Thursday: Going Through the Proper Process

In its new application, Lamar argues that the original permit was valid. But it also asks the zoning board to set aside rules that bar new advertising signs Downtown, restrict signs anywhere to 750 square feet, and cap their height at 45 feet above ground. The proposed sign would be 53 feet above the street. (P-G, Rich Lord)

The trip to the ZBA alone would not seem to satisfy the requirement that electronic message signs be subject to Conditional Use approval -- nor the one about amended Project Development Plans having to be resubmitted to the Planning Commission for approval.

Nor does it address the fact that our Zoning Administrator approved the original permit, signed it and notarized it herself, in a final delicious act of paranoid insularity.

Councilman Patrick Dowd said that in his view, Lamar is "actually going through the proper process."

Unless he defines "proper process" as simply walking into a government building and asking some public officials somewhere for guidance, then we disagree. The onus, it would appear, will be on Wrena Watson at the ZBA to disabuse Lamar of their misconceptions about the law.

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Arthur Outen, who served as Schenley’s first African-American principal 38 years ago, went Lafean one better. He said not only is there no asbestos problem—there’s no asbestos.

“They removed at least 89 percent of the asbestos over the course of two summers in 1970 and 1971,” he said. “I don’t know if they got it all because they told me and my office staff to stay out of the way. I was also at McNaugher when they took the asbestos out of that school about 10 years later, so I’ll be telling that to city council.” (Courier, Christian Morrow)

It is prohibitively difficult to "go Lafean one better" on whatever it is he says. If this little nugget of information happens to pan out, the conversation switches abruptly from Save Schenley to Save Roosevelt.

Ms. Colaizzi said a referendum could be placed on the ballot to ask voters whether the Pittsburgh Public Schools should borrow nearly $80 million to renovate a building that's historic and beloved, but plagued by asbestos and other maintenance problems. (P-G, Joe Smydo)

Except for the facts that those numbers are heavily in dispute, and that everybody is seeking other methods of raising cash rather than borrowing it, this is a wonderful idea.

Ms. Colaizzi also lashed out at council, which has no legal authority over school affairs, for "putting their nose where it doesn't belong."

The only person who rightly has business with Schenley High School is Franco Colaizzi, without whom the School District would not have a single available tutor -- let alone an abundance of duly accredited, professional tutors who need the experience, need the money, and are not required to be in a classroom across town with the rest of their non-School Board parent-having classmates.

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Girl Talk, the Pittsburgh laptop artist who rocks parties all over the world, released his new album today on his label's web site, http://www.illegalart.net/. (P-G, Team Effort)

This will be big news for some people.