Place Archives - One Northside

Bistro to Go – Together We Find Community

Nikki Heckman is founder and owner of Bistro to Go. Established in October 2007, Bistro is much more than a restaurant, it’s known as a community staple. We sat down with Nikki to learn a little about her story and how Bistro came to fruition.

Nikki, a Manchester native, will always have a passion for the Northside. “The community is really diverse. It’s a place where I played [growing up]. The Northside is the first place I wanted to be.”

After serving food to the community at Allegheny Center Alliance Church for many years, she was encouraged to open her own restaurant. “People from the community helped me build this [Bistro] out.” The first day Bistro opened, they brought in $3,600, far exceeding expectations. Business continued to pick-up, but like most start-up companies they amassed quite a bit of debt.

Despite her financial woes, Nikki never stopped caring for the community. “In the middle of my crisis I did what I’ve always known, take care of people.” Looking back, her experience in the restaurant industry, with the church, and in working with the homeless and area non-profits, all led to serving the community through Bistro to Go. “I couldn’t have planned or imagined that would happen out of me just opening a restaurant.”

Now, Bistro has grown to 45 employees all with living wages, between $15 – $35 an hour with full benefits for those that work over 20 hours a week. Nikki empowers her employees to think for themselves and contributes to a diverse workforce. “I have learned that we can impact these emerging communities, diverse in every which way by working together with respect. I believe in them [the Northside community]. That’s the kind of place I want Bistro to Go to be.”

For Nikki, the Northside is family. “These are my mothers, my brothers, these are my sisters. The lines go away. I have made a commitment to this community. This community has my heart.” We couldn’t agree more, when you come into Bistro to Go, you feel welcomed.

Bistro to Go is located at 415 East Ohio Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15212.

October 1, 2019

Doug Oster, Everybody Gardens

Somali Group Transforms Vacant City Lot into Garden/Farm with Adopt-A-Lot Program

Place

Abdulkadir Chirambo smiles easily, especially when he’s talking about the vacant city lots the United Somali Bantu of Greater Pittsburgh have converted to a huge farm like garden. As president and spokesman of the organization, he gets serious when asked what brought him from Kenya to the Pittsburgh. “Peace, education and changing life,” he says with conviction.

Abdulkadir Chirambo is president of the United Somali Bantu of Greater Pittsburgh, he’s seen here with Shelly Danko+Day who is the City of Pittsburgh’s urban agriculture and food policy specialist. The group has transformed a three quarter acre area that was formerly vacant city lots into a garden farm located in Pittsburgh’s Perry Hilltop neighborhood.

The Somali Bantu includes people from many countries — among them, Kenya, Brundi and Congo. Those that spent their lives farming in their home countries longed to continue to work in the soil here.

The elders of the bantu have guided Chirambo and others, teaching them the traditions of growing. At the beginning, in 2016, Chirambo tried to understand the results of a soil test as the elders stood nearby. “All they did was get a pen and dig it to the ground and said, ‘hey something will grow up from here,’” he said with a hearty laugh.

Abdulkadir Chirambo is president of the United Somali Bantu of Greater Pittsburgh, here he hold beans harvested from the garden. The group has transformed a three quarter acre area that was formerly vacant city lots into a garden farm located in Pittsburgh’s Perry Hilltop neighborhood.

The nearly acre site they farm Pittsburgh’s Perry Hilltop neighborhood was transformed from vacant lots through the city’s Adopt-A-Lot program run by Shelly Danko+Day. Pittsburgh’s urban agriculture and food policy specialist oversees the program, which started in 2014. Currently there are 151 lots covering 11 total acres that are used for a variety of different purposes. “It’s a way people can access vacant city owned lot for food, flower or rain gardens,” she says.

With the group in its second year, the large, lush garden is brimming with tall corn plants, dwarf okra, squash, tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers, lettuce, cabbage, potatoes, cucumbers, beans, carrots, collards and more.

This is a showplace for the program, but with over 7,000 vacant lots in the city, it’s just a start. “People are so excited about adopting these lots,” Danko+Day says with a smile. “I love seeing the flowers growing and the communities involved people out enjoying the space that was once just a vacant lot.”

Each garden throughout the city is different; in Homewood that group of gardeners has erected a hoop house to extend the season. Other lots are used for flowers to beautify the neighborhood and some gardens deal with storm water more effectively. “A lot of communities doing a lot of really unique things, she says. “They are like snowflakes, every one is different.”

