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Sep 16, 2009 7:04 pm US/Eastern
Mayor's Opponents Criticize G-20 Traffic Plan
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
From the first announcement that the G-20 was coming to Pittsburgh, Mayor Ravenstahl and city officials insisted downtown Pittsburgh would remain open during the summit.
But Tuesday the mayor, in sync with his public safety officials, decided to shut down much of the downtown -- or at least easy access to it.
One day later, the mayor's critics came down hard.
In the run-up to the G-20, the mayor often repeated his hope to keep downtown Pittsburgh open for business during the summit.
"In a perfect world, we would like to have business as usual go on," the mayor said on July 30. "We would like to have people in downtown. We would like to hopefully get them to work, and that's our goal."
But with the shutdown of Downtown Pittsburgh to vehicular traffic and limited bus and "T"-service, the mayor's opponents cried foul.
"The mayor advertised that we would be open for business," said City Council President Doug Shields.
KDKA Political Editor Jon Delano: "And that's not true?"
"That's not true at all," said Shields, "and to say that then was to put a happy face on something."
Shields said Ravenstahl's decision inflicts lots of economic pain.
"There's also the individual impact to someone that is going to be missing three days pay in their paycheck because the employer said, 'Go home' and there aren't any vacation days to take or other kinds of compensation to make up."
"That's reprehensible," noted Franco "Dok" Harris. "We have to make sure that Pittsburgh takes care of its own and those who need us the most."
Harris, one of Ravenstahl's two opponents for mayor, said the mayor should be focused on downtown workers along with world leaders.
"What we do differently is be a lot more pro-active on this process and start figuring out how we would take care of these employees months before hand," Harris said. "We found out about this in May. It's now September. We shouldn't be making these decisions the week before the G-20 comes."
"Out there knocking doors as we've been for the past two months, we're starting to hear people say that it was a mistake, that they're now having to deal with the impact of this," added Kevin Acklin, another mayoral candidate.
Acklin says public opinion about the G-20 and the mayor is turning, particularly when Ravenstahl describes this as just an inconvenience.
"That's a mayor that's out of touch with the neighborhoods. That's a mayor who doesn't spend the time out here as I've done talking to the people," Acklin said. "People are concerned about this."
The decision to restrict access to Downtown Pittsburgh was the mayor's -- not the Secret Service.
Public safety officials worry that the Secret Service perimeter around the Convention Center will back up traffic in the rest of the city, gridlocking the bridges and parkways.
The mayor did not comment Wednesday on his opponents.
But the mayor told KDKA's Jon Delano on Tuesday that in the end, Pittsburghers are willing to sacrifice for the benefits of having the G-20 in town.
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