ieverhart

Let's see: the alleged victims here don't want to come forward to testify, and surely the alleged perpetrators would be happy to see this all go away. Beth Pittinger says she's concerned about these AWOL victims having suffered "another injustice," but if both parties (alleged victims and accused) indicate that they don't want to proceed, I don't see why anyone would get in the middle of that.

I am the pedicab driver mentioned in the article! You're absolutely right that the passenger was overseas media: he was a TV journalist from Hong Kong. I had taken him and a bunch of his equipment all the way from the 6th Street Bridge by PNC Park. We had gone as close as possible to the convention center, but even though he had credentials, we were told he had to check in at the Mellon Arena. So by that point, he may have been running late, and was surely impatient to get in and get started, and he decided to get out and push. I wouldn't say it was "too heavy" to get up the hill, but it was definitely easier to go uphill with him lending a hand.

Ian Everhart
Green Gears Pedicabs
http://www.greengearspedicabs.com/

I am the pedicab driver mentioned in the postcard! I had taken the passenger, a TV journalist from Hong Kong, and a bunch of his equipment all the way from the 6th Street Bridge by PNC Park. We had gone as close as possible to the convention center, but even though he had credentials, we were told he had to check in at the Mellon Arena. So by that point, he may have been running late, and was surely impatient to get in and get started, and he decided to get out and push.

Ian Everhart
Green Gears Pedicabs
http://www.greengearspedicabs.com/

I was told at some point that the tower at Bellefield Street and Fifth Avenue was a remnant of the previous building left there because somehow, if the entire structure were demolished, the project fell into a different category than if some part were retained, and so for permit or tax purposes, they found it convenient to retain the tower and work on a "renovation" rather than tear it all down and start classified as "new construction." I'll take YHTA's word on this, but there may be a grain of truth there, and in any case, is another local urban legend data point.

There was some construction on Ellsworth Avenue and Forbes Avenue recently and I was interested to see the old trolley lines still there. Seems they weren't so much torn up as just paved over. From the look of it, though, they'd take a lot of work to get them back into any kind of usable shape, not even mentioning the cost to rehabilitate the trolley cars or anything else.

- Ian