Anyone can adopt a vacant lot, don’t need to be residents of the city and the program is free. After submitting an application through the city’s website, Danko+Day works to draw up an agreement to assure the lot will be used for the right purpose.

Standing in the middle of the Somali garden as the late afternoon sun drops over the trees, she reflects on the success of this small farm. “The Somali come from a farming community, she relates, it’s been 20 years since they have land to grow on. To see what they have done with it, is amazing, this is one of my happy places for sure.”

As the elders work in the shade repairing some garden machinery, Danko+Day looks over at them and continues.

“They were really concerned with passing the farming traditions to the youth, she says. The fact that I can help provide this for them is a real joy for me. Many of them were born in refugee camps and didn’t ever have a chance to garden.”

The beans here are harvested to be used dry. Some of the lettuce plants, grown in long rows, are allowed to go to seed. They will be saved and planted again next year. The group has been holding a market to sell its fresh produce on Thursdays from 3 to 6 p.m.

“For the future I’d like more sites like this, Danko+Day says. My area of interest is food policy and making sure that people are fed. We have 63,000 Pittsburghers who are food insecure. Having more gardens like this and more communities that do this kind of work is going to help to reduce those numbers.”

Emily Persico is a food policy intern with the city working on a master’s degree from Yale. She’s spent her summer with Danko+Day learning about the program and watching these gardens grow. Here she holds a small pear shaped tomato. The United Somali Bantu of Greater Pittsburgh has transformed a three quarter acre area that was formerly vacant city lots into a garden farm located in Pittsburgh’s Perry Hilltop neighborhood. Okra is just one of the many crops grown in the garden.

“It can bring the community together,” she says. “Today were standing here among five men who are all working this land. We’ve seen it. They have the market where people come to the spot and see it as a source of pride. It’s cool to see that transformation.”

As Chirambo walks through the garden looking at all the produce he talks about the journey of learning to garden. “The last two seasons I have learned a lot. Last year, the first zucchini I picked, I pulled out the whole thing,” he said laughing.

The group has worked hard to improve the soil, adding organic matter and removing stones and bricks. “It was hard, I realize it’s not an easy job,” Chirambo says. “I was wondering how my dad did this for life.”

There’s a lot of fun though too. Children play and work in the garden, running, digging and carefully planting seeds.

“Three weeks later, when you come to the door, you see all the ground is green,” he says.

“The best thing for me is I’m in America. I’ve got a good education and I also learned the background of my culture,” says Chirambo.

The United Somali Bantu of Greater Pittsburgh has transformed a three quarter acre area that was formally vacant city lots into a garden farm located in Pittsburgh’s Perry Hilltop neighborhood. This lettuce has been allowed to go to seed. It will be saved and planted next year.

If there’s ever peace in his country then he’ll have the skills to help his homeland and beyond. “I have an opportunity to make a difference all around the world,” he says.

Date Originally Published on August 7, 2019

SOURCE: Everybody Gardens

August 21, 2019

Jesse Descutner, assistant Main Street manager for the Northside Leadership Conference, stops on Foreland Street in Deutschtown near Allegheny City Brewery, on of 14 businesses participating in the We Like Bikes! initiative. (Nate Guidry/Post Gazette)

(Nate Guidry/Post Gazette)

North Side initiative marries well-being of bicyclists with businesses

Place

A plan that has been gestating for several years within a bicycle advocacy group on the North Side finally has hatched.

The We Like Bikes! campaign is the first grassroots, multi-neighborhood initiative in the city to marry the well-being of bicyclists to that of businesses.

The Northside Leadership Conference hired Jesse Descutner in May 2018 to be the conference’s Main Street assistant.

“The conference gave me liberty to push this program through,” he said. “It became a passion project for me. I’d love to see this project cut and pasted all over the city.”

Mr. Descutner, a 2016 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh who commutes to work most days by bike from his home in Bloomfield, went door to door asking business owners to sign up. Would they keep bike repair tools — tire pumps, tire levers, chain tools, screwdriver/wrench multi-tools and patch kits — on hand and put a red We Like Bikes! decal in their storefronts letting cyclists know the tools are inside? And could they also please let cyclists use their bathrooms and fill up on water?

“I was amazed that every business I asked said yes,” he said. “Some businesses are even talking about offering incentives to cyclists, like discounts.”

