six days and counting

From family - travels

We're now in a panic.

Concept map of the wiki of the platform on the blog

From maps

Luke pimps Les Ludwig's slogan again

Les Ludwig coined the slogan, "Do more with Les." Les ran against Bob O'Connor. Luke -- this quote rubs me the wrong way.

Health-care switch to save city millions 'It is a significant savings for us, as a city that continues to do more with less,' Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said while unveiling the arrangement yesterday.

How about if the city just does what it must with what it has. I don't really want Luke to do more. No more property tax abatement. No more boneheaded spending.

A single payer health system, as designed by people in Pittsburgh already, would do wonders to the city's budget. It could give PA a competitive adantage and it makes for a system-wide fix helping small business, large business, government workers and every citizen.

Getting all the health insurance from one provider also has the risk of sinking the city when the contract comes due in a couple of years.

There is some security in diversity.

Getting all the health insurance coverage from one provider is like a single, bigger band-aid.

A fitness program too!

City Ethics Board Still Can't Get Together - News Story - WTAE Pittsburgh

City Ethics Board Still Can't Get Together - News Story - WTAE Pittsburgh 'I think you look to what's important for this commission to do going forward,' said board member Kathy Beuchel.

Why We Think We’re Unhappy and What Not to Do About It

Cato Unbound � Blog Archive � Why We Think We’re Unhappy and What Not to Do About It One obvious reason for our willingness to believe in widespread malaise is the proliferation of books, movies, articles, and other media that tell us how horrible things are these days. Part of the story has to be that bad news sells better than good news. “If it bleeds, it leads,” as they say. University of California, Davis psychologist Michael Hagerty suggests that this is one reason most Americans think that their life has improved, while most other Americans’ lives haven’t.

Recent City Homicides Raise Public Safety Concerns

kdka.com - Recent City Homicides Raise Public Safety Concerns

Water Pork from Taxpayers for Common Sense

WATER PORK BILL FLOATS THROUGH CONGRESS
Volume XII No. 5 - April 30, 2007

Lawmakers this week passed a $16.5 billion water project bill (H.R. 1495), containing more than 800 parochial pork barrel projects for virtually every Congressional district in the nation. This bill has it all: from $1.8 billion to build seven unnecessary new navigation locks on the Upper Mississippi River (pdf) (Sec. 8003) to studying the navigation impacts of building the infamous “Don Young’s Way” bridge project in Alaska (Sec. 4005), to $55 million for pumping sand (pdf) to maintain Imperial Beach, CA for the next 50 years (Sec. 1001 (9)).

In a race to get this long stalled bill approved (they've been working on it since 2002), congressional leadership seemed to forget about the fundamental flaws that Hurricane Katrina exposed in the way the Corps of Engineers develops, designs and constructs this country’s water resource projects. In the starkest terms, Katrina showed us (pdf) that the time is long passed to end the political spoils system that has driven water project investment for more than a century. We need a modern, accountable and prioritized system to develop and award projects. It’s a message that Congress has failed to grasp.

Almost as an afterthought, lawmakers passed an amendment by Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Tom Petri (R-WI), and Peter Welch (D-VT) that directs the Corps of Engineers to update archaic rules (pdf) that govern how water projects are developed and selected. The outdated current rules (Principles & Guidelines), for example, encourage the Corps to build levees that protect undeveloped low-lying areas to spur economic development rather than building higher and stronger levees where there are actually people and property to protect. Disco died, come back to life and died again since 1983, the last time these rules were updated.

The Senate will now consider its own bill, which includes an amendment by Sens. Russ Feingold (D-WI) and John McCain (R-AZ) that would make the Corps more accountable to the public through truly independent peer review for costly, controversial or critical projects. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) is looking to add to the $15 billion price tag by including more projects in the bill for “acute needs.” (pdf)

But there is no acute need for billions more in water projects. The Corps already has a whopping $58 billion backlog of projects they haven’t built yet, and will get only $2 billion in construction funding this year. To add more than $16 billion in new projects will just add more competition for the precious few construction dollars lying around. The acute need is for serious reform. Congress should require the Corps to prioritize projects and funnel money to the projects that will benefit the nation the most. Absent such a system, Congress and the Corps don’t even know which projects should be first on the list. When that happens, decisions are based on politics rather than need.

The Administration, which has rattled the veto saber recently, left it sheathed for this bill. Considering the well deserved public relations hit this Administration took for its Katrina response, you might think reforming the agency that built the New Orleans levees would be a top priority.

