P-G: Port Authority pinch is coming to South Hills

The full list of eliminated or reduced service routes can be found on the Port Authority's website, www.portauthority.org. They include reduced service on the T blue lines to Library and South Hills Village, the P7 McKeesport Flyer and the 53 Homestead Park.

Some of the routes that will be eliminated, such as the 42 Mt. Lebanon-Oakland, have buses that are always packed. "People are going to scratch their head and say it doesn't make much sense to cut it, because a lot of people use it and we agree," Mr. Ritchie said.

One of those people is Peggy McNeil, an administrator at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing. She has taken the Mt. Lebanon to Oakland bus for 10 years.

Read the full article:

• www.post-gazette.com/pg/11034/1122496-55.stm (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Trib: Tuesday Takes

The following blurb appeared in the Tuesday, January 4, 2011 Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Say what?: Mt. Lebanon is holding out the carrot of public money to help develop space above its primary trolley stop. Here's a better idea: Let some private developer privately develop a different site -- that prime parcel at the corner of Washington and Bower Hill roads that the municipal government has held for far too long with far too many promises of taxpayer assistance to would-be developers.

Read the full article:

• www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_716152.html (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Development Around T Stations Will Spur Economy, Officials Say

Underground parking. More than 10,000 square feet of pedestrian-friendly retail space. A 100-suite hotel. Planners say these are the building blocks of development around Port Authority's T station in Mt. Lebanon.

"It's a way to use public transit ... to catalyze private development," said state Rep. Matt Smith, D-Mt. Lebanon. Erik Wittmann isn't so certain. The Mt. Lebanon man worries developers are focusing on big-box development instead of boutique shops, which he thinks better fit the community's suburban character.

"Mt. Lebanon has to stop trying to compete with downtown Pittsburgh," said Wittmann, 62, a disaster consultant who chairs Shady Drive East Taxpayers Association.

Link: www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/southwest/s_556877.html

Link 2: www.thealmanac.net/ALM/Story/03-12-ML-TRID-plan-B

Rep. Smith To Host Hearing on Transit-Oriented Economic Development

From an email received this morning from Rep. Smith's office:

Please join me and my colleagues on the Majority Policy Committee at a hearing on transit-oriented economic development from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 1 at the Mt. Lebanon Municipal Building , Commissioner's Room, 710 Washington Road in Mt. Lebanon.

The hearing will focus on the South Hills Transit Investment District, the status of a commissioned study that was made possible by a Transit Revitalization Investment District grant from Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, future plans for areas surrounding our area's light rail transit stations, and economic projections. Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato is scheduled to testify at 1 p.m.

This is meeting is open to the public. If you have questions, please contact me in my constituent service office at (412) 571-2169 .