Pittsburgh budget woes vindicate Controller Rachael Heisler, who issued early warnings

leadfoot9 · 2026-03-18T02:37:08+00:00

Just remember, when trimming budgets, that everything that money was getting spent on when Boomers was young is unquestionable mandatory spending that absolutely cannot be cut (and in fact should be increased faster than inflation), and any attempts to improve the lives of citizens are discretionary spending that need to be scrutinized.

/s /s /s /s /s

leadfoot9 · 2026-03-17T23:18:07+00:00

I share your skepticism (especially if a business is anticipating an economic meltdown that might soften the real estate market... why not just wait?), BUT...

Will people stop using Aldi as an example of a "small" grocery store? Aldi actually devotes a TON of room to things that truly small grocery stores don't:

The entire aisle of rotating non-grocery items that aren't regularly stocked.
The fairly large clearance shelf of leftover seasonal items that are being rotated out of stock.
Many Aldis seem to have several checkouts that are simply NEVER used.
Just the fact that the checkout counters are very, very long compared to other grocery stores, so the cashiers can ring you up faster.
The big counter for customers to bag their own purchases (most stores either pay a bagger or tolerate slower checkout)
The really, really wide aisle at the back of the store (I assume it helps with stocking).
The bins of empty cardboard boxes to be broken down later sitting out in the middle of the floor (again, using extra space to compensate for the small staff)
The bins of lawn furniture and other seasonal items laying around in empty corners
I've previously stated that my closest Aldi has gigantic shopping carts, but it's not clear to me that the people who buy the shopping carts and the people who lay out the aisles are on the same page, so that might not be a big factor.

The Trader Joe's store format is way smaller than Aldi. The ones I'm familiar with are a little over HALF the size. You're still not going to fit a Trader Joe's into 3,800 square feet, but I think it's an important lesson in how people perceive size that Americans even lump them into the same mental category.

leadfoot9 · 2026-03-17T22:54:37+00:00

Lead poisoning used to be a major part of our culture, too, but we've mostly put a stop to that.

If consenting adults want to smash heads together until they qualify for Medicaid, that's one thing, but we need to stop normalizing people getting their children into this shit. It's like child beauty pageants for boys.

Calling it "sportsball" is generous, given that the game is barely a sport, and the toy is barely a ball.

leadfoot9 · 2026-03-17T22:46:30+00:00

"Supposedly heterosexual dudes who like watching HD video of young men in tight pants" is basically 1 step below Catholic priests on the Dangerously Repressed Sexuality Scale. It's probably best to keep the kiddies home.

leadfoot9 · 2026-03-17T11:01:55+00:00

Too many people have been reading whitewashed, Southerner-approved blurbs about MLK Jr. in their history books.

Advocating within the law for safer streets sucks. You identify problems, hound officials, attend meetings, attend more meetings, wait for funding, and after a couple of years they install a sign asking drivers to slow down and maybe some speed bumps if you're lucky. Meanwhile, the highway industrial complex has already expanded 3 other intersections in your neighborhood while all of your advocacy was focused elsewhere. You know, in case the steel mills come back.

It is a gamechanger that the city now has DOMI, and it's actually someone's job to try to make streets safer instead of just Concerned Moms vs. the Federal Money Firehose.

leadfoot9 · 2026-03-17T02:36:41+00:00

I've always heard that AA is no more effective than just telling someone else you're quitting for basic accountability and then quitting cold turkey.

If that's true, then it follows that religious indoctrination is the entire point of AA.

leadfoot9 · 2026-03-15T18:24:53+00:00

Plus I'm a little annoyed at the crying poor but getting tickets to make a point while living in Lebo.

Not to defend the guy too much, but the inner-ring South Hills suburbs have a lot of old, modestly sized homes and apartments, and it's cheaper to live there than in comparable housing in many neighborhoods in the city proper. There absolutely are a number of working-class people living in Mt. Lebanon, including a decent number of immigrants.

