how can they call a system that is fair as favoring homeowners over the government that serves us. WESA is all over the place with their articles

And landlords that buy a dump, renovate, charge high rent and never sell. They will only pay taxes on the original sale price when it was a dump

We have made dramatic improvements so that we are in line with other major cities. I wish it was better but credit due for the huge improvement. I don’t want people to think it’s hopeless.

https://www.lung.org/research/sota/city-rankings/most-polluted-cities

https://www.lung.org/research/sota/city-rankings/states/pennsylvania/allegheny

All 3 million residents have died. except those who use Reddit and never go outside. You should probably tell your boss you can’t go unless they provide you a gas mask. The city will be uninhabitable for years

> Since February 3, ACHD staff have been monitoring the train derailment situation and its aftermath in East Palestine, Ohio. To date, our monitors and analysts reviewing the county’s air quality data have not seen any air quality changes that can be attributed to the derailment.

https://mobile.twitter.com/HealthAllegheny/status/1626245330353233920

I was responding to the comment about upmc. What are you talking about?

Money changing hands isn’t always classified as a profit motivation which is receiving money as a result of prior capital contribution to the entity.
The definition of profit doesn’t include an employees salary even though there is a link between them. It gets a little tricky with executive bonuses and how much influence they have at deciding their own compensation but these large non profits have a lot of lawyers to figure that out

Nobody pays 100% because the assessments are equalizes to a bae year of 2012 and there is an annual adjustment for inflation called the common level ratio. There is a lawsuit over how to calculate the CLR because the county has been purposely submitting biased data. The county says house prices have only increased 19% or 2% a year since 2012 which is absurd and the judge set the ratio at a more accurate 63% or about 4% a year since 2012

You hit the nail on the head. “Purely public charity” is vague and up to the courts to interpret without clarification from the legislature. My interpretation is they don’t give any profit for shareholders. However people really hate highly paid executives and conflate that with profit distributed to shareholders. One of the judges even said he stretched the truth to get the case appealed bc he has no idea how to interpret the vague law.

The base year for assessments is 2012 so they have an adjustment called the Common Level Ratio to account for inflation. It is currently 63.6% so they multiply the purchase price by that percentage to get an estimate of the property value in 2012.

The implication is they charge us higher prices for services. It’s robbing Peter to pay Paul.
It sounds good until you consider the consequences. It will also have implications for any nonprofit that charges a fee like museums and the symphony. The state constitution is vague on the issue so the courts are just going to make up whatever they want

Yeah that’s the unfortunate truth behind this dance that people don’t want to admit.

Suck it up. Is this the first time in your life you had a headache? Does your mom still kiss all your booboos. Are you incapable of reading the other hundred posts on the subject?

Use some common sense. The chemicals would spread out over a massive area. A plume 150 miles away and 50 miles wide would be diluted in a huge amount of air of 7500 square miles. The number of toxic molecules is going to be on the order of one part per trillion and you are probably exposed to more toxic gases released from plastic items in your house. You should probably be more concerned about dozens of factories releasing toxic chemicals nonstop while the train burned for a couple days over a week ago.

Weather changes cause headached

It’s going to be dispersed into a wide area and be so diluted that sniffing a pvc shower curtain will cause you more harm

Manual labor has gotten a lot more expensive in the past five years and I’ve noticed a lot of extra services are getting reduced.

There is some history behind Amtrak. Passenger rail used to be privately owned and operated but after wwii and the buildout of interstate highways, the government took over the remains of failing routes in 1971 to create Amtrak. Few new routes have been created since then. A short out and back route from Tyrone would be logistically difficult and expensive to operate. Recently, Joe Biden, a huge advocate for trains, allocated $100 billion for expansions but that doesn’t include many long routes. Instead it focuses on creating short commuter routes to large cities. This may build support for future longer routes but those are likely at least a couple decades in the future. The nyc to Scranton route could be the beginnings of a nyc Scranton williamsport state college Pittsburgh route in the distant future. Also the congressman from that area was chair of the transportation committee and interstate 99 was his life long pet project

The good news is Weinstein and Lamb are splitting the conservadems and Sara is the standout progressive in the race. When is the Republican primary? Can they just run Doug Mastriano or maybe Dr Oz will move here. Hopefully they don’t run a popular moderate Republican bc Sara might struggle since it is an off year election

Yeah something like six stories is a big price jump and then 20 stories is another big price jump. So building 7-8 stories is not as efficient. That’s why you see a lot of 5 and 15 story buildings and developers prefer not to build 6-8 story buildings if they can avoid it

his name and phone number are on the dog tags. Ive been asked if my dogs name is Joel

Poor efficiency tiny kitchens tiny bathrooms and the build quality is just as shitty. Everything has been built as cheap as possible since the great depression, ww2, gi bill, baby boom and today.

Exaggerate much? Most existing homes have shit floor plans and just as shitty construction and past owners that do dumbass remodels

It’s hard to make the economics of single family 1200sqft house much cheaper than a 2000sqft house. All the soft costs and economies of scale just make bigger houses more popular when the land is cheap Townhomes are more cost efficient to build at the 200k price point

But then how could developers externalize the cost of their development to the public? The towns won’t be able to afford the upgrades and would have to charge developers impact fees and that’s communist bullshit /sarcasm

The keep Pittsburgh shitty meme is hilarious so don’t you dare criticize it

We all realize we need a good, strong county executive, not only someone who is labor friendly but someone who is business friendly,” said Kenneth Broadbent, business manager of the Steamfitters Local 449. “On this election, we’re all supporting John Weinstein.”

Broadbent keyed on the controversial subject of fracking, calling it a “clean, safe form of energy, and energy is the key to the middle class way of life.” Weinstein said he would be open to new fracking projects in the county if elected, though he said he favored a 2022 council measure to ban fracking in county parks.

Phil Ameris, president of the Laborers District Council of Western Pennsylvania, added that Weinstein will “be a fair voice for both labor and development,” and in a dig at more progressive candidates, said he will represent more than “a select few neighborhoods.” I don’t think people in the South Hills are interested in affordable housing,” Ameris said.

Thanks construction unions. I hate it.