Teen violence downtown: Marty Griffin Show Hour 03 , June 6, 2026

Hey, gang, it's Jill Schlesinger. I'm launching a new show. It's called Money Moves, and we are going to move. We are going to answer your financial questions and take the mystery out of your financial life. Follow and listen wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, Jokey, Michael Bartley, in for Marty Griffin, 866, 39, 110, 20. All right, I'm finally going to the phones because I've been going here. All right, Leanne and Pittsburgh, Leanne, you're on KDCA. Go ahead, Leanne. Hi. First, I want to send good, get well soon to Marty. Hope he's doing okay over there in the hospital. Me too. Good for you. Thank you for doing that. Oh, you're welcome. And second, I just wanted to address when the police are trying to address the young ones that, you know, are fighting or whatever they're doing, when they pick them up, they should have a citation, go in front of a judge and have anger management classes. And the parents who are responsible should have to also be there and have to go to... type of family counseling to learn how to raise your child with anger, without anger. Good for you. That's really smart, I think. And I'll tell you something. The reason I'm like stop coddling them. I'm not saying the parents to beat the hell out of them, but stop. Let's get a curfew. Let's stop coddling them. Is this, is this? They're the arrogant little punks that posted that thing about a month ago with this downtown takeover. They didn't do it because the mayor and whoever, they flooded downtown with police and even mounted police. They didn't do it. But they're brazen little brats. They are, but it all stems from home. Why are they permitted to act this way and, you know, and they're just getting a tap on the wrist or they're not getting anything? This way we would cut costs because we wouldn't need all the patrol because they'd be in front of a judge. They'd have to go to anger management. And the parents who don't want to be in front of a judge would have to go and learn how to raise your child. without all this anger. Yeah. You make really good points. You really do. You really do. Lizanne, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Leanne, I'm sorry. You have a great day. You boo. That's okay. You too. You too. That's all right. Bye-bye. Okay. Ross, any celebrity. Ross, you're next. Go ahead, Ross. Okay, Michael. Good to hear you. Good wishes to Marty. I even left him a nice, we've got to get you back, Morty. On his good Marty line. I hope so. Go ahead. And not just, oh, that's something. Our last chat, I felt upset you. We were talking about the budget. I studied it with good news according to their skill games. But I wanted to quickly talk about downtown, but lighten things up a bit. Remember when the gateway buildings are brand new and shiny? One, two, three, four.

Now, here's what I had, quick conversation with my sister. I know what the weekday. Quick conversation with my sister yesterday. I always thought there were originally six gateway buildings downtown. The three that look alike, and you cross the street, either over or under the street through the tunnel, wasn't the state office building, was only five, and I always remember you, go over AT&T, and that's six before the bridge. I said, I remember. Did you remember a word like that? No. I don't. Okay. I just was flipping through my memory bank and thinking how downtown has transformed and change, sprouted up. Now we have folks who live downtown. We're going to soon have a grocery store within walking distance in the street for downtown residents. And as you were saying, We need to preserve town so that everyone can enjoy it. But I do remember the state office setting, which is now something different. I mean, they moved all that chamber of commerce building. I mean, I've never even had a working helipad at all the time, right? Across the street from the Hilton, which is now something different. But, yeah, someone, I'm glad you got me on already, because you're all with some old folks. I'm sorry, some seniors. And you've got to cut to the chase, Ross. Cut to the chase. You wanted to make a point about downtown. Go ahead. that we can preserve town and also find the funding to try to get parents to do their home training and that the kids will be separated. I agree. I hope that's true. I do. And I think parental involvement is a very, very critical issue here. And I don't. And I love, you know, last week I was going on about this again. And I thought, oh, geez, this was wonderful. And I never thought, I mean, I was in New York the last few days. I never thought that this thing in East Liberty would happen Friday night and then this thing on Wednesday night and then this thing in Market Square happens Friday night. I'm telling you, since those kids posted that downtown disruption thing, those little punks. I think they're baiting us. I do. And I think that it's time. It's time. for the cowards at the city-county building to stop saying, oh, you know, oh, boy, I'd be so worried. You know, it's not fair to other kids. I don't care about the other kids. I care about these kids start in trouble. Get them out. Just get them out. Michael, you make a great point when you mentioned is that they got the mountain cops out. I think they are baiting, and sadly, that's the funding. I think it's... The police need to try to uptick and catch the online stuff. But, you know, what resources you have, you use the best that you can of what you have, okay? Got it. Thank you so much, Russ. I appreciate it. Al in the South Hills, you're going to be next when I get back from break. Stay right there, Al. But no, I, you know. I'm not saying everyone. I think I can tell you right now that Cory O'Connor's in the mayor's office right now with that public safety director in the city, the police chiefs saying, uh-uh, uh-uh. We just opened Market Square? Uh-uh. No, this is not going to be like this every weekend. No, uh-uh. They better have learned.

