PublicSource | News for a better Pittsburgh (https://www.publicsource.org/author/nick-keppler/)
As vice chair of the the Urban Redevelopment Authority [URA] Board of Directors, State Rep. Ed Gainey is hopeful a new program managed by the authority will get some Pittsburghers off the treadmill of renting and into affordable housing they themselves own.
The Urban Redevelopment Authority board voted Thursday to disburse $1 million in loans from the Housing Opportunity Fund for two rehabilitation projects. The action comes a year after Pittsburgh City Council voted to allocate $10 million for the fund and one day after council began reversing a plan to steeply cut city funding for the authority.
The Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing is considering a “risk assessment” tool, which, according to social justice activists, would reinforce existing bias in the criminal justice system. But the tool’s designers say it would give judges more data to base sentencing decisions on as opposed to primarily relying on uniform guidelines.
The commission is hearing public feedback about the risk assessment tool on Thursday, Dec. 13, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at the Allegheny County Courthouse (436 Grant St., Pittsburgh).
Jean Ripepi, 87, remembers her first mass at St. Anthony Church. The building had two wings separated by a bell tower and stood atop a hill overlooking downtown Monongahela. She was entering a new faith and a new marriage. Ripepi had been raised in the Polish Catholic Church — a sect not affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church — and converted to her husband Angelo’s denomination after they wed.
The city and backers of Hazelwood Green have been looking to develop some kind of transit system that would bypass a congested Second Avenue along the Monongahela River and connect it to Oakland, an area busting with university tech talent. Wedged in the middle of Oakland and Hazelwood is The Run.
The Borough Council of Munhall has given Mayor Rick Brennan tacit approval to develop plans for a public park on land in The Waterfront development, despite entertaining a December bid from a construction company to buy the 7 acres. In his first council meeting as mayor on Wednesday, Brennan noted that several council members had voted to file the eminent domain petition in December 2016, requesting the empty lot be transferred to the town from a nonprofit that wanted to offload the tax burden. The petition also stated the borough’s intent to develop a public park there. However, last fall, the council voted to accept bids from private companies — only after Homestead-based Franjo Construction emailed an offer for much less than the land is worth. PublicSource published a story about the land in question and the controversy surrounding it a week ago.
The Borough of Munhall told a court it would use the land as a public park.
Economists and developers believe the new tax plan will slow down the construction of affordable housing. Banks and corporations will have less they want to save on their tax bill, therefore, making it less attracting for them to buy Low-Income Housing Tax Credits.
It was one of the coldest February days when the furnace in Doren Dansby’s building broke. Soon after, the electricity in her Mount Oliver apartment started going offline for daylong spells. The landlord, who spoke little English, couldn’t tell Dansby when either would be fixed. She knew she and her 9-year-old son had to get out. “I kept calling 211,” Dansby, 28, recalls.
Joe Palahunik and Bruce Boni both graduated from Sto-Rox High School in McKees Rocks in 1983. Palahunik went on to study marketing at Slippery Rock University and form his own company, Joe’s Pros, headquartered in his hometown. It makes customized T-shirts and branded corporate giveaways, like towels, cups and calendars. One of his specialties is Little League uniforms, and Palahunik, a father of four, has coached for years. Boni went on to Carnegie Mellon University, where he majored in psychology, and then to the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
