This Week’s Top Agenda Items

• Red light cameras coming to six Pittsburgh intersections in early 2026
• Council prioritizes community needs over funding criteria for $1.7M grant distributions
• Lincoln Place Fire Station gets $4.5M budget boost to escape muddy floodplain

Red light cameras coming to six Pittsburgh intersections in early 2026 ★

• Council gave a preliminary green light to the installation of a system to ticket drivers who run red lights.
• The members are considering a five-year $14 million contract with Verra Mobility for the design, construction, and maintenance of the Automated Red Light Enforcement Program.
• The cost of services is determined by the number of intersections covered, not by the number of tickets issued.
• Angie Martinez, assistant director of the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure, said the money from tickets will pay for the cost of the program. Any excess money goes to the state, but the city is on the hook for the cost of the contract if there aren’t enough fines collected to pay for the system.
• Panini Chowdhury, DOMI Senior Planning Manager, said the first six intersections were chosen through crash data and have received PennDOT approval.
• If approved and installed on time, tickets will start to be issued in the first quarter of next year at the following intersections:
  • North Dallas and Penn Avenues
  • General Robinson and Anderson Streets
  • Fifth and Negley Avenues
  • West End Bridge and Route 65
  • Saw Mill Run Boulevard and Woodruff Street
  • Browns Hill Road and Parkview Boulevard
• Martinez said that the city plans to have red light cameras installed at 30 intersections over the next four years.
• Council first approved the use of Automated Red Light Enforcement in September 2024.

Council prioritizes community needs over funding criteria for $1.7M grant distributions ★

• During a marathon meeting of its committees, Pittsburgh City Council gave preliminary approval to the distribution of $1,748,460 from the Stop the Violence Fund to 39 organizations. This came despite the concern from two council members that seven organizations do not meet the funding criteria.
• The money will be distributed to organizations throughout the city, with the funding broken down by police zones as follows:
  • Covering all zones: six organizations, $260,000
  • Covering multiple zones: seven organizations, $335,000
  • Zone one: three organizations, $140,000
  • Zone two: one organization, $25,000
  • Zone three: four organizations, $178,460
  • Zone four: two organizations, $100,000
  • Zone five: 12 organizations, $530,000
  • Zone six: four organizations, $180,000.00
• Grants will range from $20,000-50,000.
• The money from the Stop the Violence fund is intended to augment the work done by the city’s Office of Community Service and Violence Prevention.
• The city received 64 funding applications.
• Councilmember Bobby Wilson of Brighton Heights, who is on the steering committee, and Councilmember Robert Charland of the South Side expressed concern that seven recipient organizations did not meet all of the funding criteria.
  • Solomon Armstead, a supervisor in the Office of Community Services and Violence Prevention, explained that in some neighborhoods that are facing specific challenges, such as high levels of gun violence, only have a single provider. In these instances, meeting the needs of a community superseded the scoring criteria.
  • Council will receive a written rationale for the exceptions, including who made those decisions, before their final vote next Tuesday.
• According to Director of Public Safety Lee Schmidt, the request for proposals for the six anchor organizations will be available soon. Anchor organizations will provide contract-based services, rather than be grant recipients.

Lincoln Place Fire Station gets $4.5M budget boost to escape muddy floodplain ★

• The Department of Public Works requested an additional $4.5 million to get the fire fighters in Hays out of the mud.
• This will bring the total cost of constructing a new building in Lincoln Place, across the Monongahela River from Hazelwood, for Fire Station 20/Medic 12 to $17.7 million. The Department of Public Works asked council to expedite the contracts in order to begin construction.
• Fire Station 20 is currently located on a floodplain in Hays.
• Director of Public Works Chris Hornstein said the project is part of an overall program to address critical emergency responder needs. This includes the recent completion of Medic Station 4 in the Northside and the in-progress Fire Station 8 in East Liberty.
  • New or renovated stations are not the only structural problems for the city’s emergency responders. A post agenda meeting in May revealed that 33% of the fire trucks and 89% of Emergency Medical Service vehicles are past their service life or mileage limits. Hornstein said the department needs 10–15 million per year to appropriately maintain all emergency response vehicles but only $3 million a year is budgeted for the next five years.
  • A July meeting on the response to the April 29 storm further revealed that not all fire, EMS and police stations have generators.
• Councilmember Barb Warwick of Greenfield said that the community’s desire for the new fire station in Lincoln Place began decades ago with funding accumulating since 2018.
• The combined station for fire and emergency medical services will also include a “small” community room instead of the community center that the neighbors wanted.
• Councilmembers Wilson and Charland said they wanted to make sure that the contractors will pay a prevailing wage. Don Mudrick, manager of personnel and finance for the Department of Public Works, said the prevailing wage is set by the federal government and the city is required to adhere to it, though union status cannot be a factor in determining contracts.

Also at this week’s meetings

• Both the general and standing committees meetings took place on September 3.
• Thirty-nine people spoke in support of the Oakland DIY Skatepark and one in opposition at the morning general meeting.
  • Council approved the renaming of Boundary Street Park to Oakland DIY Skatepark in June.
  • No additional legislation is currently on the council’s upcoming agenda. One Panther Hollow Resident, however, has spoken to council about his hatred of the skatepark seven times this summer.
• Twenty-six people spoke in opposition of—and two from a neutral position on—the proposed public safety training campus at the afternoon standing committees meeting.
  • The bill is being held for another two weeks.