Park Place Blog

Allegheny County is offering a Furnace & Hot Water Heater Program to aid recent victims of the flood resulting from the heavy rains on Wednesday.  If you are in contact with any customer requesting assistance, please share the following information:

Residents may apply by:

• Calling 412-350-3723 between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday
• Email name and phone number to furnace@alleghenycounty.us

Annual Income Eligibility Guidelines for Residential Furnace & Hot Water Heater Program

Family Size	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Income Limit	$35,000	$40,000	$45,000	$50,000	$54,000	$58,000	$62,000	$66,000

Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato reinstated a free County program to help residents replace furnaces and hot water heaters that were damaged as a result of flooding due to the severe weather on Wed., June 17.

“We’re still assessing the damage from last night’s storms, but we know there are residents who need our help,” said Onorato. “Today, I have reinstated the residential furnace and hot water heater program so we can help people get back on their feet during these tough economic times.”

Allegheny County will repair or replace furnaces and hot water heaters in residences where the existing units were damaged or destroyed by flood waters. Residents who earn up to 80 percent of the area median income are eligible for the program (see guidelines).

Allegheny County residents may apply for the free program by calling 412-350-3723 between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, or by e-mailing their name and phone number to furnace@alleghenycounty.us. Applicants for the program must provide proof of income.

Hey neighbors,

I was wondering if I could ask a favor of all of you. My friend Sarah called me this morning very upset. She lives in South Oakland and her dog ran out while her landlord was showing her apartment.Someone contacted her saying she thinks she spotted her at Edgewood Town Center and thought the dog may be in our neighborhood/in Frick Park. She asked if I could keep an eye out for her and if anyone I know in the neighborhood could as well. Please see below for pictures and Sarah’s contact information. And please send to anyone else in the neighborhood. You can call me (518-281-8431) or Sarah (just say you know me) if you think you see her. (724-992-1505)

Thanks so much!

-Miranda

On a warm and sunny Sunday afternoon, June 7, 2009, local residents participated in the 22nd annual Park Place Picnic. Great music, food and activities were enjoyed by all.  Also joining the picnic this year were representatives Brenda Smith and Justin Hynicka from the Nine Mile Run Watershed Association, who answered questions about the watershed, and signed up people for the rain barrel program.

The picnic sponsors this year were:

• Pittsburgh Citiparks
• Greater Park Place Neighborhood Association
• Howard’s Park Place Pub
• Liz Swartz - Howard Hanna
• Flyer Printing by Office Depot 

And of course, Mike The Balloon Guy, who arranged the many activities.

Neighbors on Edgerton heard the shots and called the police. To the best knowledge of residents on the street, there is no known connection between the parties involved and the location.

Police: Man Shot, Thrown In Car In Point Breeze 
http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/19676230/detail.html

Thursday, May 7th, at 7:30 PM

Church of the Nazarene
300 Peebles Street,
Corner of Waverly and Peebles.

Project representatives from the Peebles Square affordable housing development project have requested a chance to speak to community members at the GPPNA monthly meeting. In case you haven’t yet seen it, the ground breaking has already occurred and construction has started. This is a chance for community members to see final plans and ask questions.

Joni Rabinowitz, long time resident of Park Place and Executive Director of Just Harvest was interviewed for Pop City.

See the article here: Pop Star: Joni Rabinowitz of Just Harvest

Downtown Pittsburgh, 200 Ross Street, 15219

The hearing is to address a request regarding the former Cooke funeral home, located at 210 East End Avenue. Currently the funeral home has a ‘non-conforming use’ to operate as a funeral home in the residential neighborhood. The Cookes have closed the funeral home and are requesting a change to another non-conforming use: making the house into 4 units, 2 on the first floor and 2 on the second floor with 7 parking stalls in rear and 2 car garage.

The non-conformity in question is that the zoning for the block is R-2, meaning a maximum of 2 units are permitted for any new uses. Years ago, the community had fought to change the zoning to prevent any more homes from being subdivided beyond 2 units. As a result, any property owners that wish to change the number of units in their property to more than 2 units must obtain permission from the zoning board. This hearing is the request seeking such permission.

The hearing is public and those wishing to express their opinions on the request for the non-conforming use are encouraged to attend the hearing. Attendees are generally permitted to speak for 3 minutes each. Please keep in mind that regardless of where you stand on this request, remember that the Cookes are long time neighbors and residents of Park Place, and all should be respectful and polite.

On October 25th, Park Place received 14 new street trees as part of the TreeVitalize program that will plant 20,000 street trees in Pittsburgh by 2012.  More than 26 Park Place neighbors and friends came out on a rainy autumn Saturday afternoon to plant the trees and help green Park Place. In about four hours, these volunteers learned how to properly plant trees, take care of recently planted street trees, and successfully planted all the trees.

The GPPNA Street Tree Committee (Hyla Willis, Joni Rabinowitz, and Henry Schumacher) worked with Marijke Hecht, TreeVitalize Director at the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and the Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest to apply for the program and organize the all-volunteer tree plantings.  Park Place is one of 20 neighborhoods participating in the TreeVitalize program to plant 900 trees throughout Pittsburgh this fall.

Street trees not only make the neighborhood look nice, but they provide a variety of tangible benefits for the neighborhood including: reducing home energy costs, providing habitat for birds and wildlife, increasing home prices, reducing storm run-off and river pollution, and providing cleaner air to breathe.  You can help restore Pittsburgh’s urban forest and improve the quality of life in Park Place by planting a tree on your property.

The GPPNA Street Tree Committee would like to thank the participating property owners for helping to green the neighborhood, all the volunteers who came out to help, Marijke Hecht at the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, the Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest, the Pittsburgh department of public works for sidewalk cuts, State Representative Joseph Preston, TruValue for donating watering buckets, and the East End Co-op for providing snacks.

If you would like to learn more about the benefits of street trees, how to take care of street trees on your property, or want to help grow Pittsburgh’s urban forest, contact the Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest (http://www.pittsburghforest.org/).  For more information about the TreeVitalize program, check out the website (http://www.treevitalize.net/index.aspx).  If you would like a street tree for your property during the Fall 2009 TreeVitalize planting, contact Henry Schumacher (hschumacher78@gmail.com, 412.657.8148) this winter.

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.
Continue reading Volunteers needed to plant street trees in Park Place on Saturday, October 25th. »

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.