Hill District residents braved the snowy weather to attend a town hall meeting with their elected officials, community groups and developers. Discussion on Feb. 15 was centered on the Hill District Master Plan, which will receive $350,000 in grants from city planning departments and the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

MAKING PROGRESS— Aliya Durham, YMCA district vice president, left, and Paul Cali, of DRS Architects, present artist renderings of the new Thelma Lovette YMCA.

“We’ve always had these miscommunications in the Hill so we thought it would be good to have all the different government representatives and community groups together,” said Rep. Jake Wheatley, who organized the meeting.

With a national unemployment rate of 16.5 percent for Black people as of January 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics website, jobs are becoming more limited and harder to find. With the 2010 Census coming, the Census Bureau is offering thousands of jobs that pay great and offer flexibility to accommodate anyone.

DOING HIS PART—A resident fills out the census form from the U.S. Census Bureau.

“These jobs are great opportunities for people who may have jobs already and are looking for extra income or for those who are unemployed and looking for a job,” said Pamela Golden, media specialist for the U.S. Census Bureau. “They are ideal for people who like to work with the public and who work well independently.”

When Heinz Field, PNC Park and the David L. Lawrence Center were  being built a decade ago, Cameil Williams, the county’s MWDBE director, worked to help Blacks and women get contracts on the projects and to uncover the “pass-through” contracts that had minority participation only on paper.

CONTRACT CON?— Business owner Cameil Williams was listed as a WBE subcontractor by Mt. Lebanon Office Equipment’s furniture bid on the Consol Energy Center despite having no agreement with Mt. Lebanon.

Now, as a small business owner, she’s trying to get contracts on current development projects. So the irony was not lost on her when she got a call congratulating her for a near $20,000 subcontract she’d won for the Consol Energy Center. The only problem was—Williams had no such subcontract.

At a community forum held to address the beating of 17-year-old Jordan Miles by three Pittsburgh City police officers, tensions rose when Beth Pittinger, executive director of the Citizens Police Review Board, suggested police brutality is not only an issue plaguing the African-American community.

COME TOGETHER— Beth Pittinger calls for everyone to support the Citizens Police Review Board.

“Victims of police brutality are not just Black, and that is not diminishing the history,” Pittinger said. “I’m suggesting that to say that when we come together in our city, that is when we have achieved things.”

After detailing the history of the CPRB at the forum hosted by the Community Empowerment Association Feb. 13, Pittinger pleaded for the community to support the board. She said it is important for everyone to attend meetings addressing police brutality, whether the victim is White or Black.