Western Avenue work paid for by those who live on that street

The model has changed for the worse, here again. If a road needs to be improved -- those who have "frontage" on that road are going to pay more.

I am against all types of non-democratic weeie-driven, improvement districts that live upon soft money and extra fees and taxes. BIDs = Business Improvement Districts. BIDs are ways to increase taxes as if the residents are not paying enough already. BIDs also come up with fancy ways to spend more money.

Funds OK'd for Western Avenue work URA director of business development Robert Rubinstein said legislation creating a Western Avenue Business Improvement District, and allowing the assessment, would be introduced in council within weeks. Council would have to conduct a public hearing before voting, he said.

When roads get paved because those who live there are paying more for the paving -- it is a case of the rich getting richer. We won't need to pave the roads in the poor neighborhoods.

Road paving decisions need to come from the most prudent logic, based upon fairness, giving economics of the community some weight and allowing opportunities for citizen input and critique. Presently road paving decisions are often about patronage. This move to BIDs makes the special interest groups get more clout and more attention to scares resources.

Road work in progress somewhere in the world.

Bankrupt city BUYS another property, spends more, further hurts downtown

This is no "redevelopment group" -- it is government. The URA (Urban Redevelopment Authority) gets money from taxes and does NOT pay taxes.

Redevelopment group adds another property - PittsburghLIVE.com

The Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority added another property Tuesday to its growing cache of buildings in the Fifth and Forbes corridor Downtown.
Authority members unanimously approved the purchase of a 4,100-square-foot building at 218 Forbes Ave. owned by George S. Aiken for $350,000. The purchase means the authority will own at least 18 buildings in the Downtown corridor.
Redevelopment director Jerry Dettore said the building was needed to complete the authority's ownership of a cluster of properties around Aiken's restaurant, George Aiken's Delicious Prepared Foods, which will continue to operate for up to five years. Dettore said his agency has been buying Downtown buildings to prepare the city for Mayor Tom Murphy's plan to attract a major company to develop a large retail district.

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Microsoft plans to outsource more, says ex-worker

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Microsoft plans to outsource more, says ex-worker Microsoft is on track to outsource more than 1,000 jobs a year to China, according to blistering evidence released yesterday in Microsoft's increasingly nasty spat with Google over an employee who jumped ship in July.

In a revelation that highlights the complexity of China President Hu Jintao's visit to Seattle and Microsoft on Monday, legal filings detailed claims of how Microsoft had offended the Chinese government by not outsourcing as many jobs as promised to Chinese technology vendors.
Slashdot comments

Russ Diamond, lead organizer of PA Clean Sweep, visits Pittsburgh on Wed, 14th

Russ Diamond, the lead organizer of PA Clean Sweep, is due in Pittsburgh on Wednesday. We're meeting with him at 5 pm at the Crawford Grill in Station Square. I'll try to attend.

Free Movie at Pitt -- 9 pm on WED -- "Busted"

The movie, Busted, is to be shown this wednesday in room 120 in David Lawrence Hall at the University of Pittsburgh.

"Created by Flex Your Rights and narrated by retired ACLU director Ira Glasser, BUSTED realistically depicts the pressure and confusion of common police encounters. In an entertaining and revealing manner, BUSTED illustrates the right and wrong ways to handle different police encounters and pays special attention to demonstrating how you, the viewer, can courteously and confidently refuse police searches."
http://www.flexyourrights.org/busted

Grant S is headed home after delivering supplies to the Gulf

katrinaWay to go Grant S. He took a turck load of goods to the gulf in the wake of Katrina. He wrote (via Kathy and edited slightly by the webmaster) in part:

... PS I found four lost salvation army trucks, and got them provisioned again, and got national guard to donate ice and water until the head office in Jackson was able to re-supply them. They thought they thought they may have been looted or worse, but they just ran out of gas and got lost with no communications. And they ran out of provisions. Have pictures of all this, with me in some, just to make Ray jealous. Now that the women will see ME in he man mode.

HOT, buggy and wet. The sand bugs like to bite me. Safety is good and lots of good people are down here helping. Stayed in a huge Baptist Church last night. Many good people arriving from all over now. I am coming back soon. Food is gone, and I am tired.

