Bloomfield Garfield Corporation
Enright Park Neighborhood Association
Friendship Community Group
Pittsburgh, PA
September 9, 2019
Members,
Pittsburgh City Council
City-County Building, 5th Floor
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
Re: Council Bill
#2019-1910 Resolution Vacating a Portion of Eva Street
Dear Members of
Pittsburgh City Council:
The Bloomfield
Garfield Corporation, Enright Park Neighborhood Association, and Friendship
Community Group wish to reiterate their longstanding opposition to the
privatization of the planned reconstruction of Eva Street, of which this
proposed street vacation will be a part. We therefore formally object to
Council Bill #2019-1910.
As the attached May
12 letter to Mayor Peduto indicates, our opposition to the privatization of Eva
Street centers upon the need to provide unimpeded public access to the
reconfigured Enright Park, which the proposed Eva Street will front for most of
its length. As we stated in our May 12 letter:
Regardless
of easement agreements or other legal covenants for the new street (which we
note were not contained in the final land development plan), management and
control of Eva Street by a private entity creates a foreseeable risk that
park-goers and others will be subject to arbitrary rules pertaining to their
use of the street. Further, if such rules are enforced by a private security
force, there will be many opportunities for careless or deliberate abuse of
such authority.
Despite our repeated
requests for the text of the proposed easements which will govern public use of
the privatized Eva Street, they have not been shared with us to date. We regret
that the planning process for this street privatization has been opaque and
closed to participation by community stakeholders. We wish to strongly
reiterate, however, that no easements or other legal covenants can substitute
for the rights of city residents and others to freely use a street policed and
maintained by the City of Pittsburgh.
We note that the new
Eva Street will be built using public subsidies through the East Liberty
Transit Revitalization Investment District (TRID). As our May 12 letter
indicates, we are unpersuaded by the reasons that the developers of Pennley
Park South have used to justify privatization of Eva Street: maintenance of
underground stormwater infrastructure and periodic use of the street for
special events are both activities which are accommodated elsewhere in
Pittsburgh on and under public streets. We see no reason to make an exception
here.
The risks of
arbitrary private management and policing of this important new piece of city
infrastructure will extend far into the future. We urge that City Council
reject this proposed partial street vacation and support construction of the
new Eva Street as a public right of way.
Sincerely,
Bloomfield Garfield
Corporation
Enright Park
Neighborhood Association
Friendship Community
Group
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