A quick political Detour

I know I said yesterday (and I still maintain) that this blog does not discuss politics except for where politics intersect with transit/transportation, however I have to continue on my detour because of my genuine concern for this amazing city.

I'm obviously not happy about the outcome of the primary yesterday, but there's not a whole lot I can say other than: I hope a worthy challenger presents themselves before November or I hope our incumbent mayor shows us much more than what he has up to this point. However, that is not the point of this post.

What concerns me in this instance is involvement. Everyone knows we love our sports teams here in Pittsburgh (myself included). Just how much we love sports hit me today while I was surfing Post Gazette.com, and found under their "most e-mailed stories" that the number one story was not related to the election. In fact, the #1 story had something to do with the fact that James Harrison is afraid to fly. That whole election thing didn't even make it into the most e-mailed stories for today, period.

Is Pittsburgh sports REALLY that important, or do Pittsburghers REALLY not care about politics? I'm afraid it's a little of both. I'd be frightened to know the results if a poll was taken to see how many voters were swayed in favor of Mr. Ravenstahl because of his January "name change".

Turnout was low throughout the county at roughly 21%, and the unofficial vote count for the mayoral primary in Pittsburgh was roughly 45,000 or 13% of 334,000 residents (using 2000 census statistics). I understand that Pennsylvania voting laws don't help the situation, but if a republican or independant could vote in a democratic primary, would the outcome have been all that different?

I am surprised and saddened that a citizenry that is so fiercely loyal to this city is so apathetic to influencing the mechanisms for change. What can be done to change that? Are people disillusioned, or do they just not care? I sincerely hope it's not the latter.

The Most Monumental Endorsement in Pittsburgh Political History

This post will hopefully tip the scales in my mayoral candidate's favor, but time will only tell. I have political opinions but try (for the most part) to keep them out of this blog, except where they intersect with transit related issues. Today is big for Pittsburgh, especially because it is basically the general election. Whoever wins today will most likely be Pittsburgh's next mayor.

For what it's worth, I am putting my political might behind Patrick Dowd. He is the only candidate that seems to have a strategic vision for the city to move it forward and who is willing to fight to take down the road blocks that lie in his way (pay to play politics, pension/health care issues, lack of government transparency). Additionally, unlike the two other candidates he is the only candidate to mention transit as a part of his strategic vision.

Maybe it was the "Steelerstahl" incident, or the Toby Keith incident, but Luke Ravenstahl has been anything but a leader. His goal has been to tread water while taking credit for anything that has been accomplished during his tenure, whether he had anything to do with it or not. I don't see Pittsburgh reversing the tide of population and job loss with Mr. Ravenstahl at the helm given what we have seen so far, and given his "vision" for the future.

I was impressed by Carmen Robinson's candid nature, responsiveness, and willingness to engage a low life blogger in a sustained discussion about transit. However, I did not get the impression from her that she had a cohesive strategic vision for where the city needed to go. I think with time and some re-work to her message, she could be an excellent candidate. However, that time is not right now.

No one else seems to have the drive, and the fire to fix Pittsburgh like Patrick Dowd. When I look at the picture he paints of his Pittsburgh, it looks like a place where I want to live!

Transportation and the Mayoral Race Part 3

The last of the three democratic candidates is Patrick Dowd (I will cover "Dok" Harris, and any Republican who might decide to come along later.)

I had an interesting interaction with Mr. Dowd's campaign, I was somewhat frustrated at first, but his campaign contact was very polite and helpful. Using his website, I sent the same question that I have sent the other two democratic candidates. "What are your plans for transportation infrastructure and transit if elected as mayor?" I received an e-mail several days later, but instead of it being an answer to my simple question, it was an e-mail soliciting me to contribute to Mr. Dowd's campaign. I was naturally a little miffed, the campaign did not answer my question, but has assumed that Mr. Dowd now has my vote and needs my money.

So far, off to a bad start...

I quickly responded with an e-mail of my own stating, in a nutshell, that the campaign was making a pretty big assumption if they believed I would support Mr. Dowd without even a reply to my question. As I said before, the campaign rep I spoke to was very courteous and helpful in his reply where he answered my question.

"Patrick's plans for transportation and infrastructure fit within his broader vision for smart, strategic development of the city...you'll see that Patrick wants to invest in mass transit corridors that will promote dense development and a more sustainable city. He's very interested in projects like the Oakland - downtown corridor and working closely with the Port Authority to provide the most efficient and effective public transit system possible."

He also wrote about Mr. Dowd's stance on bike-ped initiatives (Bike Pittsburgh will be pleased).

Lastly, he wrote about a much needed re-vitalization of Pittsburgh's infrastructure "...whether it's for transit, or water and sewage..." Can't argue with that.

Mr. Dowd shares the opinion of Carmen Robinson that reform is needed within the Port Authority to improve efficiency. Additionally, Mr. Dowd seems to be the only candidate to have a specific vision for transit and transportation relating to their potential administration and to note their support of a specific tranit plan (The Spine Line). These points are certainly positive, but as with all politicians, there remains the looming shadow that this is all just campaign fluff and nothing will be addressed. This is nothing against Mr. Dowd, but just the nature of politics.

