What's The Story On Tuesday's Planning Votes?

The Post-Gazette reports this morning (after the Tribune-Review reported yesterday afternoon) that the City of Pittsburgh's planning commission has approved the $7 million, er, $12 million , er, publicly subsidized Continental Real Estate-Rooney proposal to build an entertainment complex just east of Heinz Field. The commission also improved a 170-square-foot LED sign for Heinz Field, home of the Rooneys' Steelers.

The Post-Gazette refrained from reporting:

(1) whether the entertainment project and LED sign were approved unanimously, by a single vote, or somewhere between;

(2) whether or how commissioner Kirk Burkley participated in the deliberations or vote concerning either of the Rooney-related issues;

(3) that Mr. Burkey's spouse is a lawyer whose paychecks are drafted on stock that includes the name "Rooney"; and

(4) the content of six conditions imposed on the project.

The coverage of friction between the exquisitely connected developers and neighbors was disappointingly thin, but thin > nonexistent.

I am not prepared to fault the reporter. Perhaps she submitted a competent report, but editors pared it to make room for the front-page news that former P-G president Diana Block likes pancakes.

Do not abandon hope: The Comet may yet illuminate these issues (well, maybe not the pancake angle).