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City Council District 8 Special Election - March 6

Hey everyone. We've published our results for the District 8 Special election to replace Dan Gilman. Check it out and be sure to vote on March 6 if you're in D8 http://localhost/2018/02/22/pittsburgh-city-council-district-8-candidates-respond-biking-walking-survey/
erok
2018-02-23 10:02:44
I don't live in the 8th, but the district line runs down the middle of the street in front of my house. And, depending on where I'm headed, I can be in the 8th right out of the house. I would have to say that a major proportion of my daily riding is in the 8th. Anyway, I read through the statements. Here are some impressions:
  • Marty Healey seems totally clueless; his answers are basically content-free. But, importantly, he's a dog-lover. I'm sure that those of us who have been chased down the street by dogs would be willing to overlook those incidents.
  • Rennick Remley seems to be running in the wrong district. His target audience appears to be car drivers, commuters beyond the city limits. Couldn't he at least have made an effort lie to us?
  • Unlike Healey and Remley, Sonja Finn seems to have a staff that researched the whole bicycle thing. But her positions are kind of tin-eared. Is 5th and Penn really a major biker issue? I go through that area a lot from all directions but never really need to hit that intersection.
  • Erika Strassburger claims to be a bike commuter. Whether or not she is, she (or her staff) does have an accurate sense of bike issues in her prospective district. She also appears to be well versed on topics of interest to bikers such as Complete Streets. But then she is/was Gilman's chief-of-staff and has more direct experience than the others.
If you live in the 8th, please vote. And make sure that all bikers can benefit from it.
ahlir
2018-02-23 23:34:46
I'm not in the 8th but if I was I would vote for Strassburger based on these responses. Since I can't vote for her I made a small campaign contribution instead and I would encourage other people who care about bicycling to do the same. Streets like Ellsworth are too important to the overall bike network for a candidate like Rennick Remley to win the 8th. I think its pretty disingenuous that these other candidates are out here claiming that the city needs to do more public outreach as part of the bike planning process when what they really want is for the city to stop installing bike lanes. While the city goes out spending limited staff time and money trying to convince property owners to give up street parking for bike lanes, the ice caps keep on melting and cyclists continued to be threatened, injured, or killed on our unsafe streets. I would much rather see city officials focus their energy on delivering high quality projects that meet collective city goals rather than try to acquiesce to the demands of all the individual detractors out there. For that to happen they need political cover and that comes from electing progressive candidates for mayor and council. Thats why this election is so important. Here is the Erika Strassburger campaign website in case you are able to make a contribution: http://voteerika.com/
adams
2018-02-24 19:17:56
strassburger won
edronline
2018-03-07 15:08:34