BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

You mean the glass littered sidewalk next to a fast moving roadway, with a connecting parking lot with a yellow stripe within sight but off limits? Yeah, it's still there. Rode it this afternoon.

No, I think he means the news two months ago that "Allegheny County and Sandcastle Waterpark are expected to announce an agreement within days"

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10194/1072356-455.stm

The answer to the "anything new" question is "no." There hasn't been a peep out of anyone since then.

Kordite hit it on the mark, with an announcement on an agreement to get the trail past Sandcastle.

I'm still counting on November 2011.

Spring of 2012, if there is no trail, I'll be pushing for picketers, Critical Mass cruising through the parking lot every week, and some kind of media blitz.

11.11.11 is an important milestone date that's been set, so I expect pressure will keep mounting as we get closer. And yeah, if they don't make it well we should just keep increasing the pressure and negative PR until they reach some agreement.

What can we do to help things along? Call the county? Call Sandcastle? Do we know what the hold-up is?

*negative PR and letters to the editor that Sandcastle is the only missing link between in the 300+ mile Great Allegheny Passage from Pittsburgh to Washington DC

*letters to Sandcastle about how bike access to Sandcastle would benefit you (there was a thread about that a while back where several people said they would be more likely to patronize Sandcastle if they could ride there and had good bike parking)

*wait

Sent off an Email to Jon Schmitz (who wrote the article linked above asking if he perhaps had any information that we may have missed.)

As I recall, there was a hang-up concerning railroad property, which muddied the discussion some. Still, it'd be good to let them know we have not gone away and are not likely to.

just got an email back from Jon Schmitz (the reporter that wrote the original article.)

Here is the response

Terry,

Unfortunately we have not had an announcement yet. I keep checking on it and have been told there are no snags. I'll be checking again in the next couple days.

Best,

Jon

"No snags" after two months of waiting for any day now really suggests to me that the parties are waiting for just the right moment. Dan Onorato waiting for some political advantage before the election, most likely. Maybe they are planning some sooper secret ribbon cutting.

personally I dont care if their waiting for the dawning of the age of Aquarius as long as they actually do something instead of blowing smoke like everyone else when it comes to cyclists.

Age of Aquarius? That's another 600 years! Feh!

Well, whatever happens announcement wise, if they are going to meet the 11.11.11 deadline, whatever is going through Sandcastle will really need to be done before the water park opens in the spring. Memorial Day? If it's going to be some sharrows marking and "Share the Road" signs, they could do all that in a day.

I would love for this to go down before the election--political football or no, that would mean we're just a few weeks away after years waiting. But I'm unconvinced of the electoral benefit to this trail announcement. At the risk of sounding cynical, most Pennsylvania voters do not live in this part of the state and a bike trail will hardly be a deciding factor as they go to vote.

I can't decide if I'm being cynical or overly generous, but I think this falls on the "Less Than Top Priorety" List, or the 'Round Tuits List. Not sure what's above it, but there are probably enough items that finally putting this to rest is as high a priorety as getting it mostly resolved in the first place was.

I think of it as high priority. Partly because of the dual funtion of that particular trail

It is a highly useful urban trail that will be used in commuting, getting to the waterfront, and general bike travel.

As well as that, it is the keystone for the inter-urban trail from Pittsburgh to DC. Having 325 of a 335 miles completed? To me, that is like having a loose tooth hanging by a thread.