While the combatants square off in what might be called the "Oak Hill Wrestlemania Smackdown," the rest of the city should not look on from ringside seats as though we are not involved.

		Sala Udin is a Hill District resident and a former city councilman (sala@salaudin.com).

This fight is not just about whether 220 additional homes will be built in the upper Hill District, versus athletic facilities for the University of Pittsburgh. It's much bigger than that.

Mixed-income housing developments like Oak Hill were financed by Congress under the Hope VI program. The primary goal was to offset the effects of generations of failed public-housing policy. The results of that failure are well-known: increased segregated residential patterns, extreme poverty, chronic unemployment, failed schools, drug and gun trafficking, daily reports of homicides and shootings, unprecedented numbers of single-female heads of household and a generation abandoned to the economic backwoods -- while the rest of the world soars off toward high technology and the globalized economy.

The Pittsburgh Housing Authority and city government officials have unclean hands in this matter. As a result, they have a responsibility to provide leadership and solutions.

It was the Housing Authority and the Urban Redevelopment Authority, under orders from federal and local government officials, that made Pittsburgh one of the most racially segregated cities in the United States. In the 1940s and 1950s, when the lower Hill District slums were demolished, white Pittsburgh families were steered to the suburbs, subsidized with federal home-ownership programs, while black families were steered to segregated public housing projects.

Many in the "urban core" communities are terrorized and locked in our homes because our children, who used to be afraid of the adults, face adults who are now afraid of them. Half of the city's population has fled to the suburbs in a 50-year "white flight." But the flight, it turns out, has not been so white after all.

The black middle class has fled to the suburbs as well. Most black adult Pittsburghers -- even those of us who were raised in public housing -- were raised in communities where we saw people get up and go to work every day. We saw people going to school every day. Working class, middle class, professionals and the poor all lived in relative proximity. Young children had proud, working role models to look up to and pattern our lives after.

So here we are. Bob O'Connor has gone on to glory. Luke Ravenstahl is the mayor. Councilman Bill Peduto wants his job. County Chief Executive Dan Onorato is being crowned the next governor. But if the future of politics in Pittsburgh is to be more than a beauty contest, then the people of Oak Hill and indeed, the people of Pittsburgh, deserve to see evidence of insight, innovation and foresight -- leadership -- from would-be political leaders.

How deep is their understanding of these perplexing questions? How far back does their historical perspective go? What new and exciting ideas do they have for fighting the segregation, extreme poverty, chronic unemployment, crime, homicide and pain of being poor and black "living in the city"?

Furthermore, the University of Pittsburgh (and Carnegie Mellon University, UPMC, Duquesne University and others) are not just nearby institutions of higher learning. Since the collapse of steel and manufacturing in southwestern Pennsylvania, these institutions have become the lifeblood of the regional economy.

Although, the universities must be "good neighbors" in partnership with adjacent communities, the communities must also appreciate the important role they play in today's world and partner with them to help find solutions to their growth needs. The mayor, the county chief executive and other political leaders must find solutions for the growth needs of the universities -- not just in Oak Hill, but long term.

Does the new executive director of the Housing Authority accept the historical role played by and current results stemming from public housing policy? What is the Housing Authority plan for dismantling the racial segregation of poor blacks throughout Pittsburgh and Allegheny County? How can Oak Hill become a model of forward thinking and innovation?

Will the next mayor of Pittsburgh and county chief executive have the courage to provide leadership to the city and its suburbs to break down racist restrictive covenants and zoning laws that render poor people locked in the inner city with no access to the growing suburban job market? Who has the kind of leadership that can take the regionalism debate beyond the safe confines of "city-county consolidation" to build a truly competitive region, with world-class schools, that values equity and shares our region's vast resources?

These are the questions that the Battle of Oak Hill challenges leaders to respond to. It challenges leaders to lead.

It's not about the developer -- it's about development!