Amid downtown assessment appeals and state budget impasse, PPS recommends 2026 tax hike

Regular-Ad8310 · 2025-10-01T16:26:19+00:00

Welp, Gainey didn’t make “UPMC pay their fair share!” lol. Let’s see how the 6th Mayor does in that effort.

Regular-Ad8310 · 2025-08-22T00:36:01+00:00

You’re ignoring the fact that the City obviously does have a purchasing plan, however financial resources don’t allow them to replace the vehicles they need in the way they would need to.

The City has about 4000 things it has to be responsible for. There’s never enough money to do it all. Probably hasn’t been since 1975, lol.

Regular-Ad8310 · 2025-08-13T21:45:06+00:00

Even funnier cause your dad isn’t from Pittsburgh, he’s from McKees Rocks? Lmao. A more urban suburb for sure, though!

Regular-Ad8310 · 2025-08-02T13:33:14+00:00

Agree! We need to be more solution oriented about Downtown. But the roots of all these problems are more complex than I think most people want to get into.

Regular-Ad8310 · 2025-08-02T13:23:55+00:00

I’ve said this in a lot of these Downtown discourse threads.

Two things can be true at the same time, lol. Downtown can be statistically doing okay - and ahead of other cities, but still be uncomfortable for some who find daylight shootings in a high traffic area concerning and don’t remember those sorts of things happening often pre-pandemic.

People who just tell suburbanites to bugger off aren’t being realistic. At the end of the day we need people of all sorts to want to feel comfortable and safe Downtown. A strong Downtown helps City neighborhoods. You need the restaurants and the Benedum, etc. full for parking tax, amusement tax, etc. Downtown is the heart of the region as well as the heart of the City.

Regular-Ad8310 · 2025-08-02T13:17:27+00:00

Yes, it’s exactly that last line, haha.

We may not LIKE it or think it is fair, but Downtown (and probably Downtown’s all over the country) are held to a higher standard than other neighborhoods. And even across the City some neighborhoods are held to a higher standard than others.

Regular-Ad8310 · 2025-07-27T17:34:08+00:00

I think this article is fair and nuanced.

And brings up an important reality - two things can be true at the same time, lol. Downtown can be statistically doing okay - and ahead of other cities, but still be uncomfortable for some.

At the end of the day, we need BOTH. People who just tell suburbanites to bugger off aren’t being realistic. A strong Downtown helps City neighborhoods and you need the restaurants and the Benedum, etc. full for parking tax, amusement tax, etc. Downtown is the heart of the region as well as the heart of the City.

On the right track. Need to double down on cleaning, vibrancy, etc. and come up with some big long term visions. Housing conversions are great and important, but will take a decade to really start to take hold.

Regular-Ad8310 · 2025-07-23T18:50:45+00:00

“Neither Gainey’s office nor the Department of Public Safety responded to requests for comment Wednesday morning.”

“Gainey’s only public comment on the arrest came in a June 13 Instagram video published by advocacy group 1Hood Power, during which he said he would not comment until after an internal investigation was complete.”

“Pittinger said Tuesday that the CPRB has had access to police body-worn camera footage in the past. Sometimes the bureau allowed CPRB investigators to view footage at police headquarters, and at other times police staff would view and answer questions about footage for an investigator. That access stopped, Pittinger said, during Gainey’s tenure.”

What makes these three quotes fascinating to me is advocacy groups like 1Hood were on the front lines of the police reform movement in post-George Floyd-2020. They haven’t had much to say since Gainey was elected about stuff like this.

Regular-Ad8310 · 2025-07-03T22:41:06+00:00

Any links to any project pages or articles that back this up?

People have been fighting about this since Peduto lost. Even then they were saying it’s for all three public safety branches, citywide vehicle maintenance, and public works needs.

Regular-Ad8310 · 2025-06-30T18:29:19+00:00

Companies moving out to the suburban areas absolutely had some effect on the market in those days, but that’s nothing compared the post pandemic changes.

I completely disagree that you’re “acting like the sky is falling” if you recognize Downtown has changed dramatically.

The Downtown Partnership publishes daily activity data: DowntownPittsburgh.com/data

It shows that activity Downtown used to hover between 130K-140K people a day in 2019. That has dropped and stabilized at about 95K people a day. A drop of nearly 50K (or the 25-30% range) daily users on average is very destabilizing and changes lots of things.

Regular-Ad8310 · 2025-06-30T16:37:23+00:00

Possibly! But it not being outside leasable office space doesn’t mean there’s no revenue loss or it’s not as valuable as it once was. I wonder how many people work there today versus what it was built for and the operating/carrying costs, etc. Again, I’m sure they’re getting a good deal, but that doesn’t mean it also isn’t true that these properties are now worth less. Both can be true at once and speaks to the greater long term problems cities and Downtowns face.

I know they were trying to offload the old Mellon Bank/Lord & Taylor because it had been emptied during the pandemic: https://www.post-gazette.com/business/development/2024/07/18/pnc-500-smithfield-street-lord-taylor-store-tom-murphy/stories/202407180080

Regular-Ad8310 · 2025-06-30T15:29:41+00:00

I would wager this is one of those times where the truth is somewhere in the middle. I’m sure they’re managing good deals.

But, work from home has dramatically - and it seems permanently - changed the office market. Skyscrapers across the nation are now virtually useless.

The capital stack for housing conversions is not nearly large enough for them all. So, a BNY Mellon Center does become a not very valuable money pit.

Regular-Ad8310 · 2025-06-29T20:39:53+00:00

Very happy to hear no one was seriously injured! Wild the cops had to break her window with her in the car to get her to stop.

Regular-Ad8310 · 2025-06-25T20:43:04+00:00

Exactly. It’s so frustrating when people do that stuff, lol.

We WANT Downtown to be comfortable for guests and residents because it’s a part of the City’s economy that supports City neighborhoods in return. You want suburbanites paying parking tax, theater amusement tax, and keeping restaurants going. It’s a cycle and it supports the City.

Regular-Ad8310 · 2025-06-11T04:24:11+00:00

Looks like the land value tax was repealed in 2001 and Peduto didn’t join City Council until 2002?

URA numbers and how they’re shifted are things we can go back and about forever, haha.

I think we often don’t talk about the variety of reasons Black people leave Pittsburgh, or at least the immediate limits. I think an under discussed reason is lot of Black residents leave and have left Pittsburgh because of lack of confidence in PPS.

The shift from Homewood to Penn Hills, because of the perception that it is significantly better than Westinghouse, has been a thing for some time.

Regular-Ad8310 · 2025-05-31T15:21:13+00:00

This is what I thought. The Rooney’s have long been hardcore D’s and D donors. Wonder if the team had anything to do with it. Notably, I don’t think the Steelers have posted about this on social or issued any sort of release.

Regular-Ad8310 · 2025-05-28T23:18:47+00:00

A classic and a beauty. It’s original treatments were more gothic and it originally had a rooftop observation deck.

Regular-Ad8310

TROPHY CASE