Image from Wikipedia

You’ve probably heard this story on the evening news, or read about it in the Post-Gazette. Paul McCarthy, 62, of Greenfield, grew tired of his neighborhood, an area known as The Run, being cluttered with litter and trash along Saline Street and Second Avenue, so he contacted the city’s 311 help line.

McCarthy then waited for something to be done about the problem, continued treatments for his cancer, and waited some more. And when nothing had been done by June, he took it upon himself to go out in the cooler hours of morning and spend a little time each day gathering litter and even cutting weeds and vines that were intruding onto the sidewalks.

He would collect everything, the litter and clippings, into piles and then call the city to just come and remove them. But that’s where things became a little crazy, and ultimately seem to have spun out of control on all sides.

Because the city’s Public Works Department, like all public departments, needs to operate on a tightly set schedule for maximum efficiency under a restrained budget. To dispatch crews every time a resident calls and says there’s a pile of garbage on the sidewalk just isn’t feasible. And so began a war of wills between a civic minded resident who was sick of inaction with the litter, and city workers who likely grew increasingly frustrated with McCarthy, who despite his good intentions, his actions were far from optimal for the PWD’s operations.

The PWD did send a crew out at one point to collect the piles McCarthy had gathered, but it seems as though there was a sadly missed opportunity at this point. The boss of that crew reportedly informed McCarthy that he needed to bag up any future piles of litter he gathered.

Of course, McCarthy, 62, retired and fighting cancer, felt he was providing enough in free labor for the city with the hours he spent gathering the garbage, and he was understandably upset at being told he had to do more, or do nothing. So, adding defiance to his civic involvement, he continued to do just as he had been. No more or less.

And that ultimately got him a visit from a Public Works Inspector, who wrote him 2 citations. Apparently, if you move trash from one spot to another, you’re littering. These citations also came after news of McCarthy’s efforts and battle with the PWD had reached high levels of the city government, at which point Public Works Director Guy Costa, and his boss, Operations Director Art Victor were alerted to the brewing situation, and somewhere the decision was made to cite McCarthy.

Unfortunately, once the story had grown to the point where Costa and Victor were brought into it, whomever made the decision to cite McCarthy was possibly giving as much thought to the political PR of the story as they were to resolving it in a practical or constructive manner.

This is why I say there was probably a sadly missed opportunity much earlier in the tale; when that first crew arrived to clear away the piles that McCarthy had gathered. Upon seeing that they were dealing with an older man in failing health, if someone had just said “let’s try to get one or two more members of the community to help McCarthy in his efforts”, rather than telling him he would have to do more on his own or quit trying to improve his neighborhood completely, this whole story might have had a very different, and even inspirational outcome.

I understand that PWD employees aren’t exactly community organizers, but when your department resources and manpower are limited and you see that members of the community are willing to pitch in, is it really so hard to reach out while you are on the scene, or at least return to the office and tell your boss, “hey, we’ve got an opportunity here if we could just get one or two more people in that community to step up and help McCarthy out by bagging the piles he gathers.”

Again, I know that PWD employees aren’t community organizers, but I bet it would have taken less time to make a few calls and reach out to the community to find McCarthy some help than has been wasted on this whole mess already to get it to this point. It’s heartbreaking to think that a “that’s not my job” attitude could be helping us down a path towards rivaling Filthadelphia for dirtiest city in Pennsylvania. It’s more run down than I can remember in my lifetime right now, so I would hope that any help the city can get from residents would be embraced and encouraged.

If McCarthy, or anyone in any neighborhood, is willing to gather the litter up, reach out and help find them one or two others to bag it. Then everything is neat and packaged properly for the city to collect on the regular weekly trash pick-up days.

Nobody needs to be embarrassed in the press. Nobody needs to be hauled before a judge and fined for civic participation–and a community looks a lot better from it all without adding to the burden of already limited city departments.

It just seems that would be a far more productive approach, and who knows, if residents began feeling like the city wanted to work with them in this way then the idea might just catch on in other neighborhoods as well.

