Pop City - Pittsburgh ranked as a "City of the Future"

Happy Hype:

Pop City - Pittsburgh ranked as a "City of the Future" In addition, it ranked as one of the five most “cost effective” cities for business and landed among the top five cities with the best infrastructure.

“The Cities of the Future is not your average list by your average publication,” notes Michael Langley, CEO of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development. “This recognition indicates the growing prominence of southwestern Pennsylvania as a key area for global investment.”

Our city infrastructure has landed alright. It landed in the toilet that doesn't flush and flows along a hillside that slides.

Our growing prominence comes as a shrinking city. What's worse -- our growing cluelessness from those who are in prominent offices.

Write-in candidate on fence as GOP hatches campaign - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Write-in candidate on fence as GOP hatches campaign - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review But in an e-mail message yesterday, DeSantis wrote, 'I love this city and am flattered that some of my fellow citizens think me worthy (of) being mayor of this great city. However, I have no formal plans at this time.'

I'm torn about this.

First of all, the guy doesn't want to run. Don't write him in.

Second, the effort is coming from the Allegheny County GOPers, not the city committee. Heck, the county guys could not find anyone for the County Executive Race, County Controller Race, County D.A. Race, County Treasurer Race, and a host of other offices where they have not fielded a candidate.

Perhaps the Republicans should focus on races where they have real candidates who want to enter the race and want to win. Put that phone calling efforts into the Sheriff's race. Put it into the county council at-large race. Heck, start calling all the old folks with money and see if they need new attorneys to manage their trust funds.

Seriously, there are some real school board races with real republicans, in the city and beyond. Help them get votes. They need the help.

The County GOPers should work on, rather than with a bogus race for mayor, getting Lynn Swann a phone that works and email that works so he can run against Jason Altmire in 2008. Or, talk with any of the other dozen candidates who want to go to congress in that district, from the GOP ranks.

But, on the other hand, a Republican in the mayor's race might help me in the mayor's race. The Republican and I could demand debates. The Republican and I could raise some issues. The Republican and I could hold our own debate. The Repubican and I could stress different themes. For example, he could call Luke a liar while I just call for a shift to honesty.

But most of all, a Republican in the Mayor's race could mean that I won't finish in last place.

The Republicans in the city could write in Les Ludwig. Or, they could write in Mark DeSantis, 47, who doesn't want the votes. Or, they could write in me, Mark Rauterkus, also 47. I'm actually out in the community and on the internet raising a voice of opposition to the status quo they've been offering on Grant Street.

I've been a candidate for mayor in 2001 -- as a Republican -- because I hated the leadership from Grant Street then. It hasn't changed much in the past six years, sadly. Some, but the city is still on the brink.

Mark DeSantis isn't serious. He hasn't returned my calls. Nor is the RCAC serious. They too don't return my phone calls.

There is a fourth and fifth option for Republicans in the May 2007 primary: Don't vote. And, write in the City Paper's Pierogie.

That fence sitting is a bad place to be.

Might as well just sign my petition and help me get onto the ballot and support a Libertarian.

May 10 school board forum

See the Google Calendar for details.

Honz Man hosted Rick Swartz from 2-3 pm. Where is the web archive?

I hope the producers at KDKA radio will post the one-hour interview and phone call from the 2-3 pm hour when Rick Swartz was with Fred, the Honz Man. Swartz is a candidate for Allegheny County Chief Executive in the D primary.


Presently, the KDKA Radio site, kdkaradio.com, has two major stories devoted to the 2008 election, not the 2007 elections.

Mystery of Downtown Job Growth and Total via A.I. concerning PDP hype

The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership (PDP) acts as the administrative agency for the Downtown Improvement District and as a booster of the Downtown area and it’s attributes to workers, visitors, and residents. By all accounts, it is doing a good job in both roles.

But things might have become a bit overzealous in the booster department. The PDP recently released a study showing that the number of people working in Downtown Pittsburgh (considered as the Golden Triangle, the North Shore, South Shore, Strip District, and Uptown) has increased 23 percent between 1996 and 2006 to stand at 136,928. The study also notes that this number is a substantial portion of the region’s overall workforce and that much of the growth came from the sectors of finance (up 10,000 jobs) and services (up 5,000 jobs).

The study used a mixture of 2000 Census data and surveys conducted by private firms to build a model that estimates the counts in years before (1996) and after (2006) the latest Census information. It is interesting to note that for all of the fanfare and coverage surrounding the report, the job count is different from the number listed on the PDP’s website which places Downtown employment at 140,000. That number has been around for several years.

Nevertheless, there is a troubling aspect of the growth reported by the study: how are we to believe that there has been a 23 percent increase in Downtown employment when almost every economic indicator connected to Downtown as well as the County and region is moving in the opposite direction or holding flat?

