From Pittsburgh United

Media Contact:  Jennifer England

                             412-513-9091

Northside Mothers demand Corporate Neighbors help stop the violence

Thursday July 16th 11:00

Del Monte Building

Northside mothers and community members will gather on the ?Northshore? tomorrow morning to demand that corporate neighbors take more responsibility for what?s happening in their back yards.

?Our kids are dying, while millionaires get subsidies to build projects that profit millionaires? said Angel Gober, a Northside mother and activist.  ?We want development on the Northsore to provide good-paying jobs with benefits for our families so our young people have hope.  That?s why all this killing is happening, our young people have no hope.?

The group will ?bring the Northside to the Northshore? and build a memorial by the Del Monte building.  ?There are memorials to victims of violence in many Northside neighborhoods. Since commuters and Northshore visitors do not pass through our neighborhoods, we are bringing the despair and pain of the Northside mothers and families to the developers doorsteps.  They need to understand that by ignoring community needs they are directly contributing to the problems plaguing their Northside neighbors? said Gober.

The Delmonte building is managed by Continental Real Estate who pay their building service workers poverty wages with no health benefits.  Northside United wants to ensure that doesn?t happen in new development, especially after the Stadium Authority gave them land at 1/10th the market price and the planning commission approved the master plan over the unanimous objections of the community.

Northside United has been trying to get the developer to sit down and talk with community members for two years. Northside United is a coalition of more than 60 Northside community groups, churches, social service agencies, Northsiders of all ages, labor unions, environmental groups and allies from around the city, working together to win Community Benefits Agreements (CBA?s) with the corporate developers who are building projects on the Northshore.