Planning conflicts in Pittsburgh

The 2008 Hill District CBA, which covers the new Penguins arena (the Consol Energy Center) in Pittsburgh, included a provision funding the creation of a master plan for the Hill District. The Penguins were supposed to hold off on further development plans so long as the master plan was finished by February, 2010, but the community coalition missed that deadline because of delays in hiring a consultant.

At a community meeting earlier this month, Penguins officials presented preliminary plans for 1,200 units of housing, nearly 100,000 square feet of retail space, and a 150-room hotel. The team's representatives say that their plans are consistent with development principles adopted by the Hill Planning Forum, a group made up of community stakeholders. Nevertheless, Penguins officials are reluctant to give the community a larger role in the development process, and they stated at the meeting that community representatives would not have a role in drafting RFPs (requests for proposals). The Penguins are still planning on delaying submission of their plans until after the Hill District's master plan is completed, but whether this is a sincere attempt to involve the community in the development process isn't clear. As one of the Penguins' officials explained during the meeting, the team doesn't want to involve the community in the RFP process in part because it doesn't want to "impose requirements" on developers.

Work begins on the Hill District master plan

One of the key provisions of the Penguins arena/One Hill CBA was funding for a community master plan. The plan was supposed to be finished by now, but was delayed because of funding issues. Now planning consultants have been hired and the process is finally starting. That raises the question of whether the Penguins will hold off on submitting additional development plans for the old Mellon arena until the Hill District plan is finished. The CBA only required the Penguins to wait until February, 2010, but Penguins representatives have said that they want to work with the community.

The master plan will be guided a set of principles developed by the Hill District Consensus Group.

Minority and local hiring numbers for the Consol Center (Penguins Arena) CBA

The Penguins Arena One Hill CBA doesn't contain specific minority and local hiring targets, but it does include a lot of provisions intended to foster minority and local involvement in the project. (See here for more info on the One Hill Coalition.) According to numbers released last week, "African-Americans make up about 3 percent of those employed on the Consol Energy Arena development project. Of that number, 1 percent live in the Hill District. Women also make up about 1 percent."

Carl Redwood, co-chair of the Hill Consensus Group, is disappointed in the numbers, but is focusing on achieving higher minority hiring rates for permanent jobs.

Pittsburgh's Hill District gets a $3 million donation

Bank of New York Mellon announced this week that it would donate $3 million to Pittsburgh's Hill District. The One Hill Community Benefits Coalition, the Hill House Association and two advisory groups made up of representatives from each, will decide what to do with the money.

Some of the money, however, may go to building a Neighborhood Partnership Program--one of the provisions in the Penguins CBA. According to One Hill, the program will "support community and economic development, education and youth services, preservation and green spaces and drug, alcohol and mental health services in the Hill District." Bank of New York Mellon will also get a significant tax credit for donating the money to the program.

For more information, see here.

One Hill Coalition ratifies the first CBA in Pittsburgh

After months of negotiations, a CBA has finally been agreed upon for the new Penguins arena. Of One Hill's 97 member groups, 42 voted in favor of the CBA, 13 opposed it, and one formally abstained. See here for more details.

One Hill says it has a tentative CBA

One Hill representatives announced yesterday that a CBA involving the construction of a new arena for the Pittsburgh Penguins is nearly complete--it just needs to be approved by the 100+ members of the broad based community coalition. It also still needs to be approved by the mayor and county executive, both of whom have refrained from stating that they have a "tentative agreement."

According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the tentative CBA contains the following provisions:

• A "Neighborhood Partnership Program" that would aim to generate $500,000 a year for six years from corporations willing to sponsor economic development in the Hill District in exchange for tax credits;
• Guarantees from the Penguins that the team will not block the formation of labor unions and that businesses that open in the neighborhood will pay employee wages between $12 and $30-plus an hour with benefits;
• Requirement that residents of the Hill District are included in approving a master plan for development in the neighborhood;
• A career resource center modeled on Milwaukee's "Big Step" program. The city and county will provide $90,000 a year for at least two years to build the center.