The Northside Leadership Conference’s Walk Ride Northside committee began devising this plan several years ago, but implementation was left to first one intern then the next. None ever got the momentum to complete the project, said Jerry Green, a member of the committee who, with his bike activist wife, Donna Green, cycles throughout the city and region several times a week.

“Jesse has taken the bull by the horns,” he said.

Mr. Descutner has signed up 14 businesses so far. A $1,000 grant from One Northside, a Buhl Foundation initiative, paid for decals and tools, provided by Bear Dog Bikes in Allegheny West.

“We wanted to make everything North Side, but we want people in other parts of the city to come and know they can get assistance,” Mr. Descutner said. “We have a reliable network of businesses now. My goal is to expand up into Observatory Hill.”

The businesses are on a map at pittsburghnorthside.com.

Alexandria Shewczyk, a spokesperson for Bike Pittsburgh, said We Like Bikes! is a worthy model for replication in other neighborhoods.

“Businesses that show they care about the biking community can bring people into their shops,” she said. “More businesses are reaching out to us to have bike rack installations for customers or employees.”

Naomi Ritter, the manager at Arnold’s Tea, a participating business in Deutschtown, said the original owner, Verna Arnold, had the idea to be bike friendly several years ago. Ms. Arnold retired and sold the businesses to Claudy Pierre last year.

“She put in an application to be bike accessible, and so we’re in the process of getting a bike parking station outside our shop,” Ms. Ritter said. “We’re on a corner by a bus stop, and we get bike traffic from the Strip District and Downtown.”

Jamie Younger, owner of Young Brothers Bar in Marshall-Shadeland, said he talked to the Walk Ride committee several years ago about the many bicyclists who passed his Woods Run Avenue business en route to and from the Ohio River trail.

“I see a ton of bicycle traffic, and I thought it would be a mutually beneficial relationship between businesses and bikers to bring them in, refill their water and let them use the bathroom without having the pressure of making a purchase,” he said.

The longer-term payoff would be that these cyclists become customers, he said.

“Sometimes people would come in and say, ‘My bike broke down, can I leave it here and pick it up tomorrow?’ We had some guys biking from San Francisco to New York get caught in a heavy rainstorm. They ended up coming in, eating and drinking, and we put their bikes in a pickup to their destination in Lawrenceville.”

That got the wheels turning on the plan. But the trail’s proximity was just part of the mission.

“We want to make a connection between bicycling and local economic development,” said Nick Ross, chair of the Walk Ride Northside committee. “We want to cultivate healthy local business districts. Eight thousand people use the North Shore trail, so how can we help bring people up to the local businesses?”

“A lot of people from the North Hills park at Millvale to ride the trail, then leave,” Ms. Green said.

Signs that point people to businesses off the trail would help, she said, noting that there is a city process with signage that’s cumbersome.

An example of how businesses and bicyclists can bond is the relationship the Walk Ride committee formed with Penn Brewery in Troy Hill. The brewery, a We Like Bikes! participant, sits beside the trail that parallels Route 28.

“The manager at the brewery said, ‘Why don’t you meet at my place?’ ” Ms. Green said. “We started meeting there and we see bikes all the time there now.”

Originally published on August 12, 2019

SOURCE: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

August 13, 2019

Resident Highlight: Ben Soltesz

Featured, One Northside, Place

Ben Soltesz is one resident that is doing amazing work for his neighbors and all of the residents of the Northside. Ben, a software developer, has lived in Spring Hill for 18 years. But, he is best known around town as co-founder of the Deutschtown Music Festival, which just finished its seventh annual festival.

Why did you move to the Northside?

“We got married and were looking for a house… we found a house with a view of the city in Spring Hill.” Less than a week later, the house was theirs. Now, 18 years later, they have moved into their second house in Spring Hill and love to call the Northside their home. “We fell in love with the place. We know all of our neighbors.”

Deutschtown Music Festival 2019
Photo Credit: Deutschtown Music Festival

How are you investing in your neighborhood?

Ben spends much of his time serving in the Northside, working to make his neighborhood a better place for all people. He is the vice president of the Spring Hill Civic League where he helps to run many of their events throughout the year including a Halloween parade. He also serves on the board of the Northside Leadership Council and is on several different committees including the recent Allegheny Commons Initiative Committee. “When no one else raises their hand for something, I figure, I can take on one more meeting, so I volunteer to do it. It has been great.”

