I love Pittsburgh, but.....

[P-11 shooter]

They screw everything up.

If there's a multi-million dollar deal to be made, shure as shit they will manage to do the dumbest thing possible.

Ok, I was working on the majestic star casino. I loved it. Now, since Pittsburgh decided to build a casino for a man who can't afford to pay for it I'm getting bounced around to all kinds of other jobs.

They had an awsome deal from the Isle of capri. They were going to build an arena for the pens as part of the deal. But decided to go with a guy who can't come up with financing and strings contractors alon with promises of payment.

As it stands now most of the work has stopped. The steel erectors walked off the job, they are owed 14 million. The steel mill hasn't got payed for the steel that is up. Two of the other contractors are owed 7 and 5 million respectively. Suposedly he has secured more financing but it won't go through for a few weeks, and with the steel work behind my company can't start work again for probably almost a month.

Anyway, i'm just pissed because the gaming comission is a bunch of asshats, and the people who decide on these stadiums, casinos, arenas, and other projects are all dumbasses.

Ok, my rant is done

[XD45]

yeah it is pretty freakin ridiculous what is going on with all of that, pittsburgh politics are complete BS

[Jared McLaughlin]

The city and the people in it are pretty awesome, they just tend to elected some of the worst politicians ever. Sometimes I wonder if Pittsburgh wouldn't be an argument for a place that would be better off with anarchy.

[Koli01]

From what I have heard and read. The whole deal sounds dirty. I think Rendall is the chief dirtball too. There had to be some kind of back room deal for that group to get it. If not, then the gaming board is completely incompetent. Last week I thought I heard that the construction company was out of Philly. That smells of Rendell.

I'll just throw this out too. I believe that Rendell is so hot to get the TP leased out so that he can get a kickback out of that too.

Rant over
Sorry for any highjackin'

[Trooper]

Don't worry! Mayor Ravingdrunk will set things right! As soon as he comes back from chasing Tiger Woods all over the golf course and taking city vehicles to concerts...

[Huntingdonhavoc]

Yeah alot of our guys came over to providence point for a week. They were told they could return sometime next week should everything get ironed out. I do not want to work on a job with an eventual 3 shifts, so hopefully I stay far far away from the casino.

[BigMikeM31]

When I saw the Barden got the deal to put the casino up, I almost threw up. I'm a big hockey fan, so keeping the Pens was critical in my mind. I thought the Isle of Capri was the way to go...Just one more example of how Rendell and his cronies could fuck up ANYTHING! Seeing him waddle out of office will be one of the greatest days in my young life. We can only hope that Philly's favorite douche bag Nutter and Allegheny County's drink taxing Nazi (Ono-RAT-o) aren't our choices next time. The Democratic political machine in Pittsburgh is to blame for the majority of the problems we have here and I wonder if Ravensthal is seriously capable of leading this city. That being said, I knew Bob O'Connor quite well (good friends with his son in high school) and I sincerely doubt some of this shit would be going on had he not passed so tragically. Someone needs to step up in this area and revamp the way things get done. The problem is that the slimy idiots in office now only want to revamp things in a manner that will benefit them...Like Ono-RAT-o wanting to be able to appoint the Sheriff...What a disgrace!

[rtrageser]

I'm more than a little dissappointed in this thread. Pittsburgh politicians had nothing to do with who got the casino license, it was the state gaming board who decided. They alone decide who gets the license. Sure they may be helped in their decision, but to blame it on Onorato and ravenstaal just shows ignorance. It had nothing to do with those two.

I truly believe that there were two reasons that Barden's Group got the license.

1. It was the best design and the best location. Like it or not, it is much better suited to the north shore than the hill or station square.

2. He was the minority candidate, and that went a long way in him getting the license, period. I'm not being racist, i just think that the fact that he was a minority candidate helped him immensely.

I think isle of Capri should of gotten it, and I think if they would have offered to put it in the north shore, they might have.

P-11, what trade, what company? I wasn't there, but I'm local 5

Ron

[er2006]

Are you sure this is Pittsburgh , I could swear this was Philadelphia you were talking about. Maybe it is the stupid disease that spread from Philly's politicians and have infected aother large urban areas in the state . All I can say , is I hope it gets straightened out and that the asshats get thrown out of office.

Maybe someday we will get candidates from the insane asylum to run for office and do a better job.

Sorry for the rant but it brings back a lot of stuff form my City and the bullshit that goes on everyday.

I wish you luck, and hopefully the jobs will be restored and you will have a better City to live and work in.

Ed

[ALS]

It won't be long before we go from 2% of the population leaving Pittsburgh to 3%. Yep 6,250 people leaving or dying with no possibility of finding additional stupid people to move into the city of Pittsburgh to replace them.
This is why the retards that work in the City County building are so worried about the Casino getting on line as soon as possible.
Also this is why your hearing more and more about the county talking about absorbing the city.

The numbers I heard were to get the city and school district the money they will need to survive were scary. The city is going to have to raise the wage tax up to 4.5% and the RE tax which runs about 3.2% will be needed to be increased to 4.0% to 4.3%.

The problem is they can't do it. People are leaving so fast that there is no saving the city from financial ruin.
In 10 to 12 years the 900 man city Police force will be lucky to be 600.
In the next 5 years the school district will need to downsize by additional 500 to 650 employees. There are 2800 presently employed.
The worst part if your a city employee good luck seeing your full pension.
The city of Pittsburgh has only funded the pension fund at 40% of what is going to be needed. Thus the real debt numbers at the last election were that the city is really $2.6 billion in the hole. Do the math 290K residents dropping at 6,250 per year how many will be around in ten years to pay the bills?

The Tax revenues from residents and established businesses are projected to continue to drop at an accelerated rate over the next fifteen years.
The Casino revenues will only keep the revenue's up slightly to neutral for about another 5 to 6 years. Then the other businesses and residents leaving will put the city back in the hole and that hole will continue to get deeper every year that goes by.