Letters to the editor: 7/8/05

Friday, July 08, 2005

Think small, and don't shortchange our tourist allure

Monday's item on the repair of a Mount Washington overlook ("City Plan to Fix Up Overlook a Victory"), reminds us of a much larger challenge. It's a sad day when Pittsburgh's enormous tourism potential is lumped into a budget debate regarding street resurfacing.

Where is the vision and creativity? Who is improving and marketing the product?

Fifteen years ago, when building recreational trails was not on the agendas of the city, the tourism agencies or the foundations, grass-roots groups pushed it there. The same needs to happen with tourism, especially at the neighborhood level.

We continue to ignore the obvious: Pittsburgh will never again have a Top 15 economy. We're destined to be a small, potentially charming and highly livable city for a long time to come.

But we need to build a Downtown and neighborhood tourism economy scaled to those realities, and different from the rest. History, music, rail trails, art and ecology -- small touches that attract niche audiences. No so-called first-day attractions (none have ever made it off the proposal stage). No gambling panaceas (it will cost more than it pays).

Remember Brendan Gill's observation in The New Yorker in 1989: "If Pittsburgh were situated somewhere in the heart of Europe, tourists would eagerly journey hundreds of miles out of their way to visit it."

R. TODD ERKEL
Swissvale

Before we get in more of an uproar over the recent Supreme Court decision Kelo v. City of New London on the use of the eminent-domain power to take private property and turn it over to private developers for a public use ("Court Upholds Eminent Domain," June 24), we should remember that Pittsburgh was the beneficiary of just such an event over 50 years ago when the city, under the leadership of David Lawrence and Richard K. Mellon, created Pittsburgh's first renaissance. At that time, the city took, by eminent domain, an area that had been designated as blighted and turned it over to a private developer.

The use of the eminent-domain power to take private property and turn it over to a private developer was also challenged in the courts at that time -- and it was upheld.

The private developer was the Equitable Life Assurance Company, and the blighted area was what we know as Point State Park and Gateway Center.

It is certainly easy to sympathize with private landowners whose property is taken by that process, but still, one must ask whether seven people (out of the 90 whose property was taken) should be permitted to stand in the way of the revitalization of an entire city.

Moreover, the line between (1) the taking of private property and turning it over to a private developer and (2) the taking of private property for the building of a public road is not clear.

Who is pushing hardest and going to benefit most from the building of the Mon-Fayette Expressway? Private developers, perhaps.

STANLEY M. STEIN
Elizabeth Township

We want to alert and remind parents to keep their eyes on their children at all times. This letter relates an incident that occurred on June 29 in Schenley Park.

We, along with another sister, and our two children were walking around the oval. Our children went to swing and play with their ball while two of us sat under the shelter a short distance away. I watched as the kids went toward the hillside and thought they were going after their ball. But then I noticed a lady going over the hillside too. I got up and started following. When I got over the hillside, my son was being chased down the hill by a dog and my niece was standing with another lady and a man near the street.

I called my niece and went toward my son, gathered them both and headed back to the shelter. When my niece picked up their ball by the swings, I began to wonder why they had gone over the hillside. I immediately asked them why they had wandered off and began instructing them about the danger of going off without first asking.

I later thought it strange that my niece was near two unknown people, so I again questioned them and asked if the adults had said anything to them. My niece said one woman had said, "Let's roll down the hill." So what originally appeared to be a perfectly innocent incident may not have been innocent at all.

I thank God that I was following behind them. Although I'm not sure what could have been on the minds of those adults and cringe at the possibilities, I want to remind parents and the public to please be aware: Stranger danger is real!

JANICE HALL
LOIS WORTHY
Homewood

Now we discover liberal bias on our college campuses? ("House Urges End to Liberal Bias on Pa. Campuses," July 6) Right after the shocking revelation of liberal bias on PBS?

I am strongly in favor of making sure that our college professors think righter -- by which I mean think correctly. In order to do this, a new position should be created on all Pennsylvania college campuses. And I suggest naming the position Political Commissar. Then we can build better relations with Russia by sending our new commissars over there for training.

And maybe we can get Vladimir Putin some fat appearance fees over here for a Support Your Commissars speaking tour of Pennsylvania campuses. After all, he's an expert on one-party democracy.

DON MERZ
Mt. Lebanon

A recent letter by Roberta Mintz ("Quality, Not Size," July 1) about the proposed addition to Colfax Elementary School in Squirrel Hill contains several errors.

The most serious error is the underlying assumption that Colfax is a school of privileged students serving only Squirrel Hill. The school is in fact neither privileged nor underprivileged, but diverse. Colfax is socioeconomically diverse: 49 percent of students at Colfax receive free lunches.

Colfax is geographically diverse: The feeder pattern includes parts of East Hills, Homewood, Lemington, Point Breeze and Squirrel Hill, and currently also serves children from many other neighborhoods. And Colfax is racially and ethnically diverse: 50 percent of the students are African American, 31 percent are white and 19 percent are multiracial, Asian or Hispanic.

As well, Ms. Mintz does not cite any source for the addition's cost. Her figure is 50 percent higher than estimates put forth at various meetings; the exact cost will not be known unless the school board approves money to study the site.

It is important to note that the school system has been planning an addition to Colfax since before a K-8 school was even contemplated because the gymnasium and cafeteria are inadequate even for the current school. Whether Colfax becomes K-8 is not an issue (the board voted for this last year) -- the issue is whether the students at this school will be learning in classrooms or in corridors.

Ms. Mintz ends by noting that good schools have small classes, good facilities and well-trained teachers. Colfax has great teachers. Its class sizes are tolerable, but they won't be without more space. Its facilities are ... well, just go eat lunch in the cafeteria and have a game of kickball in the gym sometime.

SCOTT F. KIESLING
Squirrel Hill

The Pied Piper of newly legal fireworks lures children

I remember a time when the Fourth of July meant a picnic followed by a trip to the local park so the kids could see some pros put on a fireworks display. This year, we went to the local park, but it was the kids who put on the fireworks display.

Thanks to legislation that has allowed Pennsylvania to sell a selection of rockets, whistlers and explosives in grocery and convenience stores ("New Law Causes Boom in Fireworks Stands," July 2), many of the 'tweeners and teens at Burkett Field in Robinson showed up with everything from sparklers to bottle rockets. Some even brought their own illegal fireworks, which they conveniently shot off from the crowded parking lot.

A few parents rushed to the small playground to grab their little ones when a group of teens set off a huge, sparking pyrotechnic display less than 20 feet from the mulched play area. Other parents simply helped the fun along by providing big lighters to light the things.

When I complained to the teens to move their fun to the back of the field, further away from where the hundred or so children were playing, the father of the teens left his lawn chair and cooler of beer long enough to tell me to take a Valium. Then he lumbered over and provided them with additional rockets, which they set off 40 feet away from the kids. Most of the fascinated little kids went running over and stood within a few feet of them anyhow.

I'd be very interested to know if there was an increase in injuries and fires this year thanks to this new abundance of "Fireworks Lite" in our state. Does Pennsylvania really need revenue so badly that we can risk public safety?

I applaud communities like Mt. Lebanon that resisted the new state rulings and enforced local laws that keep pyrotechnics out of the hands of amateurs whose brainpower does not quite match their firepower.

GINA CATANZARITE
Moon

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