For instance, let’s look at vacancy rates, transit trips, tax collections, regional job growth and population changes in the City and County.

* Downtown Vacancy rate—Our 2005 report showed that the vacancy rate for office space in the Golden Triangle (where there is 20 million square feet of office space, about 50 percent of the region’s total) was around 18 to 20 percent for Class A office space. The overall vacancy rate had increased 37 percent from the third quarter of 2001 through the third quarter of 2004. Recently released numbers show that the vacancy rate has risen to 20.7 percent at the end of March, 2007. Obviously, the rising office vacancy rate does not support the notion that jobs are growing let alone at a pace of over two percent per year.

* Public Transit Ridership—As measured by the National Transit Database indicator “average weekday unlinked trips”, it is hard to see how there could be such a significant uptick in Downtown employment. Since the majority of trips carried by the Port Authority are commuters (the study mentions that 4 in 10 Downtown workers use PAT), how do we reconcile the reported Downtown job growth with an 8 percent drop in trips during the ten-year period? The Database shows there were 253,000 weekday-unlinked trips in 1996. By 2006, daily trips had fallen to 233,000. Note that the peak year was 2001 when there were 258,000 daily trips, a modest rise from the 1996 level. Are substantially more people driving and parking in the City? Possibly. But it would seem highly unlikely given the big jump in gasoline prices since 2004 and the very high cost of parking Downtown.

* Tax Collections—A fairly good indicator of the number of people working in the City as a whole is to look at the collections of the $52 Emergency and Municipal Services Tax, which falls on every worker regardless of their place of residence. Collections from the tax and its predecessor, the occupation privilege tax ($52 now, $10 from 1996 through 2004), indicate that about 316,000 people are working in the City. That’s up 9 percent from the 1996 total of 289,000, but down since the peak year reading of 324,000 in 2000. In fact, 1996 and 1997 were the two lowest years of collections in the past thirteen years. It certainly does not seem reasonable to argue that Downtown employment would far outstrip the rate of job growth Citywide as measured by the revenues from this tax.

* Regional Growth Levels—The PDP study states that the 23 percent growth came in large part from just two sectors: finance, up by 10,890 (34%) jobs over the ten years, and services, up by 4,734 (12%). Compare these growth figures to the official data for the seven-county metropolitan area as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics: A 7 percent growth rate in financial activities (4,700 jobs) and an 11 percent increase (33,000) in service jobs. In short, the study is essentially arguing that the increase in Downtown financial jobs has exceeded gains in the region as a whole. If true, that would mean that the region outside Downtown Pittsburgh has lost 6,000 financial jobs. Meanwhile, the study’s services job increase is fairly close to the regional gain and credible. Finally, bear in mind that there has been no net gain in private sector jobs in the Pittsburgh Metro area between February 2000 and February 2007.

* City and County Population Changes—Over the past 12 years or so Allegheny County has seen its labor force and number of jobholders shrink by 30,000. Meanwhile, the City of Pittsburgh’s population has shrunk by more than 30,000 since 1996 and its labor force has undoubtedly fallen, although proportionately less than the population. Since Allegheny County residents make up an overwhelming majority of jobholders in the City, it is hard to imagine that with the amount of County shrinkage we have seen that Downtown payrolls would have jumped 23 percent.

It could be that since the PDP study is only concerned with five Census tract neighborhoods at two points in time that a major portion of the Downtown job growth is the result of jobs moving from other parts of the City or region into Downtown. But there has been little in the way of news of such moves until the recent UPMC announcement. And those jobs were obviously not in Downtown in 2006.

The real problem is that we cannot be totally sure what the actual current job number is. We can, however, reasonably argue that in light of all the factors described above, there has not been a 23 percent gain in Downtown jobs since 1996. There was some growth between 1996 and 2001 from the 1996 low point. On the other hand, all signs point to a lower job total since 2001.

Source: April 24, 2007 Volume 7, Number 22 from Allegheny Institute.

[412] Your Autograph is desired. Collecting signatures from everyone in Allegheny County

[412] Your Autograph is desired. Collecting signatures from everyone in Allegheny County

---

Dear Eligible Voters of Allegheny County,

Your autograph and the autograph of your immediate family, friends, neighbors and co-workers is wanted on the attached form to insure that the democratic process lives for the November 2007 general election.

A concentration of power along with a lack of opposition is increasing our downward decline of both our population base and opportunities for other voices.

Your actions with this email and these forms will go a long way to insure voter choice and integrity in local elections in 2007 -- at a time when we need it most.

I've pulled together a slate of people to stand for office with me. Alternatives are needed as I don't want to give the ones in office now a "Free Pass" and further ignore accountability.

When you sign the petition, you agree we should be on the ballot and nothing more. You don't have to vote for me.

Money is not necessary. Just print the form (front and back) and just pay return postage -- or drop off to -- Mark Rauterkus, 108 South 12th Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15203.

