Do you recall that Allegheny County Councilman Bill Robinson requested $500,000 for the August Wilson Center? The Allegheny County Executive King Richard Fitzgerald responded by issuing a decree that there was no money for the August Wilson Center. However King Richard is currently saying he may be able to raise $1 million for the August Wilson Center. It’s almost like the magician—now you see it and now you don’t.
The issue of saving the August Wilson Center has become more and more confusing every day. Some of the former board members have stated let it go, others have stated they had no workable plans and others have bluntly stated they had no idea what they were doing.
The conservator has recommended that the group out of New York should be allowed to acquire the facility and reconstruct it into a hotel.
The Pa. Attorney General Kathleen Kane and the head of Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto’s URA are on record declaring that there exists what is called a Covenant Agreement that prohibits any major changes in the structure of the August Wilson Center.
It becomes more confusing because Dollar Saving Bank, who holds the mortgage on August Wilson Center, states that if they foreclose in October the Covenant Agreement is null and void, and they have declared they intend to foreclose in October 2014. Another question of significant importance is if the AWC remains open, who will program it this time and what would they do differently?
One of my major concerns is that AWC did not deteriorate over night. It had to be an ongoing process.
Where were these concerned politicians, Allegheny County’s King Richard, Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Kane and the newly elected Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto?
If Dollar Saving Bank has the legal authority to foreclose next month, why are the three of them posturing as possible saviors? Is it because all three are supporting the same candidate for governor, and in November they can run ads declaring that the Black voters should remember they attempted to save the August Wilson Center?
The Black communities should be insisting that the same politicians that are allegedly concerned about the August Wilson Center should demonstrate the same concern about the absence of Black faces working on the billion dollars of construction ongoing in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. Every speech they make they give out statistics 27 percent, 35 percent, 40 percent, but never put names to these fictitious statistics.
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(Louis “Hop” Kendrick is a weekly contributor to the Forum Page.)
