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Reaction signals bumpy road for Mon-Fay
Wednesday, October 10, 2001 By Joe Grata and Dan Gigler, Post-Gazette Staff Writers
Mayor Tom Murphy has quietly planned three neighborhood meetings -- the first was held last night -- to gather public opinion on the proposed Mon-Fayette Expressway.
Because opposition to the $1.2 billion, 24-mile northern section of the toll road seems to have increased in Pittsburgh over the past year, the meetings are making project supporters nervous.
In addition, the Group Against Smog and Pollution, a longtime opponent of the project, is sponsoring an Oct. 18 forum that is likely to raise more doubts, questions and controversy.
About 200 Oakland-area residents attended last night's meeting at the Pittsburgh Board of Education building on Bellefield Street.
Residents of South Oakland, in particular, fear the expressway will have the same detrimental affect on the neighborhood that Interstate 279 north had on the East Street Valley, by diminishing pedestrian access to park trails, stores and workplaces that attract young professionals to Oakland.
"We've been trying to make Oakland a better place and to make people choose city life," said Kathy Boykowycz, president of the Oakland Community Council.
"Who will want to move in? The Mon-Fayette Expressway is a hindrance and we must oppose it," she added, drawing applause from the crowd.
The current proposal would link the expressway from Route 51 to the Parkway East in Oakland near Bates Street. The Turnpike Commission said the expressway will reduce traffic on the parkway, the Boulevard of the Allies, Forbes Avenue, Second Avenue, Beechwood Boulevard and Brownsville Road in the East End.
"Oakland is famous regionally for being an educational, cultural and health center. Young people study and intern here and we want to keep them here," said David Blanke, executive director of the Oakland Planning and Development Corp. "We want to improve quality of life for residents, so to dispel that myth that when you grow up, you have to move to Cranberry or Murrysville."
Ed Pace, a 54-year resident of South Oakland, told Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission officials at the meeting: "The Mon-Fayette Expressway does nothing for the people it hurts. It will bring in traffic, drive out residents and leave pollution.
"You should be forced to live by the monstrosities you create."
Tom Fox, community involvement coordinator for the turnpike commission, the agency directed by the state to build the highway, said engineers have already held about 200 meetings for residents, businesses and local elected officials in Allegheny County over the last two years to disseminate information and gather input for highway planning.
While the turnpike commission doesn't oppose extra meetings, Fox said they came as something of a surprise. He said the commission doesn't know the implications for the proposed Y-shaped northern leg from Route 51 in Jefferson Hills north to Pittsburgh at one end and Monroeville at the other.
"We've been invited to participate in all of the mayor's meetings," Fox said. "I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens."
Mayor Murphy told last night's crowd that the city has not decided whether to support the project, but noted that Pittsburgh has learned hard lessons from past highway urban redevelopment projects on the North Side and East Liberty.
Without Murphy's support, a plan already a decade in the making stands to be further delayed. A draft environmental impact statement is to be released early next year, followed by public hearings that the Federal Highway Administration requires.
Murphy has sometimes wavered but expressed conditional support for the Mon-Fayette Expressway in the past. But Patrick Hassett, assistant city planning director, indicated Murphy isn't necessarily convinced the limited-access toll road is an economic and transportation panacea.
"The mayor's position isn't solidified because the project needs work," Hassett said. "I think we'll hear how much work is needed when we hear from the communities."
Another factor influencing the mayor was his narrow margin of victory in the Democratic primary in May, a campaign in which he was criticized as being oriented to big business and Downtown development at the expense of neighborhoods.
"Certainly, that's on his mind," Hassett said.
Future meetings will be at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Allderdice High School for Swisshelm Park, Duck Hollow and Squirrel Hill; and at 7:30 p.m. next Wednesday at Burgwin Elementary School for Hazelwood and Greenfield residents.
The meetings were publicized through mailings to residents and telephone contacts with community groups. There was no announcement via the news media.
"The meetings are open to the public, but the intent is to hear from neighborhoods where we're meeting," Hassett said. "We're entertaining questions only from those residents."
The turnpike commission will get 15 minutes to make a presentation, but the mayor's office said it wanted no more than two representatives in attendance to respond to questions.
While acknowledging the many meetings conducted by the turnpike commission and its consultants, Hassett said "the mayor wants to hear the concerns of communities directly."
He also said the city wants to be able to respond to the upcoming draft environmental impact statement, a key step toward receiving future federal approval, "with community concerns in mind."
Hassett said he expected the biggest opposition at the Greenfield-Hazelwood meeting "because they'll be taking a direct hit" if the expressway follows the alignment currently on the drawing board.
The Oct. 18 forum held by GASP is to begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill.
The northern end of the Mon-Fayette Expressway is viewed as the vital link in the 70-mile road, which would follow the Monongahela River corridor through Washington and Fayette counties to Interstate 68 in West Virginia.
A 17-mile section from Interstate 70 near Speers, Washington County, north to Route 51 in Jefferson Hills is to open in the spring.
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