There is a serious chance of Pittsburgh annexing Wilkinsburg... (Allentown: rentals, neighborhoods)

[Higherho]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

The annexer has to assume the outstanding debt of the annexed territory.

That’s not up to the people of Pittsburg but instead the Pittsburgh Council. The only individuals that get a vote is the citizens of Wilkinsburg which they would be the ones with the massive change to their existing political lifestyle.

[eschaton]

The state language on mergers and consolidations is pretty opaquely written, but considering the merger website lists these steps, and neither Peduto or Gainey mentioned anything about a city of Pittsburgh referendum, this must be one of the several ways a merger/consolidation can go through.

[szug-bot]

Originally Posted by Higherho

That’s not up to the people of Pittsburg but instead the Pittsburgh Council. The only individuals that get a vote is the citizens of Wilkinsburg which they would be the ones with the massive change to their existing political lifestyle.

imagine how crazy that is. wilkinsburg gets to vote on being absorbed by pgh, but the citizens of pgh, not.
that can't be correct, HHo. In light of eschaton's comment above, i just cant see how the Council would NOT bring it to a referendum.

[Higherho]

On a total side note. I saw this comment in the Post-Gazzette article and thought it was interesting to copy / paste here. I’ve always stated this county has too many little hamlets running around, it needs to be addressed.

Quote from a comment in the article.

“ The 'divide into our little fiefdom' concept is what gave us Allegheny County with 100+ little towns that end up having zero political clout and kept the corporate oligarchs in power in the region for over a century. (We lost a public transportation network of over 300 miles of light rail vehicles because of local corporate interest in transit companies and oil.)

For all intents and purposes "Pittsburgh" as an SMSA (Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area) is all of Allegheny county plus bit of the 4-5 adjacent counties.

Pittsburgh needs to strategically expand so it can take advantage of the things stated in the article. The "join or die" phrase applies here.

While it's difficult to point to concrete benefits, Rand Corporation says that the effects would be slightly positive. I'll go with that.
https://ctmirror.org/2019/10/22/loui...regional-city/
”

Originally Posted by szug-bot

imagine how crazy that is. wilkinsburg gets to vote on being absorbed by pgh, but the citizens of pgh, not.
that can't be correct, HHo. In light of eschaton's comment above, i just cant see how the Council would NOT bring it to a referendum.

The 1907 law, which the U.S. Supreme Court held up. I see your point though. I thought Pittsburgh would also need to vote on it and be a majority. I will have to re read that law and how they are applying it here.

[Independentthinking83]

Originally Posted by PreservationPioneer

I don't know if the political autonomy of Wilkinsburg as a separate borough is actually doing it any favors. It has been in decline for so long. However, lately there has been some progress made in revitalizing parts of the downtown. The old train depot was recently restored, for one thing. Hopefully, this revitalization would continue as it merged with the city. One argument in favor of annexation is lowering taxes. I assume property taxes would be much lower as a city neighborhood..

The problem with the property tax thing is 65% of the dwelling units are renter occupied. You are asking renters to increase their wage taxes and median rent to align with median rents in Pittsburgh. I don’t see this happening.

[PreservationPioneer]

Mt. Oliver should be annexed, too. It's surrounded by the city. if you're going to take Wilkinsburg, you might as well also take Swissvale and Edgewood. Both are quite urban in character and blend into the fabric of Pittsburgh, without seeming like independent cities so much as greater Pittsburgh.

[Higherho]

I am curious what the average age of a Wilkinsburg resident is or really the dominate age group. I ask this because while for decades this idea was pushed around and nothing happened, that was a different generation and a different time.

Originally Posted by PreservationPioneer

Mt. Oliver should be annexed, too. It's surrounded by the city.

Oh, I agree with you and they use City resources as well.

[Independentthinking83]

The merger vote won’t be happening this year. Tough sell to many low income renters to increase their wage taxes and median rents to become part of Pittsburgh.

https://www.wesa.fm/politics-governm...ith-pittsburgh

[Independentthinking83]

Originally Posted by PreservationPioneer

Mt. Oliver should be annexed, too. It's surrounded by the city. if you're going to take Wilkinsburg, you might as well also take Swissvale and Edgewood. Both are quite urban in character and blend into the fabric of Pittsburgh, without seeming like independent cities so much as greater Pittsburgh.

You are asking people to increase their wage taxes and median rents. What percentage of those dwelling units in each municipality are renter occupied?

[Higherho]

Originally Posted by Independentthinking83

The merger vote won’t be happening this year. Tough sell to many low income renters to increase their wage taxes and median rents to become part of Pittsburgh.

https://www.wesa.fm/politics-governm...ith-pittsburgh

Ah that is a shame =/ Totally agree with her on this point.

“ She supports more municipalities in Allegheny County consolidating. “We have 130 municipalities in one county. That’s wild to me,” she said. “We’re seeing how there can be a disservice because we’re not getting equity across the board with all this fragmentation.”

You’re guessing at this “renter” stuff, I’ve seen no evidence of it in terms of median rent in similar neighborhoods. Would not be a tough sell for low income renters at all when they have more programs to help them unless they are bombarded by fear mongering and false guidance. In fact home ownership might go up because of the tax decreases.