PULSE (Pittsburgh Urban Leadership Service Experience) partners with local nonprofits to develop young, talented, university graduates to be the next generation of servant leaders in Pittsburgh to help transform our city. Participants receive mentoring, job training and skill development. They commit to an 11 month work placement with such groups as the Western PA Conservancy, the Andy Warhol Museum, Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, Venture Outdoors, East End Cooperative Ministry and the Union Project. PULSE has worked with over 100 nonprofit organizations in the past 16 years.
An important part of the program includes cultivating community by having participants actually live together (currently in a house in the East End of Pittsburgh). Kate Stoltzfus was a past member of the program and she interviews this year’s group of participants at her Yinzpiration blog. They speak of how the program gave them the opportunity to serve the larger community while living in a supportive environment — “a built-in community of people who are also interested in serving in Pittsburgh.”
PULSE will be expanding to a second house in Garfield next year — bringing four additional participants to Pittsburgh for a total of 12. They need to raise an additional $16,000 towards this end. PULSE calls their effort “Building Community: Brick by Brick.” Individuals can purchase a “brick” for $20 each to help them raise the funds. In the spirit of what she learned during her year with PULSE, Kate Stoltzfus has committed to raising $3,000 of the needed $16,000. You can help by going to Kate’s Crowdrise page and donating there.
For over 40 years, Earth Day has been celebrated on April 22nd as a way to educate and mobilize people to making a commitment to a better environment and sustainability. In Pittsburgh, April 22nd will also be celebrated as “Greener Pittsburgh Day.”Greener Expressions, a Lawrenceville company, is spearheading the Greener Pittsburgh initiative. The idea behind Greener Pittsburgh is to have a one-stop online location for citizens, businesses, organizations and government to find and promote local green products, services and information to create a more sustainable Pittsburgh. In a Pittsburgh Post-Gazettearticle, Greener Expressions’ Chief Executive Officer, Greg DiMedio, explained that Greener Pittsburgh will be an online marketplace to “help the restaurant owner looking for biodegradable carry-out containers, the resident looking for an environmentally responsible dry cleaner and the community group looking for a stamp of environmental respectability.” Councilman Bill Peduto has been a covener and advisor to Greener Pittsburgh — helping announce the initiative last year and providing funding.
Moreover, several years ago Peduto introduced the founders of the company, Greg DiMedio and Bob McNeice (Insight Rising). He worked with them on different ideas for how the company would be structured and how it could benefit the community. Peduto also brought in Christine Mondor from evolve EA to add a “neighborhood” element to the initiative. Councilman Peduto continues to work closely with McNeice, DiMedio and Mondor, as well as with Danae Clark who is running daily operations. Councilman Peduto is also proud that he was able to help secure a Community Development Block Grant so that Greener Pittsburgh could work with CTAC to promote environmental awareness in Pittsburgh’s lower income neighborhoods.
On April 19th, Councilman Peduto initiated a proclamation (signed by all members of Council) declaring April 22nd to be “Greener Pittsburgh Day” in the City of Pittsburgh and honoring the project “for providing our community the tools to identify and support local businesses that are committed to sustainability.” During his presentation, Councilman Peduto commented that Pittsburgh is a world leader in recognizing that sustainable practices can be “beneficial to businesses, communities and individuals” and that Greener Pittsburgh will create a network and a rating system of sustainability — something that no other city is doing right now. You can view a video of the presentation of that proclamation below. Greener Pittsburgh is planned to launch in few weeks.
If you were in control of a city’s energy, water, retail and banking industries, could you make a better, more sustainable place to live? If you answered in the affirmative, you can now test whether that’s true with IBM’s CityOne game. IBM believes that playing their game will enable industries and municipalities to apply innovative technologies to city planning and learn what kind of outcomes they can expect from that technology (but you can play too).
Sam Jones at Green Futures reviewed CityOne (you can read his entire article at This Big City) and describes it as follows:
Players are presented with a series of energy, water and economic problems, whilst charged with providing an urban space conducive to growth – all within a total available budget. They’re armed with a series of gauges measuring business climate, citizen happiness and environmental wellbeing, and assisted by several simulated consultants (presumably a lot cheaper than the real thing).
Among the challenges they face in the 100 or so ‘real world’ scenarios are traffic congestion, water shortages and supply chain problems. They’ll be expected to use techniques such as service reuse, cloud computing and collaborative technologies to help make organisations in city systems more ‘intelligent’ and responsive.
