How We Got Here to Begin With

In the beginning, there was Isle of Capri.

Isle of Capri was one of three candidates for the Pittsburgh slots license -- and the only one offering the Penguins and the City a $290 million arena, at their own expense.

The Pittsburgh Gaming Task Force endorsed the Isle of Capri proposal, due in large part to the degree of "community giveback" in the form of that arena.

Isle of Capri even wound up sweetening the deal: not only would it invest $290 in the new arena, but it promised a $350 million redevelopment of the Lower Hill and a $1 million-a-year reinvestment fund targeting the Hill and Uptown.

This really whipped up Pittsburgh into a fever of optimism about the arena, and about the casino -- look at all that economic development! In the Lower Hill! We like that!

Isle of Capri's claim to being the most advantageous candidate was strengthened. The plight of Pittsburgh's Hill District was made a political football from the very beginning.

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Gov. Rendell must not have appreciated the idea of politicizing the retention of a sports team in order to influence the decision of the Gaming Control Board. Or he wanted Harrahs in Station Square to win. That's why he came up with Plan B.

Plan B was pretty simple -- the state would pony up the $290 million for the arena, and the winning casino operator -- whomever that would turn out to be -- must pony up the $350 million to get involved in Hill District redevelopment.

Since those were the figures Isle of Capri was offering, those were the figures the new applicants instantly "owed" to the community. Remember this. We wouldn't want to shortchange the community!

Harrahs jumped on the offer immediately -- anything to remain competitive. Interestingly, Don Barden was at first noncommittal, and only slowly came around to the idea.

Of course, if anyone questioned the $290 million of taxpayer monies going into this sports arena, by now it was standard to talk about the $350 million investment in the Hill.

Still a political football.

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Lo and behold, due both to Hill District opposition to a neighborhood casino and to overwhelming traffic concerns, PITG Gaming and Don Barden won the license.

Who knew what Isle of Capri's $350 million worth of development would have looked like -- we have our suspicions -- but at any rate, what's past is prologue.

This is when things get exciting.

Smokey Robinson, a partner in PITG Gaming, called today's vote "one of the most gratifying things that's ever happened to me," although he didn't call it a miracle.

"First of all to be a minority. Don Barden is a wonderful man and he's black and to get a thing like that in a city like Pittsburgh is a wonderful honor."

"We plan on doing so many wonderful things for the city of Pittsburgh," Mr. Robinson said, also mentioning the plans for the Hill District. (P-G, Mauriello & Belko)

Smokey Robinson! Wonderful man! Wonderful things! Jerome Bettis acted as the face of Don Barden's Hill District as well. It must have made for an encouraging scene.

Some were hopeful that Don Barden, who has a license to open a casino on the North Side next year, might be interested in the Grill as part of a $350 million redevelopment package for the Hill District.

But Barden spokesman Bob Oltmanns said it's much too soon to discuss specific properties there. The Grill's location is 11 blocks away from Mellon Arena and the proposed new arena.

"Our objective is that our development should reach like fingers into the rest of the Hill and spur additional development," Mr. Oltmanns said. (P-G, Kevin Kirkland)

Okay so he's being cautious, but "reach like fingers into the rest of the Hill" and "spur additional development" sounded so well-considered, so progressive.

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Then things fell apart. (Andrew Conte, Trib)

"The critical factor is who has the development rights," said Bob Oltmanns, Majestic Star's spokesman. "We're still interested in following through on our commitment to the Hill District."

Barden promised to spur a $350 million revitalization of the arena site with homes, offices and retail shops. Majestic Star believes it has first dibs on the site because it agreed to help pay for a new Uptown arena, Oltmanns said.

Barden was never going to get those development rights. The government infrastructure didn't feel like sharing.

The government infrastructure was content to see a dramatically smaller investment in community development, so long as it did not have to mess around with competing private interests. Remember that.

