The week in review
A BRIEF ROUNDUP OF THE LOCAL NEWS OF THE WEEK
It stands to reason a business that is closed is not likely to be robbed. A house where people are in lockdown is less likely to be broken into.
Still, it was hard to look at the drop in Pittsburgh crime statistics for the first six months of the year and not see it as good news.
Staff writer Lacretia Wimbley reported last week , according to Pittsburgh police, property crimes, violence and other illegal activity across the city saw a significant decrease, though there was a bit of an uptick in June.
The police department’s annual Uniform Crime Report separates statistics on violent crimes — murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault — from property crimes, such as burglary, theft and arson. Violent crimes in the first half of 2020 were down 15% from that of the past five years. Property crimes were cut nearly in half.
City police spokesperson Cara Cruz had this to say: “As we have seen, some businesses closed temporarily. Others have remained closed, and many residents remained home in an effort to slow the pandemic. While the Bureau doesn’t ascribe causation when looking at raw numbers, some of the above-noted societal changes may have impacted crime patterns.”
So, if you wanted someone to ascribe causation, you’re out of luck.
Judicial Conduct Board charges local judge
Every time Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Mark V. Tranquilli puts someone on probation, he gives a speech about his “low tolerance for misbehavior.”
Apparently, the Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board thinks the same way. On Wednesday, the panel filed formal charges against Judge Tranquilli and recommended he be suspended for violating the Judicial Code of Conduct and the Pennsylvania Constitution, as our Mick Stinelli reported.
The board, in an 18-page complaint, found evidence Judge Tranquilli “performed his judicial duties with improper bias or prejudice” and “failed to promote public confidence in the judiciary and avoid impropriety.” Some of the judge’s conduct, they said, constitutes “racial and other harassment.”
The board laid out six charges against Judge Tranquilli regarding his conduct during four cases, including when he allegedly referred to a Black juror as “Aunt Jemima” while speaking in the chamber to attorneys after a case ended in January.
The board will present its findings to the Court of Judicial Discipline, where it may go to public trial. The judge could face sanctions ranging from reprimand to suspension or removal.
Attorneys for Judge Tranquilli, who was elected to the court in 2013, did not respond to a request for comment.
It’s not like it’s a fire code or anything
Mick also reported a number of restaurant owners on Friday said they are going to exceed the government’s COVID-19 capacity restrictions to prove they can operate safely while allowing more customers in their establishments.
The owners said they’d follow some of the guidelines — like social distancing and physical barriers — but the limits on the number of customers just isn’t practical.
“I can’t make a living,” said Rod Ambrogi, owner of Al’s Cafe in Bethel Park and president of the new Southwestern Pennsylvania Restaurant and Tavern Association. “I got employees here that I got to support.”
But Allegheny County Health Department Director Dr. Debra Bogen is urging restaurants to maintain an even strain of 25% capacity.
“It is a critical time,” Dr. Bogen said. “I just think that the results will be that, two weeks from now, we will have a huge problem on our hands.”
Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald likewise called for patience rather than patients.
“We understand the pain and the stress that this is putting on, but many businesses have changed,” he said. “We cannot have people going rogue and just deciding on their own that they’re going to break the law.”
Michael Passalacqua, owner of Angelo’s Restaurant in North Franklin, near Washington, Pa., said he supported the idea of the protest, but he did not participate because he felt it was done too soon and without enough participation.
There needed to be a statewide push, Mr. Passalacqua said. “This tiny little corner of Pennsylvania and handful of restaurants is not going to send a message to the politico. We needed to do more things first. In my mind, [state leaders] have done nothing to prove to us or any Pennsylvanian why the science dictates why they’re doing this to us.”
I want to speak with your manager
That bit about “breaking the law”? It seems the Allegheny County Health Department is serious.
Staff writer Patricia Sabatini found health officials shut down Seven — a bar/ lounge in the Cultural District, Downtown — for breaking COVID-19-related rules.
The closure marks the second time a food business in the county has been shuttered by the Health Department for mitigation problems during the pandemic. The first was the Young Men’s Republican Club of Allegheny County on the North Side, which was closed in mid-July for operating indoors during a period when food and drink service was limited to outdoors only.
Seven, located at 130 Seventh St., was cited for employees not wearing masks, exceeding capacity limits, seating customers at the bar, serving alcohol without a meal and serving customers indoors after 11 p.m.
An inspection report also said an inspector was blocked from entering the premises, thus requiring “forced entry conducted by the Pittsburgh Police.”
Seven will remain closed for at least seven days, though Susan Rhea, who has worked as a manager at the operation for about a year, said the business plans to file an appeal of the citations.
This place has everything
Bayer Corp. has sold the Baywood Conference Center, its fancy 35.5-acre digs in Moon, to an unidentified buyer.
Staff writer Mark Belko said this venue, located on Coraopolis Heights Road next to the Montour Country Club, is something: a mansion-like main building with seven bedrooms, two suites, a commercial kitchen, lounge, various dining rooms, a wine cellar, fitness center, laundry facility, a pool and patio and office area. There’s also a lodge with more conference facilities, lounge area and a carriage house with two bedrooms, each with their own baths and kitchens.
