Peduto promises new police substations next year in Homewood, South Side

“What makes a substation different is it has its own lieutenant, it has its own sergeants, it has its own officers and they work there every day,” Peduto said. “It’s not somebody being assigned to a neighborhood or an area on a day-by-day basis. These officers become part of what is needed.”

He said the city intends to locate the South Side substation in a former Zone 3 police station in South Side Flats. The Downtown station on Liberty Avenue, which is open during critical hours, would be staffed around the clock, he said. The city is also searching for a location in Homewood.

He said the city would recruit officers for the Downtown substation who want to work with people who are homeless, drug addicted and mentally ill. The city is looking for officers who can interact with young people in the South Side. Officials want officers who can build relationships with Homewood residents living in one of the worst crime-ridden neighborhoods.

“Instead of looking for the one bad guy, we’ll look for the 99 good ones, and we’ll work with the neighborhood to build back that relationship,” he said.

Pittsburgh also plans to move the Zone 5 police station on Washington Boulevard to its former East Liberty location, the mayor said.

The city intends to borrow $250 million over the next five years for capital projects, including $50 million in 2020.

The capital budget includes $16.9 million for paving streets and $29 million for facility improvements. Those improvements include the rehabilitation of the historic Oliver Bathhouse in South Side and the purchase of the first hybrid vehicles for police. The city will continue to spend on electric vehicles for two departments — Permits, Licenses & Inspections, and Mobility & Infrastructure — along with charging stations that would be publicly available.

Peduto said the city would create two-way traffic on the North Side’s Allegheny Circle, continue improvements to landmark Grandview Avenue in Mt. Washington, build a public plaza on Broadway Avenue in Beechview and rebuild a historic pedestrian tunnel and playground in Highland Park.

He said the city would also revamp the Equal Opportunity Review Commission, which oversees city hiring of minority- and female-owned businesses. The commission is being renamed the Office of Business Diversity.

“I think there were a lot of really good things said today,” said Controller Michael Lamb, who has been critical of Peduto initiatives. “Particularly the commitment to diversity and business. Making that commitment, I think, is a big step forward.”

The downside, Lamb said, is the city still has no promise of funding from large tax-exempt nonprofits, which benefit from city services.

Peduto said his office in coming weeks would release details of his OnePGH plan, in which nonprofits and the business community would fund projects such as universal preschool, affordable housing and clean air and water. He said the city is working to create a nonprofit separate from city government that would receive the funding.

”The most that we got from our nonprofits, and this was a while ago, was $5 million a year,” Peduto said. “Can we create a nonprofit, a 501(c)(3) completely separate from city government and put funds into that and work together to solve [the funding issue]? Getting to that point and creating it, having them willing to be able to sit at the table and work through that, is much more important to me than being able to just get $5 million a year.”