Breaking the nearly two-century old iron triangle of water pork in this country (we have a copy of an 1836 House Ways & Means Committee report documenting 25 wasteful Corps projects) is going to take a lot more. Katrina exposed the costly consequences of our existing parochial water project system. Now Congress needs to take the necessary steps make the Corps of Engineers more accountable.

Going on at Taxpayer.net This Week

The Senate this week introduced its own standards regarding how it will handle earmarks in appropriations bill.

Big Idea Book | Engage Pittsburgh

What happened to the promise of the funding of ideas from the fall of 2006? Spout Fund -- what's up?

Big Idea Book | Engage Pittsburgh
The Big Idea Book is an aggregation of the ideas and projects that were discussed at The Sprout Fund's September 9, 2006 Idea Round Up event and the online discussions that will continue on engagepittsburgh.org throughout the fall 2006.

Ideas are grouped in general topic areas like chapters in a book. Currently, the only features enabled for engagepittsburgh.org users are the abilities to view, comment and rate (vote) the ideas. Additional features to modify and add to the idea pages will be forthcoming.

The Movies of Campus MovieFest

An easy way to kill some time.

The Movies of Campus MovieFest The Campus MovieFest International Grand Finale, showed phenomenal short movies, music, and more. CMF provided Apple laptops, camcorders, and training to over 25,000 students this past year and on June 10th, hundreds experienced the best short movies of 2006 submitted by students at schools throughout Atlanta, Florida, Boston, California, and Scotland, plus a fascinating Q&A session with the top filmmakers.

New arena could displace synagogue in Hill District - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

New arena could displace synagogue in Hill District - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: The only synagogue that serves Downtown could be moving again to make way for a new arena, an official said Thursday.

The arena could be built around Beth Hamedrash Hagodol-Beth Jacob, but the city-county Sports & Exhibition Authority would prefer to relocate the synagogue to make more space, said Executive Director Mary Conturo.

'It would work much better, in terms of the loading dock and access to it, if the synagogue relocated,' Conturo said. 'Possibly we could design around it, but it's not preferable.'

This makes me mad. The congregation is going to move. Move out of the city.

They didn't think about this before? There is far to much that they didn't tell us.

The church buildings are going down now.

Duhh. Why didn't we build the new arena out by the airport. Then, perhaps, there would be a new development there. And, with the new development, new residents. And, furthermore, new places of worship.

We are tearing down and churning. We are not growing the region.

Make Internet TV

Make Internet TV: "Make Internet TV
You Make the News"

In ONE DAY: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Events Calendar

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Events Calendar: Boot Camp Pittsburgh
Art Institute of Pittsburgh
4/21/2007 9am

This is a free one-day introductory event for internet users comprised of 25 sessions that will cover the basics of blogging, podcasting, and 'social networking' (i.e. making social and business contacts using websites like MySpace).

Presenters include a wide range of experts, including popular podcasting musician Matthew Ebel, online entertainment guru and PodCamp co-founder Chris Brogan of Network2, the creator and cast of local web series 'Something To Be Desired', and Pittsburgh-based internet personality iJustine, runner-up in Yahoo's recent national Talent Search.

For more information and to register for free, go to www.bootcamppgh.org.

More Testimony from the Legislative Reform Hearing in Pittsburgh

Yesterday, I got to speak to the Harrisburg lawmakers about legislative reform. (scroll down). Here are the words from another (running mate).

Testimony on legislative reform in Pennsylvania, hearing in Pittsburgh, April 19, 2007.

My name is Al Bennett. I live in Representative Chelsa Wagner’s district at 956 Pine Avenue in Castle Shannon, located in the south hills of Pittsburgh. I retired here with my wife Linda after working for almost 20 years for the California State Library in Sacramento. My wife is from the south hills and missed Pittsburgh every day she was away. I spent my high school years in Beaver County and am also very glad to be back in this extraordinary area.

While leading the California Literacy Campaign throughout the state of California beginning in 1983, I interacted regularly with the California State legislature. Although reform was an ongoing agenda item during those years, one change that occurred in the 1990s led to positive change in a particularly profound way. That reform was the imposition of term limits on both the State Assembly and the Senate.

I have been surprised since we moved to Castle Shannon in 2001 at the extreme need for reform in the Pennsylvania legislature. It is clear that the present structure has made election to the legislature an opportunity for personal gain that greatly interferes with the objective of serving constituents’ needs. By the time a legislator has been reelected enough times to gain substantial power, the temptation to put his or her personal benefits above those of constituents has become very great.

