Onortato wants a transit plan

[TheGerbil]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06075/671120.stm

According to this, Onorato is appointing a panel to develop a transit plan for the county, which will focus on transportation between Oakland, Downtown and the airport.

Here is a quote:

The 14 appointees to the Transportation Action Team, including business leaders, Port Authority board members, economic development officials and engineering executives, will consider more than a dozen studies dating back at least a decade. Among them is a proposal Mr. Onorato advanced last year.

"This will not be a study that goes on a shelf. This will be an action plan that I have to make a decision on," Mr. Onorato said.

After reading this, I emailed Onorato's office to say that I think this is great, and to add that I hope to see some focus on the city's East End, not just Oakland. I received a response saying my comments had been forwarded to the Transportation Action Team.

This sounds good to me. I am not getting my hopes up too much, but it is encouraging.

[PghUSA]

Sounds great G! Nice to see that the county is deeply invested in some very urban issues as well.

I am convinced though that the fastest way to mobilize the power structure behind this is to branish a pigeon gun--things would move real quickly then, could get the whole east hills trolleyed up .

[UrbaniDesDev]

I truly believe that Allegheny County will have to start bringing it's clout to the forefront. We should learn from the South in the roles counties play as opposed to cities. In particular, Fulton and Dade Counties. They are the guiding forces in their regions, more than the cities. It will be the county that develops a transit plan, not the city.

I am developing a lot of confidence in Onorato. He seems driven to do right by this region. Time will tell.

[tooluther]

The reason counties are so strong down here is because there is so much unincorporated land...and so many people living in the unincorporated parts. The county has to offer many of the services (esp planning) to lots of people. Allegheny County's nine million local governments do that themselves.

[tooluther]

The reason counties are so strong down here is because there is so much unincorporated land...and so many people living in the unincorporated parts. The county has to offer many of the services (esp planning) to lots of people. Allegheny County's nine million local governments do that themselves.

[PghUSA]

^^your joking right Too?

Another reason the sunbelt wins this is the absolute ease with which a city can annex new development, having family in Orlando I have seen tens of square miles of cow pastures, swamps and orange groves gobbled up by certain cities, why? Cause a megamall is 10 miles from the town center, it doesn't matter that most of the annexed land is undeveloped or agricultural now, the city just annexes with minor effort.

It might seem like no big deal but for that swath of land the city is using it's (mini)regional assets in the most efficient way, showcasing the small town downtown, cooridinating future traffic patterns, taxing outlying retail as well as future "suburb" land now used for cattle grazing. No Homestead competing with West Mifflin and taking on the albatross that the Waterfront is now becoming (tif hell, traffic hell--surrounding bouroughs have no incentive to locally improve access roads to the megamall and it gets lost in the massive duties of PennDOT).

Annexation equals the power to determine regional or miniregional future, wisely, efficently, and productively for all involved. The Waterfront should have been a nature preserve, a riverfront oasis in a very urban part of the metro, it is too close to downtown and Oakland and too close to Century III that it cannabalizes or gets cannabalized by what is the jewel of the region, downtown Pittsburgh, and the regions largest mall. Very inefficient, top that with the traffic nightmare it is becoming.

I just long for a regional view not diluted by 5 borough councils in 10 miles all competing with each other to out taxbase the neighbors, damn the traffic flow and damn the environmental impact for the region. Just sad.