But, to most, Ben is known for being the co-founder of the Deutschtown Music Festival. After seeing a music festival in the Lawrenceville area, Ben thought “why can’t we do a music festival here on the Northside?” So, he started talking about it with everyone. He soon got connected with Cody Walters and a few others and they set up a meeting. “We had about 15 people at the first meeting to talk about [the music festival].” Cody and Ben were the two that stuck around for the long-haul and have planned the festival together ever since. The seventh annual completely free festival took place on July 12-14. Over the past seven years, they have seen a lot of growth. This year, they were able to extend the free weekend festival into Sunday morning with a Gospel Brunch hosted by Allegheny Center Alliance Church. The festival included over 400 performances in locations all over Deutschtown and the central Northside region.

How are you involved in One Northside?

Ben has been involved with One Northside since the beginning. “When I heard about it I wanted to be involved so I started to go to all of the meetings.” When it was brought up that One Northside was hoping to plan a few events to create a greater sense of place for Northside residents, Ben immediately jumped on board. With Renee from the New Hazlett Theater, they planned a series of block parties to take place around the Northside for residents and neighbors to come out and spend time together.

Since then, Ben has continued to be involved in the One Northside community and loves to keep up to date on the work happening in all areas of his Northside community.

What makes you love the Northside and what is your hope for the future?

Ben has seen a lot of life happen on the Northside. “The Northside has changed a lot. I remember one time a while ago that I was riding my bike. At the time my kids were pretty little and I remember thinking, ‘this place is pretty rough. Maybe we could do better…’ But I always knew it was going to get better and I am glad we stuck around.

“The Northside is so diverse and we live together and we get along with each other. We are a pretty mixed neighborhood. For example, right across the street from me are three generations that live right next door to each other. I don’t even know how long they have been there. That is what we don’t want to lose. That is what keeps this place interesting. I like my neighborhood the way it is and we want to keep it that way.”

One Northside is all about highlighting and spotlighting our residents. Northside residents are doing amazing things in their neighborhoods every day. If you or someone you know is doing great work to make the Northside a better place let us know! You can contact us here or send an email to ons@buhlfoundation.org.

One Northside is a resident-driven initiative that catalyzes and supports long-term sustainable change for Pittsburgh’s eighteen Northside neighborhoods. Begun in 2014, One Northside is a long-term commitment to invest in the lives and futures of Northside residents with particular emphasis on resourcing community members, young and old, to lead from within.

August 1, 2019

Northsiders gather to celebrate reopening of historic fountain

Place

Community residents gathered together for a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the reemergence of the historic fountain, listen to the sounds of the Pittsburgh Banjo Club, and eat light snacks and refreshments from Bistro To Go and The Priory.

The ribbon cutting represents the first step in a series of ongoing improvements to Allegheny Commons Park. Next is the North Promenade, which runs along North Street from the fountain to the Washington Monument. Photo: Ashlee Green

The fountain’s reconstruction took “decades of work and decades of patience,” according to PPC CEO Jayne Miller, and reflects its previous 1868 design. According to a press release, it features a “50-foot basin with a large, Grecian vase and one centered main jet surrounded by smaller jets around the base.”

Miller thanked the Northside residents in attendance and said the fountain is a symbol of the revitalization happening throughout the Northside neighborhoods.

Originally published on May 6, 2019

SOURCE: The Northside Chronicle

June 25, 2019

North Side partnership opens CoLab18 at Nova Place

Place

A group aiming to boost inclusive innovation and entrepreneurship on the North Side has opened a space at Nova Place and extended the number of partners involved.

CoLab18, a 4,600-square-foot free programming space at Nova Place, has conference rooms, work rooms and gigabit-speed broadband service and Xfinity Wifi.

The space’s programming will focus on community collaboration, workforce development, digital engagement and education. More than 40 agencies have committed to providing programs or are currently working on plans to provide programs at CoLab18.

Rich Lunak, CEO of Innovation Works, said CoLab18, named after the 18 North Side neighborhoods, is meant to be a community resource.

“(It’s) put in place for collaboration for the community to make sure that really all of the innovators, entrepreneurs and people in the North Side community can take part in the revitalization that’s happening through Nova Place and Pittsburgh’s innovation economy,” Lunak said.

Innovation Works, Riverside Center for Innovation and BNY Mellon Foundation joined the partnership with existing members from Urban Innovation21, Comcast, Faros Properties and the Buhl Foundation. The four original partners announced a collaboration about a year ago.

