Sarah Street, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from elston’s photostream

There will be two information sessions held this week on the subject of Allegheny County property reassessments. Elected officials will answer questions about the assessments and the appeals process to help insure that property owners will have all the information that they need.

JCC Information Session of Property Reassessments
WHEN: Monday, January 9, 2012, 7:00pm until 9:00pm
WHERE: Jewish Community Center, Levinson Hall B, Kauffman Building, 5738 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15217 (map)
WHO: State Representative Dan Frankel, Councilman Corey O’Connor, Councilman Bill Peduto

Information Session on Property Reassessments
WHEN: Wednesday, January 11, 2012, 6:30pm until 8:00pm
WHERE: West Penn Hospital, Wintergarden Auditorium (1st Floor), 4800 Friendship Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15224 (map)
WHO: Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, State Representative Dom Costa, Councilman Bill Peduto, Bloomfield Citizens Council

UPMC Shadyside Hospital, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0)image from rwoan’s photostream

UPMC Shadyside Hospital has gone through many changes over the years — from its origins in downtown Pittsburgh in 1866, to its move to Shadyside in 1910, to gaining the name Shadyside Hospital in 1938, to moving to its present building in 1972, to becoming part of UPMC in 1997– it has evolved greatly. And, it is proposing more change. But, now, when a large institution wants to make major changes, it must involve the community. Every ten years, large institutions are required to work with the community in drafting a new 10-year master plan. The plan defines what future development will look like and how expansions will be addressed to minimize the impact to adjacent neighborhoods. UPMC Shadyside is in the final stages of over one year of meetings with residents and businesses from Bloomfield, Friendship and Shadyside (and even from Oakland and East Liberty). This is done because while large institutions are critical to the well being of our region, their plans shouldn’t have to come at the cost of those closest to them.

The UPMC Shadyside Hospital’s Master-Plan includes a wide range of projects:

Short-term Projects
- Building Renovation: A research facility will be developed in and around the Ford Motor Company Building, also known as the Reidbord Building.
- Traffic & Parking: New Luna Parking Garage will provide approximately 1,000 new employee parking.

Long-term Projects
- Outpatient Services Building: A new outpatient building on Centre Ave. would replace the buildings and parking lots currently used by UPMC Urgent Care, Shadyside Family Health Center, and Boston Market.
- Inpatient Expansion: The building of a new inpatient tower at the site of the existing School of Nursing/North Wing building.

You can learn more about UPMC Shadyside Master-Plan process from the following links to presentations from their community meetings:

November 16, 2011 UPMC Shadyside Master Plan Community Group Meeting Presentation

UPMC Shadyside Campus Master Plan Traffic Study, November 2011

September 15, 2011 UPMC Shadyside Master Plan Community Group Meeting Presentation

October 4, 2011 UPMC Shadyside Master Plan Community Group Meeting Presentation

Accordingto John Innocenti, UPMC Shadyside’s president, “the next step is to schedule a public hearing before the Planning Commission early next year, followed by another public hearing before city council.” However, community groups, including the Baum Centre Initiative and Shadyside Action Coalition, plan to oppose a plan to rezone hospital properties in the area.

Seedlings in peet pots , a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from Jackal of all trades’ photostream

The Sprout Fund was created ten years ago by Cathy Lewis Long and Matt Hannigan to provide seed money to foster grassroots community projects. Their main emphasis has been on artistic and environmental initiatives. While the Richard King Mellon Foundation is a main contributor, The Sprout Fund works very closely within communities and gives opportunities to the kinds of people and projects who wouldn’t normally receive larger, conventional grants. They’ve mostly concentrated on providing modest financial awards that support community-based projects spread throughout neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, and Fayette and Greene counties. While many of their grants have been small-scale, their impact has been large. According to a recent Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, they’ve “seeded 450 projects at a total value of $4 million.” And, we’re talking about public projects that all can enjoy. These include 55 neighborhood murals and those sculptural bike racks seen in commercial areas. They’ve also helped fund such diverse projects as the politically themed Conflict Kitchen; Burgh Bees, a nonprofit organization that teaches people how to keep bees; the crafters fair Handmade Arcade; and the documentary series “East of Liberty” by local filmmaker Chris Ivey.