Among the choices they make is whether to deploy new technologies, or re-organise existing systems to make them cleaner and leaner. After the allotted number of ‘turns’, they’re awarded a score which can be compared with like-minded individuals the world over. The game itself has built-in cloud-computing capabilities, allowing players to communicate and confer with industry experts.
CityOne gives players the opportunity to see how they compare with others by geographic location, by industry, and by player type (Pragmatic Leader, Conservative, Evader, Short-Term Thinker and Futurist). How intelligent can you make a city’s infrastructure? You can join the conversation by registering to play here. But, before you start, here’s a trailer for the CityOne Smarter Planet game, as well as a brief introduction video:
We talk a lot about sustainability at this blog, so now we’re asking: How energy efficient is your home? And, wouldn’t it be great if when you were buying or selling a home, you could reliably know how energy efficient it was? Well, twelve lucky Allegheny County residents are about to find out. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is partnering with counties, utilities, and non-profit organizations across the country to test and evaluate a Home Energy Score. The Home Energy Score will allow a homeowner to find out how their home’s energy performance compares with other homes in the same area. The DOE likens it to knowing a vehicle’s mile-per-gallon rating. A home energy assessor evaluates a home’s energy systems based on its attributes (furnace, windows, walls, etc.) and scores it on a rating system from 1 – 10 (with 10 being the best rating). They also offer suggestions for how to improve a home’s score and explain the cost savings to be had from making the recommended improvements. Allegheny County was only one of ten areas in the country selected by the DOE for a pilot of this new home energy label.
The DOE has partnered with EfficiencyPA to chose the dozen homes in Allegheny County to be part of the pilot program. You can apply here to participate. Not only do the winners receive a free DOE Home Energy Score, as a final part of the EfficiencyPA House Tour, they may also be selected as a “green home hero” at the Allegheny County Green & Innovation Festival this Fall.
The Home Energy Score is not only a great tool for buying and selling a home, it’s a wonderful way to discover how improving the energy efficiency of a home can provide real savings to a homeowner. From EfficiencyPA’s website:
“For example, if your home was built between 1900-1909 and it costs around $5000 per year for electric and gas, a home score improvement from 4.2 to 5.9 might translate into savings of $2000 per year making the simple payback period 5 years for $10,000 worth of improvements.”
Lastly, be sure to check out EfficiencyPA’s Facebook page and “Like” what you see there!
Imagine a park nearly one acre in size and situated 841 feet in the air — at the highest point in downtown Pittsburgh — and you’ve imagined High Point Park. The U.S. Steel Tower is Pittsburgh’s tallest building. While it’s only ranked as the 121st tallest building in the world, its roof is “the largest, highest flat space on top of any building on earth” (mostly because unlike many buildings of similar height, it doesn’t taper in width from its lowest floors to its highest). The U.S. Steel Tower not only dominates Pittsburgh’s skyline, its roof also mimics Pittsburgh’s Golden Triangle. The building is triangular in shape and two of its sides align with the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers which form “The Point.” The top of it affords a breathtaking view of our region.The High Point Investigation is exploring the possibilities of transforming this underutilized asset — which was once used as a heliport, but has now sat dormant for 19 years — into a cutting edge green design, four-season, self-sustaining public space. The idea is the brainchild of David Bear (former Pittsburgh Post-Gazette travel editor and current Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University’s STUDIO for Creative Inquiry).
Here’s a satellite image by Google to give you a better idea of the footprint of the U.S. Steel Tower:
A feasibility study of the project was conducted by twelve 2nd-year graduate students at Carnegie Mellon University’s H. John Heinz III College. They found that comparable Pittsburgh attractions receive an average of 268,000 visitors per year and that if High Point Park were to reach the iconic status of similar attractions like the Empire State Building and the Space Needle, it has the potential to garner 675,500 visitors per year. Furthermore, a survey found that over 40% of respondents would pay between $11 and $20 for admission to a destination like High Point — which could make it operationally profitable within 4 to 6 years.
But more than just providing another rooftop attraction — albeit one with a truly magnificent view — High Point is meant to be sustainable in keeping with Pittsburgh’s new green image. The study estimates that by harvesting wind and solar energy, High Point could generate between 50%-70% of the electricity it needs on an annual basis. It could be a model of sustainability and serve to educate the public about cutting edge alternative technologies.