James Myers Jr., director of community affairs and business development at Urban Innovation21, said the additional partners show the resources going toward this initiative.

“I think the additional partners show the private sector is committed to improving the economic conditions of the North Side,” he said.

Faros Properties previously committed $250 million to renovate Nova Place and the other partners invested $8.8 million: $6.5 million from the Buhl Foundation, $1.3 million from Comcast, and $1 million from Urban Innovation21.

Robert Grove, vice president of communications for Comcast Keystone Region, said the amount the partnership has committed to the collaboration has grown from $8.8 million to $9.3 million. Innovation Works committed $75,000 to the collaboration. The other new partners also contributed funding to build out CoLab18 and operate programs there. Riverside and BNY Mellon were not available immediately to disclose their funding amounts, said Grove.

Originally published on February 14, 2018
SOURCE: Pittsburgh Business Times

April 19, 2019

Restoration of Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Commons park includes new fountain

Place

Patricia Rooney remembers Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Commons park at its zenith when it boasted meandering gravel paths, four flowing water fountains and lush gardens. The park on the city’s North Side, which fell victim to financial constraints over the years and became a haven for drug users and crime, is experiencing a rebirth thanks to the efforts of several civic groups and the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy.

Workers earlier this month began a $2.5 million restoration of the park’s northeastern corner that will replicate its 19th century design. The project’s focal point is a new fountain. The work funded through charitable donations also includes restoration of gardens and gravel pathways and new lights and benches.

“We practically grew up in the park, and the fountain was always there across from Allegheny General Hospital,” said Rooney, 86, wife of the late Dan Rooney, former Steelers chairman and U.S. ambassador to Ireland. “The park was just lovely. We had playground space and lots of wonderful statues. It was full of all the children in the neighborhood.”

The lifelong North Side resident belongs to a citizens group that in 2002 commissioned a master plan for the park. The Allegheny Commons Initiative and Northside Leadership Conference along with the city and parks conservancy has been working since then on restoration plans estimated at $25 million.

The organizations have completed restoration work on the park’s southeastern corner and is focusing on a one-block square area along North and Cedar avenues.

The park was built in 1867 in what was then Allegheny City, which was annexed by Pittsburgh in 1907, once featured four fountains. The basin for the fountain in question was used to build a retaining wall in Riverview Park.

The new fountain, a replica of the original, will include a 50-foot circular basin with a stone rim, large Grecian vase in the center and a central water jet surrounded by 16 smaller jets. Plans call for four beds for flowers and ornamental shrubs around the fountain.

A fence surrounds the construction zone and Pittsburgh Department of Public Works employees on Thursday were busy removing old asphalt pathways. Work is scheduled for fall completion.

“Personally I’m thrilled to see the fountain return,” Rooney said. “It’s a really big asset for us. It’s been a lot of hard work, a lot of fund-raising and a lot of support from the city and the administration and foundations.”

Originally published on May 17, 2018
SOURCE: TribLive

April 19, 2019

North Side Bike Advocate Is Helping Redesign Allegheny Center’s Roadways

Place

Nick Ross stood at the corner of Ridge Avenue and West Commons, an intersection on the loop surrounding Allegheny Center.

It’s part of the route he bikes along everyday during his commute between his home in the Mexican War Streets neighborhood and his office downtown.

“This is what’s known as a protected intersection type of design, so as the bike lane comes into the intersection, it kind of jogs around the corner so that there’s a barrier between the bike lane and the driving lane turning,” Ross said.

For the last four years, Ross has been the chair of Walk Ride North Side, the bike and pedestrian advocacy committee of the non-profit North Side Leadership Conference.

“First and foremost, everything starts within the community on our end,” said Ross. “Our meetings are open to the public, anybody’s welcome to come and that’s really where we generate our ideas.”

Some of Walk Ride’s activities include cleanups and group rides that serve to preserve and promote existing bike trails and lanes on the North Side.

They also advocate with local and state officials for new lanes. Ross remembers that early in his tenure as chair, the committee was able to help secure the addition of lanes along stretches of East and East Ohio streets.

Jerry Green, the previous chair of the committee, says Ross was able to hit the ground running in part because of his work background.

“Nick is a professional traffic engineer and he’s done a great job of making connections of people who get things done on the road. He has a kinship with the traffic engineering people at the city and at PennDOT,” said Green.