Then, there’s all the grants that they’ve given to help make Pittsburgh a more bike-friendly city. These include helping BikePGH get their start. The bicycle advocacy organization had a $500 budget before they received a grant for the bike racks. The Sprout Fund further assisted with their first fundraiser: Bike Fest. Ten years later, BikePgh has 1,500+ members, it’s own employees, and works with the city to help all cyclists. Additionally, The Sprout Fund provided a grant to produce “3 Rivers on 2 Wheels” — a bike explorer’s guide to our city.

The Sprout Fund has also given monies to some larger scale projects including $50,000 to develop the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium’s ReefBot which teaches children about reef conservation. Now, in celebration of their tenth anniversary they are about to embark on their most ambitious project to date. They will announce later this month who will receive a $100,000 commission to create a signature public artwork to be installed on the Law and Finance Building on Fourth Avenue in Downtown Pittsburgh.

To get an idea of the full impact of The Sprout Fund, here’s former county Executive Jim Roddey as quoted in the Post-Gazette:

He called Sprout’s impact “enormous” and said the economic benefit from $4 million dispersed over 10 years is “probably 10 times that. It’s grown in reputation and popularity, it’s been a marvelous success, and I’m really proud of her.”

Happy Tenth Anniversary, Sprout Fund!

Apple is good at lots of things, but they can’t make the screen bright enough when it’s sunny outside…, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from Ed Yourdon’s photostream

If you’re reading this, you probably believe that democracy would be better if it was, well, more democratic — that local government would be better if it had more input by locals. That the way to improve our city is not by hiring consultants to tell us what to do, but hiring consultants to listen to people and tell us how we can make their vision happen. CEOs for Cities is working hard on taking the consultants out of the picture and putting the people into focus by fostering direct connections between residents and city government. CEOs for Cities has produced web apps which help create a culture of civic engagement.

Acknowledging that most people aren’t willing to spend much time, if any, on participating in the public process of democracy, they first helped produce the Give a Minute project. Give a Minute literally asks city residents to spend just a minute coming up with a suggestion on an important urban issue. The first project was Give a Minute Chicago and it asks for input on what would make Chicagoans walk, bike or ride transit more often. People can respond online or by mobile phone by jotting down their thoughts on an electronic Post-it^®-style note.

Did you know they have free hi-speed WiFi all over Bryant Park? This place rocks!, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from Ed Yourdon’s photostream

Change by Us is a new project which evolved out of Give a Minute. Change by Us NYC asks residents of New York City, “How can we make our city a greener, greater place to live?” Change by Us has the same post-a-note look, but it takes the idea a step further. From The New York Times:

City officials described the project as “a social network for grass-roots leaders.” They said their goal was to exploit the opportunities offered by social media to spur professionals, volunteers and city employees to share information about ways to improve conditions and team up for specific projects.

Change by Us NYC will help users raise money to start projects like community composting or creating a new open space. The city’s Department of Environmental Protection will use the site to identify and guide projects that could be eligible for a program that disburses millions of dollars in grants to beautify neighborhoods, reduce sewer overflow into New York Harbor and undertake other infrastructure projects, for example.

In less than a year, this new model for citizen participation has gone from asking for ideas, to creating projects and raising funds for their implementation. Perhaps when people see actual results from their engagement, they will be more prone to participate and put democracy into action. We can have a 24/7 town hall that produces results.

Tomkins Square Park, Apr 2010 – 17, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from Ed Yourdon’s photostream

Also launched this year is Neighborhoodland. It’s basically the same concept — asking city residents for their thoughts and input on improving their communities. Neighborhoodland was created by Civic Center which wants to “make cities more comfortable for people.” Neighborhoodland currently serves neighborhoods in the city of New Orleans.

Finally, while the technology of crowdsourcing and mobile apps is relatively new, the issue of citizen participation goes back to the very founding of our country. “A Ladder of Citizen Participation” by Sherry R. Arnstein was first published in the Journal of the American Institute of Planners (JAIP) in 1969, but it’s still instructive for today. The author looks at the levels of citizen participation to see where the power truly lies and comes up with the following “eight rungs on the ladder of citizen participation.” Let’s hope that new technology makes that climb a lot easier.

more Mt. Washington, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from Chris Winters’ photostream

You, as a savvy Burgher, know the best that our city has to offer. Not just the places in the tourist guides, but those off the beaten path. The places that you’d want an out-of-town friend to see — the inside scoop from a local. Here’s your chance to show off your knowledge and tell the world what makes Pittsburgh special. GOOD.is is sponsoring a contest to create a “local’s guide” that showcases the very best of Pittsburgh. What makes your must see list? The ToonSeum? The Waffle Shop? Gertrude Stein’s birthplace and nearby Millionaires’ Row? Or how about your favorite neighborhood bar?

