Luke's Legacy

The youngest, coolest, hippest, freshest mayor of Pittsburgh seems to be doing a bang-up job of crafting his legacy. “Luke the Unaware” keeps piling up a long list of that which has escaped his attention. Even a partial list of his "body of work" is quite impressive. In no particular order:

1) Unaware the Pirates were getting a sweetheart deal for a purchase of SA-owned riverside land.
2) Unaware the two Oregon sign advertisers having dinner with his Development Czar were the same two Oregon sign guys who got sign permits Downtown where signs were prohibited…..And were the same two Oregon sign guys who contributed $25,000 to his mayoral campaign.
3) Unaware his friend and Development Czar took gifts from another friend and sign company ad executive. Said sign company’s Downtown LED billboard was then approved without proper legal process.
4) Unaware his press secretary represented him to the world as “Pittsburgh’s Britney Spears.”
5) Unaware he should have attended a casino hearing when neighborhood invitations were sent out bearing his name. He went to a Red Sox game instead.
6) Unaware promoted city policemen had domestic abuse records.
7) Unaware his no-show status at a public hearing regarding the promoted domestic-abuse policemen might just piss people off tremendously. Especially women. He chose to go golfing instead.
8) Unaware that the tricked-out, black, police SUV he drove to a Toby Keith concert was in fact a Homeland Security vehicle that he was not supposed to be driving.
9) Unaware threatening city council members is a bad, if not stupid, if not illegal thing.
10) Unaware that city council is the legislative branch of our local government, and as such, has the charge of drafting legislation.
11) Unaware that government entities should have approved budgets in place before they start spending money.
12) Unaware the Pittsburgh Housing Authority was spending money on clothing, chocolates, lap top computers, concerts and other entertainment instead of housing basics.
13) Unaware that getting out of Act 47 Distressed City status before we are financially stable could be a very bad thing.
14) Unaware that promising free college to city students without having all the needed money in place to make good on that Promise might be a disappointing if not a very bad thing.
15) Unaware he is not able to promise tax breaks to UPMC in exchange for their contribution to the free-college fund above.
16) Unaware that accepting a $9000 golf-outing, courtesy of the same UPMC referenced above, might not look too good. Unaware that initially lying about it might look even worse.
17) Unaware he was making an embarrassing fool of himself by crashing a Tiger Woods golf outing after he had been officially not invited.
18) Unaware he’s likely to be “cuffed and detained” whenever he pushes and bad-mouths a cop at a Steeler game.
19) Unaware it might look really bad to jet off for an evening of partying in New York with the man who had just been handed $290 million in taxpayer money.
20) Unaware his drunken NYC party night (above) would cause him to miss his next-morning plane home, causing him to miss yet another neighborhood development meeting, would piss off yet another segment of the city who were beginning to fear he might not be too serious about his job of mayor.
21) Unaware that demoting a police commander after she blew the whistle on someone in his own administration might cause the city to be sued, having to pay hefty judgments and fines.
22) Unaware taking credit for ideas and accomplishments not his own might make him look like a lazy cheater.
23) Unaware so many of our city employees were felons and that background checks were not being done.
24) Unaware city workers were building a boat dock on the North Shore without proper permits or clearing the dock with the Army Corps of Engineers.
25) Unaware the city should immediately remove lead from a children's playground. Thought the city should wait until the warm weather play season was over so “they wouldn’t be out there tossing around the dirt while there were kids around.”
26) Unaware it's not cool for a staffer to hack into KDKA’s online poll, skewing poll results in the mayor’s favor.
27) Unaware that a “fair bidding process” is not one where you give companies only 3 weeks to respond, over the Christmas holiday, and then luckily pick a firm owned by the District Attorney’s uncle.