The "official" election form is legal sized. Sadly, it only prints on paper that is 14-inches tall. Ouch. If you don't have paper like that loaded in your computer's printer, email me and I'll mail or drop of a form to your home or workplace. Provide your address. Furthermore, the form must be printed on front and back. Ouch again.

Directions: Sign the first box, P R I N T, the second box, so letters are apart. Include middle initials and Jr./Sr./etc. as registered on election department records. Otherwise, you are deemed less than human and your signature won't count. Ouch. Your street number and address plus boro and municipality is needed (i.e., Castle Shannon, NOT Pgh). Finally, the date.

One omission and the un-democratic lawyers will attack. Dragging me into court -- again is something I want to avoid. I hate that scene. The goal is to get 10,000 valid signatures to have a buffer against a legal challenge. More is better. Deadlines are in July.

Next hurdle (ouch) is to match signatures to the proper form. People in different voting areas need to sign different forms to make this more difficult.

I've limited this email to two choices:
+ voters in CITY OF PITTSBURGH (or) (petition-city.pdf)
+ voters in ALLEGHENY COUNTY. (petition-county.pdf)

If you can't print the form but would like to sign, send me an email with your address.

Return signed forms to:

Mark Rauterkus
108 South 12th Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15203

Thaks for your help.

Full County Smoking Ban Kicks In Next Week - News Story - WTAE Pittsburgh

Full County Smoking Ban Kicks In Next Week - News Story - WTAE Pittsburgh Until July 1, first-time offenders will get off with a warning.

Get out of jail free cards are available by ...

MSM insights. Bill Moyers on the selling of the war

Must see TV, it seems.

Best Practices in eDebates from MN - and Plans for 2008

Steven Clift, fellow netizen and hero of mine, has a wonderful web movie that covers some best-practices for online education for voters from various ventures he's helped to organize throughout the years. These efforts center upon web debates. I've loved being engaged in some of these past efforts as a citizen and consumer of the process.

His recent blog post.

Now Yahoo! et al are talking about holding Presidential online debates. How nice.

The press release from Yahoo! makes an important announcement. However, there have been plenty of online candidate debates. It is a bad practice to say that you are the 'first' in anything.

Web White & Blue hosted a debate in 2000. Check out this web movie,
http://www.e-democracy.org/movies/presidentialedebate.html


"Slugging it out" is the wrong theme. Internet formats should be designed to allow more in-depth answers and a substantive exchange and not to promote a flame fest. Cable television new political punditry can hurl insults there. Don't bring that shock and awe to the internet.

Nomination Papers to download, print, sign and return to us

These links to PDFs hold the keys to the necessary paperwork for the nomination papers so we can get onto the ballot in November 2007.

Any eligible voter in the county can sign. But, the right paperwork must be matched with the right location of the voter.

Those that live nearest to me, on the South Side, in district 3, sign this paper:
http://Elect.Rauterkus.com/papers/petition-cc-3.pdf (PDF, 112k)

Those that live in city council district 7, (Len vs. Patrict in D primary), sign this paper:
http://Elect.Rauterkus.com/papers/petition-cc-7-pdf.pdf (PDF, 719k)

Those that live in city council district 9, (home of Twanda), sign this paper: http://Elect.Rauterkus.com/papers/petition-cc-9.pdf (PDF, 110k)

Anyone in the city can sign this paper:
http://Elect.Rauterkus.com/papers/petition-city.pdf (PDF, 720k)

Anyone in the county can sign this paper:
http://Elect.Rauterkus.com/papers/petition-county.pdf (PDF, 720k)

Second page (flip side):
http://Elect.Rauterkus.com/papers/2nd-page-petition.pdf (PDF, 614k)

Summer Wardrobe

This t-shirt is now for sale.

We didn't have swim practice tonight. Sadly.

A link from the Carlynton School District web site reads as follows:

April 23, 2007

Dear Parent/Guardian:we

On Monday, April 23, 2007, a hand-written message was found on a bathroom partition of a boys’ restroom in the Carlynton Junior-Senior High School. The message suggested the author was going to ‘blow up’ the school on Tuesday, April 24, 2007. Unfortunately, this type of behavior is occurring on a regular basis in schools throughout Allegheny and the surrounding counties.

The police were immediately notified and are investigating this information.

While we may question the credibility of this threat, we always want to err on the side of caution. As a result, all activities occurring at the Junior-Senior High School for Monday evening are cancelled. The Allegheny County Police Department will complete a search of the building on Monday evening and the building will remain locked until 7:00 a.m. Tuesday morning.

No students are permitted to drive to school on Tuesday. An officer will monitor the driveway to ensure that only school personnel drive onto or near the school. All backpacks will be subject to search upon entrance to the school.

