Natalia Rudiak

As a news junkie and having a deep love of all things Pittsburgh it surprised me last month when I began to find chatter across local blogs about–and the Twitter profile of–someone running for city council in Pittsburgh’s 4th District who I hadn’t heard of from local news coverage yet.

Her name is Natalia Rudiak. She is a Pittsburgh native, a graduate of Carrick High School and Carnegie Mellon University, and holds a Master’s in Public Policy & Management. She also owns her own small business working with Non-profits and community groups, and is a co-founder of IHeartPGH.com–a local blog that highlights people, places and events around Pittsburgh.

To be fair to our local news media, after some digging I found that they have mentioned Rudiak in various recent pieces that I had either missed or overlooked while scanning headlines and stories as I tend to do.

Still, the fact that I was introduced to her through online social media outposts peeked my curiosity, even though she’s not running in my district, simply because of how the connection was made.

When I visited her campaign site one of the first things I noticed there was additional social media network links for connecting with and discussing Natalia Rudiak. From Facebook to Twitter, Digg and other online communities. Even the software platform that her campaign site is published on, WordPress, is popular for its easy syndication features and ability to foster a sense of community online by allowing site visitors to participate in discussions of the information and stories published.

In recent years we’ve seen numerous politicians, mostly Democrats running for federal level posts, capitalizing on the instant and easy access to voters by exploring the organizational reach of online campaign strategies. But Rudiak is the first local candidate I’ve seen with an impressive (to a geek like myself) display of integrating those technologies with a door-to-door, street level campaign.

I contacted the campaign and requested a brief Q&A with Rudiak that I could include in a posting here. I wanted to know her thoughts on the application of these same types of community and connecting technologies for our city government beyond campaigning to voters, as well as her views on improving the neighborhoods and quality of life for residents in her district if she wins the council seat.

Rudiak was gracious enough to accommodate my request and not wanting to abuse her time I limited my questions to what I felt would be the most insightful given what has already been asked or covered elsewhere.

I hope these are informative for all readers, and especially so for readers living in the 4th district.

PittZine: Having visited your web site it seems obvious that you are a proud Pittsburgher. That’s a common trait among city residents and if you go out into the communities you often find the same kind of “hometown pride” exists at the neighborhood levels too, yet it doesn’t always translate into civic participation. How do you think the city government can better tap into that pride for motivating individuals to become more involved in their neighborhoods?

Rudiak: I am a very proud Pittsburgher, not only because of the rich history and traditions that our city has, but because of the community members who make our neighborhoods such a great place to live, work and call home. Over the last several years I have been very involved in my community, whether with the Hilltop Alliance, the South Pittsburgh Development Corporation, the South Pittsburgh Neighborhood Forum, or any of the community councils or block watches across the district. What keeps many Pittsburghers from getting civically involved is not a lack of motivation, but a lack of awareness of the opportunities available to them. That is why I am running for City Council, to be a bridge builder across the district, make information accessible and easy-to-understand, and connect stakeholders from across the city so we can work together to solve the problems that we face.

PittZine: There was a time years ago when the city used to work directly with local residents, at least in my neighborhood, to keep the community cleaner and safer. The city would provide paint and brushes when the neighbors were willing to paint over graffiti, and even a single worker with a refuse pickup truck for an afternoon when neighbors were willing to remove trash from a local hillside that’s often used for illegal dumping.

All of that seemed to stop long ago and neighbors were told that it was due to restrictive insurance requirements and labor agreements. This seems like a wasted opportunity to encourage civic participation and improve our city neighborhoods. Do you believe there is a way that the city can reconnect and re-engage with residents as partners in keeping our neighborhoods cleaner and safer going forward?

Rudiak: There are many ways the city government can reconnect with the people of Pittsburgh, and working with us through community improvement projects is the best way to do so. I am a member of Pretty Up Beechview (PUB), an energetic group that promotes local food and community gardening, and meets once a month to pick up litter on the streets of Beechview. We enjoy the support of the city and have attracted the attention of our local community leaders, which is only making our organization stronger. I have also worked with Boris Weinstein from Citizens Against Litter (CAL) to advocate for litter patrols across the district. Both organizations use new media to connect with potential and current members – PUB has a wonderful blog and CAL has an “e-newslitter” they disseminate to various neighborhood groups and listservs every month. I am running for City Council to continue to bring this kind of neighborhood development and innovation to South Pittsburgh.

PittZine: Speaking of engaging residents, I first learned about your bid for City Council not from local news coverage, but because you have a presence on Twitter. Social Media networks have become the water cooler for discussions, and pulpits for community organizing because they offer such instant and easy reach. You appear to understand the potential of Social Media online, so my question is what role do you think online networking and Social Media can fill as an asset for our city government beyond just campaigning to voters?