I saw a similar pattern when I started working with the California state legislature in the early ‘80s. But when an initiative was introduced to limit the number of terms a legislature could serve, I felt the loss of experience and wisdom would make lobbyists’ and staffers’ power even greater and I voted against the measure.

I must report, however, that I was wrong. Within the very first year that legislators became “termed out”, a change for the good occurred. The most powerful member of the Assembly, speaker Willy Brown who would probably never have been voted out by voters in his district, had to step aside. An amazing breeze of fresh air started to blow into the Assembly. I saw the cynical attitudes of old pros replaced by the enthusiasm of new, frequently young and often children of immigrants, newly-elected legislators grab hold of the legislative process. Instead of “that’ll never work”, we began to get “let’s give it a try”, and changes that could never have happened before began to occur. And they are still going on.

There are many reforms that could be introduced in Pennsylvania, and many of them would undoubtedly be beneficial. But one that I believe would have profound benefits quickly is limiting numbers of terms that an individual can serve. I urge the legislature on behalf of the people of Pennsylvania to make term limits its highest reform priority.

Thank you for this opportunity to testify this morning.

---

He speaks of his experiences in California about term limits. My position on terms limits is the same. I'm okay with term limits.

I'd vote in favor of term limits. I even said in the past that I'd term limit myself. You can hear that pledge in my background audio from 2001 at TalkShoe.com. Give us term limits as they'd make for a remedial measure that would serve us well.

Most of all, we need term limits in the mayor's office and with other executive offices. We have it with the PA Governor, and that seems to work well.

I wonder: What do the ones in the Pgh Contoller's race -- and the Allegheny County Controller's race say about term limits?

Rutgers special event: Journalist David Z to visit campus

The event seems like it is well on its way and won't be nixed due to my blabbing about it. But, I'd love to see David take a few moments and talk about the cutting of men's swimming at Rutgers -- as he is oncampus.

CollegeSwimming.com :: View topic - Rutgers special event: Journalist David Z to visit campus: "A favorite journalist, author, sports-mind, netizen is due to go to Rutgers to speak at an event this week. Can Phil or others from NJ take the lead on this and be sure to get some from the swim community there to hear him -- and raise issues about the team's looming cut.

And, I've emailed David directly asking him to look into this before he steps on campus. A call or email from a swimmer at Rutgers directly to him might go far, before he arrives.

He just did a book on Ali. I love his social and sport insights.

Dave Zirin - edgeofsports@gmail.com

A Ho Ho no no - Homework for Mr. Zober. Well, it is really an in-class assignment. Don't take it home. All work should stay in the office.

From china - foods

A Ho Ho no no: "A Ho Ho no no" Friday's P-G business page article.

For Yarone's next homework assignement, tell us how many slices a pizza folks in Pittsburgh eat, on average, a day -- or a year.

Then, we want to know about pretzels.

Then, tell us about pierogies.

Then, do the research and math into the consumption of -- say -- iced tea and super-charged energy drinks.

Then, root bear. I think we've got more root beer drinkers than anywhere else.

We want real reasearch. We want press events, peer reviews, urban website coverage, and national and international talk-show interviews.

Take two or three weeks, if not months, on each topic area. Research a few other competing markets on each product too. Leave the wings, chili, sliders, fish and cones to others to research for now.

From china - foods

This will give you something meaningful to do. I know I'd rest better at night knowing that this mission was your top priority. And pull Mr. Skrinjer into this for three time a day meetings as well.

Finally, find out, again, as a follow-up, how much bottled water they are drinking on the other side of the all within City Council. That's always a very pressing concern.

From china - foods

Upper St. Clair citizen are rocking

We are very excited to be working to elect five members to the USC School Board who will make decisions for the benefit of our children and our community, protect the township's investment in its outstanding schools and Restore Unity, Sense and Civility to the USC School Board!

As you may know, we are publishing a weekly e-newsletter featuring one of our candidates each week, as well as campaign updates and issues. We have added your e-mail address to the list to receive the e-mail, and hope that it will keep you up to date and informed. If you have not received these newsletters, please check whether they are being delivered to your bulk/junk mail folder or being marked as spam. To ensure that you receive emails from RestoreUSC, please add newsletter@restoreusc.org to your address book today .

