Letter to
Mayor William Peduto

By Carlino Giampolo
October 20, 2020

(Below is a follow-up letter of the May 11, 2020
letter to Mayor Peduto that is on Link 112.)

Mayor William Peduto
City of Pittsburgh

Mayor Peduto,

The plans for your ill-conceived roadway project from Hazelwood Green, through Four Mile Run and Panther Hollow, to Pitt and CMU, continues, even during the deadly Covid-19 crisis. This project, as you know, will eventually destroy iconic Panther Hollow, one of Pittsburgh's first Italian neighborhoods.

Your roadway project was morally corrupt from inception. Oftentimes, criminal wrongdoing is the shadow of continuous moral corruption. By copy of this email, we are once again requesting District Attorney Stephen Zappala conduct a criminal investigation of this project.

Consider this email and the websites www.OaklandDignity.com, www.SavepantherHollow.com and www.PantherHollow.us as public testimony in staunch opposition to this roadway project.

My letter to you on May 11, 2020 about this project is on the front page of the Oakland Dignity website. Information about your morally reprehensible attempts to renege on a nearly 40-year agreement between the city, University of Pittsburgh, and the Panther Hollow community, by building your roadway through the right-of-way area in our neighborhood, is included in that letter for those who are unaware of your actions. Here are a few additional thoughts about your roadway project.

Those who believe this project will not eventually destroy our Italian neighborhood should learn about the history of Oakland. The decimation of Oakland's business and residential districts due to the uncontrolled expansion of Pitt and CMU, is also on the front page of the Oakland Dignity site. Decimation is a polite way of saying "legal rape."

We are disappointed that the leaders of the foundations that own Hazelwood Green continue to be involved with the crookery of Pittsburgh politics. These leaders bring dishonor to the names of Heinz, Mellon, and Benedum.

We are also disappointed with DOMI's Karina Ricks. She came to Pittsburgh from Washington D.C. and we were impressed with her character and values. She courageously refused to apply for a grant to build this roadway.

That action, though, resulted in an angry response from Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald who said: "She is not the decision maker," when told of her heroic action. Since then, her value system has changed, as she has now become enmeshed in the dishonest nature of Pittsburgh politics.

She reneged on her promise to pave Boundary Street this year. That promise was made last year after mentioning to you in an email that I would plant an Apple tree in a massive neglected pothole on our street, one of over 60 potholes there. However, we hope that she will soon pause, reflect, and realize that the city's paycheck is not worth the loss of her own dignity and self-respect.

Please discontinue telling our community of the claims that this roadway project will increase economic development so that all Pittsburgh can thrive, and that it will provide greater tax revenue for the city, public schools, and county, or any other such benefits. Our community has heard all of that rhetoric before when the former Pitt Chancellor Edward Litchfield wanted to demolish all of the homes in Panther Hollow, displacing hundreds of residents with his futuristic 21st Century Research Park. That Pitthetic story of Pitt's history is on the front page of the Save Panther Hollow website.

The PWSA stormwater project, though separate, is also intricately involved with this roadway project. You formed a committee to appoint their board members, with former Pitt Chancellor Mark Nordenberg as chair, and former CMU President Jared Cohon as a member.

Mark Nordenberg knows we are not impressed with his titles and awards. During his 19 years as chancellor and his massive expansion of the student body, Oakland had the filthiest conditions of any neighborhood in the city. He infamously raised tuition to the highest in the nation for a public university, from nearly $20,000 to over $50,000 per year. Disgracefully, he refused our community's request for an environmental program to end the trash and litter problems, even though that program would have only cost a meager $4 dollars of that hefty tuition fee. You refused to support our neighborhood.

In my May 11 letter, which was titled "Path of Dignity or Path of Tragedy," I mentioned that changes occur on one of these two paths. Nordenberg had the opportunity to take the Path of Dignity when we requested that he move the massive Homecoming Week fireworks display to another venue outside of Oakland. We requested this because our homes would shake and the windows rattle when the firebombs would explode in close proximity to our neighborhood.

On one occasion, while he was celebrating this Homecoming Week event with his administrators, alumni, and students, my 90-year-old mother suffered seizures and we rushed her to the hospital wondering if she was going to live to see the new day. We asked for your help to move the fireworks display to a venue that would keep our neighborhood safe. Again, you refused to support our neighborhood.

That massive fireworks display ended this year. It took the tragedy of Covid-19 to prompt that change.

In your 18 years as a city councilman and mayor, you never attempted to pass a law to protect our community from the uncontrolled, destructive expansion of Pitt and CMU. It is astounding that you cared so little about Oakland. This roadway project shows once more that you are in partnership with all of those "elite hypocrites" who make decisions to destroy our neighborhoods, while keeping their own neighborhoods safe and secure from these universities' expansion.

You refuse to see the truth of this roadway project. That is why you never pursued an in-depth Impact Study to assess how this roadway project will affect the neighborhoods of Oakland and Four Mile Run. Pitt's Institutional Master Plan is tied with the roadway project. Chancellor Patrick Gallagher would not give us that same type of in-depth Impact Study for this plan. You refused to give our neighborhood any support to see that truth.

There is no oversight of your office, Pitt and CMU, resulting in the further destruction of our neighborhood. We hope all of that will change with the actions of the district attorney, and the local media's hiring of top-notch investigators to assist their own personnel.

We continue to be in solidarity with the residents of Four Mile Run and all others who see the social injustice of your roadway project. We will continue speaking up and taking action until there is a new consciousness at city hall and the universities, whereby human dignity truly becomes the highest priority.

Note: Mayor William Peduto chose silence.