Love to all G

Grant S -- you are our hero. Safe travels home. If you want help uploading those photos and telling your story on the web -- give me a call.

Spammers' Speed Trap: Posting some snares in the wake of Katrina

katrinaWe need to come up with a plan to set some traps to place within the databases built in the wake of Katrinia and People Finder efforts.

Humm.... More thinking and documentation to do.

BTW, the FEMA decoder rings are on the back burner for now.

Eternal vigilance: Libertarian ideology: give it a break!

Adam's recent blog entry, now at his own blog, starts on the harsh side but is right on the money at its close. I call myself a "common sense libertarian."

Eternal vigilance: Libertarian ideology: give it a break!: "Humans need to embrace multiple ideologies, recognizing that the real world includes great uncertainty and humans have a number of concerns which may complement or conflict with each other. They also need to think more like engineers, treating the world as raw material that can be shaped, bit-by-bit, into one's ideal.

Need a skipper. Take your pick.

Jim Leyand is in town. Get out... These are the guys that should manage the Pirates.

Quiz: Who are these fellows? Where was the photo taken?

Perhaps the Pirates would be able to get both for a good price.

Unloading a City Park Asset to the Salvation Army -- discussions to start.

Post agenda is slated for 1:30 on Tue, Sept. 13, 2005, to talk about the plan to turn over a City of Pgh Park to the Salvation Army. They hope to create a new Kroc Center. The Park is in Brighton Heights on the city's North Side.

LIVE CHAT: Embracing NCLB: One School's Experience

WHEN: Wednesday, Sept. 14, 6 p.m., Eastern Time

WHERE: http://www.edweek-chat.org

Rail Road Flat Elementary, an impoverished, 100-student public school in rural northern California, has become one of the highest-achieving schools in the state and last year was a state nominee for "national model of excellence" status. The school's success has been attributed to strong student discipline and a heavy emphasis on the kind of teach-to-the-test learning that is often frowned upon in more affluent areas. "There's a need for structure," says Rail Road Flat teacher Randall Youngblood. "If I was teaching in another socioeconomic group, it might be different." But what are the drawbacks?

In this chat, Youngblood will discuss his school's approach to academics and classroom management and its attitude toward state and national policy.

Submit advance questions here.

For more information on Rail Road Flat Elementary, read the article "One-Track Minds" in the Aug./Sept. Issue of TEACHER MAGAZINE.

No equipment other than Internet access is needed to participate in this text-based chat. A complete transcript will be posted shortly after the chat's completion.

Gregg Behr efforts at Forbes Funds

Nonprofits need clout in Pittsburgh -- yeah, right.

Forbes Funds, Copeland Fund, Tropman Fund, Wishart Fund, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Any charitable organization, incorporated as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) corporation and serving Greater Pittsburgh, can become a member of the Greater Pittsburgh Nonprofit Partnership (GPNP) by contributing a minimum of $100.

Petition calling for indie commission of feds after Katrnia

Signatures are gathering at on online petition to send an unmistakable message that Americans want answers in the wake of Katrinia. They want 50,000 people to support an Independent Commission -- by Wednesday.

Sign the petition.katrina

Duquesne Light -- here we go again?

Are we going to be treated to some new, decrative lighting treatments?

Duquesne Light Making Significant Investment in Region, Creating New Jobs State, County and City Officials to Join Company at Groundbreaking

Morgan K. O'Brien, Duquesne Light president and chief executive officer, will make a major announcement and provide details tomorrow regarding the company's commitment to its customers and the Pittsburgh region.

Scheduled speakers include Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Dennis Yablonsky, Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato and Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy.

WHEN: Tuesday, Sept. 13 at 10 a.m.
WHERE: 2835 New Beaver Avenue, Pittsburgh 15233

In the past, the big civic improvement from Duquesne Light was the lighting of a bridge over the river. More was spent on the lights for the bridge than it would have cost to hire eight new teachers to focus on 9th grade math in the city schools. Most of the city school kids in 9th grade fail algebra one. Most get "F"s (or did when the bridge lighting need long jam was cleared).