If you would rather not receive these occasional e-mails, you may unsubscribe at the bottom of any newsletter, or e-mail us via our web site at http://www.restoreusc.org .

We hope you will join us in our effort to Restore Unity, Sense and Civility to the governance of USC's finest asset - our schools.

Sincerely, Amy Billerbeck

May 1, 2007 - Important PUBLIC Hearing to combat Luke's tax give-a-way: City Council Meeting Schedule

Stay tuned. Save the date. Be there to speak. Call the City Clerk's office to get onto the agenda, 412 255 2138. Or, Call to get onto the agenda, either "in favor, AGAINST, or only with "statements." 412 255-2138.

I'm going to be in New Zealand. However, I expect to submit my statement to the city clerk for the record before I depart.

When you look on the city's web site, you notice these scant details.

This is a public hearing. So, folks will be given, if you call in advance, up to three minutes to speak. If you don't call, they still often allow you two minutes after all the speakers have gone.

City Council Meeting Schedule Tuesday, May 1, 2007
1:30 PM - Public Hearing - Bill No. 2007-1285
Ordinance amending and supplementing the Pittsburgh Code, Title Two, Fiscal; Article & IX, Property Taxes; Chapter 265, Exemptions for Residential Improvements: Section 265.01, Definitions; Section 265.03, Exemption for Improvements; and Section 265.04, Exemption for Residential Construction, so as to create a new ten-year exemption covering residential improvements and construction in areas defined as the Uptown District, the Downtown District and Targeted Growth Zones for exemption applications filed on or after July 1, 2007 and through June 30, 2012.

Also:
Public Hearing - Bill No. 2007-1286
Ordinance amending and supplementing the Pittsburgh Zoning Code, Title Two, Fiscal; Article IX, Property Taxes; Chapter 267, Exemptions for Industrial and Commercial Improvements; Section 267.01, Definitions; Section 267.03, Exemption Schedule; Section 267.04, Exemption Conditions; and Section 267.09, Participation by Allegheny County and Pittsburgh Board of Education, so as to create a new tax exemption for the conversion of industrial, commercial or other business property into owner-occupied residential use in deteriorated underutilized transition areas and also to increase the exemption for improvements constituting a qualified conversion to commercial residential use as to properties which are located in deteriorated underutilized transition areas for applications filed on or after July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2012.

This amounts to a tax give-a-way for ten years. People who speculate on property will benefit and the rest of the city will pay more.

This provides a benefit to those who have already been able to benefit by being around extensive public infrastructure investments. Those around the new arena are going to get a tax break. Those around the new tunnels under the rivers are going to get a tax break. Those around the new Point State Park are going to get a tax break. Those around the new Market Square are going to get a tax break. Those around the new Convention Center are going to get a tax break. Those around the new slots parlor are going to get a tax break. Those around the new PNC Park are going to get a tax break. Those around the new African American Cultural Center, the Grayhound Bus Station, the Garden Theater, PNC Plaza, etc., -- you get the idea -- get tax breaks. It is backwards thinking and backwards policy.

A massive amount of big-ticket spending has gone on with government money. They've been digging holes in the ground. These development projects are sinks themselves. Plus, these development projects are such that the areas around them need to be subsidized too -- so they think on Grant Street.

They are tossing good money after bad. They need to "Lay The Shovel Down." They need to stop digging the holes in the ground. Rather, they need to be finished with the hole digging and let everyone have a chance at a more level marketplace.

The great big sucking sound that Ross Perot talked about with Mexico is also known as this downtown area.

The new housing that will be squeezed into downtown spaces where it doesn't really belong needs to be subsidized for rich people to move there. That means that other neighborhoods will see valued residents depart for downtown. Other neigbhorhood see their taxes rise so tax breaks can be given to the rich that move to downtown. The poor get poorer and the rich get richer. The rest of the city gets punished for its years of hard work trying to sustain itself and the downtown cronies get rewarded for their political connections and sway.

Furthermore, this policy of putting upscale condos and rich people into homes in commercial spaces means it is going to be harder for commercial operations to come back into areas where they have the most chance of success. Downtown is our business brain center and our finance and law and government and board-room hub. Pittsburgh's rebound into a prosperous, vibrant, center of commerce and innovation is going to be more difficult to achieve in the years to come. Small business is getting elbowed out of places where they should be able to move to and sprout.

