oh, and there won't be a formal public input at this.
2010-08-26 19:20:10
19
Roundtable discussion of bicycle initiatives in City Council–Tuesday, August 31
Hey yinz, try to make it to this. It will give you a great snapshot as to how the city works. There will be lost of exciting things on the table like how to make this stuff happen faster and more efficiently, what's going wrong, what's going right.
It’s been two years since the “Four E’s” announcement – What’s changed? How can the City push these initiatives forward?
Pittsburgh City Council member Patrick Dowd is calling a Post Agenda Meeting in Council Chambers to discuss bicycle and pedestrian initiatives, on Tuesday, August 31. The round-table discussion will contain representatives from the Mayor’s office, City Planning, Public Works, Pittsburgh Police, the Port Authority, SPC, Allegheny County and BikePGH. The focus of the meeting is to assess the the state of bicycle and pedestrian initiatives over the past two years since the Mayor’s announcement of the “Four E’s” initiative and the hiring of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator. The meeting will look at the improvements that have been made, as well as how the various City departments can work better to further develop the “Four E’s” of Engineering, Education, Enforcement and Events.
Please Attend!
This is a great opportunity for the cyclists to see how the City handles bicycle and pedestrian issues. The public is encouraged to attend, but there will be no public comments taken at the meeting.
* What: Round-table Post Agenda Meeting to discuss bicycle and pedestrian initiatives
* When: Tuesday, August 31 at 1:30
* Where: City Council Chambers, City County Building
* Why: To assess the past two years of bicycle and pedestrian initiatives, and how to move forward
2010-08-26 19:19:10
This looks good, I will try to attend.
My question would be this (not being snarky at all for once), without public input, what basis will they use to "assess" how effectively the initiatives have been executed? Will BikePgh at the table serve that purpose?
2010-08-26 19:42:00
more or less, yes. that and the League of American Bicyclist's Bronze Bike friendly status thing will be used to assess our wins and where we're still inadequate. maybe i didn't explain it very well, but the real purpose of this is to see how to make all of the city departments work together more efficiently toward a common goal.
2010-08-26 19:49:01
ooo... would love to check this out if i didn't have to work. people who can go should go!
2010-08-26 21:12:08
I'll try to attend as well, but I can't guarantee I'll make it into town in time.
2010-08-26 22:28:03
so is it kind of like a panel discussion of you all with an audience?
oh boy, learning how the city works with all those stakeholders1! SO FUN 
2010-08-27 14:27:13
i actually REALLY want to come to this 
2010-08-27 14:27:49
I should also mention this will be cablecast. does anyone know how to record it?
2010-08-27 18:50:10
TIVO? or you could watch it live streaming from the city clerk's website.
2010-08-27 19:06:06
hey, a video I can watch at work! (the Internet Wardens have banned anything resembling fun or usefulness, but they haven't banned this board yet). That will be very interesting.
2010-08-27 19:18:29
i want to obtain a copy of the meeting. thought it could make for a fun drinking game
2010-08-27 19:45:49
erok - movie night at Bike Pgh?
2010-08-27 19:58:00
So there's no public input, but is there any benefit to showing up in person? As a new resident, frequent pedestrian, and fairly new cyclist, I'm interested and curious. I have the day off and could attend, but I could also just stay home and watch the video.
Do people think showing support or interest by physically attending would be meaningful at all? Or is this just a meeting with an audience?
2010-08-30 23:11:43
you basically touched upon it in all of your questions. it is basically a meeting with an audience. we're not necessarily trying to have this "strong force in favor of cycling" there (although that wouldn't be a bad thing). Many of the people that patrick dowd invited to the meeting have been working with us on bike stuff for some time - there's just several bottlenecks that need to be worked out and getting everyone to one table, in front of the public is an attempt to iron some things out. also, it's good to publicly give credit where credit is due.
i think if you're interested in city gov't, civic stuff, or just want to show up to support cycling is a good reason to show up in person. and sometimes half the fun of council meetings is what's not on tv, like council people getting up, having loud conversations on the side, pacing around the room, etc...
2010-08-30 23:56:42
I may come down for this but I don't know how work is going to be today.
2010-08-31 13:29:25
No cablecast of this Post Agenda... So I guess we'll have to wait for the minutes of the meeting?
2010-08-31 18:08:33
The meeting aired live on Comcast on channel 13 ("City" channel) in Squirrel Hill. (It might be different for suburban Comcast subscribers.)
If I recall correctly, a notice at the end said it would be rebroadcast tonight following the 7pm rebroadcast of the City Council meeting.
2010-08-31 22:00:48
Meeting should have been longer.
Lots of good discussions all around. Having the Commander there was nice. He reminded me of the enforcement detail a department out west performed where they passed out free led lights obtained from donations/nonprofits.
Peduto touched on the broader issue with underfunded city infrastructure. Really took the County to task with that issue. Could have made similar statements to a Penndot Rep. if they had attended. Even if CMAQ, TIGER or other federal/state funding is out there, the city has difficulty in developing the conceptual documents to apply for those funds. If the costs for planning and design *can be* reimbursed by federal funds the city would still have to borrow the funds upfront.
Oh and I saw Erok was all gussied up.
That's my recollection of some of the activity from watching the cablecast.
2010-09-01 03:40:31