Monday: Use the Schwartz!!

Comet sources report that a "prominent former elected official" will change his or her party registration from Republican to Democrat at 2:30 this afternoon, and will make brief remarks endorsing Sen. Barack Obama for President.

QUICK NOTE: Matt H, Char, et al: Little help on the whole Obama thing? We got Republican operatives coming at us from one side, and Run Baby Run to contend with on the other. Thx.

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Post-Gazette in Favor of Saving Money (P-G, Edit Board)

Under the proposal that won tentative approval Wednesday by a 4-2 vote, the mayor would retain the authority to decide who gets these 29 cars. This is a fair compromise. The rest of council should see the prudence of this proposal and get on board.

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Historic Preservation Annoys Developers (Trib, Jeremy Boren)

In three recent cases, neighborhood groups with an affinity for historic preservation relied on protections bestowed by Pittsburgh's Historic Review Commission to alter and sometimes prevent developments they don't like, said Pat Ford, executive director of the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

City Planning commission member and Walnut Capitalist Todd Riedbord is fond of putting it even more succinctly: "We don't like when historic preservation comes in at the last minute."

To which we can only respond, #1) Who's 'we'? and #2) Unfortunately, it is difficult to be fully aware of what one has, until it is about to be lost.

"Historic preservation almost never makes sense at the moment that somebody's standing in front of a bulldozer," [Rob] Stephany said. "But almost always, over the long haul, it has huge economic value," he said, citing preservation efforts in Highland Park and in the South Side.

We still haven't gotten our heads around this cat.

Lou Lamanna, president of Bentley Commercial, has said he paid $266,600 for the bank building, also known as the former ARC House, at a sheriff's sale last year with preliminary plans to demolish it and build a $5 million retail development. He declined to be interviewed.

This is on East Ohio St., near the Veteran's Bridge. Rumor has it he wants to put up a McDonalds on the property.

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Allegheny County May Privatize Parks (Trib, Justin Vellucci)

Oglebay serves as a model for privatizing park services -- the buzz-words phrase is "public-private partnerships" -- for Allegheny County, which formed its own nonprofit in September to pay for projects and maintenance on 12,014 acres in nine parks.

Hmmm.

"It was a system where they utilize their assets to raise revenues instead of just tax dollars," Onorato said. "My goal is a broad goal. And, that is to dust off that report written six, seven years ago, showing deferred maintenance at our parks. ... The goal, simply, is to take that report and start raising private money."

Hmmm.

"Systems across the country are not going to be able to survive on the property tax roll," said Joseph Wynns, parks director in Indianapolis. "Park systems are going to have to go to that (public-private) model."

No matter where we come down on this, it's another data point along the story arc that Allegheny County may be straight-up broke or worse.