since those little brazen punks posted downtown takeover and then the cops flushed them out on that the police but there were police from all over the different uh jurisdictions flushed them out they never showed up there's got to be a different approach they're not how dare how dare you know the people that want to coddle these little punks Let them mess with downtown and try to mess up downtown for everybody else. Uh-uh. This is going to cut to the heart of vibrancy downtown, development downtown, restoring people getting back to work downtown, businesses downtown. Why would we let little 14-year-old punks intimidate us and take it over? Just push back and push back now. Come off it. Just do it. Get off your high horse. Oh, no, but though it's going to be so bad for other kids. Oh, if we have a curfew, that's not, that's terrible. They're just law-abiding kids. It's time for you to shut up and do your job and make it a city better for all of us. I'll be right back.

Hey there, I'm Kendra Adachi and my show The Lazy Genius Podcast helps you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't and you get to decide what matters. I'm not here to tell you what to do. I'm here to give you a new way to see. Episodes of the Lazy Genius podcast are full of compassionate time management tips and permission slips to do what makes sense for you. New episodes drop every Monday. Follow and listen to the Lazy Genius podcast on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, no. Back in the day, uh-uh, nope. Nope. No. Corey O'Connor better be doing what I think he's doing. Back in the day, no. I just talked to the chief of staff or Sophie Mazov and he went, oh, are you kidding me? Uh-uh, they would not have tolerated that. No way, no-how. Nope. Not under Pete Flaherty. I don't think under Tom Murphy. I don't think so. No. They, they, listen, and I'm so sick. It's nails on a chalkboard for me. Listening to the socialists, oh no, but that would hurt other kids who are good kids. It's time to get real here. Come off it. It really is. It's time to get real. Don't give them the upper hand. Don't do it. Back your police. Back your back Pittsburgh police, Allegheny County Police, the Port Authority police, back them. Just do it. Don't listen to that, don't listen to that garbage. Just do it. Because you know what? It's happening way too often. Come off it. I went on, I went on and on last week about that 15-year-old killing of 70. Ninth and Penn? In the middle of the night? And now this. Please. Al in the South Hills, Al, you're on KDK. Good morning. How are you? Fine, Al. Hey, I'm a little bit older than you, but I grew up across the river from you in Munholl and Honestead. Oh, yeah. Okay. Now, you know, as you said earlier, there were times where Greenfield would fight Munhaal or whatever. Yes, we would. And Greenfield fought Oakland and the neighborhoods fought, yeah. That's exactly the way. But at the end of the fight, You made friends. You did. And I'm going to tell you something else. Nobody pulled out a gun and shot you in the head, did they? Well, that's exactly right. Now, the worst part of you being in a fight is when you got home. And your parents said to you, why did you get into the fight? Why do you have a black guy? Well, okay, now you're grounded for 30 days because you didn't want to disrespect the family's name. Yeah, that's right. And then they could have slapped you around too, and that happened. Right. Now, moving forward, okay, because this all happens is we both, I think, agree the parental side of this is the missing element from that standpoint. So if these kids go down and want to fight.

