North Side activists press developer, Rendell for jobs

North Side residents Tuesday petitioned Gov. Ed Rendell to nix a $4 million subsidy to build a privately owned concert venue unless the developer gives its neighbors first crack at jobs.
 

Northside United, a group of pro-labor activists, collected 800 letters from people calling for the creation of a community benefits agreement that would require developer Continental Real Estate Cos. to offer jobs with competitive wages and benefits to North Siders.

"If public money is going to be provided ... it should come along with the kind of good-paying jobs that meets the needs of the people living in our neighborhoods," said John Canning, 69, a retired teacher who lives in the North Side.

In August, Hill District residents, city officials and the Penguins struck a deal to ensure that neighborhood gets housing, businesses and jobs when a $290 million hockey arena opens in 2010 on Centre Avenue.

Continental officials have declined to meet with Northside United, Canning said.

Frank Kass, Continental's chairman, did not return a call seeking comment.

Canning handed the 800 letters to Allen Kukovich, director of Rendell's Southwest Regional Office, whose 14th-floor suite in the State Office Building, Downtown, overlooks the site of Continental's proposed concert venue, which would seat 5,000 people outside and 2,000 inside.

"The governor has not yet announced his intention for the funding for the entertainment complex," Rendell's spokesman Chuck Ardo said in an e-mail. "I can tell you without reservation that he hears from as many supporters of the project as he does from its detractors. He has the authority to make the decision as he sees fit."

Northside United members have complained the city Stadium Authority gave the Steelers and Continental a de facto subsidy when it voted last year to sell land near Heinz Field for a price far below market value, a charge authority officials deny.

"Whatever monies are given away from the people, something has to come back to the people," said the Rev. David McFarland, pastor of Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church on North Avenue. "The linchpin in our neighborhood is jobs."

Kukovich said the $4 million subsidy is "not a guarantee."

Kass, of Continental, has said the amphitheater -- modeled after one operated by Promowest Productions in Columbus, Ohio -- will not be built without the state subsidy.