More recently, Ross has used those same engineering skills to help out on a pretty big project: the redesign of the roadway circling Allegheny Center.

“[The original design was] four 11-foot lanes, 44 feet curb to curb, all one way,” said Ross.

Ross said that at certain times of the day, there wouldn’t be much traffic at all on the loop. But when it was busy, it became almost like a four-lane highway due to it’s central positioning in the North Side, said Ross.

“For most [cyclists], it was kind of a no-go zone,” said Ross. “Drivers were just too fast and too aggressive to feel comfortable riding a bike around it.”

As the city has started to get moving on the redesign in the last couple of years, Ross said he’s gotten the chance to give feedback.

“Typically, you wouldn’t have an agency reach out and solicit input … but to their immense credit, they were always willing to do so,” said Ross.

Emily Gaspich, a project manager with the city’s Department of Mobility and Transportation, said that Ross’ professional background and the fact he regularly commutes through the area by bike makes him very well-equipped to add to the discussion.

“From very early on, Nick was a very strong advocate to make sure that the cycle track was appropriately protected,” said Gaspich.

The city is currently piloting changes around the circle including a two-way bike lane around the interior and a dedicated parking lane on the outside. At the intersection of Ridge and West Commons that Ross bikes through everyday, flexible posts line the corners, separating the bikers from the road.

Gaspich said the final build-out is likely to include even more robust protections for bikers at corners and intersections, like planters and even cement islands, as well as shortened crossing lanes for pedestrians.

Originally published on April 16, 2018
SOURCE: WESA

April 19, 2019

An East Ohio Street that draws Steelers, Pirates fans? Some see it, others just envision a better place for the neighbors.

Place

More than a decade after community groups on Pittsburgh’s North Side began taking baby steps toward improving its image and raising the quality of life for residents, there are more vacant buildings and boarded-up store fronts than before lining its main retail corridor.

While it might appear things have taken a turn for the worse on East Ohio Street, looks can be deceiving.

Behind the covered doors and windows of the empty shops, construction workers are preparing to gut interior walls and begin renovations — setting the stage for a new-and-improved version of East Ohio that will take shape over the next two years.

“Not everything will go exactly as planned. But give us two years, and we will have an East Ohio Street that looks vastly different,” said Mark Fatla, executive director of the Northside Leadership Conference. “What you are seeing now is the product of years of work and preparation.”

The nonprofit coalition of community-based organizations has joined forces with the Urban Redevelopment Authority and private real estate developers to gain ownership of enough properties to give East Ohio Street a major overhaul.

Nine years ago, the URA provided private real estate developer Al DePasquale with $225,000 to jump-start home renovations on the North Side. The money was used to build nine new homes and rehab two homes on James, Tripoli and Suismon streets.

The URA is now offering $30,000 grants to any developer or business owner with property on East Ohio or East streets who want to update the facades.

So far, the public-private partnership has attracted a handful of entrepreneurs to set up shop in buildings that have recently been restored.

They have turned a former hardware store into Arnold’s Tea Shop & Café, a cheery spot that also includes five newly renovated apartments. A florist called The Farmer’s Daughter opened four years ago. The dog food store Wagsburgh opened a year ago in a building owned by the Historic Deutschtown Development Corp., although the commercial office above remains vacant.

Some of the older businesses on East Ohio that updated their facilities years ago include The Priory Bakery and the Bistro To Go restaurant.

Bigger plans are on the drawing board. They include eight renovated buildings on the 400 block of East Ohio Street with shops on the first floors and apartments on the upper levels, owned by the Northside Leadership Conference and the development company East Ohio Capital.

The Northside Leadership Conference, which is funded by the state and county, is an umbrella group for 18 different neighborhoods.

The conference also is working with SSB, formerly Slovak Savings Bank, to build a two-story commercial building in the middle of the 500 block of East Ohio. East Ohio Capital will erect a building on vacant land adjacent to it for a first floor restaurant with apartments above.

Working with the URA and another private developer, the conference is proposing a retail store and apartment project on the 600 block.

But the most ambitious revitalization projects on East Ohio will be the construction of a six-story, 96-room Comfort Inn hotel and the $4 million redevelopment of the adjoining ARC House, which will be converted to a 350-person wedding venue on the first two floors with a rooftop brew pub and a wood-burning pizza restaurant.

