Must ... Pave ... Everything!!

Mild-mannered television news reporter Bob Mayo of WTAE hits the streets to cover the city paving controversy.

It now appears that although Ravenstahl is going to "study" or "look at" returning to a computerized system, for now he's more comfortable trusting the instincts of council members and public works employees.

We never understood the argument that since we have less money for paving than we used to, we must scrap the computer system, or it will keep demanding that we repave too much. Can't we, uh, just punch in a new number?

"That is a false argument," said Peduto. "The program is created to be recalibrated by budget. So if we only have $6 million to spend in any given year of the budget, the priority is given to the streets that need it the most."

It's a wonder what these new-fangled computing machines can do!

Back to the Future

A P-G Early Returns piece this morning framed today's scheduled debate about pavement management as a test for Councilman Peduto.

Turns out, he is precisely as effective as a think-tank gunner as he was as a mayoral candidate. Uncannily so. From this afternoon's update (victory lap?) by Rich Lord:

That meeting could be moot, as the mayor appears to have decided in favor of a more objective system.

"The mayor has directed [Public Works] Director [Guy] Costa to utilize a pavement management system," said Deputy Public Works Director Mike Gable. The city is in the process of evaluating systems to determine which would work best and which are compatible with the city's overall management software.

Remember this piece by P-G columnist Brian O'Neill? Still delicious.

Meanwhile, Councilman Motznik spoke out against accusations of politics playing a role in street paving. We didn't catch exactly what he had against returning to a computerized system, if only to erase the appearance of impropriety.