Responsible Hospitality Institute Comes to Pittsburgh

More than 80 business, community and government leaders from cities spanning from Cincinnati to State College will gather in Pittsburgh Tuesday for a day-long Responsible Hospitality Forum. Pittsburgh City Councilman Bruce Kraus invited the Responsible Hospitality Institute to hold the forum in Pittsburgh. He says they have helped businesses and residents find middle ground in nearly 200 cities over the last 25 years. He says this meeting is about introducing participants to ideas that have helped other communities. Kraus says those ideas include things such as public safety ambassadors, public safety kiosks, clean teams, code enforcement teams and responsible hospitality panels. Those panels usually include businesses that operate in a neighborhood during the day, those that operate at night, residents and city officials. Kraus says this is not about better code enforcement in alcohol saturated entertainment districts, “if we wait for a situation to reach the point that we have to introduce a public safety official then we have failed to manage that problem proactively.” He says the panels will help build, “effective front-end proactive management.” Kraus has been busy since being elected to represent the South Side in beefing up the city’s public drinking and intoxication laws. He says this is not just an East Carson street issues. He says this is something that impacts all neighborhoods with bars and restaurants in every municipality.