You can view architectural renderings of a design concept for High Point here and enjoy the first Pittsburgh Gigapanorama (an interactive, 360-degree view of the region as seen from the roof of the U. S. Steel Tower) here. Also, following is an independently-produced documentary by Len Caric of a January 2010 Sketch Design/Case Competition conducted at CMU as part of the High Point Park Investigation.
ChargeCar is a project of Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute’s CREATE Lab. They’re hosting an open house today to unveil an all-electric 2002 Honda Civic. The car is a prototype for their ChargeCar Electric Vehicle Conversion Project. ChargeCar wants to change the way you drive by making electric cars both practical and affordable. Their goal is to revolutionize urban commuting. Best of all, they’ll start taking names today of people who would like to have their own converted vehicle. For now, they’ll only be converting Honda Civics, but plan to add other makes and models in the future. Attendees of the open house can ask questions of the ChargeCar team and representatives from local garages, take a test drive, and “kick the tires” so to speak. Councilman Bill Peduto is also scheduled to be on the program at the open house. There’s a $50 refundable deposit to get on the list and the expected cost of conversions will be discussed at the event.
According to CMU’s website, the cost of conversions won’t be negligible, but the advantages are worth it, says Illah Nourbakhsh, associate research professor of robotics and head of the CREATE Lab:
[C]onversion is a means of recycling and extending the life of older vehicles, while eliminating harmful emissions and supporting local mechanics and garages. Because each vehicle is customized, the size of the battery pack — the most expensive part of an electric car — can be determined based on the commuting needs of the vehicle owner/driver, he noted.
You can find out much more about ChargeCar at their website, including software that calculates the cost of commuting via electric car vs. a standard gasoline-powered vehicle.
ChargeCar Electric Vehicle Conversion Project Open House Friday, March 25, 2011
3:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Electric Garage
4621 Forbes Ave (Oakland)
Pittsburgh PA 15213 (map)
Did you know that the average debt load for the two-thirds of college students who take out loans to pay for college is $24,000 by the time that they graduate — and that this is up 6% from just a year earlier? Now couple that statistic with one by the Corporation for National & Community Service which ranks millennials as having the lowest rate of volunteerism and you begin to see a bigger problem. Millennials are saddled with huge debts which prevent them from giving the time to service projects and civic engagement that they would like to do and that their community needs.
Enter SponsorChange.org. SponsorChange.org believes both that non-profits deserve the best talent and that higher education should be accessible to everyone and they’ve found a way to make that happen. Their motto is “You Serve. They Sponsor. Change Happens.” It works like this: SponsorChange.org finds donors to raise funds to sponsor service projects at non-profits, they find non-profits who have a need for skilled college graduates for projects, and then they recruit college grads to complete service projects in exchange for student loan payments.
It’s a Pittsburgh-based organization founded by brothers Raymar and Robert Hampshire. They have four main goals:
- Promoting financial literacy among young professionals
- Working together with faith-based organizations to help mobilize its congregations to serve
- Partnering with corporations to create customized employee volunteer programs
- Assisting elected officials in mobilizing young volunteers to government programs
CNN recently aired a piece on SponsorChange.org. It looks at Gretchen Jacobs’ story. SponsorChange.org connected Gretchen with CommuniTeach — an organization which helps people share their skills with their neighbors and learn new ones. CommuniTeach got a motivated college grad who they could not have afforded to hire on their own and Gretchen received valuable professional experience in addition to direct payments to her college loans. A win-win situation.
You can go to SponsorChange.org’s website to sign up to be a donor, a participating recent grad, or a non-profit organization.
Intelligent Cities is an initiative of the National Building Museum, with the support of TIME and IBM and funded by The Rockefeller Foundation. More of us than ever now live in cities. The Intelligent Cities Initiative “explores the intersection of information technology and urban design to understand where we are, where we want to be, and how to get there.” For example, they look at the relationship between space, time, and money when it comes to car ownership and find that if a city could reduce car ownership by 15,000 cars, that city would see a return of $127,275,000 to their local economy (and of course, thousands of dollars saved by the individual citydweller).
