phili is a big advocate of the Land Value Tax. That is also a big point in my campaign. And, for Pittsburgh, we had it and lost it, thanks to Bob O'Connor. So, here is something that Phili is moving to and Pittsburgh is moving from. Harrisburg, as in the city of Harrisburg, has made some great strides to the land value tax and is seeing great results.

Great quote: "How much money a candidate raises is an indication of what sort of appeal he or she has to political fat cats."