Friday, April 25, 2008

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.

8 comments:

Smitty said...

that's not unaware..that's brain dead!!

Anonymous said...

What else can Opie do but deny any knowledge of all of the stupid stuuf. Otherwise he looks stupid.

Wiat he looks stupid saying he is unaware of just about anything of interest in city government.

Ok, the Mayoral primary is one year from now. Who should be the next Mayor?

Anonymous said...

Char:
Your "unaware" list would make a great ad campaign for the candidate who runs against luke.

EdHeath said...

If only he was just unaware. I mean, the City ethics code is outdated, but it would be a lot easier to get it updated if Our Mayor didn't simply blow past the limits. Or am I wrong, has he posted the total value or all gifts received in a 12 month period?

Anonymous said...

28. Unaware that his Development Czar had more than just one best friend, for whom he was more than happy to bend, twist & break the rules.

That would be one Joe Edelstein, Lawrenceville developer, who got tons of gov't. moola, playing the system like a fiddle with a lil' help from his bff Czar.

Wonder what Edelstein bought the Czarina for Christmas?

Anonymous said...

You forgot to add that the Mayor is unaware of the fact that he is unaware of much of anything.

What a tragic turn of events events for this city.

Anonymous said...

pay the damn LEGAL bill and let's get a citizens petition to have the attorney general conduct an investigation OF ALL OF THESE stupid ass goings on.

Look, these Council Members who stood up for THE LAW AND THE LEGAL PROCESS deserve a break and some PUBLIC SUPPORT INSTEAD OF DITHERING HERE IN THE BLOGS.

The LNMAR 4 have been beat up, intimidated and they have their own political limitations as well.

How's bout we, the people of Pittsburgh take the responsibility for getting to the bottom of all of this!

So here is a petition. Copy, paste, circulate, get signitures. Mail petitions to the PA attorney general.


Tom Corbett
Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General
16th Floor
Strawberry Square
Harrisburg, PA 17120

It's an of the people by the people for the people thing. Get the AG to get to work and clean up this mess.

PETETION

WE THE UNDERSIGNED RESIDENTS OF THE CITY OF PITTSBURGH HAVE SERIOUS CONCERNS RELATED TO THE FUNCTIONS OF OUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT. WE HAVE NO CONFIDENCE THAT LOCAL AUTHORITIES CAN FAILY AND WITHOUT PREJEDICE INVESTIGATE THE MATTERS BELOW.

THE CITY GOVERNMENT HAS ACTED TO ALLOW AN ILLEGAL BILLBOARD OWNED BY LAMAR ADVERTISING TO BE ERECTED.

THE DIRECTOR OF THE URA, MR. PAT FORD IS ON LEAVE AND UNDER INVESTIGATION BY THE STATE ETHICS COMMISSION AS A RESULT OF AN IMPROPER RELATIONSHP WITH A LAMAR LOBBYIST.

MR. FORD, AS PLANNING DIRECTOR AND THE URBAN REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY HAS ALSO HAD INTERVENED ON BEHALF OF A LOCAL REAL ESTATE COMPANY HEADED BY A CONVICTED FELON TO ALLOW ILLEGAL BUILDING PERMITS TO BE ISSUED.

MR. FORD RENTED AN APRTMENT FROM THIS AME CONVICTED FELON'S AND HAS REFUSED TO DISCLOSE WHAT, IF ANY, RENT WAS PAID.

THE DEPARTMENT OF LAW HAS ISSUED CONTROVERSIAL LEGAL OPINIONS AND HAS FAILED TO PROVIDE THE COUNCIL WITH OPINIONS IN A TIMELY MANNER ON THE LAMAR ZONING CODE VIOLATIONS AND OTHER MATTERS.

THE LAW DEPARTMENT NOW ACCUSES OUR REPRESENTATIVES OF CONFLICTS OF INTEREST BASED UPON THEIR OBJECTIONS TO THE CITY CODE VIOLATIONS BY LAMAR.

WE DEMAND THAT THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL CONDUCT A THROUGH AND COMPREHENSIVE INVESTIGATION INTO THESE MATTERS TO DETERMINE IF THE LAWS OF THE COMMONWEALTH OR CITY CODE WERE BROKEN.

WE DEMAND THAT THE ATTORNEY GENERAL INVESTIGATE WHY A STATE AUTHORITY, THE PARKING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF PITTSBURGH, ISSUED A NO BID CONTRACT, WITHOUT BOARD APPROVAL TO ALLOW LAMAR TO ERECT AN ILLEGAL BILLBOARD ON PUBLIC PROPERTY. MR. FORD WAS CHAIR OF THE PARKING AUTHORITY AT THE TIME.

WE DEMAND THAT THE ATTORNEY GENERAL INVESTIGATE WHY THE PITTSBURGH STADIUM AUTHORITY SOLD PUBLIC LAND TO THE PITTSBURGH STEELERS WELL BELOW MARKET RATE ($0.80 A SQ. FT.) WITHOUT STADIUM AUTHORITY BOARD APPROVAL.

WE DEMAND THAT THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY AND ALL LAW BREAKING IN THESE MATTERS BE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE AND RESTORE OUR FAITH IN OUR INSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNMENT IN THE CITY OF PIITSBURGH.

NAME ADDRESS ZIP CODE

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