They ought to set up some type of metric or system to turn around and say, all right, we take the kid's name, et cetera, et cetera. The parents have to come down. First offense, $50, $100 fine. If you come back more and more and more, then somehow escalate that fine, where now the parents have to get involved because it's costing them money. From that perspective. Now, I don't know whether that can be done. But it's a hell of a suggestion, and it's things like that, that the progressive socialists in the city representing neighborhoods should be talking about. Well, that's exactly right. That's exactly right. Moving forward even further, I'm a product of the industry. I work in the broadcasting industry. What the news should do is turn around and they should have... excerpts about this, that if you get caught on time, we're alerting you now. This is what's going to happen. This is going to be the fine. And whatever the system is set up, and after so many occasions, the parents could be paying up to $1,000. Which I think, what the hell's wrong with that? Listen, we have to do something. This is happening way, way, way, way, way too often here now. Yeah, definitely. Well, the kids are out of control. And the kids are out of control. They're fighting. They're swearing, oh, disobeying the cops, pepper spraying each other. You know, and you know what? They so arrogantly walk away. And you know why they do it again now? They do it again because there are no consequences. Well, that's it. That's the key word. There are no consequences. And I'm telling you that this is the difference. When we fought back in the day at whatever field, you know, we would meet at a park or a field to have a fight and a rumble and stuff like that, and you'd have a black eye and a bloody nose and a bloody lip and stuff like that. I'm not advocating people do that. But like you say, there were consequences when we got home. and but then you know at the end of the day you kind of shook hands all this type stuff and it wasn't it wasn't pure evil this is this is and and i'm going to tell you something else and and you're going to think like i'm some old crazy cook but you know we didn't you know what time the fight was at a park when we were kids five o'clock at night it wasn't 12 midnight well that's exactly and it wasn't in downtown pittsburgh either Right, yeah. This is a problem. It is. I mean, the fights were basically over. You took a shot at my girlfriend. I don't like that. You know, I mean, it wasn't that I'm going to get down and I'm going to rip somebody's hair off their head. I'm intrigued of the number of people that have been involved in these fights. What casualties have they had on themselves? I know. That's interesting. I know.

Look, at these, both East Liberty, then Market Square, they happened one week after a 15-year-old shot and killed a 17-year-old at 9th and Penn. This is insanity. Well. Something should be done about it. Hopefully they'll get a hold of it. I think it's going to be a long way off. I kind of like your proposal. But here's the thing. Here's the problem, Mattair right now. You know, this, this, this. I don't know if you watch, I watch Sunday morning news shows. Chris Christie was on there yesterday and he was, this was a national perspective and this just, and I'm not trying to pick on Democratic socialists. I'm not. They get under my skin like crazy. They do because they're arrogance. But, you know, the subject they were talking about was them messing up the Democratic Party. And listen, a lot of the Trump people mess up the Republican Party. I get it. But he was saying. He was talking about Zohran Mamdani in New York. And I would just come back from New York. I thought New York was police everywhere. It was great. And I felt very safe there. But, you know, that the Democratic Socialist Chris Christie was going on it. But they haven't, their problem is that they haven't achieved anything. And I thought to myself, and they have trouble managing. They do. Because they want certain things. done their way or the highway. And as it relates to this, as it relates to taking the streets back from 14-year-old punks. They need to get off their ass and sit there and say, okay, this is happening too much. What can we do and come up with a proposal like Girozal or at least talk about it? But they pretend it doesn't happen. La, la, la, la, just keep going. And this is why this is why this is getting worse. Right. My grandfather, I never met, was a senator. And back then when you were a senator, you were a respected individual. You know, today it's all is what you just said, the word politicize. You've got to politicize it because I want to stay in office. And God forbid that I arrest or I give somebody grief who is one of my constituents, they may not back me. Yeah. The whole thing is just crazy. I'm going to tell you, listen, all the money that was invested in Market Square. Well, that's exactly right. And over on Fort Duquesne Boulevard and all these properties and all this type stuff. And then, you know, PNC sends their workers back. All these folks sending their workers back.