I'm not sure of the city students' math scores now -- but -- I have a bet that I could find 101 better uses for the bridge lighting project without much thinking.

Mike Brown resigns as director of FEMA.

Hit the road Jack. FEMA director resigns. 

Photo is from a sidewalk in "Peoples' Park." The people were not fooled. Good to see some accountability.

More news of 2006. But what about 2005?

It used to be, and still is, IMHO, bad form to put a lot of noise into the coverage of elections that are two or three away. It is better to devote most of the talk to the next elections. Why fuss and fast-forward to 2006 fall when 2005 needs to be made clear. If this coverage was in addition to 2005 mentions, I'd not gripe.

U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart of Bradford Woods (www.peoplewithhart.com) is thought to be potentially vulnerable, although the Dems seem to think Murphy is the more vulnerable of the two. Still, two Dems have lined up to challenge Hart already -- Georgia Berner of Butler County (www.georgiaberner.com) and Jason Altmire of McCandless (www.jasonaltmire.com).

Peters Township Democrat Tom Kovach

The seat in the congress is held by Tim Murphy, R. Every two years there is an election for these seats. Next up, 2006.

Kovach, a loss control engineer for an insurance company, a Navy veteran with a Masters degree from Pitt's GSPIA School, once ran for state House against Republican state Rep. John Maher, and he is mounting a grassroots, issues campaign (www.kovachforcongress.com). Taking a page out of Santorum's book, Kovach is already door-knocking in this three-county district.

Thanks for the pointer to Jon Delano, and his PSF email.

Next crisis: FEMA will issue decoder rings.

I can see the future, and it looks interesting for FEMA and decoder ring makers with big political PAC accounts.

We used to worry about electronic voting machines and paperless ballots. Next it will be decoder rings.

In the hours after the storm, the helicopters will drop decoder rings on the areas impacted by the storm. Other FEMA officials will station themselves at highway rest points and truck stops to hand out rings to those who supply DNA samples.

The rings will help with database management and authenticity.

That Dam Ride -- concluded. I'm going to rest now.

My son, Erik, 10, and I spent the weekend bonding -- while covering 140 miles on a two day bike trip, That Dam Ride.

Great weather. Great trail. Super everything. My boy was great too.

Note to world: I saw three bits of litter on the trail, all today. That's it.

We spent the night in the tent. Sadly, the tent did not make it home with us. Thank goodness there was a lost and found and friendly, responsible locals who helped me get the tent back on Monday. YES! Thanks! The tent is home again.

On the second day, Erik caught onto the skill of "drafting."

Day one we rolled out at 8:03 am under a big cover of fog. Got to the campsite, mile marker 59, at 4:30 pm. The last 20 miles were hard. The ice cream stop with 11-miles to go was NECESSARY.

On the second day we rolled out at 7:47 am -- as in 747 time to fly. And we did. The first 40 miles we must have averaged 12 mph, going 14 or 15 mph in stretches in a few packs. We got to the final spot, mile marker 128, at 3:05 pm. Plus, we had a 45-minute stop.

All in all -- great time.

Nice tunes last night by Wado Young.

I didn't take the digital camera. Got a few film photos from a throw-away camera to post later.

What's next? Perhaps the Junior The Great Race (on Sunday afternoon) and then the Great Race. What else are we missing?

Letter to the editor about Katrinia and its lesson

Worthy of a reprint here:

Lessons from Katrina

Saturday, September 10, 2005

Not surprisingly, the "blame game" is in full swing, an aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Individuals are busy pointing fingers and agreeing when the blame is placed on everyone in sight -- everyone, that is, except you and me (and they are not too sure about you).

They are expecting perfection from a government that cannot perform even its legitimate basic functions well.

The excess reliance on government, relieving the individual of responsibility, was initiated in the 1930s and has proliferated since.

This misguided thinking is not what grew this country and made it prosperous; this misguided thinking is bound to make this country poor.

This philosophy says it is the government's fault if people are poor, and that all are entitled to an affluent old age. This is embodied in our failing Social Security system.

When are people going to stop relying on the government to do everything? Perhaps Hurricane Katrina will help us to become sane?

George J. Heideman, Ligonier