ACKLIN, BEECHVIEW COMMUNITY LEADER TOUR BROADWAY BUSINESS DISTRICT, SEE WHAT'S NOT GETTING DONE
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Friday, August 7, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, August 7th, 2009
CONTACT: Andy Gastmeyer, Press Secretary
412.327.6951
Kevin Acklin, Prominent Beechview Community Leader Tour Broadway Business District, See What's Not Getting Done
Independent mayoral candidate says Ravenstahl Administration has bombed on Broadway
PITTSBURGH - On the eve of the one-year anniversary of Mayor Luke Ravenstahl declaring her neighborhood once again "open for business," long-time Beechview community leader Phyllis DiDiano today led Independent mayoral candidate Kevin Acklin on a tour of the still-shuttered Broadway Avenue Business District.
It was one year ago tomorrow that Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, with media in tow and cameras rolling, turned a key in a padlock and ceremoniously announced that Broadway Avenue, Beechview’s main commercial strip, was back in business. But on the first anniversary of that much-ballyhooed performance, the Broadway business district and the residents of Beechview have only boarded-up storefronts and feelings of painful isolation to show for it.
"What Bernardo Katz started, Luke Ravenstahl finished," Acklin said, referring to the now-indicted, URA-funded developer who purchased properties in Beechview, failed to develop them, and then fled the country.
"We're celebrating the one-year anniversary not of a plan or of an accomplishment, but of a press conference," Acklin said. "This is one more example when this Mayor held a media event and declared 'Mission Accomplished' without committing to the hard work it would take to see those goals fulfilled. These vacant buildings, broken promises, and dashed hopes are the real legacy of the Ravenstahl Administration's reliance on governance by photo-ops."
Ms. DiDiano led Acklin up one side of Broadway and down the other, recalling the merchants and businesses that used to populate the now-abandoned buildings, recounting the efforts that she and other Beechview community leaders have put into trying to develop their own community, and pointing out that the door Mr. Ravenstahl last year ceremoniously opened still sports a heavy padlock behind which no development nor investment have yet taken place.
"This is the heart of our community," said Ms. DiDiano, noting that Beechview wasn't "any part of the focus that we should have been" from the Mayor's office the past few years. "We should be shining."
"This neighborhood has been ignored," Acklin said. "When you have a development policy that doesn't have a comprehensive plan for the city, there is no accountability. And certain neighborhoods are being left behind."
The people of Beechview, Acklin noted, "have worked hard for a long time to try to restore this business district," but "city planning has been gutted" under the current administration. "It's about time they got some support from the top of city government, and that's the kind of support I'd provide," Acklin said.
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