the week in review
The Pittsburgh Promise announced Wednesday that it will remove attendance and minimum GPA requirements for its scholarship for students in the Pittsburgh Public Schools class of 2021.
Staff writer Andrew Goldstein reported that the Promise said the one-time easement of requirements was meant to ensure that students who graduate this year can pursue postsecondary plans despite challenges they’re facing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have concluded that it will be nearly impossible to measure attendance for the class of 2021,” said Saleem Ghubril, executive director of the Pittsburgh Promise. “We also believe that due to disparities in access to technology and ongoing hardships of COVID-19, some students’ grades will be detrimentally impacted.”
During normal years, the scholarship requires students to have a minimum cumulative, unweighted GPA of 2.5 throughout high school. Students with a GPA between 2.0 and 2.49 are eligible for the Promise Extension Program, which requires them to complete a year at Community College of Allegheny County before enrolling in another postsecondary institution in the state. But this year, students with GPAs below 2.0 will still be eligible for the extensionprogram.
Eligibility for the scholarship also typically requires students to graduate with a 90% or higher attendance record. This year, however, student attendance will not be reviewed.
Other scholarship policies, including the residency and enrollment requirements, will not change.
DEP out to push electric vehicles
You know what’s great about electric vehicles?
Well, the state Department of Environmental Protection has a feeling you don’t, so it’s going to publish a booklet for consumers extolling the benefits of zeroemission vehicles.
Staff writer Don Hopey reported Friday that DEP also is working on rules that would promote availability and use of electric vehicles.
This comes as the agency is putting up almost $1 million to install 16 rapid chargers for such vehicles at four service stations in high-traffic areas near Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
All of the stations will be located in community hubs, the DEP said, serving local residents’ day-to-day charging needs.
The Sheetz at 9002 University Blvd. in Moon already is penciled in for four of the fast-charging plugs.
DEP and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation also are helping to develop electric vehicle corridors for long-distance travelers every 50 miles along interstates 76, 95, 376 and 476.
Electric vehicle sales in the state have risen steadily, from just over 1,000 vehicles in 2012 to about 6,000 in 2019. During the third quarter of 2020, the most recent data available, electric vehicles made up 1.15% of Pennsylvania light-duty vehicle sales.
Penn State’s Barron to retire in June 2022
Penn State University President Eric J. Barron on Friday confirmed his plans to retire in June 2022.
Mr. Barron, 69, took the helm of the university in 2014 and, as noted by staff writer Bill Schackner, guided the institution out of the Jerry Sandusky scandal, as well as through a fraternity hazing tragedy, economic struggles andCOVID-19.
“Iwould have liked to have skipped COVID,” Mr. Barron quippedFriday in remarks to theboard of trustees.
A career academic and scientist, Mr. Barron instituted strategies for expanding research and entrepreneurship, boosting classroom access and reining in tuition prices. He also
oversaw a $2.1 billion fundraising campaign, which is set to finish in 2022.
Mr. Barron said advance notice of his departure would allow for a period of transition to a new leader. Board members praised his contributions and said a national searchwould be conducted.
Pitt students in line for financial help
Bill Schackner, who also covers the University of Pittsburgh, reported that about 15,200 students on all five Pitt campuses are to receive grants of $600 or $1,050, depending on their individual situations, to offset unexpected educational costs due to COVID-19.
Recipients are being notified by campus email, with awards to appear in PittPAY on the Account Activity tab for spring 2021, officials said in a statement on the school’s website Friday.
The Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, which became law Dec. 27, includes $22.9 billion for higher education institutions, including money going directly to students.
Pitt’s allocation totaled $30.6 million for institutional expenses, including technology costs, refunds and other revenue impacts due to the pandemic, as well as direct emergency student aid. In a statement, Pitt said $15.3 million, or half of its allocation, wouldgo to direct student aid.
“Students who have signed up for PittPAY eRefunds will receive the money directly in the bank account they have designated on the eRefunds tab within 2-3 business days,” Pitt’s statement said. Students
who have not registered for PittPAYeRefunds will receive a check at their home addresses within 10 to 14 days, thestatement added.
The federal eligibility formula is weighted toward undergraduates but allows graduate students to receive grants too.
Airport sees mix of good, bad news
Christina Cassotis, CEO of the Allegheny County Airport Authority, which operates Pittsburgh International Airport, summed up January’s passenger traffic for staff writer Mark Belko.
“It was a little less awful than December. Let’s put it that way,” she told him.
The numbers show that Januarypassenger traffic was down67.5% from its 2020 level. (December was down 70.4% fromthe previous year.)
The good news was on the other side of the ledger, under the heading “air cargo,” which increased by 10.7%.
Ms. Cassotis credits that to the return of a Qatar Airways cargo flight and an expansion of service by FedEx.
“We definitely have seen an uptick in online ordering and express shipments,” she said. “My guess is that [the increase] has to do with the pandemic.”
Casino looking for a little luck
Mark Belko also keeps a close eye on property assessments in these parts. Last week he noted that Rivers Casino is appealing to Allegheny County Common Pleas Court after the county’s board of property assessment appealsand review refused to
change the venue’s 2020 assessment of $245.9 million.