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Technorati Tags: citation, paul mccarthy, pittsburgh public works department

Right now–aboard a plane destined for Orlando, FL–Mr. Smith is attempting to dodge the angry and frustrated glares of fellow passengers as his fidgety children have become bored, and then loud; annoying everyone in the cabin around them. Mrs. Smith is listening to her iPod and pretending to be asleep.

The Smiths have saved up all year for this family vacation. Between airfares, hotel accommodations, five 2-day passes for SeaWorld and 8 days of kennel fees for boarding the family dog, this family get-away has become a major investment.

Certain that SeaWorld can keep his children entertained for two full days, Mr. Smith is hopeful that the beach and swimming in the ocean will amuse them for the remaining five days of their stay; but his practical brain tells him that the beach and ocean will only be good for two or three days at best, and that he’ll be spending a lot more money on as yet unknown activities for them at some point before they return home.

At the same time the Jones family are traveling east on Interstate 80 in the family minivan, and thanks to Mrs. Jones finding that Drop Down DVD Player on ebay for $50 the kids are sitting calmly in the back seat with the family dog lying across their laps as Shrek and Donkey scheme to rescue Princess Fiona from the tower.

Soon they’ll exit on to Route 66 for the final leg of their trip north into the Allegheny National Forest, and along the road then they’ll see lots of cows, pigs, chickens and even horses roaming around fenced-in fields which will leave Shrek and Donkey playing to an inattentive crowd.

The Jones family began planning their summer vacation just last month when Mr. Jones learned that his vacation request had been approved at work.

Photo by Nicholas_T

He and Mrs. Jones discussed several options for how and where to spend their free week, and ultimately decided on a camping trip that would hold plenty of activities and adventures to keep their children from growing bored, and lots of opportunities for creating quality bonding time as a family. The added promise to take the children horseback riding on their last day if they were behaved all week would also help to make this an enjoyable trip for all.

Mr. Jones spent a couple of hours, and about $200 at Wal-Mart and Big Lots purchasing the essential supplies they would need: a two room tent that could sleep 8 comfortably, two Queen sized air mattresses, a blow-up row boat for 6, a hand powered air pump (for the mattresses and boat), oil lanterns and some additional small items, including a long “Runner” cable so that they can take the family dog camping with them and be able to secure him at their campsite.

Mrs. Jones prepared a pack with food, cooking and eating utensils; and made sure the children packed enough clothes, extra shoes and jackets for the week. Mr. and Mrs. Jones also spent a little time on the Allegheny National Forest website to spot and plan interesting activities for their stay; most of which would be completely free or at the most, very affordable.

Living in Pennsylvania, we are lucky in a lot of ways, and just one of them is having some of the most beautiful forests in the country where any family on a budget can spend a weekend, a week or longer vacationing without spending much money at all, and without having to sacrifice fun and adventure.

Photo by brandi666

And a camping vacation isn’t just a way to save money. It’s a way to create quality time with your spouse and children, explore historic attractions, learn about and experience nature, and avoid the crowds and chaos usually found in more typical tourist destinations.

The supplies and equipment necessary for a fun and safe camping trip aren’t much and will cost less than a single plane ticket to most places. You’ll obviously need a tent if you don’t plan to rent a cabin for your stay, and that will be your biggest expense. Fortunately, you can find family size tents at discount retail stores for well under $100, and if you shop for one in the fall or winter you can usually find deals of up to 50% off regular pricing too.

Your next major purchase will be either sleeping bags or air mattresses, both of which can be found for just a few dollars. After that you’ll need some light sources, either flashlights or lanterns, water canteens, and a fully stocked medical kit.

Some additional items you will probably want to take with you–most of which you will likely already have around your home–are:

• A plastic ground tarp for placing under your tent
• Fishing Rod and Tackle (if you’re interested in fishing)
• Trash bags (always clean up after yourself and preserve the beauty of our forests)
• Some rope (for clothes line and a million other uses)
• A small shovel (for digging a fire pit and toilet)
• A good knife
• A hammer
• A saw or hand-ax for sizing firewood
• Waterproof matches (bring plenty)
• Toiletries (TP, toothpaste, soap and etc.)
• Cooking and eating utensils
• Powdered and canned foods and drinks (Pancake batter, coffee, tea and so on)
• Plenty of clothes and jackets (it can get cool in the evenings)
• Extra shoes
• A small battery powered radio in the event of bad weather
• Binoculars
• Camera
• Cards and games/toys (frisbees, volleyball and etc.)

