Next Monday, May 17, CityLIVE will host “What’s Next for the Igloo?,” a panel and public discussion about the fate of the Civic Arena.

Should the arena be saved, and who should make the decision about it’s future?  Panel experts include Kimberly Ellis, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Historic Hill Institute; Christine Madrid French, Director of the Modernism + Recent Past Initiative with the National Trust for Historic Preservation; Larry Glasco, an expert in the history of Black Pittsburgh and Associate Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh and Rob Pfaffmann, AIA, AICP, architect  and planner.

What’s Next for the Igloo
Monday, May 17
New Hazlett Theater
6:30pm

For more information, or to RSVP, visit the cityLIVE website.

Recently, several cities around the country have begun to look at the possibility of creating streetcar transportation systems. According to an article on Inhabitat, 22 US cities are considering instituting streetcar systems. Streetcars have appeal to several cities not only as a convenient, more environmentally friendly method of transportation, but also as a tool to spark economic development. The Inhabitat article states that in Portland, Oregon, which was the first city to build a streetcar system, “53 percent of the area’s downtown development has occurred along the streetcar line” since 1997.  In 2007 USA Today also looked at the reemergence of streetcars as a tool for green transportation and economic stimulus.

A Streetcar Name Forbes-Fifth

Imagine getting onboard a trolley at Market Square and being connected to:

Point Park University – Art Institute – Downtown – City and County Government – Duquesne University – Mercy Hospital – Palumbo Center – Uptown – Magee Hospital – Oakland – Carnegie Museum – Carnegie-Mellon University – Squirrel Hill – Chatham University – Frick Park – Penn Avenue – Homewood – Point Breeze – East Liberty – Shadyside – Shadyside Hospital – Hillman Cancer Center – University of Pittsburgh – Montefiore Hospital – Presbyterian Hospital – Petersen Event Center – Carlow University – Hill District – Consol Energy Center – Robert Morris University – and back downtown to Market Square.

Some have said the only future for the Civic Arena is to demolish it, but are there other options?

Many believe that the Civic Arena could be preserved as an iconic piece of the City of Pittsburgh skyline.  A recent CNN story documents how the City of Austin preserved the historic Palmer Auditorium.  Instead of demolishing the building, the City instead chose to “remodel” and transform it into a state of the art new structure,reusing as many pieces as possible.  In the end, 45 million pounds of debris were recycled and reused in the new building.

Watch the CNN Video

In 2005 Pittsburgh Architect David Julian Roth proposed a green alternative to the demolition of the Civic Arena.  See Roth’s plan here.  Another local architect, Rob Pfaffmann, has proposed a plan entitled “A Civic Renewal.” These proposals are just two examples of the possibilities for the Arena outside of demolition.

To learn more, or to get involved, join the Facebook group Reuse the Igloo.

This Thursday, April 15, the Guyasuta Fellowship Program will be holding a panel discussion for the 10 year anniversary of the Fifth/Forbes development program.

Panel speakers will include Rob Stephany (Executive Director of the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh), Bernie Lynch and Pat Clark (Fifth/Forbes Community activists) and Chris Potter (Editor of the Pittsburgh City Paper).

10 Years After – The Lessons of Fifth/Forbes
Piatt Place, 301 Fifth Avenue, Room 3023
6:30pm – 8:30pm
Please RSVP by calling (412) 361-1111

This community discussion is free and open to the public.  For more information, read the press release.

The Post Gazette’s Tim McNulty’s report can be found here.  Tim wanes nostalgic for the old days in City Hall when he covered this story a decade ago.

Learn more about the Guyasuta Fellowship and Thursday’s 10 year anniversary session here.

On Friday, May 21st, the Regional Green Economy Task Force will host the Green Pathways to Prosperity Summit in Pittsburgh.

This summit will bring together government officials, clergy, organizational leaders, business leaders and community advocates who represent traditionally disadvantaged constituencies for a day of discussion on how Pittsburgh can attain the goal of a socially just, economically prosperous and environmentally sustainable future.  Key topics of the summit will include climate change, environmental justice, emerging industries, and public policy.

The goals of the Green Pathways to Prosperity summit are to both contribute to a more informed group of community leaders, and to also inspire collaboration between those in attendance.  For more information on this summit, contact Khari Mosley at k.mosley@gtechstrategies.org.

On Wednesday, Councilman Peduto presented the findings from a six- month study investigating the feasibility of creating a commuter line system in Pittsburgh. This city line would connect Hazelwood on the Monongahela River to Lawrenceville on the Allegheny River. It would pass near The Technology Center, Schenley Park, CMU and Oakland, The Baum-Centre Corridor, Bloomfield and Lawrenceville.

