Letter to Chancellor
Patrick Gallagher

June 30, 2015

Chancellor Patrick D. Gallagher
107 Cathedral of Learning
Pittsburgh, PA 15260

Dear Chancellor Gallagher:

The fundamental purpose of the project at 3407 Forbes Avenue is to serve as student housing for the University of Pittsburgh.

There are some questions I would like to have answered, and documents I would like to view.

How will this project impact the binge drinking problem in Oakland's residential neighborhood? How will this positively or negatively affect the quality of life in Oakland? How will this project benefit longtime residents? The community deserves detailed answers to these questions.

The community also deserves an in-depth impact statement supporting the University of Pittsburgh's assertion that this project is consistent with the Oakland 2025 Master Plan and that it will not harm the Oakland residential community. If this comprehensive study does not exist, then please provide whatever detailed researched the university has conducted.

Campus Advantage and Councilman Bruce Kraus have assured people of an increased number of non-student residents in the residential community as a result of this project. The project could add 300 students in the building. How will this cause an increase in non-student residents? Have the University of Pittsburgh's past student housing expansions resulted in the increase of non-students living in the residential neighborhood? Please inform me if this documentation does not exist.

Nordenberg Hall houses 559 first-year students. Regardless of where that hall was built, how is Pitt's increasing student enrollment and subsequent housing expansion consistent with Oakland's 2025 Master Plan? Also, what in-depth studies are in the university's possession that bolstered its construction of Nordenberg Hall as a benefit to the longtime residents of Oakland? Let me know if these do not exist.

I visited your office on May 12 and requested a meeting with you to discuss our community's problems. I was disappointed than you did not respond, as I had genuinely hoped you would foster a better working relationship with the community than your predecessor.

Please provide the requested materials as soon as possible. These answers and documentation should be readily available to you.

Thank you,
Carlino Giampolo

Note: A similar letter was given to the executive director of Oakland Planning and Development Corporation.

Note: Chancellor Patrick Gallagher did not respond to the letter.