Campaign 2007/Council District 1: Variety of North Siders run for City Council

Monday, March 19, 2007

Darlene Harris arrived at a Brighton Heights senior center last week armed with smoke alarms, business cards and baggies with one shamrock cookie, one peppermint patty, and two spearmint green leaf candies in each.

"What I do is bring a little treat for each holiday," the Pittsburgh councilwoman said. The smoke alarms were free from the city -- give one out and you may save a life, she noted -- and she even brought firefighters willing to install them in homes. The cards are for anyone who might want to call her with any problem, from a pothole to a gas shutoff.

Classic retail politics has been part of her 14-hour workday since fall, when she won a special election to fill the seat held by Luke Ravenstahl before he became mayor. If she wants to hold it beyond this year, she's got to win the May 15 Democratic primary.

Like several other council members, she faces challengers who portray themselves as insurgents against an old order. At least three rivals consider her too old-school for a district that faces decline in areas, redevelopment in others, and a casino next door.

"It's just time to make a shift," said Valarie Coleman, who switched from Republican to Democrat in January and is running in the primary.

The area needs someone "with a professional view of what should be done," said Robin Rosemary Miller, executive director of the North Side and North Shore Chamber of Commerce, who is also running.

"To me, 'professional' is a buzzword," said Ms. Harris, a 54-year-old Spring Hill resident. "I'm not about buzzwords. I'm about getting things done."

There's a lot to be done, even in Brighton Heights, where the issues include decaying bridges and side streets that don't get plowed. Moving through the district, Marshall-Shadeland contends with abandoned houses, Northview Heights with gunplay, and East Allegheny with a persistently dowdy business district.

Ms. Harris' accomplishments since her Nov. 27 inauguration are mostly neighborhood improvements that don't make headlines. She had a bathroom installation planned and funded for a Brighton Heights dek hockey court, got movable 15 mph speed limit signs for East Ohio Street and helped fund membership in an online network that helps neighborhood groups track public safety threats, for instance.

She said she's gotten 139 houses on city's demolition list, started working with police and neighbors to fight crime on East Ohio Street, and gotten involved in planning improvements to Troy Hill's business district.

She worries that the casino that PITG Gaming plans to build in Chateau, just outside the district, will bring crime, but she believes the police are prepared.

"I believe if people like what they've been seeing in a short three months with me, well, you get what you see," she said.

Ms. Harris is a former two-term school board member, and a Democratic Committee ward chair who won the party endorsement.

To Kevin Donahue II, that makes her a member of a political in-crowd he'd like to break up.

"There's a handful of people who think they decide what goes on in our neighborhoods," the 27-year-old Brighton Heights resident said, declining to name the power-brokers. "My main goal is to make sure that there aren't five or six people sitting around making all of the decisions for the North Side."

He's a personal care consultant who finds homes for people who aren't able to live by themselves. A business administration graduate from Robert Morris University, he said he'd bring "a fresh approach" to development. For instance, he'd like to require bigger yards around new low-income housing, so kids don't need to play on the streets.

He took 14 percent of the vote in November, to 47 percent by Ms. Harris, and promises a bigger team of volunteers and more door-knocking this time.

Another candidate in the November race, Steven Oberst, filed petitions to run in May but may withdraw from the race.

Ms. Miller, 48, of Spring Hill, is building her first run for office on her seven years' experience at the chamber. She thinks the district needs a council member with business savvy.

"With the casino, I think we're going to have a lot of jobs coming into the neighborhood," she said. "This is a really good time for the North Side. ... I want [voters] to make sure they have the right person for that takeoff."

Her priorities as a councilwoman would be moving the Federal North development project forward now that the pornographic Garden Theater is closed; ensuring that a Weed and Seed anti-crime program takes root in the area; and putting "some legislative teeth" into laws on scofflaw landlords by exploring whether ramshackle properties can be seized by the city.

She'd seek foundation or corporate funding to reopen senior centers and recreation centers.

Ms. Coleman, 34, of East Allegheny, is a payroll consultant. She said she once worked with former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum's campaign, but became "disappointed" with him by the time of his failed 2006 re-election bid.

An African American and former Republican running in a mostly white and deeply Democratic district, she'd epitomize the city's diversity, she said.   Is she still a Republican?

Reversing the city's population slide and attracting jobs "is basically marketing," said the business administration and communications graduate of Point Park University. "I want to get the negative image off of the North Side area."

Why does she think she would she be any better at that than Ms. Harris? "It's just a new time," Ms. Coleman said, and that requires someone new. "You can expect to get the same thing when you keep electing the same type of people."