An inclusive design is the best design Posted on December 8, 2015 by Grounded Strategies It's Sunday afternoon, and the sun is pleasantly streaming through the autumn leaves on a vacant lot in Brighton Heights. Kids amble around the lot, playing with sticks and pine cones. Neighbors are chatting over cups of hot cider, looking on towards the woods around them. They talk about what this place was, and what it could be. The lot they stand on was once home to the St. John's Hospital, but the hospital was abandoned and demolished two decades ago. Now it's…Read More
Two New Green Playces Posted on December 4, 2015 by wpengine Last month we celebrated the opening of Green Playces:Homewood – the second of five Green Playces to be created by the end of next year. Every community is different. Every Green Playce ought to reflect that difference. We just hope to tie some common threads between these different Playces, the first of which is in the name. So let’s explore the differences (and the similarities!) between our first two Green Playces. It’s time to Venn Diagram: In the Northside, we took…Read More
Getting a Handle On Your Housing Stock Posted on December 2, 2015 by wpengine We've been talking a lot this year about the Pittsburgh LocalData Collaborative (PLDC), the need for accessible data in our region and GTECH's role in making sure accurate information is used in community development decisions. Many organizations, from PCRG to Lawrenceville United, have partnered with us through the PLDC to launch innovative data collection projects over the past year and the results have been astounding. Since 2014, partnering organizations in the PLDC have collected 35,252 data points across 44 communities on everything…Read More
Little Bets on #GivingTuesday Posted on November 30, 2015 by wpengine The power of Giving Tuesday really hit me during a conversation with Peter Sims during the CEO’s for Cities Cluster Workshop in Pittsburgh about the Innovative and Inclusive City. Peter Sims – keynote speaker at CEO for Cities and author of Little Bets – reminded me that breakthrough innovation that catalyzes positive change isn’t derived from singular, top-down, game-changing institutions; they come about through small, tangible, incremental iterations of ideas. Even more so, Sims pointed out that true cultural shifts…Read More
Online Shopping this Season? Make us smile with AmazonSmile Posted on November 27, 2015 by wpengine AmazonSmile is an easy & free way to to have your online gift giving give back. Will you be online shopping this Black Friday and Cyber Monday? If you happen to be on the Amazon.com taking advantage of the holiday deals, take one extra step and sign up for AmazonSmile -- GTECH gets 0.5% back on your items purchased. It isn't a whole lot, but here at GTECH we believe all big breakthroughs start with little bets and little contributions. Every little…Read More
Join the #GivingTuesday Movement Posted on November 25, 2015 by wpengine As the holidays approach, the “season of giving” is easy to mistake for the season of materialism. It’s easy to get ‘wrapped up’ in all of the incredible deals, just yesterday I caught myself thinking “That self-watering planter is 86% off? Until now I didn’t realize how much my plants needed to water themselves!” It then occurred to me that I’m spending more on myself than on gifts for others. I started to wonder if I’d lost sight of what…Read More
Pittsburgh’s First Blight Bootcamp Posted on November 24, 2015 by wpengine November 7th was the first ever Pittsburgh Blight Bootcamp where residents, nonprofit professionals and government representatives were able to meet, mingle, and educate each other on topics surrounding the issues of vacancy and blight in the Pittsburgh region. GTECH had the honor of being a central organizer of the Pittsburgh Blight Bootcamp as a member of the Pittsburgh Blight Working Group, a partnership between the City of Pittsburgh Office of the Mayor and Permits, Neighborhood Allies, PCRG, the Design Center of…Read More
Resilience in Pittsburgh Posted on November 19, 2015 by Grounded Strategies Our second resilience blog focused on resilience strategies in cities across the nation. This segment will explore some of the not so obvious (and some of the blatantly obvious) resilience linkages in the 412. A lot of organizations are working to build resilience right here in our own backyard - you might be involved in one of their efforts and not even know it! Some GTECH examples of local resilience building efforts. Our Methodology Investigate, Act, Connect and Sustain are…Read More
15 Reasons to Donate to GTECH’s $15k for $15k in 2015 Posted on November 18, 2015 by wpengine GTECH just launched our 2015 year-end donation campaign, which is particularly special this year because we have the opportunity for $15,000 of donations to be matched. That’s right: $15k matched for $15k in 2015! To put it in perspective, $15k could help support 15 more Ambassadors lead the way towards healthier, more vibrant communities. Fifteen more energetic leaders means 15 more hubs of creativity, passion and innovation that will connect to and inspire hundreds more. If you’re still searching for…Read More
ReClaim South 2.0: Sustaining Momentum Posted on November 16, 2015 by wpengine ReClaim South 2.0: Sustaining Momentum has officially kicked off the 2015 follow-up program to the original ReClaim South initiative. We are happy to welcome back many familiar faces and excited to introduce some new ones for this year's Ambassador cohort. Similar to the 2014 program, we began with an educational session; however, site maintenance and programming are the focus areas this year. We hope to work with the Ambassadors and their communities to build physical and programmatic enhancements to their existing…Read More
The Challenges of Reclaiming Vacant Land Posted on November 10, 2015 by Grounded Strategies Creating something new out of a vacant lot isn't always easy. There are a number of challenges a person can run into, but getting access from the property owner can be one of the toughest ones. This was the case for Bridget Little, an Ambassador for GTECH's ReClaim Northside program. This is her story. Bridget, along with many of her neighbors, had been eyeing a large vacant lot in Allegheny West for quite some time. In fact, some had already put…Read More
Resilience Across the Country Posted on November 6, 2015 by Grounded Strategies All across the country, municipalities and cities are realizing the importance of resilience planning. As we discussed in our first resilience blog, resilience doesn't just mean preparing for climate change. It means having systems in place to be able to deal with the unexpected. From heatwaves to economic crises, resilience means having the ability not just to bounce back from a disaster, but to bounce forward. There is no template to follow. Each situation, each community, each region is impacted…Read More