Park Place Blog

The Greater Park Place Neighborhood Association (GPPNA) will be planting street trees throughout the neighborhood on Saturday, October 25th and we need your help.  The GPPNA is participating in the Western Pennsylvania Conservatory’s TreeVitalize program to plant 15 free street trees in the Park Place neighborhood.

We will need help planting, staking, and watering trees, getting photographs of the event, and with coordination on the day of the event.
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The Zoning Board of Adjustments will hold a public hearing on the first floor of 200 Ross Street in downtown Pittsburgh at 9:20am on Thursday September 11, 2008.

This hearing is to review an application for a variance from the zoneing code regarding signage. The  Department of City Planning was unable to actually locate the application in the file, so that could not entirely explain what the request was. However, they took my contact information and promissed to call when the application was complete. It was thought that it was specifically regarding the number of signs permitted per facade (normally only one is permitted) as well as the size of the signs, and a sign wall on the corner of Penn and South Braddock.

Nothing looked particularly out of the ordinary on the signage on the building itself. The sign wall might potentially be a concern with it’s height being about 5′9″ on the plan, though it may be far enough back into the lot to not pose an issue. It is hard to tell for sure, as the plans on file were very small and hard to read.

Pittsburgh City Council In Our Neighborhoods

Pittsburgh City Council invites you to join them for a local town hall meeting.

District 9
Please join City Councilman Rev. Ricky V. Burgess and other members of council to discuss our district and share your ideas about how to improve our communities.

Thursday, August 14, 2008 6 PM - 8 PM
Helen S. Faison Arts Academy  7430 Tioga Street

Contemporary art center opening  in Park Place presents collaborative installations by youths.

207 Franklin Avenue, Wilkinsburg, Thursday, Opening August 7, 7-9pm 2008: Does Not Your House Dream?
The Park Place Arts Center: East Edge Arts Revival opens with exhibition of works by youths preparing for their futures.

The Park Place Arts Center –
The Park Place Arts Center is a neighborhood-based art center established in a three-story house in the Park Place neighborhood in June of 2008.  Our goal is to bring new cultural energy to Wilkinsburg, the greater Pittsburgh region, and the world by providing contemporary art events that push the boundaries of art on a monthly basis. We hold art classes for children and adults by appointment and grow a community garden. We are run in conjunction with the community coffeehouse, the Drawn In Café, located four houses away, which serves as a meeting area for community members.
Youthful involvement is essential to brightening the future of Wilkinsburg. As a center founded and run by artists age 25 and younger, our first opening presents installations by high-school artists dedicated to pursuing higher education and careers in the arts.
For further information visit www.parkplaceartcenter.org or contact Laura Linda Miller, Director. Phone 615.319. 9776. Email: lauralindamiller@gmail.com  or Chris Mucci, Assistant Director,  Phone: 203. 648. 7819. Email: chrismucci@gmail.com

Opening August 7, 7-9pm: Does Not Your House Dream? –
Come experience a house of dreams and nightmares created by twenty talented young artists participating in Carnegie Mellon University’s Pre-College Program. Installations include: Over 100 dreams written on paper radiating from a file drawer, a sideways room where furniture sits on the walls, beams of light refracted through glass crystals, a vertigo inducing video walkthrough, a darkened maze, and a portal filled with light.
This exhibition, organized by Jonathan Minard, pre-college instructor and member of the Park Place Arts Center, is one day only and free and open to the public.

UPMC/Western Psyhc is planning on building a Crisis center at 333 N. Braddock Ave.

The development group in Point Breeze is not in favor of this location. As I understand it, they feel it conflicts with the work and plans they have been doing in the immediate area of the site. They have hired a lawyer, and are protesting the approval that had already been granted by the city.

For more information, please contact Cheryl Hall (cluhall@aol.com)

The hearing is scheduled for:
August 7th, 2008 at 9:50 am at 200 Ross St., 1st floor. (Downtown)
UPMC met once in Park Place at the invitation of our city council member, Reverend Ricky V. Burgess, to present some general information about the planned facility.   We had some questions for the presenters, and I just followed up with Denise Macerelli’s offce at UPMC, but she was out on vacation. I’ll update with any information received.

Of note, is the following article, passed on by the Point Breeze development group:

Referrals to Western Psych halted
State intervenes after rash of incidents involving outpatients
Thursday, July 24, 2008
By Joe Fahy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08206/899182-455.stm

Visit www.environmentalcharterschool.org to see the many events planned for August.  Play dates for specific grade levels are scheduled throughout the month; a potluck picnic for 8/8 and the grand opening for 8/25.

The Frick Park Lawn Bowling Club was formed in 1939. In 1989, the city of Pittsburgh proposed plowing up the greens and closing the club in order to save costs.  A twenty-year agreement was reached whereby the Frick Park Lawn Bowling Club privatized and maintaining the greens.  A factor in reaching this agreement was the number of neighborhood residents who were members of the Club.  The agreement is up for renewal or termination.  The Club is seeking additional members to support their desire to maintain these historic greens and a sport that can be played and enjoyed by all ages!  Please call Hank Luba at 412-782-0848 or email him at hjluba@verizon.net for more information on how you can support the greens.