part of the plan from the beginning<\/a> when the job was posted.<\/p>\n\u201cFor the short time that I’ve been here, in a year and a half, we’ve made headway, and it’s just me,\u201d she said to WESA. \u201cSo if we had the resources and there was a bit more help to do it, I think we would see even more progression.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca Kasavich is part-owner of Copies at Carson, a print shop on East Carson Street. She\u2019s vice president of the South Side Chamber of Commerce and is working with the collaborative group of Southsiders who put together the NIDMA plan.<\/p>\n
Kasavich says South Side businesses have been looking for new ways to boost their neighborhood for some time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just don’t have the money to solve all of the problems, to address all the issues, and really to have East Carson Street be all that it can be,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Kasavich hopes that a NIDMA could add strategic branding and marketing to the business district. She also wants to see the association contribute to cleanup efforts, bring temporary popups into vacant storefronts when a long-term tenant isn\u2019t available, and employ a business manager like Anderson.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s not looking to replace those city services that taxes already pay for,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n
Don Berman, founder of the South Side Community Action Network, sees the community guidance of how the money will be spent as key to the plan\u2019s effectiveness.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe advisory committee [members] are basically commercial property owners and business owners. They are determining the priorities,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is basically the business district paying for its own development and guiding its own development with people who really know about the district and care about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
A neighborhood debates<\/p>\n
The public hearing last week drew varied opinions from Southsiders. Some, such as property owner Marie Rotondo Senko, who lives in Banksville, were concerned about the potential NIDMA\u2019s fees. Some characterized the proposal as an additional tax.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe this additional NID financial burden will not spark economic growth but only serve as another deterrent to buy and sell property in this district,\u201d Senko said. \u201cInstead of NID, let\u2019s find other ideas for the proper use of resources that already exist.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others were enthusiastic about the idea. John DeMauro of Urban Tap, who chaired the East Carson Street Advisory Committee and leads the South Side Hospitality Partnership, said the NIDMA would be a way to get things done in the South Side that the city of Pittsburgh can\u2019t get done on its own.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe city has many priorities, and its resources are not unlimited,\u201d DeMauro said. \u201cIf we want cleaner streets, stronger marketing, business recruitment, coordinated public safety efforts, better maintenance, and most importantly, a district that continues to compete with other business districts across the region, then we have to be willing to invest in ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Austin Vanasdale of the Carson Street Deli told WESA on Monday that he is \u201con the fence\u201d about the plan. He hopes to see more discussion about how the fees will be calculated, so that businesses like senior apartment buildings don\u2019t pay an inordinate proportion of the fees.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t personally mind paying a little extra taxes if it’s gonna help the community as a whole,\u201d Vanasdale said.<\/p>\n
He noted, however, that communication around the plan could also be clearer. He and some other businesses at first thought the NIDMA was related to the South Side Street Fest, an initiative between Pittsburgh Public Safety and several South Side organizations that is closing down part of East Carson Street to cars on weekend evenings. (Charland noted that the NIDMA and Street Fest are completely separate.)<\/p>\n
Residents and business owners will have another chance to comment on the plan \u2014 Charland says he plans to hold another public hearing on it. A final vote on the plan likely won\u2019t come until after Council\u2019s recess in August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A proposal currently before Pittsburgh City Council could introduce a new way to bring neighborhood improvements to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-244342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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