Photo by jasonb42882

You’ll also want to spend a little time before leaving on your trip to plan some activities for your time. If you’re planning to stay in the Allegheny National Forest then you could visit the ANF website for tons of ideas, as well as printable maps and information about having fun and staying safe in the wild.

There are also Ranger Stations in the forest where you can stop and ask about everything from suggestions on where to camp, where to hike and explore, and where (or what) to avoid at the current time. Remember, there are wild animals in the forest and at times it may be best to avoid certain areas, the Rangers are happy and eager to let you know about such things.

Here are just a few exciting adventures available to you for little or no money around the Allegheny National Forest:

• Fishing
• Hiking
• Bird watching (you may see some Bald Eagles in the sky)
• Boating and canoeing
• Swimming
• Horseback riding
• Elk viewing (herds of beautiful and majestic elk)
• Wine tasting at multiple vineyards
• Visit the Eldred WWII Museum
• and lots more…

The bottom line is you don’t have to spend a lot of money, or even leave Pennsylvania to have a fantastic family vacation that will generate memories and bonds for years to come.

So, what of the Smith and Jones families we met earlier? The Smith family is sardined in a small jet about to make its final decent into Pittsburgh. The children are sunburned from the beach, so have been less fidgety than they were on the flight out a week ago, though more grumpy and lippy as a result. Mrs. Smith lost her iPod at some point, so has spent the entire flight bantering bitterly with the children, and Mr. Smith is just happy this family vacation is almost over and hopeful that his wife won’t object too loudly to his plans to wait until tomorrow to pick up the family dog from the kennel.

And the Jones? After a week of fun and excitement the Jones family has just finished an afternoon of horseback riding and are getting ready to drive home, sad to see their vacation come to an end, but looking forward to a long game of “I Spy” on the highway.

NOTE: The Smith and Jones families in this article are “collective interpretations” of my own family from my childhood. We took many family vacations in those days, most were happy camping trips but a few were more stressful visits to tourist traps. They all gave me wonderful life-long memories, but some of those memories are sweeter than others.

Technorati Tags: adventure vacation, allegheny national forest, camping trips, camping vacations

Can this family survive against the Big Bad Bear?

Shame on Bank of America, this is not the sort of behavior I want to continue supporting with my tax-dollars through bailouts.

The facts: (Press Release available here as Adobe PDF or Text Document)

Heather Yanosko is a mother of seven children who has done nothing wrong. Her husband, the father of their seven children, walked away from his family but promised as part of their separation agreement to continue paying for the family home.

He did not keep that promise.

Heather learned that the payments on the home weren’t being made when she was blindsided by a foreclosure notice. The loan was already severely behind. Unfortunately, despite it being the family home of the Yanoskos, the bank would only discuss the matter with Mr. Yanosko and not Heather who wanted to try and make good on the loan and keep her family home.

Heather sought legal assistance from Neighborhood Legal Services and the Woman’s Shelter of Pittsburgh, and was awarded power of attorney over all things related to the house by the courts.

At this point the bank agreed to work with Heather and sent her a package of information in which they offered to change the terms of the original loan if she could get her name added to the property deed.

In March of 2009, Mrs. Yanosko’s name was legally added to the deed, as the bank required.

Heather then borrowed several thousand dollars from family and friends so that she could bring the loan up to date under the new agreement, only to be refused co-operation by the bank when she attempted to pay them.

The bank did not keep their promise.

The bank has now decided not to honor the new agreement they offered to Heather, claiming the reason to be because the home is not the primary residence of Mr. Yanosko. A fact that they have known from the start as the cause for this whole situation, and regardless of the fact that the home is the primary (and only) residence of Mrs. Yansoko and her seven children.

