Pittsburgh RANT: Sour Resident Relationships in Oakland

“Some students are good and some are not” – a long-term elderly resident of Oakland, Meyran Ave. Study (GSPIA)

As a former resident of Oakland (for four proud years), I can very well understand the tensions that many are not aware exist in the small area that comprises South Oakland, home of the University of Pittsburgh. I was a college student and had been at a few gatherings of less than 10 people where barely any noise was made, but that local residents reported out of their hatred for student renters in the town (so sympathetic to the student’s plight). But, I also lived next door to a sweet old man, with whom my boyfriend (at the time) and I always had a great relationship with and who was terribly sad to see us go (most likely fearing the next terrible group of college students to move into our apartment). AND, I was constantly furious at the parties of hundreds in houses set to hold 20 max as well as the resultant street garbage, noise during finals week, and other student-bred annoyances (so I am also sympathetic to the older residents of Oakland). As a concerned citizen of Pittsburgh, I think it is important to seriously concentrate on living conditions in Oakland - and along with living conditions - with the general happiness of the populace, both young and old.

Many residents agree that not all off-campus student renters are bad, but many feel like the students do not respect Oakland or the properties in the area. One said,

“I think most students like to be off-campus because then they can have their playground. They can study during the day and then they can raise hell at night and to hell with everyone else who lives there.”

Residents feel that the mainly student population contributes to such problems as trash on the streets (and the rodents introduced into the neighborhood as a result of this), a heightened noise level late at night, damaged property, and hard to find parking.

It is a vicious cycle. Student renters are living in bad conditions, and may not do much to make this situation better. Landlords, believing that students will only destroy their properties, do not make the proper repairs when needed; hence the vicious cycle. The students now expect a low quality of housing and the landlords are willing to provide it. Now, porches and streets are lined with pizza boxes, beer cans, furniture, and other trash. Full Story »

  As the biggest fan of social networks like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and basically whichever Web site is ‘in’ this week, one sad repercussion of my generation’s intense online activity is the loss of our class reunion. In the past, a class reunion was a “hold-your-breath-til-you-get-there-and-see-who-got-fat” kind of thing. Not so much anymore. Linked as ‘friends’ on all social networks to everyone we can find from high school, college, work, etc. allows us to see (in instant time) who , got fat, got a job, got married, and/or got pregnant. It’s like a class reunion on speed!

So, what need is there for a class reunion? My friends from high school and college are spread around not only the nation, but the world! But, I can pop by and say hello any day I want to. AND, I can updated friend statuses telling me exactly what they did today, yesterday, or any other day of the week. My generation is definitely the epitome of self-promotion. We are completely cool with publishing our photos, thoughts, and even relationship statuses online.

So, in the end, we’re losing out on our class reunion. But, MySpace and Facebook made it a lot easier for me to badger our Class President. (sorry Brie!)

Maybe we’ll be able to work it out in the end - and see who is lying online

My Verizon Customer Service Nightmare

A little while back, during the Pittsburgh Technology Council’s seminar titled, Social Media: Animate Your Marketing, the presenter gave me a great idea for a rant. Mike Woycheck, of Pittsburgh Bloggers and AlphaLab, gave a great presentation about company blogging…When to Comment, When to Listen, and When to Blog. And, of course, there are many great examples of companies who were forced to listen to consumers who had to blog about bad experiences online, i.e. Dell Hell, which basically caused Dell’s entire customer service approach to change, and so on and so forth.

So, bingo! I had been suffering from writer’s block, but instantly had the motivation to write about my recent 3 to 4 month customer service nightmare in the hands of Verizon FiOS Internet.

