Every other month, District 7 Councilman Patrick Dowd brings his Council to Go to Polish Hill.  The next session is tomorrow, Wednesday evening, at 7:00 p.m. at the Polish Hill Civic Association office at 3060 Brereton Street.  All residents are invited to stop by to hear what the City Council is working on and share your opinions and concerns on City and neighborhood issues.

Here’s an example of an issue  that might interest residents of this neighborhood.  Polish Hill has a high number of billboards in proportion to the size of the neighborhood.  In the Post-Gazette today it was reported that the City Council is considering a tax on billboard revenues.  Currently, billboard companies pay no taxes on the signs themselves and minimal real estate taxes on the plots holding the signs. The city budget office has demonstrated that billboard companies pay as little as $5.40 a year in city property taxes for parcels on which billboards sit.

If you want to provide feedback on the billboard tax issue, or other issues, we encourage you to attend Council to Go.

Every other month, District 7 Councilman Patrick Dowd and his staff bring Council to Go to Lili Coffee* Shop, at 3138 Dobson Street in Polish Hill.  This open community meeting is an effective way to bring concerns directly to the ears of local government, without leaving your neighborhood.

Patrick and his staff have effectively addressed many issues that residents have brought up at Council to Go.  These community meetings are also a great way to find out what City Council is working on and to meet and visit with other Polish Hill residents.  Please join us at 7 pm (come early and order an iced coffee or a smoothie!).

Above:  Councilman Patrick Dowd addresses residents at the last Polish Hill Council to Go meeting in May.

Please don’t forget to vote in the primaries today.  This is an important one — the City Council post, for one, is contested — and due to new environmental issues, there is at least one write-in candidate.  If you’re new to the neighborhood and not quite sure where to go:  it’s in the basement of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church on Brereton Street, and there is a cluster of signs and people around the entrance.  Can’t miss it, and please don’t!  The polls will be open until 8 p.m.

“There’s an old saying: The two things you never want to see in life are people making sausage and people making laws,” said Councilman William Peduto, who has pushed for Internet broadcast of council meetings for years. It’s no longer applicable, he argued. “It’s important that people see their elected leaders making laws.”

The City Information Systems department has invited proposals to put City Council meetings online, where they could be viewed at any time.  Currently, meeting are broadcast live on city cable tv, but to view an old meeting, you must place an order to have a DVD burned.

The director of the City Information Systems says that the City is looking for private companies that specialize in data storage because the amount of data required to store recordings of Council meetings which can go on for hours, would be a burden on the City’s computer servers.

Read the Post-Gazette article.