PITTSBURGH -- Hill District community groups made a dramatic refusal of the city's offer for local improvements, setting fire to the papers on Monday night.

Reporters, community leaders and elected officials were taken on a bus tour Tuesday morning, as local activists pointed out the areas that are growing and other parts where they say help is most needed.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato, along with Pittsburgh Penguins officials, had offered a grocery store, YMCA and job center, as the city prepares for a new hockey arena to be built in the Lower Hill.

But neighborhood leaders burned the offer, which includes no firm commitments from the city and no penalties if the promises made are not kept.

"The next step is to come back to the table so that we can negotiate some real benefits for the Hill District," said Evan Frazier, of the Hill House Association.

"They made an agreement among themselves, but there was no discussion with the community," said Carl Redwood of the One Hill Coalition. "In fact, the mayor and the county executive walked away from the table and are not negotiating at all."

Neighbors said one problem with the city's agreement is it doesn't guarantee the promises will be fulfilled. Another problem, they said, is that there is no promise of money for future Hill District residential and business development.

They are seeking to establish an economic development fund from the large public subsidies that will go along with the arena project.

"The mayor, the county executive and the governor have given over $1 billion to the Penguins. In return, the only thing the Penguins have promised for the community were some hockey tickets for kids," said Redwood.

Community groups want a role in future development. They said they know which of their neighborhoods are already strong, and where help is most needed, so they would like a say in how and where the money is spent.

"We definitely have ideas and plans," said Redwood. "We're not asking the mayor to give everybody in the community $100, or $1,000. That's what he tries to make sound like."

"You know, these are opportunities that are staring right at us, right now," said Pittsburgh Councilman Bill Peduto. "The arena provides that as the opportunity. It's important that the community has the opportunity to speak and say what it is they would like to see."

"We're building on our success," said Redwood. "We're not here to say, 'Woe is me, come help.' We're moving forward. We just need the city and the county to become partners."

The mayor responded to the dramatic refusal by saying he had hoped to keep things productive and added that the city has invested $240 million for local homes.

The Penguins' new arena will replace Mellon Arena, which was built in 1961 and displaced hundreds of black families from the Lower Hill.

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