PseudoAccountant t1_j8daxqg wrote on February 13, 2023 at 1:44 PM

We advocated at the mayoral, city staff, URA, and county levels for a more sane policy about the local govt owned homes and lots in city limits and let me tell you: you have no idea how backwards our government is. It’s basically run behind the scenes by idealists who are full of fear and who distrust the public. A classical “we know better than everyone else” kind of group.

There are a lot of reasons given for why they continue to amass lots and have basically no plan or policy for getting these lots back on the tax rolls. One of these fears is displacement/gentrification. And I’d be lying if I said that, given the absolutely insane level of govt ownership of unused lots in the city, there wasn’t at least some validity to that concern.

However, paralysis is what we have. Because they can’t see a perfect way out of this situation, they prefer to delay until they can find one. This is not sane. Some of these lots have been held since the 60’s. The deindustrialization of the 70s and 80s and the ensuing economic chaos here only accelerated the governments REO rolls. They’ve been trying to figure this problem out for 40+ years. More time isn’t the solution.

But that’s not how they see it at all. It’s sad. And we gave up trying to talk about it. The city could do some amazing things with that land. Affordable home ownership is within reach in Pittsburgh for many families that are struggling to make things work. But there is no political will to make this happen. The unelected staff of the city think most of us are ignorant idiots. And there are no adults in the room with enough spine to take action.

I’m hoping that Gainey will prove to be a difference maker, but only time will tell.

eonerv t1_j8flaf2 wrote on February 13, 2023 at 11:04 PM

I just asked this in another thread and you answered here:

> The unelected staff

And who hired these staff? Who's responsible for them? What chain can we follow to vote someone in who will actually make good changes?

Apologies, I just moved here and am learning more about the area.

PseudoAccountant t1_j8iy35a wrote on February 14, 2023 at 5:30 PM

Welcome to the Burgh! Despite our problems, it can be a wonderful place to live! Hope you enjoy it here.

Our local government is just like any large government body in that the overwhelming majority of government workers are not elected but instead appointed or hired. So nothing wrong with that inherently. The issue comes up when the staff are allowed to basically set their own agenda and priorities, taking actions that may not be to the letter of the law. Unfortunately, many of these people don’t care (they may think they now better, or sometimes it just make their lives easier so they don’t care). Additionally there isn’t really any recourse that you have other than to sue. But the staff very often has no legal risk. You sue the city and not them personally. So if they do something that is against the law and they do it knowingly, they typically have no real risk personally. In other words, there is no downside for them.

For the aggrieved parties, you have to take the risk of fighting city hall. That includes time and money. Your opponent is a juggernaut with a monopoly on tax collection, so getting them to back down is pretty hard. It’s not like a private business. In many cases, it ends up better to take your lumps and salvage what you can when dealing with the city. A bitter pill to swallow.

Pittsburgh isn’t the only city with this problem. It’s more the rule than the exception in most places to greater or lesser degrees.

Pittsburgh basically has a political monoculture. This is a big problem here as it means most of the population is disenfranchised and receives no representation in matters of the government. Voting almost doesn’t matter unless you are very progressive and then your choice is between a couple of different progressive voices. I’m not saying progressives are good or bad here. I’m just saying that when you have basically one thought group making policy unopposed, you end up with a lot of chronic overstepping or convenient oversights.

I want to caveat this whole post though. While there are some people in local government that are problems, there are many hard working people trying to do the right thing too. So please don’t take this as an indictment of all local govt staff. You have to meet people where they are and see them for who they are. Anything less than that isn’t right.