Fiduciary Duty

The following was sent on November 17, 2019 to members of the Oakland Planning and Development Corporation Board of Directors, and members of the Pittsburgh City Council, among others. It is a follow-up to Link 96.

Executive Director Wanda Wilson
Oakland Planning and Development Corporation

As you know, the Oakland Planning and Development Corporation (OPDC) has a serious fiduciary duty to protect our community from institutions like the University of Pittsburgh. On November 4, I asked you to respond to seven areas of concern for our community. However, there has been no response.

In addition to responding to those concerns, please answer the following:

8) Does OPDC support a roadway, now referred to as the Mon-Oakland Connector, from Hazelwood Green, through Four Mile Run and Panther Hollow, to Pitt and CMU? OPDC needs to take an official stand now.

It is tragic that some residents of Oakland, including those working for OPDC, have shown support for a roadway through the University of Pittsburgh's owned parking lot in Panther Hollow. Oakland residents should be united as one in halting the uncontrolled, cancerous growth of the University of Pittsburgh, which is our fundamental problem, rather than being divided by a roadway which will destroy our historic neighborhood.

That cancerous growth has attracted numerous developers to Oakland, including one that wants to build townhouses on Boundary Street, a street that has never had any townhouses. I hope OPDC gives its strong support to our community and stops this development.

It takes courage and a deep connection to core values to stand up to the University of Pittsburgh administrators and all of their supporters. Many of these administrators and supporters are hypocrites. They don't live in Oakland, and they don't want a University of Pittsburgh-type institution in their own neighborhood. They don't want to have their own neighborhood destroyed in a manner that Pitt has done to Oakland, yet they will give full support to policies that further destroy our neighborhood. These are individuals who value economic gain over dignity, and who are separated from their own core values.

Council President Bruce Kraus, in his recent election campaign, said that one of his top priorities is improving neighborhood empowerment. The University of Pittsburgh seems to be very powerful mainly because far too many individuals have given away their own power to the university.

We are asking that you embrace your own power, as well as your core values, to protect and preserve our community. Please answer our eight concerns.

Thank you
Carlino Giampolo

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Note: In an email on December 19, 2019, Wanda Wilson responded to the above question #8:

OPDC does not support the Mon-Oakland Connector. You can read a statement with more context here.

(Here is the referenced statement with more context):

Oakland Planning and Development Corporation Mon-Oakland Connector Update, November 2019

OPDC supports community-driven priorities in transportation infrastructure investments. We advocate for pedestrian and bicycle safety, and actively look for ways to reduce the demand for private vehicles in Oakland.

The city’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure (DOMI) proposes to improve non-automotive connectivity into Oakland through Junction Hollow, expanding the existing single bicycle trail connecting the Panther Hollow neighborhood of Oakland with the Eliza Furnace Trail to a double trail – one for slower recreational use, the other for faster bicycle and potentially electric-assisted personal mobility devices such as e-bikes and scooters – the construction of which would coincide with PWSA’s planned reconstruction of the Junction Hollow watershed floor.

This proposed connection, the “Mon-Oakland Connector,” has undergone many changes since it was first proposed several years ago. The current proposal appears to have stepped away from the autonomous shuttle track that was originally prominently featured. OPDC supports this change, as it indicates DOMI is responsive to neighborhood input, which was overwhelmingly opposed to the shuttle service. Pittsburghers for Public Transit authored a letter asking for DOMI and Port Authority to prioritize connections, improvements to transit service, and bicycle and pedestrian safety measures over any investment in a shuttle track. OPDC has signed on to this letter in support of community-driven priorities for transportation infrastructure.

We believe it important to note that none of the measures in that letter are enough to meaningfully reduce the volume of car traffic flowing into Oakland every day, nor do they offer significant enhancements for connectivity to Hazelwood and Oakland for commuters from the Mon Valley, the vast majority of whom travel to jobs in Oakland in single occupancy vehicles (SOVs). There remains a need to provide a better transit connection between Oakland and Hazelwood as well. Buses are currently unable to climb Bates or Brady streets from Second Avenue to provide an efficient connection to Oakland’s employment center; and existing routes that do climb the hill through Greenfield and Hazelwood are local and slow. Oakland needs bold and progressive ideas for enhanced fixed-route transit access from the south that is reliable, efficient, and does not exacerbate traffic congestion on existing arterial roadways.

In addition, South Oakland residents need better mobility connections – to Schenley Park; to Central Oakland’s business district, the Fifth/Forbes corridor; and to Second Avenue and Hazelwood. South Oakland was once served by multiple trolley lines that provided these connections, and later by a Port Authority circulator that allowed residents to access businesses and medical facilities “up Oakland,” but these connections have now long gone, and aging homeowners in South Oakland are increasingly isolated and frustrated.

Where public options are not readily available and accessible, private shuttles appear to serve the interests of some, but most decidedly not all, of Oakland’s constituents. Privately-operated gasoline- and diesel-powered shuttle buses and vans regularly ply Oakland’s streets for particular constituent users, but none of these is accessible to non-affiliated Oakland residents. OPDC seeks viable sustainable solutions to Oakland’s mobility challenges that support the quality of life for all of Oakland’s residents.

(Other responses in the email by Ms. Wilson are on Links 95, 96 and 98.)