To make a long story short, I have been attempting to cancel my Verizon FiOS Internet service for approximately 4 months now. It turns out that Verizon’s lovely automated phone customer service program is not so lovely. In the past, it took me 3 weeks to get through for some technical support when my Internet stopped working. When it was time to cancel my service, I was prepared for the worst (or so I thought). Full Story »

My family and I have recently outgrown our 2 bedroom duplex. While it’s really a great house and we have the best landlord in the world, we just need some more room (and a better backyard for our little one). So, we are (once again) performing the rental search. We need another year or two to save to buy and we all know it will be a buyer’s market for a long time, so we decided to just rent for another year.

Well, I forgot how painful the renting process is. Not only is it hard to find a 3 BR house right now, but we supposedly need to worry about scammers from across the world tricking us. Within only one week of looking at a small number of properties online, I have received two scam offers and thought I should share my experiences with everyone in the area so no one else is scammed. Luckily, I was smart enough to do some heavy research the first time, which saved me a large sum of money, but I am afraid that others have been scammed, which is why I’m writing this. Keep reading for the whole story and what you can do to avoid being scammed. Full Story »

So, while trolling the Pittsburgh Bloggers site, I came across an article about Pennsylvania potholes. “Potholes!” I exclaimed out loud (hey, I hit relative ranting writer’s block and was very excited!). I read the blog posting, which was interestingly enough from “Edgar Speaks Out” or the blog for Edgar of Edgar Snyder’s law firm. The article cursorily explained how to recover damages from Pennsylvania potholes. But, the part that really GOT me and made me want to really RANT is that you can not claim property damages on PA (PennDOT) roads (although you can sometimes recover some injury damages).

So, you get into an accident that was not your fault and PennDOT refuses to take any liability. Did I mention that Pennsylvania has consistently been named the state with the worst roads in the United States (I almost started typing Universe and you know…I think the roads in Pittsburgh ARE actually comparable to the crevices on Mars, so this may be an entirely accurate comparison). We actually get hit with a double whammy here in PA because not only does the terrible wintry weather we’ve all been experiencing so frequently erode potholes, but our road system is seriously screwy and the potholes barely get fixed.

I guess we all have to learn to be super careful when approaching potholes - being that the responsibility for an accident caused by one may fall squarely on your shoulders. Edgar Snyder says:

“You can’t recover property damages on PA state roads, but you may be able to receive compensation from PennDOT for your injuries. For roads in local municipalities, you may be able to collect both property damages and compensation for personal injuries from local governments.”

Check out another helpful feature of good ol’ Edgar Snyder’s Web site: A Q&A section where you can find all the answers to hazardous road questions you may have. And, Pittsburghers will surely agree with me that we unfortunately have many - hazardous roads AND questions (especially for you PennDOT employees….boy, have we got questions for you).

Hey friends,

So, I put a new poll on the site asking what YOUR Pittsburgh Rant is…help me out and take it so I can write more of what YOU want to hear!

Any additional notes on the subject can be left in comments to this post… And, I always accept submissions from other Pittsburgh writers

Thanks all and I hope the weather hasn’t got you too chilly!

National Buffoon’s European Vacation

I understand the interest in bringing green initiatives and international business to Pittsburgh. In fact, I think Mayor Luke Ravenstahl has many great ideas along these lines and I can’t help but believe that our city has been consistently improving in reputation, environmentalism, business relations, and many other ways. But, do I think that in order to accomplish these two goals that two of our officials actually need to concentrate on what’s going on here first and then maybe later vacation in Europe. Further, the main locale to visit is Amsterdam… Sounds like a fun TRIP!
Instead of flying to Europe on an economic expansion trip, couldn’t our dear leaders have saved us a few economic dollars and held a few conference calls? Half of the trip is said to be funded by the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, an affiliate of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, while the other half is funded by conferences and councils in France, although I’m not 100% sure what they have to gain from it. At least they don’t hate us…

Oh, and of course, Ravenstahl’s wife needed a vacation too…well, at least the mayor’s office is REPORTING that the money is coming from her own pocket.

