Mt. Lebanon started a program where residents would adopt a green space and keep it free from litter, debris, and weeds.
Since we lived next to Rockwood Park, it was only natural to adopt the Park. We had been doing that unofficially for ten years. My husband and I would clean up litter, pick up sticks and fallen branches, rake leaves, clean off the picnic tables, remove bird poop from the swings and slides, provide bandaids to kids with scraped knees and elbows, and before cell phones, we called the police for frantic parents whose children were injured. Any park related issues were reported to Tom Kelley and his predecessors, Mike Rudman and James Harrod. I have even used my grass edger and edged the front of the park along the street. We cooperated with MTL police to allow a police officer camp out on our porch to catch the person that kept vandalizing (setting fire) my back neighbor's car back in the late 80's.
Until now. There is a dead tree along the edge of Rockwood Park, in line with the other trees that were cut down and now I am being told that I have to maintain that area since it is a paper street. The paper street is part of the park.
Rudy Sukal came to look at the tree and said that his GPS shows that since it is on the paper street, I am responsible for maintaining the area. We have been doing that for thirty years.
I just want the tree removed so that I can replace it with bushes or trees, not sure which, but they would definitely be deer resistant. I am not asking for the tree to be replaced. I would take care of that part.
Here is the tree. Rudy doesn't want to start a precedence, even though this will be the fourth tree that died in a row. The three others were removed by Mt. Lebanon. I guess this goes along with what Kelly Fraasch told me. There are consequences to my actions. Exposing the crap in this town has cost me. Retaliation is alive and well in our lovely community known as Mt. Lebanon. This is just one of several consequences that I am facing.
This is why people don't go to commission meetings and are afraid to sign peaceful pledges. Payback is a bitch.
21 comments:
Interesting, Elaine. The municipality is retaliating against you for, among other things, posting a pledge for signatures on your blog, a pledge designed to urge the community to engage in constructive activities and peaceful discourse.
Do you think that the municipality has instructed the members of the Sandy Baker committee to refuse to sign the pledge for coexistence? Who would be behind such a insane and wicked act?
Hi Elaine, I don't think it's all you. My interactions with Rudy Sukal has been all but pleasant. He was a little hesitant to show me the 12 deer crossing signs that were sitting down at the public works building when we questioned why we had deer crossing signs not being used when the message was about deer vehicle collisions, but he did show them to me.
On another occasion (I emailed you the specifics) I very politely asked Rudy, as a favor, if I could walk not more than 200 feet to the golf course lot to drop off 5 bags of leaves that fell from township trees on a Monday morning after the leaf amnesty day and was told "no" even though Earth Day and the ESB promote sending less to the landfills. Guess where the leaves ended up...in a landfill.
Very simply put, Rudy Sukal is not a people person. One would think he would be a little more sincere and open minded to those who pay him his $105,000 per year salary in addition to being entitled to a taxpayer owned vehicle, the use of taxpayer owned gasoline and of course, a taxpayer funded cell phone.
Nick M.
I don't know anything about Rudy Sukal. I am more baffled at the Sandy Baker committee's refusal to sign the pledge that contains Baker's exact recommendations for the municipality and its residents. Maybe I am confused. As I recall it, the municipality invited and paid for Baker's visit, presentations and recommendations. Do I have that wrong?
Why would M L buy 12 deer crossing signs? Don't our commissioners know dear can't read?
Again, pray tell. Who is attempting to sabotage the Coalition for Coexistence? Why won't the Baker committee people sign the pledge? That's just absurd and unbelievable.
God help us.
I think this is a legal issue, Elaine. From what I've read about paper streets, If they just took down 3 trees there in the recent past, the muni has not vacated the paper street and the spaces continues to be their responsibility. If 21 years pass or a legal action is taken to vacate the property, then it could become yours.
Some towns in the region have dealt with these issues publicly....
http://triblive.com/neighborhoods/yoursewickley/yoursewickleymore/5803175-74/streets-borough-property#axzz3bUYkEQ00
So you want small government except when you need help? Got it. This may have something to do with you being a target, but I find it hilarious that you are consistently and completely blind to your hypocrisy. Despite your threats, I hope that your narcissism and martyr complex continue to push you to maintain this blog. It's really enjoyable and goes great with coffee.
The municipality has not vacated the paper street. They cut the grass weekly. Rudy told me that I am responsible for half of the paper street's maintenance. He also told me that he hates paper streets because of this issue. He was very polite about it. He did indicate that this is not your typical paper street issue since the municipality is the other half of the paper street.
The last time a tree was removed was within the last four years. I really don't remember the exact date. See the utility pole behind the tree? I guess I am to maintain that as well.
We have gardeners who expect Mt. Lebanon to deal with their gardens, yet I am responsible for removing park trees now. Yeah, it's personal.
Elaine
Would the members of the Sandy Baker committee who have not signed the pledge for coexistence, please come forward and tell us why you refuse to sign. Please do so.
Sandy Baker will see that petition and think she worked with a bunch of nut jobs when she visited Mt. Lebanon.
