Kevin Acklin's Remarks on Neighborhood Investment
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Tuesday, October 13, 2009
NEIGHBORHOOD INVESTMENT
REMARKS
Kevin Acklin
Thank you for being
here this morning.
The Strength of Pittsburgh
I was born in South
Oakland. But when I was ten years old, I moved to the south hills neighborhoods
of Pittsburgh. My Mom, who was working herself to the bone to raise my brothers
and me on her own, remarried, and we moved to a little house just across the
way and over the hill in Banksville.
I remember that, though I missed my old neighbors, I felt right at home
— in a wonderful collection of proud, tight-knit, working-class neighborhoods.
This is the strength of
Pittsburgh — the pride, the community, the safety that comes from, living in a
tight-knit neighborhood where everyone knows everyone else. We must recognize this one fact — that
our neighborhoods are our strongest asset — and investing in them is the only
way to grow our city.
But, as our neighborhoods
have fallen into decline — with shuttered store fronts, abandoned houses, and
now closing libraries — so too has the allure, the pull of our city to young
parents looking for safe, strong communities in which to raise their families.
Time and again, the Mayor has responded with rhetoric, not action.
We have 310,000 residents
trying to support an infrastructure built for a million people. We can't pay
our bills — whether for the pension fund, debt payments, public safety
investments, or cost of living raises for city employees — because we’ve lost
residents, and with them tax revenue, as the cost of running the city remains
almost the same.
If we’re going to stem the tide of population loss in Pittsburgh, and if we’re
going to bring more of our people home, then we must invest in the
neighborhoods first. We must preserve and restore the amenities
to Pittsburgh that make our city an attractive destination for young families.
That will be my top priority as Mayor.
Keeping Our Neighborhoods Safe
I’ve already announced
some of my plans to protect our neighborhoods. As your next mayor, I’ll put 200 additional police officers
on the streets in my first term, and I’ll re-focus the URA on neighborhood
investments rather than on large-scale, corporate developments that sit
downtown or along the shores.
Just a few months ago, I
announced my plan to take on the abandoned housing problem we have in this
city. I called on Mayor Ravenstahl
to get serious about abandoned housing, and to tear down problem houses like
the one at 446 Ivondale Street in Greenfield, where an 11 year-old girl was
raped. To this day, that house is
still standing, residents are still complaining about it to 311, and the Mayor,
though he promised that house would come down, has done nothing. There are hundreds of 446 Ivondales in
this city. All of them pose a threat to our public safety, and all of them must
come down.
Today, I’m here to announce more new plans for neighborhood investment.
Revamping BBI
Revamping the Bureau of
Building Inspection will be my top priority in the neighborhoods. We will begin to realize those changes
by investing $1 million annually from the URA into BBI — to hire
and train more staff, to improve technology, and to decentralize the BBI
offices into the police zones. The URA is sitting on $416 million in assets,
and committing even half of those assets to neighborhood development programs,
instead of large-scale corporate developments, would be a substantial investment
in our city.
One year ago this month,
the ICA released an audit of BBI that said the bureau was “severely
distressed.” The report detailed a plan for remaking the bureau to be more
effective and responsive to Pittsburghers.
The very next day, the Mayor
held a press conference, reassuring us that he had a plan, and that he would
begin moving forward with it immediately.
Four months later, the City Controller released another report
criticizing BBI for its massive backlog of complaints that weren't being
addressed. One year later, the
abandoned houses are still up, the complaints are still unanswered, BBI is
still in distress, and our neighborhoods are still suffering. Now Mr.
Ravenstahl has proposed an additional 10% budget cut. We can do better than this
— and under an Acklin
administration, we will.
The Main Street Project
Next, we’ll launch what
I’m calling The Main Street
Project — a
four-year commitment to bring at least one development project or program to
each of our city's 88 neighborhoods.
No one, and no neighborhood, will be left behind in my administration.
I’ll make sure that our development dollars are spent for the benefit of all
taxpayers. This program will fund
new sidewalks and street corners, maintain our parks and pools, redevelop our
community centers and help to save our libraries.
We will also give special
attention to our main streets in distress — districts that have lost
businesses, or libraries, or have seen a rise in crime in vandalism The Main Street Project will
work to stabilize our business districts, to make sure the’re being occupied by
businesses that serve the public like grocery stores, pharmacies, and
libraries, and to attract young families to our neighborhoods.
One-Stop Shop for Business Growth
Finally, my administration
will promote small business growth in Pittsburgh by creating a “One-Stop-Shop”
for prospective business owners in our city. The permitting and paper-work now required to develop or
start a business in Pittsburgh post an incredible burden — and the process is
so decentralized that if you want to open a shop in Pittsburgh you have to
visit several offices, file dozens of pieces of paper, and spend weeks, if not
months, hunting down your paperwork and making sure it’s processed. We must streamline this process,
allowing all of the city's business development resources to be located in one
office.
We must also encourage our
local business owners to take advantage of the resources available to them
through the Small Business Administration and the Small Business Development
Centers in and around Pittsburgh.
By creating links between our small businesses and these resources, we
can lower the rate of turnover in our business districts and create more
stable, prosperous neighborhoods for our city residents.
The work that needs to be
done in our neighborhoods will not be easy, and it will not happen over
night. But we need stronger
leadership, and a stronger voice for the neighborhoods on Grant Street, to make
it happen. We need a Mayor who
cares about, and is committed to, the neighborhoods. A Mayor who will make sure
that investments happen not just downtown and along the shores, but in our own
backyards. That’s what the people of Pittsburgh deserve, and what they will
get, from me as their next Mayor.
Thank you. I'll take
your questions now.
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