When they negotiated terms for the arena in March, Gov. Ed Rendell and local officials offered the Mellon Arena site to the Penguins for development. The team has 10 years to develop the land, starting with demolition of Mellon Arena for a parking lot.

Penguins officials must negotiate with Barden in "good faith" about the chance to "potentially participate in development rights." A team spokesman declined to comment.

Might be an excellent time to ask Barden about the Mayor's idea of good faith.

None of the terms require the Penguins to develop the site with Barden, said Don Kortlandt, general counsel for the city's Urban Redevelopment Authority. The agency agreed last month to give the Penguins the right to develop the site's 400,000-square-foot upper parking lot.

"' Good faith' negotiation is sort of a term of art," Kortland said. "They have to give a reasonable opportunity to strike a deal with you, but they don't necessarily have to accept any deal if it's unreasonable."

Don Kortlandt is the gentleman who alerted us to the galaxy of legal risks to which the URA is vulnerable, by the way. Continuing:

Oltmanns declined to say whether Barden would follow through with money for the Hill District if he doesn't get the development rights.

Wheatley said he believes it's unlikely Barden would want to put money into the neighborhood without the chance to build on the arena site. "I think Don Barden has a true commitment, but at some point, this man has gotten the short end of the stick," Wheatley said.

"A smart businessman would say, 'I promised those things as a total part of my application when the understanding was I had the development rights, but at this point, the conversation has changed.' "

As far as we can tell, that was the last time anybody mentioned Don Barden or this $350 million going into the Lower Hill or Any Other Hill.

The SEA and thence the URA awarded the Penguins sole rights to develop the land, which in turn the Pens are handling according to City and URA strictures on doing business -- that is, with open and imperious hostility towards its neighbors.

Meanwhile, everybody set down the football and discreetly backed away. Hundreds of millions of dollars for the Hill served as nothing but a sideshow for dueling casino bids, and for politicians justifying a huge subsidy for private interests.

In the end? Nothing.

It was at that very URA meeting, on which the Hill was denied any stake in the Mellon Arena land, that it was assured it would have the chance at City Planning to talk about investments in the community.

Now that we are at City Planning, One Hill is being asked to accept vague assurances "on good faith", and to pursue things later on down the road through the appropriate government infrastructure, like possibly the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

Which is the exact same thing Pittsburgh's Hill District was told fifty years ago. Talk about being given the runaround.

Turning the Corner

Our self-united chief of staff, Char, does not agree with us on the whole Hill District issue.

When good people like Char disagree with you, you've lost Pittsburgh.

So, we will present Char's comment to the BURGH REPORT in its entirety, in two volumes.

This first volume is unimportant. At its conclusion, we get all sappy and ludicrous on issues of race and poverty. We probably don't know what we're talking about.

We're just putting this out there in case it leads anyone anywhere.

Bram, I'm all for social resources like substance abuse programs, youth centers, YMCAs, clean safe parks and playgrounds. That is money well-spent to *help* clean the neighborhood up and build toward its future. But no amount of help will completely clean up the neighborhood until the folks who live there realize the buck stops with them. Their own kids, their neighbor's kids, the kids down the street must be ultra-protected, ultra-parented to make up for the ugly influences that bombard them every day. Influences they’ve allowed to grow and fester. THEY have to do this. They cannot rely on the day-care center, school teacher, youth counselor to make sure their kids go to school, do their homework and not roam-about/hang-out late at night with nothing to do but get into trouble. This is what THEY must do to make sure their kids are employable if the jobs they keep demanding ever do materialize.

Additionally, Hill residents must get over the "don't snitch" mentality. They've got to band together, work WITH police, to get the ugly element out of their lives, away from their children.

Okay, here is where we interrupt. Like we said, we do not have a very good answer for this material.

We hope One Hill has an answer by Monday.

All the Comet asks (here it comes) is that first we all really hone in on our empathy toward the miseries and struggles of poverty and misfortune, common miseries to which we all can relate...

... then imagine many of ourselves in an entirely different and more challenging family situation, economic situation, educational situation and who knows what else...

