These people want everything handed to them. They want their entire neighborhood to be rebuilt using money from the arena/Penguins. How about this when you idiots quit acting like animals and get the crime rate down and to a point where I wouldn’t be nervous taking a walk through there with my kid after 5PM then maybe the city will look into helping you rebuild that shithole. Why put $$$ into a area where you know in 5 years it will be turned to shit anyways.
They want a huge window in the building showing a view of the Hill District…and they say that would force them to fix up the Hill…well get the people that live there to act like normal citizens and then try to make a deal.
Hill District residents: No deal, no arena
In meeting with planning commission, they again demand a community benefits agreement between Penguins, city and county
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
By Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
No arena without a deal was the battle cry of some 50 Hill District residents and their supporters yesterday, as they urged the Pittsburgh City Planning Commission to hold off on giving the Penguins approval to build until there’s a written agreement with the community in place.Penguins officials used a commission public hearing on their arena master plan to tout what they pitched as a unique design featuring great views of the playing surface and, through multiple glass features, of Downtown. That feature, though, was thrown back at them by Hill residents.
“There is no glass viewing of the Hill,” said the Rev. Glenn G. Grayson Sr., of Wesley Center African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. “I want some glass on that side,” he said, so Penguins officials will look out every day and see whether their arena helped revitalize the Hill.
The commission took two hours of testimony – roughly one hour each from the Penguins and community representatives – before recessing until Jan. 14. Then it’ll hear more testimony, and may vote on the arena master plan.
The commission is supposed to approve or reject the plan based on the proposed $290 million arena’s function, impact on the city and on neighboring properties, infrastructure needs and effects on traffic. Hill advocates argued that the plan was not consistent with existing plans for the neighborhood, would cause traffic tie-ups and would turn their neighborhood into the arena’s parking lot.
Mostly, though, they demanded that a community benefits agreement between the team, the neighborhood, the city and Allegheny County be signed before approval of the plan. Such an agreement has been a subject of discussion since April, when Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and county Chief Executive Dan Onorato agreed, in principal, to a contract outlining how the arena and community would interact.
Yesterday, Carl Redwood of the One Hill Community Benefit Coalition said his alliance wants development funding, first dibs on jobs for Hill residents, a grocery store and community center, more park space and input into a neighborhood-wide plan.
The Penguins have agreed to some of that, said Ron Porter, a senior consultant for the team. The team backs a supermarket, a community center and jobs for Hill residents.
“Any kind of community investment that calls for direct funding of community activities with money at this point is out of the question,” he said.
He said talks haven’t “been adversarial,” and added that the team wants a benefits agreement – and commission approval – next month.
Hill advocates, though, accused the team of offering only “a lot of flatter, a lot of puff and fluff,” in Mr. Grayson’s words.
Some said they feared that they could end up with no concrete promises, leading to another arena that, in their view, does nothing for the rest of the neighborhood.
“The Penguins have been unresponsive to the Hill District’s requests,” said Marimba Milliones, board chairwoman of the Hill Community Development Corp. “We can no longer afford to let them just get by, not even one more step.”
The arena push did take one tiny step forward with commission approval of the design of a new rectory for Epiphany Church. The old rectory is being demolished for the arena.