Needless to say, if this trip does help to accomplish those two initiatives (increasing globalization and environmentalism in Pittsburgh), then I may just have to turn this RANT into a RAVE. But, if it turns out to be just a damn vacation to go get high, then I will just RANT away!!!

Student Residents: Part of the Problem or Part of the Solution?

Oakland Series Continued…

“You’re paying how much money to live here? They should be paying you to live here!” – my Mom when she saw my sophomore off-campus house.

Please see my past postings on Oakland housing if you are interested in learning more about the Oakland community - and if you are interested in helping to improve the problems!

Students agree with the resident’s assessment (mentioned in a recent posting on long-term residents in Oakland) that landlords are the cause of Oakland’s demise. In an all student focus group monitored by the Oakland Planning and Development Corporation (OPDC), the complaints surrounding the need for repairs were endless. The problem of landlords neglecting to make repairs is a universal one. Some students have moved into messy apartments infested with fleas or termites, but the landlords did not respond immediately to these complaints. One student’s bathroom window broke. The student explained,

“The window [which was on sash weights] collapsed and exploded. The past week it’s been like 30 degrees outside and we just don’t go in our bathroom and our whole apartment is cold. It was broken for a month…she [the landlord] didn’t send anyone to fix it until today and that was because our parents called and said they would no longer send the rent until it was fixed, so she finally sent over this dude and he put in like a piece of garbage bag plastic.”

Other horror stories included a broken stove, a refrigerator (which was replaced by a mini-fridge!) and other safety concerns. Full Story »

ATTN: Caring Pittsburgh Landlords Needed

Oakland Series Continued…

“The majority of the current owners appear to use the properties strictly for investment purposes, and once sufficient return is generated by the real estate, it is sold to the next willing absentee landlord” – a study by Pitt’s Graduate School for International and Public Affairs, on Meyran Ave, a popular student rental street in Central Oakland.

As I’ve written before, the arrival of student renters into the Oakland community has unleashed a string of problems. The renters’ property is owned by absentee landlords who make a huge profit, but do not make necessary repairs due to the negligent enforcement of local building codes. The depreciating property values result in a loss of tax revenue on many local properties.

Based on the aforementioned study and other focus groups conducted by OPDC, it seems that the older residents are in agreement that the main problem is the absentee landlords, not the college students themselves. “They [landlords take care of their house in Upper St. Clair or Mt. Lebanon but they forget, they think Oakland is trash so let’s damage [it] and you know students live there, so let’s trash it,” one long-term resident said. A major concern is that landlords who do not live in the neighborhood do not maintain their properties suitably and any of us who  have lived there and suffered through trying to get a hold of an absentee landlord for housing repairs know that this is indeed a problem. Full Story »

So, in what seems to have become a theme on this Web site, I must ONCE again rant about Pittsburgh’s bad drivers. The first (and a half) snowstorm came this past week in the Burgh and I managed to encounter (once again) the worst of the worst of Pittsburgh drivers.

Bad weather Pittsburgh drivers, I beg you:

1.  When you come to the end of a side street in bad weather, please do not pull out INTO the street so that other cars have to swerve around you. It’s best to avoid swerving in bad weather - simple, but obviously misunderstood around here.
2. Along those lines, when you are trying to turn left in an intersection and there are cars going straight coming DOWN A HILL (think Potomac Ave and Banksville here people), please do not try to creep left in front of those cars driving down the hill. They are sliding already and SHOULD NOT HAVE TO slam on their brakes to avoid your dumb self or swerve additionally.  Speaking of, lady in the BMW SUV doing this the other day at the aforementioned intersection should read this and learn a lesson (if our beeping didn’t teach you one already).
3. You don’t have to drive under 5 miles an hour on the heavily traveled roads that aren’t slippery. This only worsens traffic.
4. Lastly, if you hear someone beeping at you from behind, get the heck out of the way. (This is the most important for accident avoidance).

Pittsburghers - if you follow this advice, the incidence of bad weather accidents in this city will decrease. And, so will my blood pressure.