Pittsburgh seen as a hotbed for political activism

A few U.S. cities -- San Francisco, New York City, Seattle -- are synonymous with political activism among young people.

Is Pittsburgh ready to join that list?

For some people, it already has.

This week, the New York-based League of Independent Voters is holding its second annual national convention, "Smackdown 2005," at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Law building. The gathering is giving a group of more than 100 young political activists from across the country a chance to see how a city known for its aging, declining population has become something of a hub for progressive organizing techniques.

"When we did a national search, we asked, 'where is the city with the best grass-roots organizing?' " William Upski Wimsatt, the league's executive director, told a crowd of convention attendees outside the law school yesterday. "One city rose to the top of the list -- Pittsburgh."

Indeed, the city recently has seen a steady increase in the number of homegrown activist groups. Last year's hotly contested presidential election helped spur the creation of Everybody Vote, Progress Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh VIE, Democracy for Pittsburgh and the Pennsylvania Hip-Hop Political Convention.

Some are nonpartisan, others lean to the left. They all helped add to the hype surrounding the election and pushed voters of all ages to go to the polls in impressive numbers.

Pat Clark, director of Everybody Vote, has been observing 33 precincts in the city where the majority of the population is between the ages of 18 and 39. Those precincts, he said, saw a 20 percent increase in voter turnout between the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections.

The League of Independent Voters also has a local branch with about 20 active members. It is headed by Khari Mosley, the 29-year-old political director for City Councilman Bill Peduto's campaign for the Democratic mayoral nomination this year.

Peduto lost to Bob O'Connor in the May primary, but he finished ahead of Prothonotary Michael Lamb, an achievement that Mosley attributes to a strong youth turnout.

"We were talking to everybody, but we knew that young people were our base," he said. "They want to see the city transformed into a place where they want to stay."

But young voters don't respond as readily to traditional organizing tools such as phone banking and door-to-door canvassing. They often don't have permanent addresses or land-line numbers and rely on cell phones and computers to communicate.

That's why Mosley and other local political activists developed innovative ways to reach members of the 18- to 30-year-old set. They registered voters at hip-hop shows, handed out mix tapes with political messages, and organized a local competition for the Slam Bush National Rhyme Contest. Vanessa German, of Monroeville, went on to win the competition's final event in Miami.

"It's a no-brainer using hip hop as a political organizing tool," said Kofi Jones, 26, education director of the National Hip-Hop Political Convention and director of the League of Independent Voters' Cincinnati chapter.

The league's convention, which started Thursday and ends tomorrow, includes panel discussions on hip hop and arts organizing, fundraising, media relations and the basics of running political campaigns.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05218/549684.stm