Penguins update... getting closer...

It seems that the One Hill Coalition is getting very close to signing a CBA. As reported in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this weekend:

Hill District leaders, determined to redevelop their neighborhood in conjunction with the construction of a new arena, last night said they had reached "a framework for a tentative agreement."

...

The Hill District group has spent more than a year negotiating with city and county leaders toward a seven-point blueprint for "A Livable Hill" that spells out the issues to be resolved.

...

The breakthrough, Mr. Redwood said, occurred in the past week as the Penguins joined the talks. "The Penguins have been negotiating in good faith," he said.

Yarone Zober, the mayor's chief of staff, characterized the keys to yesterday's announcement as a corporate-backed Hill development push and the creation of a job and social services center near the Hill House.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, county Chief Executive Dan Onorato and Penguins officials have begun approaching corporate leaders about their participation in a Neighborhood Partnership Program that would provide state tax credits to companies in return for development aid to the Hill.

Mr. Zober said the reception among corporate leaders has been very positive.

The Hill Resource Center will be "a way to connect people to existing services, located right in the Hill," Mr. Zober said. It will tie into the existing CareerLink job-finding system and other services.

Negotiations between the parties at the Downtown headquarters of the Sports & Exhibition Authority that ended around 5:30 p.m. nailed down the key planks of the agreement, which now goes back to the One Hill Community Benefits Coalition for approval and likely modifications.

Then it would go to the SEA board, and possibly the Urban Redevelopment Authority and county agencies.

In related news, it looks like the Hill District is definitely getting a grocery store.

Penguins CBA petition

The One Hill CBA Coalition posted an online petition this weekend, for CBA supporters to ask the Penguins' president to negotiate.

Pittsburgh editorial on CBAs

Possibly taking some cues from the CBA spin book, there was a nicely written editorial in yesterday's Post-Gazette about CBAs in general and in Pittsburgh. Here are some excerpts:

Whereas past debates focused singularly on how to attract development, we have finally begun to consider issues such as development standards and community benefits. Some have argued that this broader discussion is an impediment to much-needed economic growth. Some seem to view development standards and community benefits as being mutually exclusive from or diametrically opposed to economic growth. But around the country experts now see these issues as bound together and mutually reinforcing.

Community benefits agreements are in fact pro-development, pro-business and pro-community, and the recent alliance of government and members of the community to work one out for the Hill is an example of Pittsburgh leaders recognizing this.

CBAs are win-win-win. They ensure redevelopment of urban areas and create multiuse, equitable and sustainable growth. They encourage good development by linking people of mixed incomes with affordable housing and good-paying jobs, which stimulates equitable economic growth that is, by discouraging sprawl, environmentally friendly.

Still, some economists ring alarm bells, suggesting that community input discourages investment. They should read a recent New York Times op-ed piece by economist and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, who says the best way to remedy economic downturns in weak market cities such as Pittsburgh is "to increase the wages of the bottom two-thirds of Americans."

Community benefits agreements often assemble powerful community-labor coalitions. These coalitions are as essential to lifting the living standards of working families and their communities at the beginning of the 21st century as they were at the beginning of the 20th century.

The truth is, in strong and weak markets alike, development standards and community benefits have proven to be good for business. If we do not include them in the development process, research shows that inequality is likely to grow. And inequality not only damages the quality of life of residents, it also hinders economic growth.

Real economic growth comes from equitable development. Development standards and community benefits ensure that development is equitable and raises the quality of life of all residents -- not just for developers.

...

Community benefits agreements and development standards are the only way to ensure that the greater community reaps the benefits of its huge investment in this private enterprise. This is not an either/or proposition; it is a both/and proposition, and the future of our region's economy depends on it.