Holdings Acquisition Co. LP, the casino’s owner, complains that the assessment — the highest in the county — is unfair in light of the pandemic’s impact on business.
Mark warned that this could be just the tip of the iceberg as the county could see a wave of assessment appeals this year from hotels, restaurants, retailers, and commercial and office property ownerslooking for reductions.
Jonathan Kamin, co-managing partner of the Goldberg, Kamin & Garvin law firm, said he plans to file more than 50 appeals on behalf of commercial property owners before the March 31 appeals deadline. They include hotels, office buildings and shopping centers.
His argument is simple enough: The properties have lost income and value because of the pandemic.
“Operations and cash flow have been dramatically affected by the pandemic,” he said. “Many of these properties will take years to stabilize.”
Mike Suley, a former county property assessment director and board member, is aware of the problem.
“It should be obvious to everyone that 2020 was not a good year for commercial real estate and business,” he said. “There were a lot of empty buildings last year.”
Unless, of course, they hit a pothole
Staff writer Ed Blazina reported the next stop on construction of the Bus Rapid Transit system — which will link Oakland and Downtown — is a project review by a
federal consultant. A Port Authority official described it as “our last hurdle.”
David Huffaker, the authority’s chief development officer, told the board’s planning and stakeholder committee Thursday the Federal Transit Administration has appointed a New York firm as the project management oversight consultant. McKissack and McKissack will review all design aspects of the project to make sure it meets federal standards before the agency releases a $99.5 million grant to support the $230 million effort.
“I’m going to stipulate that having a [federal review] is a good idea for this project,” Mr. Huffaker said. “It helps us make sure we have our ducks in a row.”
The design of the project, which will link the two business centers with bus-only lanes to provide more predictable service and avoid buses traveling too close to each other due to traffic, is about 90% complete. The agency expects the federal review to takesix to eight weeks.
The system will use Fifth Avenue for inbound buses and Forbes Avenue outbound, then extend to Wilkinsburg via the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway and to Highland Park and Greenfield using intersections where buses will have priority at traffic signals.
“This is a very complicated project, especially in the Uptown area,” Mr. Huffaker said. “It’s a very complex corridor,but we have a lot of communicationgoing on.”
Construction could start before the end of the year, and revenue service on the new system should begin in late 2023.
City out to help avoid evictions
Staff writer Ashley Murray reported that the Peduto administration plans to introduce a bill this week that could help renters avoid eviction, an issue housing advocates continue to highlight during the ongoing economic fallout caused by the pandemic.
Evictions are still occurring despite emergency orders, advocates say, and they want city officials to enact its own eviction moratorium, similar to what Harrisburg’s local leaders passed in December.
Although an emergency court order postponed landlord-tenant proceedings “based upon non-payment of rent or end of lease” until Feb. 26, hearings are still going forward.
More than two dozen eviction hearings are scheduled in the judicial districts that fall within Pittsburgh’s borders, according to the Carnegie Mellon University CREATE Lab’s Eviction Rapid Response team, which has been tracking court filings since April.
“For folks who are evicted, the options for rehousing have never ever been worse,” said Anne Wright, CREATE Lab project scientist. “Marginally affordable places that used to have reasonable availability do not have availability.”
Time is of the essence. The Allegheny County Common Pleas Court emergency order expires in late February, and hearings will likely “hit the fan” on March 1, Ms. Wright said.
Nearly 230 hearings are already scheduled within city limits next month, according to the CREATE Lab’s figures.
Council confronts growing controversy
Ashley Murray had another story telling us that Pittsburgh City Council took the first step in tightening an anti-discrimination law meant to protect hairstyles for people of color.
You might remember that the law, passed in October, raised questions regarding whether it would mean police officers could grow beards, which current bureau restrictions prevent.
The Peduto administration’s amendment centers on removing the phrase “and other forms of hair presentation.”
Zone 4 police Officer David Meade, in a letter to City Council, noted that numerous U.S. cities have taken the “progressive” step of allowingofficers to wear beards.
“I would like to make it clear that my intent is not to have anything removed from a law that protects minorities, primarily African American women. I would ask that you add any protections that you see fit but not detract from protections currently in place,” Officer Meade wrote.
Council’s standing committee and members of the administration discussed the change for nearly an hour Wednesday.
Jam Hammond, head of the city’s Commission on Human Relations, which investigates civil rights violations, said he doesn’t know if Officer Meade’s situation and the administration’s amendment are “necessarily” connected.
“Civil rights does not work if you only protect one group of people, [the rights] only work if you protect all people,”he said. “Civil rights law isn’t a tool of equity, as it’s trying to be used [in this case]. It’s a tool of equality.”
Another argument for not removing the language: Amending the legislation would not necessarily cancel individual departmental policies, Mr. Hammond said.
Councilwoman Erika Strassburger, one of eight council members who support the amendment, said, “For the record, I do believe that beards can be professional and can be safe [in public safety].”
Council is expected to give final approval to the amendment Tuesday.