Rudiak: New media outlets have become an important tool for organizing and social networking. A few years ago I created a neighborhood listserv which has been embraced by the community as an outreach tool. (For example, today our local librarian e-mailed out a request for volunteers to create summer programs – within a few hours, we received enthusiastic replies from the high school culinary arts teacher and neighborhood judo instructor. Talk about civic pride!)

Although as a society we are becoming more successful in bridging the digital divide, technology enthusiasts can do more to translate their knowledge and skills to add value to our neighbors’ everyday lives. This requires real-life conversations that may take us outside our comfort zones. Most e-mail addresses are private, so I have literally stood at the local farmer’s market asking folks to sign up for the neighborhood listserv. In the fall of 2007, I created and delivered a well-received presentation to community leaders across the district about how blogs, web sites, wikis, and even Google applications could make their work more effective. I look forward to taking that kind of hands-on approach to connecting future constituents to technology in government. Technology is useful when it can foment human interaction and create positive change.

My master’s degree is in Public Policy and Management from Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University and I specialize in implementing new technology infrastructures in public bureaucracy. I am committed to making Pittsburgh City’s government more efficient, more transparent, and more responsive to its constituents by making technology a top priority.

PittZine: To follow up on that same theme, I believe there may be a slight Information Disconnection between many of Pittsburgh’s residents and vital information producers like city government. If you visit the official city web site there is a complete lack of features that have become staples for online information consumers seeking easy-to-scan and mobile-ready information delivery. Would you be in favor of making city information more accessible in the ways that people have come to expect it online, and if so, what specifically would you propose be done to achieve it?

Rudiak: This is actually a big part of my campaign platform—making information more accessible and more available to Pittsburgh’s residents. The bottom line is that we need to completely reevaluate the web architecture that exists in the city of Pittsburgh and develop a strategic plan for deploying a new, 21st century online information structure for the city.

PittZine: The city and county governments have often gone to great lengths to attract and retain large employers for the region. However, there are some people who feel they aren’t doing nearly enough to support and foster small businesses and startups at the same time. The U.S. Small Business Administration says that small businesses account for up to 80% of all new jobs; so what do you believe the city could be doing to provide better and more accessible information and support for individuals or groups who might be considering starting or moving a small business here?

Rudiak: The question of how the City can better reach out to our business community is a big one which requires a big picture answer. The solution involves making sure we have excellent web architecture and information delivery systems so that not only residents but potential business owners and investors can have an open dialogue with the City. It’s a two way relationship, but we need to make sure the city’s avenues of support are open and easy to use. We also need accountability within city units like the Bureau of Building Inspection or the Urban Redevelopment Authority. We need to make sure these entities are managed properly, have the staff and resources they need, and are meeting their long and short term goals.

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I appreciate Rudiak taking the time to answer my questions. Similar Q&A requests have been–or will soon be–made to each candidate running for city council in the current cycle and I plan to share them here as well.

For a more in-depth and well rounded Q&A with Rudiak you can visit the Pittsburgh Hoagie.

Natalia Rudiak’s campaign site:  http://nataliarudiak.com

Technorati Tags: city council, natalia rudiak, pittsburgh

City Council Map

It looks like there could be 3 hot primary races for City Council seats this year in Districts #2, #4 and #6; and in District #8 there may turn out to be a good partisan battle come November as well between incumbent William Peduto[D] and the possible challenger Greg Neugebauer[R].

Who cares about City Council races?

Council members don’t get the pseudo-celebrity status that our mayor enjoys so in preparing this posting I wondered just how important the council is to every day folks on the street. In a very unscientific polling of a very small sampling, my results were that only 1 in 12 city residents could name more than 1 of the current council members.

Again, my polling was nothing close to scientific nor even professional really, I just asked a dozen people I know who are between the ages of 18 and 55, and only 1 of them knew the names of more than a single council member. Also noteworthy and troubling  is that 5 of them couldn’t name even 1 current member, though 1 of those people did say “Bruce Shields?”. Perhaps he meant Bruce Kraus or Doug Shields, or maybe I should count his questioning-answer as him [sort of] knowing 2 council members?  A little fuzzy math never hurts in political polling.

There are a lot of reasons why every resident should care about who represents their community with the city. They are our voices for bringing business and economic developments to our neighborhoods. They lobby the city, county, state and federal governments on our behalf to bring tax dollar investments to our communities. They are our connections and resources to government activities and procedures that tend to be overly complex for even an educated outsider to tackle on their own. And they are the front-line watchdogs over how the city operates and spends our tax dollars from day to day–just to name a few.

