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Tough queries get officials to pledge community help

Friday, February 21, 2003

By Jane Elizabeth, Post-Gazette Education Writer

Nearly 900 people from churches and faith-based groups around the region put public officials on the hot seat last night during a public hearing sponsored by the Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network.

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In an hour, they had extracted promises to work on getting computers in youth centers, extending the African-centered program at Miller Elementary School in Pittsburgh, and securing $150,000 from the county budget to clean up abandoned homes in Wilkinsburg.

The group, known as PIIN, is a grassroots network of more than 30 congregations, mosques, synagogues and religious organizations in the region. Like its counterparts around the country, the group's goal is to press local leaders to take action on specific issues.

The network was created in 1999 with a three-year grant for $135,000 from the Allan R. and Helen R. Herlehy Memorial Fund and the Melissa S. McKenn Carnahan Trust of the Pittsburgh Foundation. Other local organizations also have contributed some funding to PIIN since that time.

The audience that turned out last night at the Wesley Center African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in the Hill District came from the city and suburbs, on chartered buses, city buses and in carpools, to create what was probably one of the most diverse groups ever gathered for a single purpose in Pittsburgh.

"This is really Pittsburgh," said the Rev. Jack O'Malley, labor chaplain for the AFL-CIO, addressing the crowd of many races, ethnicities, ages and backgrounds. "You look beautiful."

Elected officials were invited to attend the hearing -- PIIN's first. After PIIN members presented their requests on various topics, the appropriate official was asked to stand in front of the cavernous sanctuary and answer only "yes" or "no."

Allegheny County Chief Executive Jim Roddey was the main "yes" man, as he promised funds to demolish 20 properties in Wilkinsburg and to board up another 50.

The Rev. Karen L. Battle, who heads the NIA Community Lutheran Church, had members of her congregation hold up color photos of the ramshackle homes -- 80 of them in a four-block radius around her church on Center Street, she said.

Roddey drew wild cheers again as he promised to meet "every month" with network members to discuss redevelopment in the struggling community east of Pittsburgh.

And after Mayor Tom Murphy's executive secretary Tom Cox said he couldn't commit what he said was $600,000 to put computers in the city's recreation centers, Roddey also promised to try to find funds for that project.

"It's nice to stand here and hear all this applause," said Roddey, who's running for a second term as county executive, "but the real thanks goes to PIIN and their leadership and all of you who are causing this to happen."

Andrew King, an assistant to Pittsburgh Superintendent John Thompson, also pledged to meet with PIIN members on revising the social studies curriculum and the code of conduct to address multicultural issues, and extending Miller school to grade 12. Miller, which has an African-centered curriculum, currently ends at grade 5.

The group also called for the release of specific data on police performance "to be shared routinely with the public," said the Rev. Janet Edwards, a Presbyterian minister. Cox agreed to help set up a meeting with network members, police officials and the mayor's office to discuss the issue.

Correction/Clarification: (Published March 13, 2003) The Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network (PIIN) was initially funded in 2001 with a three-year grant for $135,000 from the Allan R. and Helen R. Herlehy Memorial Fund and the Melissa S. McKenn Carnahan Trust of the Pittsburgh Foundation. Other local organizations also have contributed some funding to PIIN since that time. A story in the Feb. 21 editions said incorrectly that the network was created in 1999 with a grant from the Pittsburgh Foundation.