um downtown hopefully so that so that during the lunchtime restaurants will be vibrant again and going out to dinner and all that type stuff and i these young punks don't scare me i'm not gonna i'll be down i'll go get on there any time i want to but but they But I worry that suburban folks are like, oh, no, no, they see, I'm not going down there. They see the news, the film, the videotape on the news of all this stuff. It looks terrible. It just does. Well, that's what they do. It looks terrible. I mean, always exploit what is the worst part of it instead of the good part. Look what happened with the draft. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, have a problem. You know, you can hear in the newscast every night what was going on. We're talking about people around time, money coming into time. As soon as that ended, then excuse the word, the shit started back. Oh, geez, you can't use that word. You can't use that word. I got to get rid of you here. Albert, thanks for the call. I appreciate the call. But you can't say the S-H word on the year. But thanks for the call. You made a lot of sense to me. All right, news coming up here in three minutes, and then I'll be back. Let's see. Harry and Penn Hills, you're going to be next. Michael Bartley, Katie Kay.

Every week on the Moth podcast, you'll hear true stories that will intrigue you, inspire you, and make you laugh. He said, is there anything in your diet that might be spiking your blood sugar? I said, sometimes I eat pizza until I'm unconscious. He said, I think that might be it. For real stories live on stage from comedians, astronauts, accountants, farmers, and people just like you, follow and listen to the Moth wherever you get your podcasts. Speaking of progressives and getting downtown back on track, achieving sustainability and vibrancy in Pittsburgh and in Allegheny County and getting businesses back, people to invest. This next story, there's a story out today that goes hand in hand. The school districts in Allegheny County are really worried that this paid parental leave proposal could have teachers out for half the school year and districts don't have the money, let alone small businesses dealing with it. And my man, Duquesne Law Professor Joe Mystic wrote his column in the Trib yesterday, Good Idea, Bad Plan. Good Idea, Bad Plan. Joe, thanks for joining me. I appreciate it. Sure, Michael, and again. I'm going to read some of this because I loved it. But before I do, I've been going on and on about this, these punks and large numbers. fighting, disrupting downtown, particularly Market Square. You know, I know your law career took off big time years ago, but you were chief of staff at one point for Sophie Masloff. What would you have done? I can't imagine back in the day that we would allow this to repeat itself over and over and over. Well, we faced a former difficult problem in the early 90s. We had two warring drug gangs battling for control of turf in the city of Pittsburgh. We actually formed a task force at the behest of then U.S. Attorney Tom Corbett, Republican U.S. attorney for the Western District, walked into my office one day and proposed that we partner up to rid the city of these warring drug gangs. And we formed a task force with about eight different law enforcement agencies and drove them from our midst. It was actually... actually quite successful as a governor and I still will still say that we won the drug the war on drugs at least for 10 years because

These sentences all carried 10-year mandatories. So we did that through cooperation and out of a common interest for the welfare of the city and the city. There it is. So, yeah, you're going to need something like that, maybe not quite that big or quite that dramatic, but you're going to need the cooperation of different law enforcement agencies and you can eventually then get a handle on it. It does require that kind of attention. It requires that kind of attention. rather than hiding and pretending it's not happening. That's what gets under people's skin, believe me. Joe, because I'll tell you what, there's no way we were to tolerate, and you know better than anybody. All right, listen, your column today's getting a, I mean, from yesterday's getting a ton of play. Parental leave proposal, good idea, bad plan. I'm going to read a couple exorc here, and then you can fill me in, but a lot of people are talking about it. And this proposal, too. Let us start with the fact that paid parental leave is a great idea. It almost is as important an idea as Medicare and Social Security. These ideas are national and not local, and they require federal action accompanied by national political mobilization to become reality. But so-called progressive Democratic proponents in Allegheny County have taken an all too familiar approach. They want to enact a good idea without doing the national work that must be done for it to be enacted and stick. Reading the proposal, it's clear its supporters have refused to recognize mandating parental leave in Allegheny County and requiring local business owners to pay for it all, and it will be economically disastrous. The proposal would require employers to provide 18 weeks of paid leave to employees who become new parents. Those employers would also have to pay for replacement employees during that time. To be eligible under this scheme, an employee merely has to work, have worked for the employer for 30 days. And what amounts to a double whammy, married or domestic partners who were employed by the same employer, shall both be eligible for benefits, even when the leave runs concurrently. Wow. Yeah, that's sort of a mortal blow to small businesses. I don't understand this phenomenon, but it seems that, and I say they're so-called progressives because, you know, we have progressives to thank for Social Security and Medicare, Medicaid, and all of the social progress that we've seen in American society. But, you know, they call themselves progressives. And they seem to think that... It's their right to spend other people's money on programs that they hold near and dear to their hearts. Now, sometimes these programs are a good idea, such as this. This is a great idea. But you have to come up with a workable plan that doesn't dump the burden on small business owners. You know, there's this notion, I guess, that if you own a business, somehow you're well off.