To win, you must be creative. Anything goes — photographs, drawings, funny Photoshops — as long as it all fits on one standard-size page and can be uploaded online.

Here are the rules:

Your guide has to fit on a standard page. Upload your submission here. We’ll accept submissions through Sunday, July 3. Afterwards we will post a collection of our favorite submissions and ask you, the GOOD community, to vote. The winning entry will be announced on GOOD.is, featured on our homepage, and printed in the next issue of GOOD. We’ll also send a GOOD T-shirt and a free subscription (or gift subscription) to the winner.

Good luck!

Pittsburgh Map, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from dmuth’s photostream

Want to know the percentage of renters vs. owner-occupied housing in Allentown? How about the population by age of Homewood South residents? Want to know how many in the West End are native born? Now, you have a tool to find out all that and more. The University of Pittsburgh’s University Center for Social and Urban Research (UCSUR) was created in 1972 to serve as a resource for researchers and educators interested in the basic and applied social and behavioral sciences. The UCSUR’s program in Urban and Regional Analysis has spent decades studying patterns of change in Pittsburgh neighborhoods. This month, they released a report titled City of Pittsburgh Neighborhood Profiles American Community Survey Five-Year Estimates 2005-2009 Data.

The report compiles data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) for the City of Pittsburgh’s 90 neighborhoods. ACS is a new program which replaced what was previously known as the “long-form” census. The ACS has a smaller sample size than the old long form allowing for data to be compiled on a neighborhood basis. It should be noted that because the sample size is so small, errors are magnified with smaller areas having the largest margin of error. Therefore, the report notes, “It is recommended that the data released by the ACS program should be used to understand the characteristics of specific geographic areas, and the data generally should not be used as a reference for the specific counts of individuals, households or housing units.” This shows up most notably near the beginning of the report (pages 5 and 6) where comparisons are made between neighborhoods. For example, the report compares the five neighborhoods with the highest and lowest percentage of households comprised of married‐couple families — I’m guessing there actually are some married couples in Chateau.

Still, the two-page profiles of each neighborhood are a fascinating read as a reflection of the characteristics of the residents who live there. Data has been compiled for each of Pittsburgh’s 90 neighborhoods in the following categories:

Population by Race
Family Structure (Household Type)
Place of Birth By Citizenship Status
Population by Age Group
School Enrollment
Household Income
Poverty
Tenure (Owner-occupied Vs. Renters)
Educational Attainment
Commuting
Migration

You can view the full report here. (You can go to the index on page three to find your neighborhood.)

TypeCon 2010 Los Angeles: Famous LA Traffic Jam, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from FontFont’s photostream

Sustainable communities promote sustainable living by providing people with access to affordable housing, increasing their transportation options, lowering their transportation costs, and at the same time, protecting the environment to better support local economies. Being able to live in a diverse community that is close to where you work and where you can purchase local produce and patronize local businesses helps the environment, the local economy and your pocketbook. Additionally, healthy, safe and walkable neighborhoods are communities where people want to live. With this in mind, two years ago, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) joined together to form The Partnership for Sustainable Communities.

The Partnership “works to coordinate federal housing, transportation, water and other infrastructure investments” to help accomplish sustainability. They do this through providing new funding opportunities, working to reduce barriers at the federal level, and by talking to residents and businesses in hundreds of communities. On June 16th, The Partnership for Sustainable Communities will celebrate their two year anniversary. They have created webinars which you can participate in to learn more about their efforts (listed below). You can also learn more about sustainable communities at Smart Growth America.

A Variety of Transportation Options:

DC Dupont multimodal, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from faceless b’s photostream

Celebrating Two Years of Partnership
What: Join the senior leadership of the federal Partnership for Sustainable Communities to celebrate the Partnership’s two-year anniversary and to talk about what initiatives are coming next.
Who: Beth Osborne, Deputy Assistant Secretary, DOT; Shelley Poticha, Director, Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities, HUD; John Frece, Director, Office of Sustainable Communities, EPA; and Derek Douglas, Special Assistant to the President for Urban Affairs (Invited)
When: Thursday, June 16, 2011 – 1:00 PM EDT
Where: Click here to register for this webinar. Call-in information will be sent to registrants.

