"Pittsburghers have begun a long overdue discussion that could make our region an international model for just and sustainable development. This conversation could prevent future generations of Pittsburghers from inheriting deferred dreams, squandered opportunities and unintended consequences."  Please click here for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article.  Please click here for a pdf of the article.

"Ravenstahl joined representatives of various groups and agencies in urging area residents to seek help when they face foreclosure.

 

"Our goal is to preserve family homeownership to ensure that Pittsburgh's neighborhoods remain stable and prosperous," Ravenstahl said. He presented statistics on neighborhood foreclosures compiled by the Pittsburgh Neighborhood and Community Information System.

 

The most basic measure of municipal fiscal health concerns the annual results of municipal revenue collections and expenditures. Healthy communities run a small annual surplus that allows them to build a rainy day fund and budget for long-term capital and infrastructure needs. Even healthy municipalities face the occasional shortfall due to unexpected events. Governments that run regular deficits, commonly defined as two or more annual deficits in a 5-6 year period, show significant signs of fiscal distress.

 

Using data from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development surveys of municipal governments (cities, townships, boroughs) over a six year period from 2000 to 2005, 58.5 percent of municipalities in the ten county Pittsburgh Region experienced two or more annual deficits. A full 80.2% of our local governments experienced at least one deficit during the period, with only 101 of 509 (19.8 percent) cities, townships, or boroughs able to avoid deficits during the period. This is an astounding finding and represents widespread financial problems beyond expectations.

 

For the news article on the study, click here:  http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08060/861409-85.stm

 

For the study website, click here: http://www.pittsburghtoday.org/web/home.jsp

The Trust for Public Land has made available a Landscape Architecture Magazine (November 2007) article on Pittsburgh's Nine Mile Run. 

 

"If Pittsburgh was "hell with the lid off," as it was called during its industrial heyday, then its River Styx was surely Nine Mile Run. Polluted into lifelessness, buried in culverts, insulted with trash, gouged by flash floods, and stripped of its floodplain by vast piles of slag, Nine Mile Run was as close to biological death as a stream could get. Today it is the site of the largest urban stream revitailization project ever undertaken by the U.S. Corps of Engineers."  Please click here to read the rest of the article.  More information on the Nine Mile Watershed Association, which is highlighted in the report, can be found through the group's website here.

 

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University-Community Collaborative Partners With City; Unveils Web Site To Aid Community-Development Organizations

 

Four Pittsburgh organizations are joining forces with the City of Pittsburgh in an effort to apply community information system technology to improve the city and its neighborhoods. The Pittsburgh Neighborhood and Community Information System (PNCIS) includes a mapping tool that provides visual snapshots illustrating demographic, social, property, planning and economic information. PNCIS was developed through a partnership between the Pittsburgh Partnership for Neighborhood Development (PPND), Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh and 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania. For the press release, click here. To go directly to the PNCIS website, click here: http://www.pghnis.pitt.edu/

The Economist magazine has published an article on how the Pittsburgh region is focusing on cleaning up the environment and keeping its grads in the area.  Please click here for the article.

 

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New Publication: This Is Smart Growth Showcases Development at its Best, September 12, 2006

 

Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood is featured as a national model of smart growth in a new publication, This Is Smart Growth.  East Liberty was selected because of the efforts of local participants to work together to revitalize their neighborhood and attract major national retailers, which in turn brought new jobs and new homes.  The residents of East Liberty worked hard to ensure that they had new opportunities to achieve their American Dreams.

 

Released by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) and the Smart Growth Network, This Is Smart Growth illustrates how communities can turn their visions, values, and aspirations into reality, using smart growth techniques to improve the quality of development.  Thirty-two national organizations -- representing housing, environmental, community design and development, public health, transportation, local government, and other interests -- have approved This Is Smart Growth.

 

Development and publication of This Is Smart Growth was funded through a cooperative agreement between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and ICMA.  Please click here for more information.

 

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Advocacy for smart growth continues to grow in southwestern Pennsylvania.  Please click here for the article. 

 

In this article by Tracy Certo, Model D (a website and e-newsletter about growth and development in Detroit's neighborhoods) compares Detroit's new layoffs to Pittsburgh's difficult past.  "So, Detroit, as news of layoffs hit your beleaguered city, know there’s hope. For we have known crippling unemployment, skies darkened by pollution and an ever-dwindling downtown.  Hundreds of thousands of jobs lost? We hear you. Who could ever have envisioned a Pittsburgh without steel?"  Please click here for the article.