You know, I know some small business owners who work 18 hour days just to, you know, keep that business afloat, keep their employees in place. And you'll keep paying their employees so they can then raise their families. You know, they're not rich, you know, they're making a living, but they're working extra hard to do it. And to just dump this on them is disrespectful. I'm realistic. It does not recognize, you know, their role in our communities. And extraordinarily unfair. Now, if you want this. Go after it. Work hard for it. Do the hard work that must be done legislatively at the state and national level in order to get this done. But don't just try to dump it on, dump the whole cost of it on your neighbors, the small business owners who provide great service to our community. Because the crux of it, I think, too, is, and I'm going to continue one more paragraph in your piece. As Pittsburgh's downtown in Allegheny County's neighborhood business districts are struggling, To hold on, this is the wrong time to add to their burden. This poorly drafted proposal may drive many businesses under, and it certainly will drive many of the surviving businesses, along with their jobs and revenue, into surrounding counties. Because, Joe, listen, this has to be uniform. Sometimes I think, you know, Washington County, Beaver County, Butler County, Westmoreland County, they're laughing their asses off at us. Well, we've seen that some local policies, some local Allegheny County policies, and certainly the tax rates are responsible for the evolution and the growth of Butler County, Cranberry. I mean, you know, that's a natural place for people to go if they want to get away from. I know a lot of people. I know a lot of people. I know a lot of people who fled to Peters over the border in Washington County. Yes. Yeah, yeah. You don't have to go far. You don't have to go far from Allegheny County. And Murray'sville to the east. Joe to the east, it's Murraysville. I know a lot of people that did that. And I think if you were somehow for some reason plotting and scheming to frustrate the resurgence of downtown Pittsburgh and in some of our neighborhood business districts in Allegheny County, this is the kind of thing you would propose. This is the way you would plan to do this if you were trying to discourage that development. It's, you know, our small businesses do not need additional burdens put on them right now.

Look, and I know I keep bringing up downtown today. I don't mean to, but it is an issue. You can ignore it at your own peril. And the fact, you know, these young punks at night are starting to trouble, one thing. But, you know, there are issues during the day. And employers have employees getting back to work finally. But they're navigating all this trouble downtown, do you understand? And then they're going to throw this on them and cut into profits big time and have them pay for it, you know, sending employees on parental leave and then hiring have to pay for their replacements. Don't you think some employers and business are just going to say to themselves, okay, we've had enough. Let's go to Cranberry. You know, they don't have to go very far. That's right. And, you know, they'll be unfettered, unbothered by these, by unreasonable demands such as this. You know, I was listening to your show earlier, Michael, and there were a lot of calls, and he showed a lot of interest in... The black bears that we're seeing throughout the county. I'm more afraid of what county council is going to do with paid parental leave than I am of black bears. I get it. I do. I get it, Joe. I tell you, this is not good. And, you know, just wait for the federal government to do such a thing. You know, and I go on, I know this is a smaller comparison, you know, a microcosm of it, but I'm still mad about the Giant Eagle blue bags. And I am. And I'm like, oh, you're doing it. Oh, you're doing it for the environment. Oh. Yeah. But they're not doing it. Creative innovation brought about by my mayor, Sophie Maslow, who called her friend and counterpart at the Giant Eagle. Freedom, Freita Shapira. said, could you start packing groceries in blue bags? Yeah. Because we're going to have people use them for recycling. Now, think about that as a practical solution to a difficult problem. Okay, okay. And then we're not allowed to use them anymore because of, you know, oh, it's the progressive socialist nonsense. And the fact that, okay, so. But I could go across the bridge into the next neighborhood where they use them so I don't have to pay for bags in the city. And I know I harp on that issue, but I'm sorry, it's stupid. Unless everyone's on board globally with the environment. I don't know if we can make any headway. But I'm just saying that's a microcosm of this. Do you understand in the sense that it is. It's this is radical stuff.