... and then on top of that, imagine stepping out our front doors every morning, only to see little but the same and worse miseries and struggles going on all around us -- to the north, to the south, to the east, to the west -- with too few signs of growth, and so many signs of decay.

There is no substitute for pride, hard work, self-discipline and virtue. We are just saying. Sometimes these things are necessary, but not quite sufficient. A well-crafted neighborhood stimulus package should not be off of any tables.

Where would this stimulus come from? What do any of us stand to gain from it? That brings us to the rest of your comment, Char -- the part that we're going to shred.

(Oh wait, you just commented again ... yeah, you're already getting there...)

Imagine the Possibilities...

Photo credit James Knox, Tribune-Review

Wednesday: Broadcast News

Dan Onorato spoke with Fred Honsberger on KDKA-1020 about the Hill Distruct situation.

(You can download the audio, but going to the site may be easier.)

Onorato spoke fairly well for himself, although he blatantly dodged a question about that neighborhood's singular history involving arenas and urban redevelopment.

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Carl Redwood spoke with Marty Griffin, also on KDKA-1020.

Redwood spoke very well for himself.

The Comet does differ with him at the tail end, as to whether Community Benefits Agreements ought to be a citywide or regional model. We have no opinion on that.

Our only concern is a good and formal agreement here and now for Hill District residents, given the nature of the situation.

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Redwood and the rest of One Hill also stated their case during bus tours of the Hill. (WTAE Ch.4: Bob Mayo)

"You know, these are opportunities that are staring right at us, right now," said Pittsburgh Councilman Bill Peduto. "The arena provides that as the opportunity. It's important that the community has the opportunity to speak and say what it is they would like to see."

That's right. Councilman Peduto is on the bus, so to speak.

Bob Allen of KDKA-Ch.2 got some good mileage out of the info tour / press availability also.

WPXI has something online called Advance Video, which looks suspiciously like raw footage.

Ch. 11 also has a text article online about the multiparty press conference of Monday evening.

"We want to be treated fairly, to be treated justly, and it's a tremendous insult in the way by which they responded to us," said Rev. Thomas Smith.

This remains the only occasion during this entire chapter in which "the minister's group" got any media love whatsoever. And that's okay. Just remember that their party does not benefit directly from the technical expertise furnished by labor and by foundations. (Background: BURGH REPORT)

UPDATE: In today's City Paper piece by Chris Young, the Rev. Thomas Smith of Monumental Baptist Church gets top billing, after the burning document of course.

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That was just the airwaves. Now check out the P-G's Mark Belko.

Despite the pressure, Mr. Ravenstahl doesn't anticipate major changes to the proposed agreement, even as he said he recognized that the Hill District groups "have some concerns."

"I don't anticipate any significant movement from the seven points. ... I don't anticipate adding additional points," he said.

Fine, have it your way.

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Oh, right. (P-G, Edit Board)

People don't take kindly to having something rammed down their throats.

Nice to have a clear topic sentence.

Community benefits agreements are supposed to be legally binding contracts signed by developers and community coalitions that stipulate "benefits" to the neighborhood as a result of a new development. All of the key elements were missing from the plan delivered last week: Nothing was signed, binding or detailed, and there was no "agreement."

Even if it's the government infrastructure that's going to provide these benefits at some point, the very least we can do is put it in writing.

Negotiating a community benefits agreement never was going to be an easy task, and the process was made more difficult early on when some Hill District representatives -- albeit not the One Hill group -- demanded $10 million in development funds to be controlled by residents. City and county officials oppose such a development fund, a position we share.

Come on, don't go soft on us now.

Development funds can certainly be allocated to a board of trustees composed of city, county, and community representatives, comprising a sort of local development clearinghouse corporation.

Hill District residents simply do not have the friends necessary throughout the government infrastructure to secure any tolerable outcomes, unless we get innovative.
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The Tribune Review seems to be somehow at war with itself at present.