We don't want our business upstarts to need to move to Green Tree nor Hayes nor Troy Hill nor Betlzhoover. Green Tree is too finished and too expensive. That's a decent place for US Air expansion but not "Joe's High-Tech Widget Marvels" an early stage company. I want them in flex office space near downtown, on public transportation where the region's best and brightest can mingle. I don't want them to need to recuit the first 20 employees into a space that fits their needs in Hayes, Troy Hill or Betlzhoover -- but employees can't and won't want to work there as buses are impossible.

Summary: I want to have workers work downtown where access to services and capital is a stone's throw away. And, I want to have residents and workers live in Troy Hill, Betzhoover and Hayes.

Summary: I want to see tax breaks given to everyone, especially those who have lived a hard life keeping frail neighborhoods alive despite the shifting tides against them.

Summary: If downtown is such a hip place and is about to boom -- let it do so on its own. Don't subsidize what is already about to bloosom. Let them pull their own weight.

Legislative Reform: Talking about Transparent PAC Accounts and the Scarlet Letter provisions

	Transparent PAC accounts and the scarlet letter. Idea from Mark Rauterkus about legislative reform.
From ads - political

The talk of reform in Harrisburg is starting to buzz. Two ideas presented to lawmakers at a hearing in Pittsburgh on April 19 have roots in a business and free-market mindset.

First, show us the money. Lets abolish campaign financial disclosure deadlines in favor of transparent PAC accounts. Second, if you cheat, we'll never do business with you again. Cheaters get cut off until the ones that benefited is out of office and off the the public payroll.

In banking, 'trust funds' can be established that provide unlimited, real-time witness to every deposit and withdrawal. This real world, marketplace solution could be applied to all political action committees (PACs). This solution comes without any cost to the government. It saves money by putting all the reporting of political money transactions off of the backs of the election departments.

Let's use on-line banking to a wider degree when it comes to public money. All candidates and political action committees would have a bank account at any state-sanctioned commercial bank with a public account number so all transactions could be witnessed over the internet. Campaign disclosure forms would be a thing of the past as everything would always be out in the open.

These new TRANSPARENT PAC ACCOUNTS could be used beyond campaign efforts too. Let's plug them in for governmental line items. The Pittsburgh Shade Tree Commission has a fund. How much money is in it? When was the last deposit? Where did that money come from? Where was the last payment? How much? What is the balance? How does that compare to past years? How come the donuts for staffers cost so much?

But let's not stop at shade trees. Let's consider real-time reporting for all sorts of governmental income and expense streams. Today's deposit of lottery funds, gambling incomes, dog licenses, parking tickets and everything else can be made open to anyone to anywhere with the internet and the right type of banking transactions – if there is a political will to make things transparent to citizens. That's our money. I want to shine a light on it all and watch it. Banks do this all the time.

Should campaign finance reform come to pass, the new laws may put a cap on the amount of money any one citizen can contribute to a candidate. But how do you address those that choose to not play by the rules. I think a scarlet letter sanctions on rule breakers would help. Those that break the law and are unethical in our political process should wear this scarlet letter. That designation would eliminate all eligibility for that company and individual for any government money from any governmental agency for as the duration of the tenure for the rule-breaker.

This goes to pay to play antics.

Let's say a new rule comes into being and that no citizen can give more than $1,000 to any candidate. But, a developer or a bridge contractor really wants to build a tunnel under the river for half-a-billion dollars. Buying off four or five city council members and paying a $10,000 fine for each is worth it. Even with the fines,
it is a good investment.

We should choose to not do business with the people and companies that break the rules of the political process.

The way to get rid of the scarlet letter designation is to have the person who benefited, i.e., the candidate / politician, to resign and get out of public office.

But, a rich uncle wants to spend $200,000 on a candidate's campaign, and that guy doesn't ever deal with government contracts, no problem. You can't prohibit individual wealth from entering the process. But you can block it from pay to play folly.

Busy week.

This week I made three different Public Statements: April 17, 18 and 19, 2007. Hear what was said with this raw footage from my camera. I'll make a nicer package when time permits. The first two parts were given to to Pgh city council. The third statement was delivered to PA lawmakers considering legislative reform. View Video

Messages from Mark Rauterkus at three public comment periods.

Copy to your browser:

Tonight's Meeting about the closed indoor rink -- online at TalkShoe - to start at 9:30 pm

I've got to adjust, slightly, the time for the meeting tonight, online, via TalkShoe.com. I advertised it as a 9 pm meeting. We'll start, in earnest, at 9:30 pm.