Living on the western edge of District #2 it often feels like this is the District that time forgot. In fact, while speaking recently with one candidate, Robert Frank, I mentioned how years ago (I’ve been here almost 40 now) the city and neighborhood residents worked as partners to keep our community clean and safe.

Graffiti never lasted long on public walls, trash never just sat along the curbs or collected into piles from illegal dumping, because the neighbors were willing to do something about it and the city was willing to provide supplies and support for us. But that time of civic partnership seems lost in the last decade.

Today my front porch view is of graffiti covered walls and an illegal dumping site that have both sat untouched for years. The city steps near my home which connect the upper hillside of Sheraden with Esplen (and the McKees Rocks Plaza) have more steps missing than are in place, but people still use them despite the dangerous trek of sliding in the mud and overgrown brush where large groups of steps no longer exist, because to not use them would mean adding over a mile to their travels, a large part of that along a busy through-way with a long stretch of broken sidewalk anyway.

These are all fixable things that wouldn’t require a lot of money (other than the sidewalk repairs) and as in the past could be community partnership projects that bring the city and neighbors together. But as I said, we’re sort of the District that time forgot and I’ve watched as these silly, fixable things went overlooked year after year.

The glimmer of hope going forward is that almost all of the candidates currently running in these races seem to have honest enthusiasm for bridging the divide that has grown between many residents and the city government to encourage more city support for civic participation among neighbors.

That excites me because I don’t believe sitting back and expecting government to fix all of our community problems ever leads to ‘things getting done’–but when the government and residents come together to put a collective ’shoulder to the wheel’ anything is possible.

A brief look at the races

In District #2 the following Democrats are running:  (past special election winner) Theresa Kail-Smith, Georgia Blotzer and Robert Frank.

In District #4 the following Democrats are running:  Natalia Rudiak, Anthony Coghill, Patrick Reilly and Richard Weaver.

And in District #6 the battle is between the following Democrats:  incumbent Tonya Payne, James A. Williams, Daniel Lavelle and Mark Brentley Sr.

Commentary on the candidates

I haven’t commented on individual candidates above because I’d first like to invite you to comment below on any or all of them.

Who do you like or not? Why? Have you met and talked with any of them? What issues most concern you and which candidates do or don’t seem interested in them? Whatever you want to discuss about City Council and these races is fine, I hope to start a good open discussion between neighbors here.

Having written on the state of District #2 as I see it in recent years I do want to point out that Smith won a special election for the District #2 seat and was only sworn in on February 19th, 2009, so it would not be fair to connect her with any of the overlooked problems I’ve mentioned.

Technorati Tags: city council, elections, pittsburgh

State Senator Jane Orie, R-McCandless

The law already requires voters to show a valid photo ID whenever voting for the first time in a new district. This means if it is your first time to vote ever, or if you have moved to a new district since casting your last ballot, you must have photo ID to show at your new voting house.

State Senator Jane Orie, R-McCandless, doesn’t feel that’s good enough and has introduced Senate Bill 514 to committee, which would require all voters in Pennsylvania to have to produce a valid photo ID every time they appear to participate in elections.

Is this an unfair obstruction that may lead to more disenfranchised voters among our elderly and poor who are the least likely to have a driver’s license or passport? Or, is it a necessary measure to eliminate wide-spread voter fraud in Pennsylvania?

I’m aware of some sporadic accusations after recent elections where unqualified individuals supposedly cast ballots. To date I’m unaware of any of these accusations being proved.

Given that, it seems reasonable to assume the voting process in our state is fair and safe. Certainly more so than in some other states where vote and voter fraud has been proved following elections.

On the other hand, I think of my own Grandfather who became unsafe behind the wheel of a car as age overtook his body, so he gave up his driver’s license for the last 15 years of his life as a result.

He wasn’t a traveler in retirement, he never left his neighborhood, so he had no passport. He was a wounded WWII veteran, and retired from a long post-military career with the P&LE railroad where he spent years transporting the materials that were used to build our region’s modern buildings and infrastructure.

Legislation like this would be an obstacle to block a man like that from participating in the Democratic process he served to protect, despite the Senator’s web site stating that “This [Bill] would not pose a major inconvenience to voters”.

Does that seem like a fair trade for safeguarding against limited and mostly unproved allegations of voting and voter fraud?

This would affect you, your friends, neighbors and family members, so what do you think about it?

Technorati Tags: Jane Orie, Pennsylvania, Voting