“Enough is enough—the continued trashing of our city has to stop.
“Pittsburgh is the cultural and economic engine for our entire tri-state region and hosting concerts is part that tradition. But there is no reason that a large event like the one Saturday (June 21) on the North Shore should force city taxpayers to bear the burden for outsized amounts of garbage removal and public safety response.
“Public Safety officials responded to more than 300 incidents related to the concert.” These were statements made by Mayor Bill Peduto after the Luke Bryan country concert at Heinz Field; where around 60,000 people attended this mega concert that also included Dierks Bentley, Cole Swindell and Lee Brice.
My question is what would have happened if a hip-hop/rap concert had been held in Pittsburgh and they left the same mess that fans at the country concert left?
Would the mayor be complaining or would he and city officials be saying “NO MORE?”
First of all, my question is why do you need to be out tailgating or partying at 11 a.m. in the morning when the concert doesn’t start until after 7 p.m.? When you have that many people out all day drinking and partying you should expect destruction, litter and all kinds of problems, which includes fights, trash, emergencies and the list goes on.
There were between 50,000 to 60,000 or more people at this event, which means probably more than that number were out all day partying before the concert.
Well, if that had been a hip-hop concert it would have been stopped it in its tracks. For example, LaBelle performed at Heinz Hall years ago, and because of some of their wild fans, which didn’t break a thing, officials said they would never have them or similar concerts back.
How many big hip-hop concerts are not held here and are in other cities because officials are afraid of what may happen when you get thousands of young Black people at one place? But I ask, could they be any worse than this Luke Bryant concert, which was supposed to be composed of so called “civilized, conservative” adults? Aren’t most country fans right wing? They are supposed to be more under control than the general young Black hip-hop fans, or young White rock fans.
I’m still trying to understand why the city officials, including the mayor, didn’t expect the same results as the previous year. How can you allow people to sit around, drink and get high all day, but don’t expect all hell to break lose? You can’t have it both ways. I say, since the city officials are more concerned with the money these promoters are spending with the city, which must be offsetting what the city is spending for clean up, either kill the all day stuff or shut up the complaining. Common sense says that all day drinking leads to major chaos.
Hopefully this doesn’t eventually lead to a death.
***
Congratulations to Councilman Rev. Ricky Burgess and others in their effort to rebuild what may be the worst area in the city. HUD recently approved a $30 million grant to help development of the Larimer area in the East End. Thanks to the lead work of Rev. Burgess and efforts made by Malik Bankston from the Kingsley Association, the previous mayor and the current mayor, working together for one common goal.
Hopefully they will get the mixed housing that was proposed to make sure this development doesn’t end up being another slum in 10 to 20 years. A mixture of middle- and low-income housing with businesses in the area to provide jobs is what is needed, and it appears it will happen.
It shows what can be done when everyone, despite disagreements, works together. Hopefully this continues.
***
The newly elected Black Mt. Oliver City Council President made a solid point when he said that young Blacks hanging on the streets creates some of the problems in the community. This is where many. if not most, of the problems lie in the Black communities throughout this country. Young Blacks hanging in the streets and selling drugs.
There have been some people complaining about racism in Mt. Oliver from the previous police chief, and the city as a whole. But I wonder how much of that is true, or simply a community trying to keep crime off the streets of its city? Home owners, White and Black, who aren’t used to seeing drug deals going on in the streets at night or day, are going to call the police, and the police are not going to be nice and kind to these dealers.
I’m just wondering if some of the racism complaints aren’t coming from the same people who are going to up and leave the community if the street people start taking over Mt. Oliver. If the drug trafficking continues to increase, which will lead to more shootings and homicides, the people who can are going to move out, leaving the people who can’t behind to raise their kids in the crime infested streets.
The councilman said Mt. Oliver needs a recreation center, yet people I’ve talked to said that there are recreational centers all around Mt. Oliver and in neighboring communities that these young people have access to. There were recreational centers in St. Clair Village and Arlington Heights, yet crime was rampant before they were demolished. Could many of the problems in Mt. Oliver be coming from the former residents of St. Clair Village and Arlington Heights?
Speaking of crime, 32 of the 42 homicides so far this year are Black lives. That means around 76 percent of the homicides in Allegheny County are Black. We only make up around 15 percent of the county and 30 percent of the city. This is a serious problem that we must continue to address.
(Ulish Carter is the managing editor of the New Pittsburgh Courier.)
