The Angry Drunk Bureaucrat: Small Victory for Arena Foes?

The Rules of Bureaucracy

Rule #O: "The Rules of Bureaucracy are mutable, non-canonical, non-ordinal, and contradictory, except in the cases where they are not."
Rule #1: "Document everything you do; if you didn't write it down, it didn't happen."
Rule #2 [The Sixty Minutes Rule]: "Never do anything that would cause Ed Bradley, Mike Wallace, Morley Safer, Steve Croft, Leslie Stahl, or even Andy Rooney to persue you down a hallway with a camera crew."
Rule #3: "Nothing Simple is Ever Easy"
Rule #4: "It's about the money; follow the money."
Rule #5: "Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Rule #6: "Politics is the enemy of good government."
Rule #7: "The biggest detriment to public service is the public."
Rule #8: "The second biggest detriment to public service is the service."
Rule #9: "There's a reason; there's ALWAYS a reason."
Rule #10: "The Law is a harsh mistress: The rigorous and exacting application of which can benefit of society when used correctly to advance good policy and block bad, and be the bane of society when used incorrectly to advance bad policy and block good."
Rule #11: "Public service often involves waking up in the morning, opening up the newspaper, and discovering that someone, somewhere out there thinks that you're a dickhead."
Rule #12: "No one really knows what you do."
Rule #13 [Luke's Rule]: "No one ever acts like the bastard they really are."
Rule #14: "Bureaucracy endures."
Rule #15: "The longer you work in bureaucracy, the more Catch-22 resembles non-fiction."
Rule #16: "Politicians are not smarter than you."
Rule #18: "Money is not created equal."
Rule #19: "Mediocrity is normalcy."
Rule #17: "Within any bureaucratic structure, resources (e.g. people, money, knowledge, etc.) are not distributed uniformly."
Rule #20: "Don't assume a fiduciary liability without a committed resource allocation."
Rule #21: "If you do your job and obey the law, they can't reasonably fire you."
Rule #22: "The Budget will always be wrong."
Rule #23: "Always sign in blue."
Rule #24: "A Bureaucrat must be able to explain and justify his/her actions to laymen without resorting to the phrase 'because the Rules say so.'"
Rule #25: "Never voluntarily relinquish control of an original document."
Rule #26: "Sometimes you just have to say 'Screw the rules'"
Rule #27: "Change sucks."
Rule #28: "Sometimes the answer is 'No.'"
Rule #29: "It is very easy to make difficult decisions when no one has a clue what's going on."
Rule #30: "If you hang around long enough, eventually you will become an expert in something."
Rule #31: "Data, technology, and automatic processes can never completely supplant human interaction."
Rule #32: "Cover thine own ass."
Rule #33: "It's not real until it has its own acronym."
Rule #34:There is nothing more dangerous than an elected, resourceful idiot.
Rule #35: It will always take longer than expected.
Rule #36: Coming Soon...

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Small Victory for Arena Foes?

I suppose very few people noticed this article buried in the back of the Trib:

The Pittsburgh Stadium Authority on Friday gave a North Side developer 45 days to meet with labor unions and social services groups before it would be willing to approve construction of a $27.5 million, 178-room Hyatt hotel...

Barry Ford, Continental's president of development, agreed to "have a dialogue" with the union-backed group North Side UNITED, which is seeking a community benefits agreement with the private developer that includes support for youth education programs, environmentally friendly design and jobs...

If you've been paying attention, this group is part of the umbrella group Pittsburgh UNITED, which has been at the fore front of the opposition to the new arena and casino, demanding similar concessions from both the Penguins and Don Barden.

So, is this just a small victory for the Pittsburgh UNITED group or is it a portent of things to come?

5 comments:

Bram Reichbaum said...: Very very small victory, and not particularly for the arena foes ... this is more a victory for Unite HERE, which is just part of Pgh United which is in turn just a part of Northside United.

If the casino encounters any pressure from the gov't to provide funds for social services, low-income housing or the such, wake me up. If the ARENA encounters any pressure to do anything at all, tase me.; 11:23 PM
O said...: Considering that UNITE Here/Pittsburgh UNITED/Northside UNITED/One Hill have had no real victories so far, I'd take the win.; 1:12 PM
Bram Reichbaum said...: Point taken.; 5:31 PM
object said...: There is a lot to be said about this victory. And I completely reject the statement that "UNITE Here/Pittsburgh UNITED/North Side UNITED/One Hill have had no real vortories so far."

First of all, the backslashes imply that these are all the same organization, and they are not. North Side UNITED is a campaign of Pgh UNITED. UNITE here! is an ally of Pgh UNITED, and One Hill is a community coalition that is supported by, but completely separate in structure and decision making, from Pgh United.

Second, the movement to ensure that new developments in Pittsburgh are backed by a CBA is bigger than any Pgh UNITED ally organization. And if there had not been numerous small victories over the past 8 months, this 45 day delay would have never happened.; 12:26 PM
David Sopko said...: I really love this Pgh UNITED concept, I see the 'give us some free shit or we'll do everything to make your project not get approved' concept is really catching on. Now it appears this social extorsion concept they started on the Hill is expanding into a city wide franchise! Fantabulous! I think it would be even better if it could be expanded into other areas, not just these major projects, you know bring it down to an even lower level. Want to open up a business, give us free shit, an edition on your house, give us free shit, I mean the possibilities are endless!

I'm thinking about starting a franchise on my block. I'll call the Pearl Street Mafia United, we'll be a sub chapter of Pittsburgh united and we'll make people give us free shit for all kinds of reasons. Wanna paint your house, give us free shit. Wanna put up an awning up, give us free shit. Wanna park on our street, we want some free shit.; 1:53 PM