City Council declares ‘Black Pittsburgh Matters,’ establishes LGBTQIA commission

Categories: News

by Ashley Murray
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

CREDIT Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pittsburgh City Council is clear: “Black Pittsburgh Matters.”

Council voted 8-0 Tuesday for a resolution that promises investment in the city’s Black communities that suffer from “concentrated intergenerational poverty.”

The legislation that outlines five “strategic investment principles” for putting money back into Pittsburgh’s Black communities was introduced by Councilmen Ricky Burgess and Daniel Lavelle in June following weeks of sustained national and local Black Lives Matter protests following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Mr. Burgess’ office, in a press release Tuesday, claimed the legislation “makes Pittsburgh the first City in the nation to officially state that their Black citizens … matter.”

The bill does not include a budget figure or enforcement mechanism.

The measure is one of several introduced by Mr. Burgess in recent weeks aimed at addressing race and police reform

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