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 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

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.

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

From Vanessa McCarthy-Johnson Council Member, Second Ward: I just wanted to give you a head’s up about this weekend.  On Saturday, 7/26/08:The Rosa Parks Block Club will be hosting a clean-up at the Rosa Parks Playground starting at 9.  They will also be out on 7/27 at 9.  They will be out again next week on August 2 at 9:00 and on August 3rd, they will celebrate all their hard work with a Block Party BBQ. The Serenity Garden will host a clean-up along Franklin Avenue starting at 9:00 on Saturday (7/26).  The organizers are just asking those interested to fill one bag with trash from along Franklin Avenue.  They will also be cutting back brush that is growing onto the sidewalks. Please come out, bring your tools, garden gloves and love for Wilkinsburg to help us Beautify our community!

July 21-25, 9am-4pm
Grades 3-8
No Cost

Waverly Church on the corner of Forbes and Braddock Aves. is offering a unique camp experience for school-age children in the East End. The full-day, week-long program has a special focus on music, art and drama, and includes  creative arts, recreation and games, bible study, music, snacks and lunch. The week concludes with a Friday evening program by the participants for families and friends. The camp is run by Pittsburgh Presbytery’s Camp Crestfield professional staff and Waverly volunteers. There is no cost for the program. There will be opportunities to donate to a free will offering each day.

Pick up registration forms next to the church mailbox at the Braddock Ave. entrance to the church building or for more information, contact Jean Bird at Waverly Church, 412-242-0643.

Visit our web site at www.waverlychurch.org

Jean Bird
Children and Youth Ministry
Waverly Church

Pittsburgh PA–June 16, 2008—Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest (FPUF) have announced its offerings of Tree Tender courses throughout the city.  Tree Tenders learn to plant and care for young street trees, increasing a tree’s chance of survival and prolonging their life in the urban environment.  FPUF is an environmental non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the City’s vitality by restoring and protecting the urban forest through community tree maintenance, planting, education and advocacy.

According to the 2005 City of Pittsburgh Street Tree Inventory, the city has approximately 30,000 street trees, and over 3,000 of those trees have been removed due to disease, vandalism or neglect.  Thousands more trees are at risk of being removed if they do not receive much needed care.  FPUF and the City Forestry Division are working to improve the urban forest, but residents can play an important role in increasing its health and reversing its decline. 

Registration for Tree Tender courses is open online at www.PittsburghForest.org/TreeTenders.    Local tree experts provide instruction, and the course covers everything from tree biology to planting and pruning.  A $40 donation is requested to participate in the course, and scholarships are available.  The course includes three evening sessions.  Dinner will be provided at each session, and participants will receive a Tree Tender safety vest and certificate upon successful completion of the program.  Participants may sign-up for continuing education workshops that cover pruning and tree identification in greater detail.  Upon completion of an additional ten hours of volunteer participation at FPUF tree care and planting events, Tree Tenders will receive a pair of hand pruners.   

Additionally, through TreeVitalize, a joint project of Allegheny County, the City of Pittsburgh, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, neighborhoods with certified Tree Tenders who are able to organize neighborhood tree plantings will be eligible to receive ten or more street trees for their communities.  TreeVitalize will work with community groups, non-profits, and municipal agencies to plant 20,000 trees throughout the region by 2012.

Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest Tree Tender Course Schedule

• Tuesdays July 1^st, 8^th, & 15^th targeting Highland Park, Morningside, and Lawrenceville

• Tuesdays July 29^th, August 5^th, & 12^th targeting Carrick and the South Side

• Thursdays September 4^th, 11^th, & 18^th targeting North Point Breeze, Park Place, Homewood and Squirrel Hill

• Tuesdays September 23^rd, 30^th, & October 7^th, targeting Marshall-Shadeland, Mexican War Streets, Brighton Road, & Federal Street

• Wednesdays October 15^th, 22^nd, & 29^th, targeting the Hill District, Downtown, and Oakland

Visit www.pittsburghforest.org/TreeTenders or email caitlin@pittsburghforest.org to learn more about the program.

Park Place’s scheduled fall clean-up event is Saturday October 10th, 2008. From 9:00am-12:00 noon we will have a registration tent, providing bags, gloves, safety vests, etc.

We have had chilling rain for nearly all our past events, and though the rains were braved by many, it still kept many others from participating.  We will be trying something slightly differently this fall.We will be asking participant to “pledge” a street, block, etc. And over the week-end, committ to picking up any trash in that area over the week-end when they can, and not just the hours durring which we hold the registration. Thay way, participants can still come get the free supplies, but they have the option of waiting for the better weather or time to complete their pledged area.