C'mon folks, get on board the love train.
Thanks.
This particular thread caught my attention this morning because it comes on the heels of a story released by the REASON FOUNDATION's electronic publication, Reason.com, entitled Who Should Pay to Fix Cracked L.A. Sidewalks? You! City official suggests pushing cost of city mismanagement on property owners by Paul Detrick, Reporter/Video Producer for Reason. At first blush it may not seem as though Mt. Lebanon and Los Angeles would have much in common (except for displaced Californians); but in both locations infrastructure problems seem to have been the result of misdirected (or no!) priorities. As Adrian Moore, vice president of policy at the Reason Foundation, wrote back in 2013, "One of the problems bureaucracies have, and LA in particular has, is nobody who manages these departments actually invests the management effort in saying let's be ruthless about prioritizing what's most important."
If you have four minutes and 23 seconds to spare click on the link above and watch the video.
One other point to make; libertarians are often accused of being "anti-government" and desiring to foment "revolution." Hummm. Perhaps I should sign this post "Karl Marx!" In actual fact libertarians have a long history, going back to Thomas Jefferson in this country, and before Jefferson in other parts of the world, of advocating natural rights, individual freedom, and the proper role of government. That proper role recognizes that some level of government is necessary if a society is to be protected. At the local level tax dollars spent on roads and sidewalks is a public use, as opposed to a public benefit, and therefore a proper role for government. (The difference between those two terms in important; the former is supported by the "takings clause" of the Constitution's Fifth Amendment; the latter only indirectly benefits the public - if it does at all - and up until "Kelo v. New London" was legally unthinkable. I've studied law on my own, but I'm not a lawyer, so perhaps Mr. Franklin or another Blog reader/lawyer will comment on the subject.)
Rudy Sukal has every reason to hate paper streets, and is to be commended for saying so. If the Municipality has mapped out these properties as "streets" then the Municipality has (or should have) an obligation to care for them, whether they are concrete or grass, and not force adjoining property owners to assume the maintenance on them on the one hand, and pay taxes that should do that very - and proper - thing on the other.
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Full disclosure: the writer is a REASON FOUNDATION sponsor. If you wish to discuss this issue publicly I'll be happy to oblige, but I only respond directly to those who sign their names.
RG, I watched the video and kept thinking about Gateway Engineering. Mt. Lebanon paid Gateway to design flower beds when there were volunteers who did exactly that for free.
A PW crew looked at the dead tree when it was first reported and said that they had to check to see whose tree it was. Then Rudy came out to tell me about his GPS and paper streets. Our tax dollars paid employees to tell me that it is my responsibility to remove the dead tree.
Elaine
Elaine, this issue is indicative relating to the decline of social values in our society. There is no shame. Nobody cares anymore about doing their job with care and ethics. It is in all walks of society and all jobs including blue collar and professionals. It is so easy to cop out and scapegoat other people. We have experienced in so many ways, the great lack of integrity in our local schools and government. I have no answer for this.
Research in sociological journals indicates it takes at least 20 years for a value to change in society. I'm hoping we are getting to the end of the 20 years.
All Fed Up
Hi Elaine, for dummies like me can you please educate me on a few things:
1) What exactly is a "paper street?"
2) Is the tree mentioned in your post on your property or municipal property? I'm confused on this.
Nick M.
Hi Nick,
The tree is not on my property. The paper street is the continuation of Whitmore, which connects Vermont to Kewanna. The paper street runs from Kewanna to Rockwood. It was never paved.
Elaine
It should be illegal for the municipality to plant trees on paper streets.
Sometimes the municipality plays dumb when they are full engaged in their corrupt undertakings. In the not so distant past, they pretended not to know who owned a piece of property in Mt Lebanon when it was a documented traffic island/parklet under current and historical care of a municipal contractor for lawn and flower bed work. They wanted to deceive the residents and offload the land ownership and responsibility. They involved the solicitor and had him draw up a contract for a resident to take ownership of the land. Feller, Bendel and Brumfield were involved.
The municipality can't afford to deal with one lousy tree threatening a public park but it could afford to invest $2 million in two useless tracts of land (Twin Hills and McNeilly) that contain hundreds of trees that will eventually die.
There's an example
of MTtL municipal management at it's best.
What is even more pathetic is that the McNeilly plot of land that they overpaid for was owned by a private citizen and generated tax revenue in the form of property taxes.
Now it sits there and does nothing but provide a habitat for deer.
A paper street is one that exists only on paper (such as a municipal or county map). Usually paper streets are not paved. Sometimes, they are named; sometimes not.
Can someone please explain. If the paper street is municipal property, how can Rudy tell Elaine that she is responsible for half of the paper street's maintenance? What am I missing here?
Nick M.
If it is supposed to be your tree, Elaine, how about a painted deer mural? Some parks/cities have these...
A totem pole may be too difficult. The last one made for Pittsburgh was completed by a master carver and a member of the Tlingit people of southeast Alaska. He lives in Sitka, Alaska.
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