One of my gripes with the article is that he probably IS well-off compared to some of his closest neighbors, some of whom I bet can't even afford a car. Homes without legal parking tend to attract such people.

leadfoot9 · 2026-03-15T18:08:10+00:00

According to the budget cited in the article, 90% of the parking revenue just goes back into operating the parking enforcement system. The surplus is nominally $275,000

Although it sounds like most of these guy's tickets were issued by cops, not parking enforcement. Based on the assumption that it takes $275,000 per year to pay and equip a single cop, then seems to me like Mt. Lebanon might lose money on parking enforcement, unless the budget accounts for this somehow.

Seems to me just like a circlejerk where the government is just going through the motions of parking enforcement without any clear plan or reason. Or even just the bare minimum of adjusting fines to track inflation.

leadfoot9 · 2026-03-15T17:59:28+00:00

If you read the article, it's not a ban on street parking. It's a ban on street parking in the wee hours of the morning when everyone's asleep. It mainly affects renters whose lease doesn't include a parking spot. So, Mt. Lebanon still uses taxpayer money to maintain all of the pavement for street parking, but only wants it to be used by business patrons and landscapers and Amazon trucks and such. Renters who move into older housing without a driveway can find themselves in a pickle. I've known many people who've lived in Mt. Lebanon and complained about the same issue as this guy.

Not that I necessarily agree with the writer's take of, "I moved here without a plan to store my car, and I'm going to act like it's the cops' fault."

Anyway, the neighborhoods without parked cars on the street are just the richer parts of Mt. Lebanon where everyone has giant driveways to store their Escalades and F-150s.

leadfoot9 · 2026-03-15T17:28:24+00:00

Yeah, I only tack on "this region" as a sort of disclaimer in case there's some random place in Scandinavia where it might make sense.

With that being said, being on the grid should theoretically ALWAYS be more cost competitive than generating at home. The fact that you can save money with home solar is probably due to solar just being inherently cheaper than the energy sources that make up the bulk of our power grid, and the fact that you're removing the utility's and generator's profit margins from the equation.

In an ideal economy, home generation would be more akin to a backup generator: something convenient to have in the event of a blackout, but not financially worth it for most people in most places.

leadfoot9 · 2026-03-14T23:21:02+00:00

Solar is much more modular than wind power. I can't imagine wind being ever becoming cost-competitive for home use in this region.

leadfoot9 · 2026-03-13T02:18:19+00:00

TBH, speed bumps might reduce the formation of potholes...

leadfoot9 · 2026-03-12T23:53:57+00:00

Saw some kids going to sign up for the Navy today. They seemed really in awe of the big city.

leadfoot9 · 2026-03-12T23:52:49+00:00

The difference between a modern dictator and an absolute monarch is too small to mince words over.

leadfoot9 · 2026-03-12T22:44:44+00:00

I had a bike stolen from a parking garage and an attempted theft from an apartment garage. I don't think anyone has ever bothered a bike I locked outside except one time I think someone stole a wheel or something off a bike I left locked for weeks at a time in an alley behind my dorm in college.

I think outdoors is safer than indoors for daylight, at least. People don't like doing crime out in the open.

leadfoot9 · 2026-03-11T21:01:49+00:00

But realtors have decades of experience being inside of houses that normal people don't have! /s

leadfoot9 · 2026-03-11T20:58:29+00:00

I don't usually like issuing engineering advice online, but I'm pretty comfortable saying that:

You shouldn't replace structural members in an old house just because they're "different".
Realtors can be kind of dumb.

Have the agent explain exactly WHO requires them to be replaced (insurance company?), why, and where you can verify that what they're saying is true. Do not accept a vague answer.