Both of those projects are scheduled for opening in January 2019.

“We will buy anything”

“We are looking at a North Side that is set to come into a new age,” said Mr. DePasquale, co-owner of East Ohio Capital. “We will buy anything that makes sense to us in this area — the flats of North Side.

“That includes Allegheny East, Allegheny West, the Mexican War Streets, Manchester and a little part of the bottom of Spring Garden, and whatever surrounds the park,” he said.

After renovating and reselling dozens of houses in the lower Northside for around a decade, Mr. DePasquale and his partner, John Elash, want to make a mark in the commercial real estate market with investments on East Ohio Street as well as their stake in the ARC House and the new $17.5 million Comfort Inn.

Mr. DePasquale and Mr. Elash, owners of October Development, invited two other development companies to join them in the expansion of East Oho Street, forming East Ohio Capital. Right now, East Ohio Capital has 17 new construction and eight rehab residential construction projects underway between Allegheny East and the Mexican War Streets in addition to their projects on East Ohio and East streets.

“We try to save as much of the old buildings as possible,” Mr. DePasquale said. “Any time we do tear a building down, we reach out for community support.”

They are also rehabbing 16 retail spots inside the East Ohio Street envelope. They have an ownership stake in seven of the first nine buildings on East Ohio starting at the intersection with Cedar Avenue and the first four buildings on Cedar Avenue north of East Ohio.

With so much commercial property on the main drag under their control, Mr. DePasquale and his four partners in East Ohio Capital are in a position to execute their vision of a business district that is shiny and new, with wide open patio doors in front of quaint shops and trendy restaurants.

“We want to keep the character and the aesthetics of the buildings that are there, but sort of open it up and make it much more warm and inviting so that people can walk over from Downtown at lunch and walk down the street and pick a place to have lunch,” Mr. Elash said.

A game day experience?

Part of Mr. DePasquale’s vision is to make it part of the game day experience for Steelers and Pirates fans. People could eat and drink at the ARC House, and visit the shops and restaurants on East Ohio. He plans to provide shuttle buses.

Although many stakeholders in the community support Mr. Depasquale’s plan to buy out slum property owners and businesses, not everyone is sold on making East Ohio a big stop on game days.

“We don’t want to become the South Side,” said Nick Kyriazi, former president of the East Allegheny Community Council. “We don’t want to attract a bunch of drunken suburbanites who come to the city to lose their inhibitions. We would prefer businesses that attract locals who can walk to the shops that serve our daily needs.”

Property values in North Side residential communities have gone up in the past two decades.

“We have never, ever moved an owner-occupied family out of the neighborhood,” Mr. DePasquale said, addressing concerns about pricing out current residents. “But we are trying to move out and price out absentee owners who have turned buildings into slums.”

Residential real estate values from 2008 to 2017 in the Mexican War Streets increased an average 92.8 percent from $143,833 to $277,371, according to data compiled by RealSTATs, a Ross Township-based real estate information service. Allegheny East home prices went up 51 percent during that time frame from an average $97,838 to $148,083.

The commercial district still struggles to overcome the stigma of being unsafe.

“East Ohio Street is not a pleasant atmosphere,” Mr. Kyriazi said. “You have people standing around, looking at their phones and soliciting prostitutes. They are out there fighting and screaming at each other across the street and engaging in the type of behavior that is intimidating to others who didn’t grow up using their fists.”

Getting one part going

Real estate agent Karl Owen said he has renovated 61 residential homes on the North Side over the past 22 years that he has lived in the community. When showing houses to potential buyers, he usually points out his own home on North Avenue.

“I don’t just sell a house on the North Side and drive to my home in Sewickley,” said Mr. Owen, a historic homes specialist with Howard Hanna Real Estate Services.

He sees the revitalization of East Ohio as the next leg up for the North Side. He said Mr. DePasquale and his partners deserve credit for taking on large projects that smaller developers can’t.

“There will be a dramatic change on East Ohio Street,” Mr. Owen said. “Right now, it’s blighted with empty store fronts. But I know what Al [Mr. DePasquale] can do and it will change for the better.”

Bernard Beck, past president of the East Allegheny Citizens Council, has lived in his home on Suissmon Street off Cedar Avenue since 1999. Although parts of the community are still rough around the edges, there has been a remarkable amount of change.

