SOUL Program Implementation

August 25, 2019

Executive Director Wanda Wilson
Oakland Planning and Development Corporation

SOUL Program Implementation

I recently brought to the attention of OPDC the unhealthy, eyesore conditions on South Bouquet Street due to the trash and litter problem. This ongoing problem continues there as well as elsewhere throughout Oakland.

This problem, which has existed for decades, creates a negative perception of Oakland's environment, and the resolution should not be the burden of its longtime residents. The University of Pittsburgh has the resources to end this problem but has refused to take appropriate responsibility for what its students are doing to our neighborhood. The position of university leaders is that the community should start a Neighborhood Improvement District which would have homeowners, including longtime residents, be assessed a fee to fix a problem caused mainly by university students.

In 2009, I offered a solution to this problem, but received no support from Oakland organizations as well as others who are entrusted to protect our neighborhood. That solution is the SOUL Program, of which a brief summary is on the website www.OaklandDignity.com, Link 10.

University administrators have refused all efforts to support the program, dating back to the tenure of Chancellor Mark Nordenburg to the current administration of Chancellor Patrick Gallagher. My first letter to Chancellor Nordenburg about this problem was in 1997. The yearly cost of the SOUL Program to the university would be the equivalent of only $4 from a student's tuition fee. Pitt's tuition has increased over the years to where it once had the dubious distinction of having the highest in-state tuition in the country for a public university, yet university administrators continued to refuse to provide any financial support for the program.

Another way to assess the cost of this program to the university is the monthly rental revenue it receives at the Bouquet Gardens dormitory. The dormitory has 172 units:

• 136 (4-bedroom units) [the university received an exemption that allows it to have 4 unrelated persons in a unit]
  
• 35 (3-bedroom units)
  
• 1 (2-bedroom unit)

I asked a student what he pays for rent and he replied that he pays a fee of $4,500 from mid-August to mid-December. That equates to a monthly rental cost of approximately $1,100.

Thus, the university's total monthly rental revenue from Bouquet Gardens is $715,100 or $2.8 million dollars a semester. The monthly amount alone would fund the SOUL Program for 6 years. (Incidentally, the Bouquet Gardens site was once residential homes, locally-owned businesses, and a church. The university persuaded the state to invoke eminent domain with the stipulation that only university-owned buildings could be there.)

The focus of ending the litter and trash problem should not be solely on the money that this billion-dollar institution has at its disposal, but rather on ending the dominating consciousness this university has had over our community. That change must begin with all of those people and organizations that allow the university to dictate how the residents of Oakland should live.

If Oakland organization leaders have another solution that goes beyond the SOUL Program, then steps should be taken immediately to implement that solution and end the shameful litter and trash problems in Oakland. Otherwise, those organizations should now unite and speak with one voice to support the SOUL Program.

Carlino Giampolo
August 25, 2019