Title
Resolution authorizing and directing the Mayor to establish a Joint Pittsburgh Infrastructure Task Force to oversee the equitable distribution of infrastructure funds.
Body
WHEREAS, on December 23, 2019, the City, through Resolution Number 843 of 2019, declared racism a "public health crisis" in the City of Pittsburgh, a Home Rule municipality and political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; and,
WHEREAS, the City of Pittsburgh recognizes the history of racism in our country and how it has led to many current-day disparities in education, health and safety, job attainment, income and wealth, housing and healthcare, disproportionate incarceration rates for people of color and other pernicious systems of injustice. The City further recognizes the existence White privilege, meaning the systemic advantages that white people have relative to non-white people; and,
WHEREAS, here in Pittsburgh, a pervasive sense exists that there are "Two Pittsburghs": one which grows more prosperous with each passing day and the other, cut off from opportunity by poverty, structural racism and discrimination; and,
WHEREAS, the City of Pittsburgh Gender Equity Commission's "Pittsburgh's Inequality Across Gender and Race" report concludes that Pittsburgh's Black residents could move to almost any other U.S. city of comparable size and have a better quality of life; and,
WHEREAS, one of the major the consequences of Pittsburgh's institutional racism and discriminatory practices is predominately Black, segregated communities of concentrated intergenerational poverty which shapes everything from higher crime rates to limited social mobility and lower-quality infrastructure in worse condition for those residents -and especially their children; and,
WHEREAS, the challenges of poor Black communities-including worse health outcomes, higher crime rates, failing schools, and fewer job opportunities-make it that much harder for individuals and families to escape pover...
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