“We are selling homes on the North Side for more than $100,000 above what the same address would have been worth 20 years ago,” Mr. Beck said. “It’s a thing where you get one part going, then another part and people begin to realize this is a good place to live.

“You can buy donuts and the best sandwiches in Pittsburgh on East Ohio Street. And after Allie [Mr. DePasquale] works his magic, it will be an even better place for individual people to invest their mortgage money in a place to live. We have a community as safe as any in Pittsburgh and as convenient as it gets for working Downtown.”

Originally published on March 20, 2018
SOURCE: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

April 19, 2019

Walkabout: It takes a team effort to eliminate waste

Place

Every year, I resolve to waste less than I wasted the year before, but wasting nothing is almost impossible. It’s an ideal to strive for.

The Pennsylvania Resources Council recently honored organizations that took the zero-waste challenge in 2017, diverting from landfills 60 to 98 percent of garbage from events they held.

These organizations “have gone above and beyond recycling,” said Teresa Bradley, PRC’s zero-waste coordinator.

The Pittsburgh Marathon and the Great Race are two huge achievements of waste diversion in the city -— both more than 90 percent -— but the Beaver County Maple Syrup Festival, an event that pulled in 40,000 people last year — as many as the marathon — outdid both big races by diverting 98 percent of its waste.

The only items thrown away were plastic forks and bathroom waste paper, said Holly Vogt, director of Beaver County’s Department of Waste Management, adding that this year’s event will feature compostable forks.

“It was many hands on board: Boy Scouts, people doing community service, people from the Conservation District. We sort everything before it goes into a bin — a cardboard bin, a commingle bin, a food-compost bin.

“We switched out [individual] coffee creamers for cartons that are recyclable,” she said. “Instead of individual butter servings, we did pats from wax wrappers, which are recyclable.”

Food not eaten was donated to an after-school program in Beaver Falls. And the maple syrup is sold in recyclable jugs.

PRC worked 40 zero-waste events in 2017, including Construction Junction’s Steel City Big Pour beer festival and the Deutschtown Music Festival. It honored both for diverting between 75 and 89 percent of their waste.

It also honored efforts it didn’t play a part in. The Maple Syrup Festival was one that went it alone, as did the U.S. Postal Service in its commitment to divert 3,000 tons of material in Pennsylvania.

A grant from the Buhl Foundation helped pay for the zero-waste efforts of the Deutschtown Music Festival.

The annual event started in 2013 with 40 bands at a dozen venues in one day and grew by 2016 to 80 bands at 24 venues over two days. Last year, with 200 bands at 30 venues and thousands more people moving through the North Side, the organizers accepted PRC’s Zero Waste team’s offer of help.

“It was an education in diverting trash,” said Cody Walters, the festival founder. “We’ve always been good about recycling, but they added composting. They were sorting on site during the festival.

“We’re really happy with the results,” he said.

The diversion rate of 84 percent totaled 1,785 pounds.

“It’s strange to get excited about trash, but we are because events like ours are an example,” Mr. Walters said.

The biggest “like” the festival gets on social media is the photo of clean streets the morning after, he said.

PRC helped organizations divert 46 tons of waste in 2017, from events and from waste audits, Ms. Bradley said. It contracts with commercial composters to take things that are no-nos in backyard compost, such as meat and grease.

Construction Junction, a local pioneer in the diversion of waste from landfill — it accepts used building materials for affordable resale — began striving for zero waste at its Steel City Big Pour fundraiser seven years ago.

Every September since 2007, Big Pour attracts between 3,500 and 3,600 people. Like the Deutschtown Music Festival in July, its has doubled and tripled in scale — from 20 breweries and seven restaurants to 52 breweries and 24 restaurants.

Instead of garbage cans, signs explain why there are none. Veterans of the Big Pour know the drill: You hand your plate and its waste to the people managing the waste.

The handing-off subtly implies your plate with its uneaten food and fork has value. Someone wants to take it, to sort the contents to get the most return on recycling and composting. That message soaking into someone’s consciousness is value added.

Inching toward zero waste takes intention, time and cooperation, “but there’s a lot of pride in it,” Ms. Vogt said of the Maple Syrup Festival’s efforts. “Everybody is in a good mood. It’s a great opportunity to engage, and we are gearing up to do it again this year,” the first weekend in April.

“When you see others do it, it makes you want to get on board, and that creates a movement.”

Originally published on February 26, 2018
SOURCE: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

April 19, 2019