Changing course: Pittsburgh’s URA looks to refocus while fighting the pandemic

by Rich Lord, Public Source

Pittsburgh’s 74-year-old development agency — now charged with treating a virus-stricken economy — is simultaneously attempting surgery on itself.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority [URA] has to become more focused, better connected to potential partners and more resourceful, according to a report set to be released today and obtained by PublicSource through a Right-to-Know request. The URA has already launched an internal reorganization driven by the report, started tapping new funding sources — and it may soon begin looking for a new nickname.

The 262-page report, written before the pandemic’s onset by New York-based HR&A Advisors, and funded by foundations, suggests a new URA priority list:

  • creating affordable housing
  • helping small businesses
  • increasing employment across demographic groups
  • revitalizing neighborhoods
  • connecting job-seekers to training providers

Mayor Bill Peduto said he agrees “100%” with the report’s priority list. However, he said the city can’t single-handedly bolster the URA’s $14 million operating budget in the face of what he called an “economic depression,” and he isn’t planning to return to the days when the city funded half of the URA’s operations.

“I can’t see how we could, given the fact that [city] revenue is going to be significantly reduced, and our expenses are going to go up” due to the coronavirus pandemic, the mayor said in an interview on Monday. “I don’t look at the city as being the cash cow for the URA, and in fact, over the course of the next few years, the responsibility of the economic development leadership team is to make the organization completely self-sufficient.”

The report’s mandates will compete for attention with scores of small businesses clamoring for emergency loans, and with residents seeking help to keep their homes.

“Economic development in the city of Pittsburgh was already a huge undertaking. COVID-19 just sort of intensifies that,” said Diamonte Walker, the URA’s deputy executive director, who added that she was “pretty inspired by the report.”

Greg Flisram (center), executive director of the Urban Redevelopment Authority, at his first board meeting in January. Also pictured are Diamonte Walker (left), the URA’s deputy executive director, and board president Sam Williamson (right). (Photo by Juliette Rihl/PublicSource)

 

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Changing course in a crisis: Pittsburgh’s Urban Redevelopment Authority looks to refocus while fighting the pandemic’s effects

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