Rounding out the complex are a barn and a stocked pond.
Bayer, which owned the property for more than 90 years, announced last year it was closing its operations in Robinson, where it employed 600 people at its North American headquarters.
You can’t eat nachos with a mask on
Mark also had a story about the Sports & Exhibition Authority seeking more than $20 million in government aid, with the bulk of it dedicated to making COVID19-related improvements to Heinz Field, PNC Park, PPG Paints Arena and the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.
Members of the Pittsburgh-Allegheny County authority unanimously approved the applications Thursday, hoping to cash in on available aid to enhance the venues even as they sit empty because of the virus.
Improvements would include renovations to hightouch public areas, the reconstruction of food service and retail areas, upgrades to air filtration systems to block the spread of the virus and other safety measures.
Estimates are $6.1 million for Heinz Field; $4.1 million, PNC Park; $4 million, PPG Paints Arena; and $1.3 million, the convention center.
If the SEA receives only one of the grants or gets only a portion of the money it is requesting from those sources, the teams would have to come up with the rest out of their own pockets. And you know how that’s going to go.
Trust turns to those it trusts the most
And then we have the news out of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, where staff writer Marylynne Pitz detailed the eerie silence of no Broadway productions, no magic shows, no art exhibitions and almost no work.
The result is the nonprofit organization, which laid off more than 350 parttime employees in May, has since reduced its full-time staff to 50 people. People who remain on the payroll and earn more than $50,000 per year have taken 30% pay cuts.
“Our business model is broken. It just is,” J. Kevin McMahon, the trust’s president and CEO, told her. “The only revenue we have right now beyond a small endowment draw is fundraising.”
The trust, with an annual budget of $71 million, faces a $6 million deficit due to a steep drop in ticket sales, theater rentals and parking revenue.
Marylynne found it’s similarly silent — and gloomy — at Heinz Hall, where the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra announced Tuesday it has canceled its concerts for the rest of the year.
But there is one note of good news. The PSO will present free digital programs of classical music. Fall programs will include ensembles of PSO musicians plus community artists and partners when possible. Musicians will wear masks and maintain social distancing.
Marylynne also reported The Frick Pittsburgh reopened its Point Breeze campus to the public Saturday, as well as two of its museums to members and essential workers. Beginning Aug. 22, everyone else can get timed tickets to see two exhibitions.
The grounds of the fiveacre compound will be open from 10 a.m. to dusk, Tuesday through Sunday. Admission is free, though visitors must wear masks and maintain physical distance.
Clearing the air on all the red tape
It’s always nice when those big deals in Washington, D.C., drop in on our little burg. Whether we like what they say here is a different matter.
Staff writer Don Hopey was there Thursday when U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler visited the Energy Innovation Center in the Hill District to announce the loosening of “burdensome” methane emission controls.
“Regulatory burdens put into place by the Obama-Biden administration fell heavily on small and medium-sized energy businesses,” Mr. Wheeler said. “Today’s regulatory changes remove redundant paperwork, align with the Clean Air Act and allow companies the flexibility to satisfy leak-control requirements by complying with equivalent state rules.”
The new regulations, which will become effective 60 days after they are published in the Federal Register, also would eliminate Obama-era rules that require oil and gas producers to monitor and fix methane leaks throughout the drilling, transport and storage process and exempt wells producing fewer than 15 barrels of oil a day from emissions reporting requirements.
But the rule changes were panned by U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa.; Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto; and more than a dozen environmental and scientific organizations.
Mr. Casey said the Trump administration is rolling back “another vital regulation that protects our health and environment,” noting the EPA’s own analysis of the new regulation found it is “likely to adversely affect health” and “degrade air quality.”
Mr. Peduto said, “We should instead be investing in 21st-century technologies and clean jobs and building a new and sustainable industrial economy in Western Pennsylvania that will invest in our communities for generations.”
Dear Uncle Sam: Please send money
And the mayor didn’t stop there. Staff writer Ashley Murray quoted Mr. Peduto as saying if federal COVID19 relief funds aren’t in the pipeline to Pittsburgh soon, the city will have to cut jobs, including those in the public safety ranks.
“If we were to have to present a budget at this moment, we would be $100 million short,” Mr. Peduto said. “If we were to lay off 400 employees across all departments, 10% reduction through every department, that would make up around $25 million out of that $100 million. It wouldn’t even come close to filling the hole. It’s the reality of where we are.”
The mayor shared the comments early in the week during a virtual news conference convened by the Pennsylvania Municipal League that featured his counterparts and a council member from cities across the commonwealth, including Altoona, Easton, Lancaster, Philadelphia and Pittston.
“As of today, our reserve fund is gone. We have spent our entire reserve fund in order to pay the bills,” he said.
Mr. Peduto said Friday he joined both Democratic and Republican mayors from Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania to call for emergency funding for Rust Belt cities and towns still recovering from industrial collapse and the Great Recession that began in December 2007.