Heather and her children are our community...

Mrs. Yanosko isn’t asking for anything more than the bank to honor what they agreed to now that she has done everything they requested of her through the courts.

In her own words, “I don’t expect Bank of America to let us live here for free, but I have asked them for some understanding and compassion, and their answer is a notice that our home will be sold at auction on June 1. How can it be that this huge, great American company had no problem taking billions of dollars in a taxpayer-funded bailout when it was in need and now has no shame as it prepares to put my children and I out on the street when we’re just asking for help to make this right?”

“I’m not looking for a bailout or a handout, just some help making this right,” said Mrs. Yanosko. “Politicians stepped in to spend billions of dollars saving companies like Bank of America because they deemed them too big to fail. I’ve got seven children, and we’re about to lose our home; I’d hope our elected leaders would look at my family and decide it’s too big to fail, too. We’re running out of time and hope.”

Heather is one of us, she and her family live in our community, and she has done nothing wrong. We at PittZine.com urge everyone to stand up and say that this sort of treatment is unacceptable.

There’s so much of Bank of America’s behavior to be offended by in this situation that it’s hard to know where to start a list.

- Accepted taxpayer bailouts but refuse to show compassion for a mother of seven who wants to do the right thing with them.

- Back-stepping on their own proposed new agreement.

- How about refusing to honor the agreements they’ve promised after their stated requirements were met, because “the man of the house” isn’t living there any longer.

Personally, I expect bankers to act like bankers, but with a modest degree of professionalism. But in this case they appear to be acting more like a sexist “Lenny the Loanshark”.

We urge everyone to contact their federal, state and local politician’s offices and ask them if they have the courage to stand up for this family in the same manner they’ve been willing to stand up for Bank of America in recent months.

PA Senators

Senator Casey

Senator Spector

PA Members of The House of Representatives

Altmire, Jason, Pennsylvania, 4th

Brady, Robert, Pennsylvania, 1st

Carney, Christopher P., Pennsylvania, 10th

Dahlkemper, Kathy, Pennsylvania, 3rd

Dent, Charles W., Pennsylvania, 15th

Doyle, Mike, Pennsylvania, 14th

Fattah, Chaka, Pennsylvania, 2nd

Gerlach, Jim, Pennsylvania, 6th

Kanjorski, Paul E., Pennsylvania, 11th

Holden, Tim, Pennsylvania, 17th

Murphy, Patrick J., Pennsylvania, 8th

Murphy, Tim, Pennsylvania, 18th (Represents Heather Yanosko’s district)

Murtha, John, Pennsylvania, 12th

Pitts, Joseph R., Pennsylvania, 16th

Platts, Todd, Pennsylvania, 19th

Schwartz, Allyson Y., Pennsylvania, 13th

Sestak, Joe, Pennsylvania, 7th

Shuster, Bill, Pennsylvania, 9th

Thompson, Glen W., Pennsylvania, 5th

Find your PA state legislators by zip code.

We also urge you to contact Bank of America and let them know how you feel about their actions and style of doing business in our community.

If you would like to contact Heather Yanosko with any advice that might be helpful, to schedule an interview or to just offer a few words of encouragement she may be reached at momwithseven@hotmail.com

UPDATE: At the time of this posting I’m told that the property sale date has been changed from June 1st, to July 6th. It’s not much, but does give Heather and her children a few more weeks to try to convince Bank of America to honor their deal. Perhaps if enough people make their opinions known that will happen.

Technorati Tags: bank of america, mother of seven

Job Fair

Community College of Allegheny County’s Career Services is hosting a series of job fairs at vaious campus locations through March and April.

These events are open to CCAC students, alumni and the general public. Applicants attending are encouraged to dress professionally and bring multiple copies of their resumes.

The dates, times and locations for these events are available in the Events Calendar on the right side of every page of PittZine.com, just look for the “red” dates and hover your mouse over–or click–them for more information.