Mr. Dowd's website is also the only website of the three candidates that directly addresses transit issues. His website includes a paragraph entitled "Investing in mass-transit corridors". He states that "I intend to work closely with the Port Authority in order to promote development that increases ridership, fosters community and neighborhood revitalization, and supports local economic development." Now that's right up my alley! He's saying alot of the right things; talking about T.O.D., neighborhood revitalization, and creating a better transit system. Although it is a short paragraph, and generally broad like most information on all three candidate's websites, it is well thought out and clearly provides the greatest vision for transit of all three candidates.

Transportation and the Mayoral Race Part 2

Part 2 will focus on Candidate Carmen Robinson (I was going to do this alphabetically by last name, after the incumbent, but Ms. Robinson was the first to respond to me, and took the time to have a conversation with me about her ideas via e-mail. She deserves some credit for that.)

I posed the same question to Ms. Robinson that I posed to Mr. Ravenstahl, and Mr. Dowd: "What are your plans for transportation infrastructure and transit if elected as mayor?"

Her first answer was:
"Although I have thoughts on transportation and some experience in that industry, I will have to use the "bully pulpit" of the office since transportation is squarely a County Executive and County Council mandate. I didn't say issue because it affects all of us. Currently the office of the Mayor has no influence over Dan Onorato. I will change that!"

She went on to explain what a bully pulpit is, and I didn't include that. As far as an answer, it's pretty vague, but not far from a standard politician answer to a question. She is right that it is a County matter, but it is a big matter for the city. As far as how she would approach using the bully pulpit, she was again, pretty vague.

I sent her a clarification question, relating Luke Ravenstahl's "infrastructure wish list" and asked her if she had any more concrete ideas for improving transit and transportation. She responded by saying she would argue for sub-contracting out certain services. Saying that " If a private company were run the way PAT does, it would be out of business...A competive (sic) bid for sub contractors could give the system the boost it needs"

I certainly agree with her assertion that the Port Authority is not running as efficiently as it could. Again, just because the Port Authority is not a business, doesn't mean that they can't run efficiently and emulate a business. However, I question her plan on sub-contracting and on what scale? East Busway maintenance, for example is already contracted out, and that still sucks pretty bad too.

Even this discussion was pretty broad (but that is to be expected), but if you read between the lines of her discussion on sub-contracting, she has a point. Ms. Robinson is the first candidate to specifically discuss inefficiencies at the Port Authority.
The big question is, will she have the political muscle, and the time to devote to a true solution when there are plenty of other problems, and technically, she would not hold the mantle for transit in Pittsburgh.

Ms. Robinson's website, as with every other candidate website is not detailed, and I'm sure this is purposefully done. She has a section called "What I stand for" which again is very general and does not mention transit or transportation at all.

In my assessment, like the other candidates, transportation and transit are not hot button issues (other than staying away from them) for her. However, I think Ms. Robinson is aware of some of the problems that the Port Authority has, and thus far has been the most willing to admit to those problems. She certainly sounded like she was willing to give Dan Onorato her input on those issues, and from what I have been able to gather up to this point, that is more than our current mayor.

Transportation* and the Mayoral Race Part 1

It's hard to focus on just transporation for something as "small" (relatively speaking) as a Mayoral campaign. The Port Authority which serves as the mass transit provider for Pittsburgh is not confined to the city limits and is not controlled by the mayor. However, given Pittsburgh's current position as an older city with lots of aging infrastructure (bridges, tunnels and curves oh my!) and with a half billion dollar (and unpopular for that matter) transit project going on within the city limits, these issues have high billing in this election.

This post is meant to be as non-biased as possible. I will do my best to pick apart each bit of information that I do get as evenly as possible. The first post will describe the plan of our incumbent mayor Luke Ravenstahl.

I have contacted his re-election office with the simple question of "What are your plans for transportation infrastructure and transit if re-elected as mayor?" To this point I have not received a response.

There is however the "infrastructure wish list" which was published as just that, a wish list for stimulus funds, which were at that time in the pipeline, and Pittsburgh was taking its place in line. The stimulus money has since been doled out, but I think this list provides a good blueprint of where his administration stands on these topics. Most of the items on this list address current infrastructure (Greenfield bridge repairs, major sewer repairs, etc.) . I certainly can't say anything bad about that, lord knows we have lots of old infrastructure in Pittsburgh.

However, I see little imagination, and little planning for the future in this list. Where's the transit expansion? Where's the commuter rail line Bill Peduto talked about? Maybe there's another wish list out there. If there is I sure can't find it.

Additionally, if you look on the "issues" section of his re-election page, you find his "Blueprint for Pittsburgh's Renaissance." (As an aside, saying Pittsburgh is undergoing a renaissance, is absolutely ludicrous, and actually hurts the recovery efforts of the city. Get the city out of Act 47, and stop the population loss, and then we'll talk). Nowhere in this blueprint is the word transportation or transit even mentioned. The number seven point on his "blueprint" got me excited. However, like all his other points, transportation or transit were not mentioned.

From what I was able to gather (and that's not a lot), transportation, transit and infrastructure are not too high on his list. My guess he is willing to let Dan Onorato fight those battles. I will update this column when someone from Mr. Ravenstahl's campaign responds to my question.

*For the purposes of these posts I will consider transportation to be an all inclusive term to include transportation infrastructure, and transit.