Sing it Loud, Sing it Proud

Hill District Makes Counter-Offer

Post-Gazette reporter Wade Malcolm gets it right. (P-G, Wade Malcolm)

Lifelong Hill District resident Brenda Tate held up a copy of a proposed community benefits agreement for the new Penguins arena and asked: "Anybody got a match?"

That was the spark that brought to a close a lengthy ensemble production -- a 25-30 minute press conference featuring a cast of eight or nine neighborhood leaders from a broad array of factions. They were all saying basically the same thing.

Among other complaints, leaders of the One Hill Community Benefits Agreement Coalition said their chief concern is that the proposed agreement is not binding and offers only "vague promises and general concepts."

Check.

The group has asked for creation of a development fund that would be administered by directors selected by the city, county and community. The proposed agreement does not address that demand.

That's the central sticking point. There was also much talk about the Blueprint for a Livable Hill, and about priorities that have repeatedly been put forward since the days of the Hill District Gaming Task Force.

One Hill leaders also are miffed that the proposed agreement was distributed through the news media and was not the result of a bargaining session with them.

Nobody liked that.

"This isn't a community benefits agreement," said One Hill Chairman Carl Redwood. "This is a Penguins benefit agreement."

He used that line twice.

One Hill leaders have suggested that development money could come from the millions the Penguins stand to make from parking revenues. The group believes the neighborhood surrounding the new arena should benefit from public subsidies the project has received, something that didn't happen when Mellon Arena was built in the 1960s.

Never a bad idea to learn from history.

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Tribune-Review droideka Jeremy Boren treats us to a more forward-looking perspective. (Trib, Jeremy Boren)

Coalition members are pushing to establish a community benefits agreement before the city Planning Commission approves a master plan for the arena, which is set to open for the 2010-11 season. The commission is scheduled to vote Jan. 14.

That's a Monday. Mark your calendar.

"Without a community benefits agreement, we will do everything in our power to stop construction of the arena," Redwood said.

There was talk of sleeping bags.

Urban Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Patrick Ford said he and Ravenstahl are recommending that the Planning Commission approve the arena plan regardless of the Hill District group's protests.

Big surprise there.

Ravenstahl's press secretary, Alecia Sirk, said the Urban Redevelopment Authority has invested $240 million to develop about 1,900 housing units in the Hill District since 1990. Much of the development was done with input from neighborhood groups.

This deserves to be explored a little. It's always good to really thoroughly review the history of a given situation.

Managing the 2008 Blogroll

We are going to handle some issues by making the top shelf even more exclusive.

Bob Mayo AKA the Busman is moving on down. We hope he picks up on the idea of a City open records law. Oh look at that, he's rocking our world again.

Did everybody catch Mike Madison's victory lap, as it were, on the Cupcake Class?

Do you know how embarrassed we are at how well Pittsburgh Dish covers our own neighborhood? Good news from the North Side.

The post Matt H didn't want you to see. He took it down briefly, but then put it back up upon hearing some objections. The comments tell the story.

Our self-united chief of staff, Char.

The only blogger who actually got paid for it. (Note to P-G: IS UR MODUMS OKAY? KTHXGOOD.)

Bill Peduto is a beneficiary of our Affirmative Blogroll Action program for elected officials. If he's too busy to provide updates, perhaps he will farm the duty out to interns.

A-1 Pest Control Service gets to decide whether they'd like to appear at the top of Recommends, or towards the bottom of the Others.

A lesbian from the North Side is focused on politics. Assimilate, or perish.

The MacYapper threw together one of the very best blog posts of 2007. It was to blog posts what Sweeney Todd was to movies. Only hitch is way down towards the bottom:

Yup, juvenile and obvious though it may be, you just can't beat a good Britney's sister's boyfriend laying pipe joke.

YES! FOR THE LOVE OF PETE, JOHN McINTIRE, YES YOU CAN! NOT EVERYTHING HAS TO BE THE CAMPFIRE SCENE IN BLAZING SADDLES!