Long Term Affordability Near Transit
What: A webinar that will highlight innovative affordable transit-oriented development initiatives across the country, including Austin, Texas and Fairfax County, Virginia – two jurisdictions that have put long-term affordable homeownership mechanisms into place to create and sustain equitable transit-oriented communities.
Who: Co-Hosted by Cornerstone Partnership, the Center for Housing Policy, and the National Housing Conference; Allison Brooks, Chief of Staff, Reconnecting America; John L. Payne A.I.A, Deputy Director for Real Estate, Fairfax County Department of Housing and Community Development; Kelly Weiss, Executive Director, PeopleTrust in Austin, TX; Moderated by Ryan Sherriff, Center for Housing Policy
When: Thursday, June 16, 2011. The two-part event begins at 2:30 p.m. ET with a 90-minute webinar that will provide an opportunity to listen to each speaker as well as ask questions.
Where: Register here

Understanding Mixed-Income Transit-Oriented Development
What: This event will focus on introducing participants to the benefits, strategies, and challenges of mixed-income transit-oriented development and will introduce a useful tool, the “Mixed-Income TOD Action Guide.”
Who: Center for Transit-Oriented Development
When: Tuesday, June 21, 2011 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM EDT
Where: Click here to register

Mixed-Income Development:

B-dairy tnhome with SFD PDX, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from faceless b’s photostream

Pedestrian Street:

Pedestrian Street – Athens, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from UrbanGrammar’s photostream

Walkable Communities:

Housing Community, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from www.urbancityarch.com’s photostream

Carnegie Library 2, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from Sean_Marshall’s photostream

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (CLP) will be hosting a series of community meetings in five neighborhoods (North Side, Lawrenceville, Beechview, East Liberty & West End) during the month of March. CLP wants to share information on their funding status and discuss how together we can sustain and grow our libraries. Space is limited and registration is required for these meetings. You can register by contacting Maggie McFalls at mcfallsm@carnegielibrary.org or at 412-622-8877, or you can register online at the links provided below.

Thursday, March 3, 2011
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
CLP-Allegheny / North Side (map)
1230 Federal Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15212
You can register online by filling in the form here

Monday, March 7, 2011
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
CLP-Lawrenceville (map)
279 Fisk Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15201
You can register online by filling in the form here

Wednesday, March 16, 2011
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
CLP-Beechview (map)
1910 Broadway Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15216
You can register online by filling in the form here

Tuesday, March 22, 2011
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
CLP-East Liberty (map)
130 S. Whitfield Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15206
You can register online by filling in the form here

Wednesday, March 30, 2011
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
CLP-West End (map)
47 Wabash Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15220
You can register online by filling in the form here

St_Pauls_Cathedral (5), a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from camrich345′s photostream

On September 6th, Pittsburghers joined Bill Peduto and special guests on a leisurely bike ride around Oakland and Pittsburgh’s East End as part of the Pedal Paddle Peduto Hike and Learn Series. Peddle Paddle Peduto is a series of three hiking, biking, and kayaking trips around Pittsburgh. Participants learn about Pittsburgh’s history and the vision for its future by key organizations involved in building the city’s next renaissance.

On this particular ride, they visited the religious institutions that call Oakland and the East End home. You can sign up for future Pedal Paddle Peduto events at Venture Outdoors.

Here’s a recap of that outing:

A new report by the Keystone Research Center shows that Pennsylvania has begun to invest in sustainable development across the state.  Between 2003 and 2008, Pennsylvania’s three major economic development assistant programs invested more aid per capita into older cities and towns than into “outer townships.”  KRC also released data on how the state’s major metropolitan areas distributed the business subsidies they received, and ranked that data in order from the most investment into older communities to the least.  Of the 9 areas examined, Pittsburgh was tied with Lancaster for 6th, behind Erie, Reading, Harrisburgh, Philadelphia and Scranton – Wilkes Barre.

To learn more, read the report.

The Creative Neighborhood Revitalization Taskforce, a group of students at The Ohio State University, are among the many speaking out for sustainable development and investment in older communities.  It is imperative that the Pittsburgh region begins to focus on reversing our cycle of sprawl and decline, and emerges as a leader in Pennsylvania and the nation in the practice of revitalizing our older communities through smart growth practices.  Watch a video created by The Creative Neighborhood Revitalization Taskforce below.