And no wonder people are running to Murraysville and every other neighborhood. Well, people have grown, I think, fed up. You know, these are the kinds of nuisances that, you know, after a while, people get their fill when, you know, as I said, you don't have to go far to be out of Allegheny County. It's stupid. And I'll tell you something. I'm sorry, but, you know, this would happen Friday night in Market Square goes hand in hand. If the progressive socialists who... who have power in the city if they ignore this and don't talk about this and don't come up with uh you know and god bless my callers calling with suggestions but you know they they jo they better they can ignore this at their own peril but i'm going to tell you something that will stifle development and the sustainability of downtown if we let these kids ruin downtown yeah i agree jo mystic thanks so much i appreciate it Michael, good talk to you. You take care now. Congratulations on a great column. I know it got a ton of play. A ton. All right, 86639-110-20. 866-39-110-20. Michael Bartley on the voice of Pittsburgh News Radio, KDKA.

Welcome back. Michael Bartley in for Marty, who's still recovering from a illness. And Marty puts that right out. I'll tell you, he puts that right out in the open. Man, I don't know if I'd do it. I don't think I would. He puts that right out in the open. Social media, boom. He's being treated for pneumonia at Presby. Puts it right out there. I don't think I could do it. I don't. I don't think I could. I always, Marty, Marty's a, he doesn't, he doesn't care. And I remember back when when Marty had cancer, I was like, wait, he would always say my life, and he would put it on social media, my life is an open book. My life is an open book, he'd say. And people followed along on his progress. And he's done very well with that. And I think he's probably coming along just fine and over in Presby. But man, he had, boy, he really went through the ringer. Two weeks off. He was in the hospital most of the time. Three different hospitals. One near New York. One at, what do you call? Cape May, New Jersey. I think he got a beach day in. I think so. You know, I don't want to bother him. I think he got a beach day in because he posted one. He was laying on the beach sitting on the beach. And then it gets back to Pittsburgh and has to go right into Presby in Oakland. I'll tell you, he's in good hands, though. He really is. But he puts that right out there. Tell us everybody what's going on. I don't think I could do it. I just don't. I think I... I remember I had a stent put in from my heart. I think I just told my family that was it. You know, in the middle of the night, I think that was it. I mean, that was, what, six years ago, I guess. But I don't think I could do it. But, you know, I always feared... I don't know about you, but... And God love Marty, I'll have to ask him about it. I think... Um, and he's so used to hospitals and all that type stuff. I'm such a big baby. But I always feared like being out of town. It's bad enough being healthy when I'm out of town. On the fourth day, I'm telling you, on the fourth day, uh, I want to be back in Pittsburgh because I get, I just have to be here. Maybe that's age. I don't know. Maybe that's age. Could be. Could be age. But I always had this fear that I'd be on vacation and I'd be on vacation and get sick or something and be in a hospital. Jeez, knock on wood. My God. I just blessed myself right now. Thinking, I hope that I'd be, wouldn't that make you antsy and anxious and. whew because you'd want to be home you'd want to be home and if you had to be in the hospital you want to be a hospital in pittsburgh i'd be just like so scared that i would never get home i don't know i know maybe i'm crazy i don't know maybe i am but uh yeah that's that's that's that's what i'm thinking mm-hmm all right we're going to have news coming up here in a couple of minutes i want to get into the uh

I know a lot of you like I do watch the Sunday morning news shows. Yeah. And so I've been local for the last three hours. The Bears and the downtown and all that stuff. I want to go into the war coming up. I was fascinated by the CBS poll that was revealed yesterday morning. And I'm going to give you some of the elements on that when we get back. All right. 86639-110-20. 866-39-110-20. Michael, in for Marty.