Image Credit: Image by Eneas from Flickr.com – used under the Creative Commons Attribution license

Technorati Tags: CCAC, job fair

Kier Refinery

Perhaps to the dismay of modern day environmentalists, the Pittsburgh region gave birth to America’s oil industry which–along with the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company–helped to ignite the Second Industrial Revolution.

Born in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, inventor and businessman Samuel Kier created the American petroleum refining industry and is often referred to as the “Grandfather of the American Oil Industry”.

Kier owned several salt mines in the area along with interests in coal mines, brickyards and even a pottery factory. In the 1840’s his salt mines were being drowned and fouled with excess petroleum.

Initially Kier had the useless oil dumped into nearby water canals, but one day an oil slick caught fire and he instantly saw a was to profit from this byproduct of salt mining.

He partnered with a chemist a began experimenting with ways to distill the crude oil. He came up with several products which never amounted to much commercial success for him, including petroleum jelly, but eventually he came across an affordable formula for creating Kerosene from the crude.

Kerosene was an already established fuel for lamps, but until then it was being distilled from scarce and expensive whale oil.

In the early 1850’s Kier began selling his cheap Kerosene along with a new oil lamp he invented to burn his product to local miners. Having neglected to obtain patents on his inventions, many other businesses took Kier’s work and converted it into larger fortunes than Kier himself ever amassed.

Still, Kier did well enough from his inventions and other business interests to establish America’s very first oil refinery in 1853, right here in Pittsburgh, on 7th Avenue near Grant Street–and America’s oil industry was born.

Image Source: www.waymarking.com

Technorati Tags: american oil industry, pittsburgh history, samuel kier

Is Pittsburgh a Social City?

While listening to NPR CEO Vivian Schiller at the National Press Club today I was reflecting on a recent comment I made here at PittZine.com about there being missed connections between those producing important information in and about Pittsburgh with those who should be–and want to be–receiving and consuming that information.

Schiller said, “At our core we are a content company–and we should deliver content by any way the public wants to consume it.”

Though she was talking directly about radio broadcasting, the point is equally valid for any information producing organization.

This includes local government, local newspapers, news broadcasting outlets and etc., if they’re producing information they need to deliver that information where and how the public wants to receive it. Otherwise, they’re missing opportunities to reach, connect with, engage and retain users.

If you have been paying attention to the news lately then you know there are newspapers and media corporations going under almost daily right now. There are a lot of opinions on what caused this downfall for news content producers, and many of them boil down to blaming the Internet; but at the end of the day it’s probably easy to trace the real failings to the inability of these content producers to deliver their product (information) in the manner that users want it.

I decided to spend the afternoon looking at Pittsburgh’s primary news content producers to see just how well, or how poorly, they were doing in this arena. Starting with the official City Site and then each of the major newspaper and news broadcasting sites.

As the results of my afternoon below will show, there is an Information Disconnection problem here in Pittsburgh. Sure, for our large older population the traditional streams for disseminating information, Print and Evening Broadcast, are fine. But for the Teen through Middle Age users these platforms aren’t often convenient and don’t fit our needs as information consumers.

With all of the opportunities to connect that technology provides content producers and consumers, it’s startling that they are completely under-used here in Pittsburgh.

The City of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, Official City Site (www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us)

No kudos at all I’m afraid. The site lacks any form of connection opportunity for users of modern technology and Social Media networks.

There is no RSS newsfeed, no blogs, no Social Media network pages or profiles listed (nor easily located) at all for residents to connect with and engage their local government.

It’s worth noting that some city officials and secondary city sites do seem to embrace some of these opportunities to connect, but for the “first stop” online for information consumers looking to connect with Pittsburgh to miss these chances is sad.

Pittsburgh News on Television

WPXI (www.wpxi.com or www.pittsburgh.com)
Mixed kudos for having RSS news feeds, it’s just too bad they don’t have them properly coded in their web pages so that visitor’s browsers can instantly identify them.

Kudos for doing a good job of reaching out to users with multiple email newsletter options that are segmented by topic or purpose to fit the user’s needs; and offering Desktop as well as Mobile alerts options.