You can take a poll here to consider what you think makes a city “a city” and they invite you to share the decisions you made on where to live: your home, your community, your city, and your region. Here’s an introduction to the project by National Building Museum curator Susan Piedmont-Palladino:
The Pittsburgh Historic Review Commission is considering the historic status of the Civic Arena (you can see the criteria they must use to make their decision here). While they consider the fate of the arena, the debate rages on: What should be done with the arena? There are those who believe that the 49-year-old landmark should be saved. They include the group Reuse the Igloo, who imagine repurposing the building. This is an issue which is not unique to Pittsburgh. Other cities are also debating what to do with their historic arenas and coliseums. One such city is Portland, Oregon. There’s a proposal to take their Memorial Coliseum and recreate it as a public recreation center known as the Memorial Athletic & Recreation Center (or “MARC”). That vision can be seen in this video:
However, when it comes to Pittsburgh’s Civic Arena, the issue goes much deeper than just what to do with the area currently occupied by the arena. As Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Brian O’Neil puts it:
The way the Hill District was treated when the arena site was cleared in the 1950s was a civic crime. About 1,300 buildings, 400 businesses and 8,000 lower Hill residents got the heave-ho. Promises of better housing were never kept, and the highway ditches and largest park-for-pay lot in Western Pennsylvania are the neighborhood amputation scars.
David Conrad goes a step further in an opinion piece also published in the P-G:
It’s important because it’s evidence in a crime scene. It’s a weapon left on a battlefield. And this sword should be made into a plough share.
We should never forget what happened on those 28 acres. A strong, nationally known working-class neighborhood was wiped away. A neighborhood that gave Pittsburgh and America a symphony of cultural giants — musicians, actors, merchants, sports heroes and civic leaders — was chopped off at the knees.
The Hill gave generations of immigrants a foothold in this country, it gave them their first home and it gave them a voice — quite literally with the Pittsburgh Courier, which was to the African-American population The New York Times of its day.
The Hill. August Wilson’s crucible for the greatest play cycle in American literature. The home of the Crawfords, the fiercest baseball team that ever graced a diamond.
He makes an impassioned plea that we should expect nothing less than excellence from not only the Penguins and Oxford Development Company, but from ourselves. That the only way to begin to ameliorate the negative decisions from generations past is to think big:
Pittsburgh and the Hill deserve a better shake. A deeper process. One that, in the end, will create something that not only makes everyone involved more money than a series of movie theaters and cheesecake factories walled in by parking garages but that also will be a thing of beauty and strength that ties the Hill back into the life of the city it was meant to be a part of. A thing that people all over the country will travel to see.
We must not shrink from this challenge. Whether or not the arena is given historic status; whether the arena is creatively repurposed as more than just an arena and parking lot or if it is completely replaced; or if a part of it is kept as an icon and the area is completely reimagined; we deserve a real vision. We must ensure that this area is best used for the community of The Hill and for the City of Pittsburgh. The best plan will be the one with the most integrity. It will reintegrate the neighborhood with the rest of the city and be worthy of our history. A tall order to be sure, but one which all Pittsburghers deserve because it’s our city afterall.
And, as we look to to our future, we may want to turn again to Portland. Vision into Action seeks to create a vision for their city’s future by involving the communities and neighborhoods which make up their city. Their objectives include:
1. Facilitating the engagement of communities and populations whose voices are under-represented in public decision-making and planning processes;
2. Helping organizations, businesses, neighborhoods, and governments to align their efforts with the community vision for 2030; and
3. Advocating for projects and policies that align with the vision for 2030 articulated by 17,000 Portland-area residents who participated in visionPDX.
In other words, a vision of how to make Pittsburgh better shouldn’t come from Grant Street, it should come from the neighborhoods themselves with city government serving as the facilitator of how to make it happen. Perhaps if we had something like this in Pittsburgh, we wouldn’t be having the fights like the one over the Civic Arena.
Luminari is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to connect like-minded visionaries to bring ideas to life. It’s a place where designers, artists and creatives can work with entrepreneurs and professionals. Scientists and teachers can connect with event planners and connection makers to create a plan and put it into action. Their ultimate goal is to “broaden minds and inspire innovation.”
An example of one of their projects is a program called “I Want to be an Ambassador.” Last year, they conducted an 8-day camp for teens organized with the University of Pittsburgh Honors College which concentrated on building negotiation, analysis and communication skills culminating in a two-day trip to Washington, D.C. where students met with actual diplomats. Councilman Bill Peduto has also worked with Luminari founding member Hilda Pang Fu to help mentor young Pittsburghers to become civic-minded individuals.
Luminari is always looking for new ideas and innovators from many disciplines to become part of their “inspiration lab.” You can find out more about their work at luminari.org.
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