Sometimes, people do pay attention.  I just now received a call from a legislative staffer with State Representative Chelsa Wagner's office.  My post to the Run, Baby, Run email list about Democratic Committee reps caught his eye, particularly the part where I stated that Pgh City Councilwoman Tonya Payne is the only elected official I've seen at a community meeting since I moved to Manchester.

Pat wanted me to know that Representative Wagner is very interested in meeting with Manchester residents, but there have been some scheduling snafus with the meeting organizers, Manchester Citizens Corporation.  He was very tactful about it, of course. 

I'm not so tactful, of course.  MCC does a lousy job of organizing meetings and informing community residents with enough advance notice to get it on our calendars.  That's not Representative Wagner's fault.  But the end result is that MCC's organizational challenges are directly squashing the community's access to our elected officials.  And that's not okay. 

Pat asked me if there are other groups he could contact to keep abreast of community meetings.  I gave him a few thoughts, but it is really slim pickings around here.  So then I offered to hold a meeting myself.  I figured I should put my money where my mouth is. 

I'm impressed that 1) they read the email list, 2) they responded to the challenge and 3) they are proactive and positive rather than defensive.   I'm impressed.

I invited Rep Wager to PrideFest which is just a hop, skip and jump out of her district but definitely draws a lot of Manchester residents.