No kudos on utilizing Social Media outposts online. Staff blogs? I hear that some anchors and reporters have them but I can’t find them on the site… and where is WPXI’s Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc. Social Media network outposts? They actually do have pages/profiles on many of these networks (where the information consumers are connecting), but I was unable to find links for them posted anywhere on the main web site. That’s a huge missed connection opportunity.

WTAE (www.thepittsburghchannel.com)
Big kudos for having RSS newsfeeds AND having them properly coded into the site pages for browsers to identify.

Kudos for doing a good job of reaching out to users with multiple email newsletter options that are segmented by topic or purpose to fit the user’s needs; and offering Mobile alert options.

Mixed kudos on using Social Media outposts. Anchors and reporters are blogging and their blogs are being featured in the sidebar of the Links N’ At page. That’s great, unfortunately it seems they’ve all turned the commenting features “off” on their blogs, that’s not so good.

The benefit to blogging is that it’s a conversation. It provides a venue for not just posting your opinions or stories, but for engaging users and receiving valuable feedback and alternative perspectives.

From a commercial standpoint it also provides the content producer with instant barometers on how their work is being consumed and digested. That’s the kind of stuff companies have traditionally paid huge dollars to get from Survey Groups, and blogs provide it free and in real time when you engage your users.

It also promotes a community connection between the user and the content producer. People feel invested when they’re able to interact. Rejecting this opportunity by not allowing it to happen with closed commenting on blogs is counter-productive and foolish.

It may feel natural for those who come from broadcast media to “control the message”, but online information consumers reject that position and will gladly leave your site for another that caters to their needs and wants.

As for outposts on Social Media networks, WTAE also seems to have pages and accounts with several but they don’t promote these well on their main web site. More missed connection opportunities.

KDKA (KDKA.com)
Mixed kudos for having an RSS newsfeed, too bad my browser couldn’t identify it from their web page code.

Mixed kudos for doing a good job on reaching out to users with a newsletter and mobile alert options, too bad they require you to jump through additional hoops by registering with their site prior to being able to request the newsletters or alerts.

It should be enough that users are giving you an opportunity to come into their life online and on their mobile devices when they enter their email address or cell number, don’t put a silly and unnecessary obstacle in front of them like “Site Registration” first. If you do, you lose.

Big kudos on offering a variety of blogs, promoting them well from the main site navigation AND leaving them open to user comments.

Personal Note: Thank you KDKA for engaging with me and allowing me to participate in the discussions. Now, merge your blog posts and comments onto the same page rather than segregating them and I’ll become even more active with you.

Not-so-big kudos on being just like the other 2 local news broadcasters and failing to promote their Social Media network pages and accounts from their main web site. More missed connection opportunities.

Pittsburgh News in Print

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (www.pghtrib.com)
Kudos for having RSS newsfeeds AND having at least one of them properly coded into the site pages for browsers to identify.

No kudos for lacking a comments or discussion feature on published web stories. When newspapers publish stories online users view them as a hybrid between a news blog and a traditional news media format, and as such want to participate in the discussions. It doesn’t matter how the newspaper wants to view their web publishing, it is the users who count. Without them, you have dead space.

A major problem many newspapers seem to have is they want to go beyond “giving the story”, all the way to “controlling the story”, and this is shown when they don’t encourage discussions and commenting on current events.

For tech-savvy information consumers, the Comments section at the bottom of your web publishing is today’s water cooler. That’s where we hold the conversations, so let us and enjoy the benefit of free user-generated content for your pages and increased participation (page impressions) from users.

Almost-no kudos for having and promoting staff blogs. It’s sad that they miss the opportunity to connect with users by not allowing comments on web published stories, but to reject the connection opportunities on their staff blogs is tragic.

No kudos for outposts on Social Media networks. It doesn’t appear they have any pages or profiles out there at all, and if they do they’re so buried that they may as well not exist.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (www.post-gazette.com)
Kudos for having RSS newsfeeds AND having them properly coded into the site pages for browsers to identify.

No kudos for also missing the opportunity by not having an embedded comments and discussion feature on your story pages.