The editorial was written by Gabe Morgan, director of the Service Employees International Union Local 3 and co-chair of Pittsburgh United, and Sam Williamson, Western District director of the PA Joint Board of UNITEHERE (a combination of the former Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees and the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union).

PIttsburgh update

One Hill Coalition brought their case for a CBA to the city council this week. The council hasn't been involved with negotiations until now, and several of the council members pledged to su

pport the CBA effort. 

The Pittsburgh Post Gazette also reported that One Hill has come close to reaching an agreement with the mayor and other local officials. One Hill, however, wants to see the Penguins back at the bargaining table. 

It's not a shakedown

Paul Ellis, an attorney for the One Hill Coalition, responded to some myths about the Penguins CBA in yesterday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Here are a few excerpts:

* Myth No. 1: "Hill Residents are trying to shake down the city, the county and the Penguins."

If someone takes something from you, and you demand it back, does that constitute a shakedown, or charity? Of course not.
Many people cannot relate to the Hill's requests because their communities have been physically and culturally intact for the last 50 years, with responsive, funded programs and services. Where were the cries of foul play from these people when local government displaced thousands of Hill District residents to build what is now Mellon Arena for the Civic Light Opera and eventually the Pittsburgh Penguins, followed by a series of broken promises? Can you imagine your entire thriving neighborhood being destroyed?
It is inconceivable that anyone who knows the history of the Hill could fail to understand that Hill residents are trying to avoid the repeat of a devastating act of divestiture....

* Myth No. 2: "All they want is a handout."

It is a statement that is both insulting and hypocritical. The implication: Why don't they just do for themselves?
In fact, most Hill District residents are hard-working citizens just like everyone else in this largely blue-collar city. The hypocrisy lies in the fact that the Penguins are not doing for themselves. They are using hundreds of millions of public tax dollars to reconcile their debts, give investors a nice return and take advantage of prime real estate conveyed for free. What private business group couldn't thrive with that kind of public financial support?
To suggest that Hill District residents should create miracles in employment, health care, public accommodation and quality of life on their own is to ignore the source of the Penguins' funding: the public.
A community benefits agreement could help transform the entire culture of the community, and if Hill residents weren't fighting for equity, they'd be criticized for being apathetic.
As it is, we're criticized for seeking a community center, but expected to keep our kids off the streets. We're excoriated for wanting a master plan by those who have a voice if development is proposed in their neighborhoods. We're the targets of condescension for wanting a grocery store by those who have conscientious grocers nearby. We're ridiculed for seeking life-sustaining jobs by those who already have them. We're blamed for wanting a role in the development of land that was taken by our own government to benefit others, including the Penguins.
Residents of the Hill are very much trying to do for themselves, but certainly a level playing field is not too much to ask.

* Myth No. 3: "The community benefits agreement would benefit only Hill District residents."

The same individuals who criticize the Hill's residents would demand a legally binding understanding if major development was proposed in their neighborhoods with their public dollars.... A stronger Hill District would make for a stronger Downtown, encouraging business investment and residential opportunities while luring more visitors, conventions and commerce.

Penguins update

After weeks of negotiations without a CBA, the Pittsburgh One Hill Coalition announced yesterday that it had filed a lawsuit to block construction of the new Penguins Arena. The suit , filed just before the appeals deadline, seeks to overturn the approval of the arena's master plan. One Hill wants work on the arena to be postponed until a CBA is finalized, and the lawsuit may be dropped if a deal is reached.

Another article about the suit (with a few more details) is available here.

Penguins update

It seems that the Hill District is one step closer to getting a grocery store. Save-a-Lot announced that it sees itself as "a perfect fit" for the neighborhood, and it may become involved in CBA talks. One Hill Coalition wants to make sure that the community has a part in planning for the grocery store, and it may even seek partial ownership.

Penguins Update

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported today that the Penguins have agreed to resume talks with the One Hill Coalition. This follows several weeks during which time the Penguins were content to have CBA negotiations carried out by city and county officials.