Just as this line was critical to the rise of Pittsburgh’s industrial age, it is now the lynchpin in a transit-oriented development plan for our new economy. Oakland is a job creator, and it needs the help of this line to allow those jobs to expand to neighborhoods that have not seen growth in a long time. This line does just that, and it does even more.

This commuter line has the capability of creating a much larger, regional commuter rail system and a multi-modal transportation vision for Southwestern PA. It connects to the Norfolk Southern line, which runs through the Mon-Valley, to Greensburg and beyond. It connects to the AVRR line, which connects the Allegheny Valley to Armstrong County and Downtown. It creates the possibility of having park-and-ride garages off of Route 28 and the Parkway East, as well as a link downtown to the T-line (which would connect south) on Second Avenue. Finally, it also connects with the MLK Busway connecting many neighborhoods and eastern suburbs.

In short, we need to build this line – NOW.

View Councilman Peduto’s Presentation

At the beginning of October the International Urban Development Association held their INTA33 Congress in Taiwan to discuss the topic of “Innovative Urban Environments.”  The mission of INTA is to bring together public and private urban practitioners in a series of conferences, seminars, peer-to-peer panels and yearly conferences to promote an exchange of ideas, and to create strategies to work towards achieving the goal of sustainable development.

Councilman Bill Peduto has been involved with INTA since 2003.  He was granted a scholarship by the group to travel to The Hague in the Netherlands to study “regional governance” from a global to local perspective with this organization. In 2005, Councilman Peduto joined the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation in welcoming them to Pittsburgh.

INTA helps us all to understand that the problems facing cities are the same worldwide, and so are many of the solutions.

Learn more about INTA33

Check out this short clip from a keynote address “Going Green Makes Economic Sense,” given by David Gottfried at Stanford University.  David Gottfried is the founder of the U.S. Green Building Council.  Gottfried discusses how green building is being linked to the bottom line. He says that bankers and Wall Street will eventually begin to demand green certification standards because of the value of investments in green building.

At the City Council Public Hearing yesterday afternoon, Councilman Bill Peduto once again spoke out for a revised economic development policy for the City of Pittsburgh.

“It is essential that subsidies that this government gives out for development do not simply go into the pockets of out-of-town developers, but benefit the entire community,” said Councilman Peduto.

With over $1 billion dollars of development in his district throughout the past 8 years, Councilman Peduto has worked to ensure that all of these developments have created good paying jobs, generated new tax revenue for the City, and catalyzed other neighborhood development.  

Now he is calling for the same triple bottom line development to be enforced throughout the City of Pittsburgh, which would ensure that any new development would:

• maximized economic impact
• minimized environmental impact and improvement of the surrounding neighborhood
• provided the opportunity for good jobs for all residents

“Each and every development proposal in the City of Pittsburgh should meet the triple bottom line or else you must question whether or not this is true economic development that benefits the City or simply real estate development that benefits a select few.”

On Tuesday, Pittsburgh City Council gave unanimous final support to a bill that will help encourage more green building within the city.

The new amendment to the city building code states that any project that receives aid in the form of TIF (tax-increment financing) subsidies, will have to ultimately meet the LEED silver rating standards.  Projects that utilize this subsidy and do not obtain the LEED silver rating will be fined in the amount of 1% of the construction costs of the project.  Building projects that are 10,000 sq. feet or greater, or whose cost exceeds more than $2 million dollars will be subject to this amendment, along with any renovations to city-owned buildings totaling more than $2 million dollars.

The Green Building Alliance, who worked closely with Councilman Bill Peduto on this amendment, praised it’s passage yesterday.  Executive director Holly Childs said, “It is exciting to see the City of Pittsburgh moving forward to protect our natural environment and the health and safety of City residents and workers.  We are very pleased with today’s vote and will work with Councilman Peduto and Pittsburgh City Council to pass legislation that incentivizes and promotes green building.”  
To read more from the Green Building Alliance about the passage of the amendment, visit the press release here.

The Pittsburgh Post Gazette also praised this legislation in an editorial yesterday.  The editorial commends the amendment’s insistence on using the LEED certification standards for building, as opposed to a similar bill that recently received overwhelming support in the state House in Harrisburg.  The editorial also praises the long-term savings that such environmental standards create, by creating buildings that use less energy and natural resources.

Read the Post Gazette editorial here.