Mixed kudos for having staff blogs AND promoting them well from the site navigation, however rejecting public comments blows the opportunity to connect and engage users.

No kudos for outposts on Social Media networks. It doesn’t appear they have any pages or profiles out there at all, and if they do they’re so burried that they may as well not exist.

This was actually surprising to me because when I went searching for Social Media profiles for the Post-Gazette one of the first results I found was a link to a picture on Flickr (great social network) which shows that over half of the editors and reporters (who were in the room when the picture was taken) at the PG are using Facebook. So why couldn’t I find an official page or profile there to connect with?

Wrap Up

Overall, and aside from the official city site which lacked any of the most common features younger information consumers expect, I would give our news outlets a moderate rating for their attempts to reach and engage with people. There’s lots of room for improvement at each of them, but none were completely void of opportunities to connect.

I’m sure it’s a hard transition to make from being in complete control of information as they are in print and broadcasting, to opening the information (and themselves) up to public discussion and scrutiny. But that’s what news content producers need to do going forward if they hope to retain their reach and user base.

Consumers no longer go to work and talk with their coworkers about the stories you told them, they sit at work and want to discuss them online with other readers and the journalists who wrote them. You can benefit from those discussions by having them take place on your site, or you can give up your users to another site. That’s just the way it is.

And I bet my new friends David Gregory(Meet The Press), Rachel Maddow(The Rachel Maddow Show) and Ana Marie Cox(National Correspondent for Air America radio, contributor at The Daily Beast) would agree. I watch or listen to their broadcast content more now than I ever did before “friending” them on a Social Media outpost, because now they let me know when there’s something I’m interested in going to be aired. They don’t assume they have my attention, they request it along with letting me know why I should invest the time.

That’s the model going forward for content producers because it meets the needs and schedules of consumers. Hopefully our local content producers will continue advancing in this direction as well. Not only would it help cure our Information Disconnection issues, but I’d just hate to read the self-penned obituary of one of our local papers, or see any more newsroom consolidations among our local broadcast stations.

Technorati Tags: broadcast news, information, News, newspapers, pittsburgh

Friends of CAPA

That is the slogan of the non-profit group “Friends of CAPA”, created by parents of CAPA (Pittsburgh’s school for the Creative and Performing Arts) students to help fund school projects and purchase needed equipment.

With a focus on the arts, CAPA has also established a reputation for producing some of the most well rounded graduates of any high school in the area. In fact, in 2008 CAPA ranked at the top of all Pittsburgh Public High Schools for yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Supporters of music and other creative arts programs in schools who often argue that cutting the budgets for such programs is detrimental to the overall academic advancement of children can point to the successes of CAPA students in traditional subjects like Math and Reading as evidence supporting their position.

Given how well their children appear to be doing, it is easy to understand why the parents behind Friends of CAPA would work together to ensure the school and students have ample supplies and opportunities to continue going forward.

Friends of CAPA is holding a fund raising “celebration” on March 2nd, at the Hard Rock Cafe in Station Square from 6-9pm which will include special guest Chris Garver of TLC’s Miami Ink. WTAE’s Sally Wiggin will MC the evening. There will be a live performance and an auction of works produced by CAPA students, so if you’re looking for something fun to do on a Monday evening that will also support a good cause head down Station Square and check it out.

Technorati Tags: CAPA, Friends of CAPA, Pittsburgh Public Schools

Image via Wikipedia

The title may be slightly misleading, as strong is probably too strong a word to use, but the fact is that while nationwide home prices fell nearly 5% nationwide in 2008 (some estimates put this at closer to 8%), here in Pittsburgh home prices actually rose by about 1%.

There are a number of reasons which could account for Pittsburgh having a stronger housing market than other areas of the country, and the truth is likely a combination of all of them, but the bottom line is that local banks have been more conservative in their lending practices and that leaves them in a stronger financial position than many national institutions and the local economy hasn’t suffered quite as bad as on the national level which means less borrowers have found themselves unable to stay ahead of their debt.

Technorati Tags: home prices, housing market, Real estate, Real estate pricing