Press

The project, Northside Neighborhoods Connections, is a collaboration between One Northside and GTECH. Each neighborhood has an individual map and trail that connects to the surrounding neighborhoods, and the trail map guides feature a number of cultural, historic, and environmental destinations that were curated by members of each community. The designated trails run along already existing streets and pathways that can be traveled by bicycle or foot, and range from 1.5 to 3.5 miles in length.

When three North Siders began counting vacant lots in the area’s 19 neighborhoods last spring, they used the city’s designations to define them and, with help from a nonprofit that focuses on green redevelopment, came up with 5,399. But numbers can mislead: 38 percent of the total is woods; 11 percent comprises side yards people use, legally or not. That takes care of about 50 percent of the North Side’s vacancy. What is left are gardens, little parks and parking…

Long after the bands, cheerleaders and crowds disperse from neighborhood celebrations during the Dick's Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon, Homewood will have made a more lasting tribute. A work of public art, made in part from trash that will be collected before the marathon, will be created during the May 4 race -- between mile 17 and 18 -- in a city-owned lot at North Lang and Frankstown avenues. It will be a mural collage depicting three runners symbolically. Officials from…

Majora Carter, known internationally as the woman who "greened the ghetto" in New York City, was in Pittsburgh for the Inspire Speakers Series, a program presented by the Green Building Alliance and Phipps Conservancy and Botanical Gardens. Carter's rapid rise to fame grew out of her stalwart determination to turn around her Hunts Point neighborhood in the South Bronx, a community wallowing in urban blight, pollution and crime.

Six months ago, the vacant lot next door to Linda Piso’s house in Knoxville was overgrown with weeds and was a haven for drug activity. But Piso has since transformed the lot into a community garden. “Right now I’m picking cucumbers,” Piso said on Saturday. “My garden is completely planted. I have lettuce, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, peppers, and soon I’ll have a watermelon.” With the help of nonprofit GTECH Strategies, Piso planted the garden, created a group gathering area, and…

With a Habitat for Humanity construction project on hold, ambassadors in the ReClaim McKeesport initiative are making the most of a Lemon Street lot. GTECH Strategies advisers, who are in McKeesport to take on their first beautification project outside of Pittsburgh this year, guided a handful of McKeesport's newly selected ambassadors through their first project Saturday. “This was a demonstration project to show our new community leaders some of the projects they can do next spring,” GTECH Strategies project manager…

On her daily walk, Cara Jette takes public steps that connect Welsh Way, near her home in Allentown, to Brosville Street in the South Side Slopes. At the end of the ascent, she crosses a footbridge to get through what used to be a lumpy, weedy, trash-strewn lot that ended with graffiti-covered jersey barriers at the sidewalk.

McKeesport's religious and volunteer communities reached out to the city's less fortunate over the weekend, serving holiday lunches and dinners in advance of Thanksgiving. People gathered at ACTION-Housing's McKeesport Downtown Housing facility, Bethlehem Baptist Church, the Salvation Army and Creative Ministries on Saturday and Sunday to share fellowship and home-cooked meals. They came together in thanks as they enjoyed turkey dinners with stuffing, mashed potatoes, candied yams and sautéed green beans.

The third annual Hilltop Summit brought together nearly 100 representatives of Pittsburgh's Hilltop communities along with guests and elected officials to hear what has been happening in the neighborhoods over the past year.

Pittsburgh joined the foundation’s “100 Resilient Cities” initiative, a $100 million program to help cities thrive amid rising uncertainty.

McKeesport area families and officials worked toward improving opportunities for youth by networking with community and human service organizations Tuesday evening. McKeesport Area School District, the city and ReClaim McKeesport — a project of GTECH Strategies — were partners in the gathering at Twin Rivers Intermediate School.