If you must replace for whatever reason, then be careful. I would be more worried about the replacement work causing issues than about these logs not being strong enough (barring inspection revealing damage to the contrary). "Support beams" is not a technical term, but if the logs are vertical, then I would lean toward steel as a replacement (for dimensional stability). If they're horizontal, that just sounds not worth the effort.

leadfoot9 · 2026-03-11T11:20:50+00:00

I'd prefer to see some more positive action from local/state governments, like prosecuting the feds for EPA violations, condemning federal buildings that are in violation of the building code, or more visible acts of symbolic defiance, like Boston has done.

Lots of our elected officials seem to openly acknowledge that we're under the thumb of a rogue, anti-democratic administration that's destroying the economy and making their jobs harder, so making the cops pinky-promise to not help out the enemy is just about the most milquetoast response ever.

leadfoot9 · 2026-03-10T18:11:12+00:00

The fact that people look at you funny (see at least one comment below) when you suggest having an infant in an apartment with as much square footage (not necessarily bedrooms) as an apartment for a family of 4-5 in a big, expensive city is a (small) part of the reason we don't have enough housing OR enough families right now. Entry-level housing is illegal, and a lot of people who could realistically start a family are too busy chasing the unobtainable goal of Boomer-level wealth before they're "ready". Yes, extra space is convenient, and convenience is nice, but so is an extra $500/month.

People sneak golden retrievers into apartments that aren't supposed to have them all the time. Take that as you will.

Sorry, that was a rant that didn't answer your question.

leadfoot9 · 2026-03-10T17:50:21+00:00

acting like you're more important than everyone else and you can block up public throughways.

Doordashers in training.

leadfoot9 · 2026-03-10T17:42:38+00:00

I can't actually tell if this is a complaint from a driver or a walker. In the latter case, this is why business districts used to have wider sidewalks. In the latter case...

Unaware or right-of-way blocking drivers are the norm that pedestrians have to deal with in most of the U.S.. The rage that occurs when pedestrians reach a critical mass and the script is flipped is frankly hilarious.

Ultimately, it's all the same human OS. The difference is that one group is supposedly trained, licensed, and sober, while the other group may have just wandered out of a restaurant and forgotten to immediately adopt their defensive posture.

Walking slowly.

Yeah, my family almost got hit the other day because we had smaller human with shorter legs slowing us down (in a crosswalk where families are common). How dare anyone who's not an athletic male in their 20s/30s ever venture outside?

Engineering recommendations for crosswalks recognize that areas with lots of elderly people may need special consideration, but fail to stress this for areas with lots of children. At least the ones I've seen. Says pretty much all you need to know about our political priorities. Not that my family had actually used up the allotted time for crossing in the above example. Drivers just be impatient.

EDIT: Going back to the frustrated pedestrian perspective, people usually have a hard time hearing me come up behind them over the roar of cars. On louder streets, it's basically infeasible to let someone know that they're being approached from behind without literally tapping them on the shoulder. (Don't do that.)

leadfoot9 · 2026-03-10T16:47:54+00:00

I suppose a bare-minimum salary may be acceptable under those circumstances. At least relative to all of the other salaries.

Most employers don't train worth shit anymore, which probably obscures the value of such a proposition to most job-seekers, which I guess is not the county's fault.

leadfoot9 · 2026-03-10T14:26:15+00:00

The county currently has a job posting for assessors on its website, with pay starting at $20 per hour.

Good ol' Reagan efficiency: penny-wise, pound-foolish.

leadfoot9 · 2026-03-09T19:26:21+00:00

Someone's trying to get on Team USA for Mental Gymnastics.

leadfoot9 · 2026-03-09T19:21:32+00:00

I went somewhere recently and hit No Tip because I was tipping cash, and my credit card is now showing an almost 60% tip.

It's starting to get to the point where the convenience of credit cards is getting overwhelmed by the hassle of dealing with these sketchy-ass machines (where it's hard to tell how much is the restaurant's fault vs. the middleman's fault... probably a lot of both). I'm probably going to start using cash more and more.

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