This message was specific to the Junior-Senior High School and no other building is involved. Still, we will continue to take our normal precautions in all of the buildings.

The search for the person(s) responsible for this behavior continues. Anyone with information regarding this matter is encouraged to contact the district at 412-429-8400 ext. 117 or the Robinson Township Police at 412-788-8115.

Thank you for your support and cooperation. School will be open and students are to report as usual.

Sincerely yours,
Michael A. Panza, Ed.D.
Superintendent

Steelers fear. Steelers are RENTERS. Buy Heinz Field and then let's talk

Steelers fear casino traffic on game days 'There's a whole different picture on the North Shore that needs to be looked at,' he said.

The Steelers rent Heinz Field. The team has no sway unless it buys Heinz Field.

I think we should sell Heinz Field to the Steelers. And, let's sell PNC Park to the Pirates. And, let's keep the Civic Arena too, while we're at it.

These teams rent. If they were owners, we'd have another discussion.

Don Barden is going to own his casino.

Sun Microsystems chair touts open-source education for K-12 kids

This is the Pittsburgh Promise that I've been talking about for years. Back in 2000 I was asking for Open Source Software for our schools.

Sun Microsystems chair touts open-source education for K-12 kids Sun Microsystems chair touts open-source education for K-12 kids

SUN is a great company. SUN has some great tools. You can help by taking the plunge and getting and using OpenOffice.org for your office productivity suite.

As I pass out CDs to the community members I see on the campaign trails, an installer of OpenOffice.org is generally contained.

Personal Democracy Forum – Technology Is Changing Politics

Running Mates and readers of this blog should not let this pass without putting your skin in the game.

Personal Democracy Forum – Technology Is Changing Politics: Google Personal Democracy Forum Scholarships: Free Registration for Politicos and Non-Profit Professionals

Are you a campaign staffer blazing a new trail in online politics? A non-profit professional trying new technologies with great results? An activist with ideas about the next big thing to change elections?

Then we want you to participate in the Personal Democracy Forum, where the nation's leading technologists, campaign organizers, politicos, bloggers, activists and journalists come together in New York City for a high-level conversation about the new tools, sites and practices that are transforming politics and democracy.

Take Your Father to School Day -- planning and event

I can't attend this meeting:

Committee Members:
Mr. Mark Brentley, Board Member would like to invite you to a Take a Father to School Day Planning Meeting on Friday, April 27, 2007 at 5:00 p.m. in the Board Office located at 341 S. Bellefield Avenue, Oakland on the 2nd floor. Please enter the Administration Building on the Bellefield side. Please RSVP at 412-622-3770 or via email at boardoffice@pghboe.net. We look forward to seeing you on Friday.

Robin Wenger, Board Executive Assistant, Pittsburgh Public Schools, Board of Directors - Room 245, 341 S. Bellefield Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 -- rwenger1@pghboe.net - 412-622-3770 (Phone)

If you want to go, lend a hand, assist with the planning, take some action.

My reply:

---

I wish you all the best on Take Your Father To School Day. But..... I'm not going to be any help to you all. My family and I are going to go to New Zealand on April 28 -- and return around June 9.

We subscribe to the "leave no child behind theory" -- so we take our kids abroad when we go. :)

My wife is going to be teaching a course there and help them with some issues in her field. We'll explore, study, swim, play music and soak it in.

My advice:

I'd love to see a FALL version of Take Your Father To School. When the dads get into the school after the school year has finished, the impact isn't as great, I dare say. I'd love to see dad's get a leg up on knowing teachers, classmates, parents of classmates, and such. By May, the years is behind us.

Could we build upon the tradition and hold FALL take your father to school day as well as a spring session too?

Perhaps there can be a survey taken this year asking that question and some open-ended questions. We did that once, but it sorta got taken into the realm of the administration and out of the hands of the volunteers. Oh well.

Ohligarchy: Candidates At Large

Ohligarchy: Candidates At Large

Check out the bottom line of this post. One word.

New National Fatherhood PSA

City aide's cosmetics sales pitch rebuffed

City aide's cosmetics sales pitch rebuffed: P-G article.

This doesn't look good. When you put lipsick on a pig, you still have a pig.

Candidate disclosure rules in Pa. brew court battles

PennLive.com: NewsFlash - Candidate disclosure rules in Pa. brew court battles: "At the center of the ballot-access cases is disagreement over what must be reported on the one-page 'statement of financial interests' that candidates must file with the state Ethics Commission as a condition for having their names listed on the ballot. The other condition, imposed by the state Election Code, requires them to gather enough voters' signatures to qualify for the office they are seeking.

Candidates can be challenged for failing to meet either requirement — putting them at risk of being thrown off the ballot only weeks before an election.

The required disclosures on the financial statements are relatively superficial — only the names of companies or other sources of income, for example, not dollar amounts or other details."