Volume 29 No. 4
April 2013
City of Asylum will anchor Manchester’s ‘miracle’ library continues to grow the Garden Theater Block By Kelsey Shea
Photo by Kelsey Shea
Manchester volunteer Wallace Sapp and Educating Teens about HIV/ AIDS Inc.’s Kezia Ellison in Manchester’s new school library.
By Kelsey Shea Even after receiving book donations from around the world this fall, the volunteers and administrators behind the new school library at Manchester K-8 haven’t lost momentum. The bright, cheery library is on the second floor of the building is freshly painted soft greens and yellows that match custom murals on the walls and plush reading spots on the floor. It has reading tables, computers, a world map, a flat screen TV and more than 10,000 new or gently used children’s books on the shelves, and volunteers are reading to first graders as part of the new Manchester Reads program every week. It’s hard to imagine that last summer, the library room was unused, dirty, unorganized and without books. “It was truly a miracle,” said Wallace Sapp, who volunteers at
Manchester and helped organize the books make the new library possible. But at the beginning of the 20122013 school year, Manchester K-8 was entering another year as one of the 10 PPS schools without library service. Six months into the school year first graders are asking to take books home from the Manchester school library, thanks to several dedicated community members, nonprofits and a powerful social media post. At the beginning of the school year, PPS introduced a new requirement that all schools have at least one day of library services as a part of an initiative to provide educational equity throughout the district. Sheila May-Stein, a day-to-day sub hired to rehab school libraries, arrived at Manchester in September “horrified” to find the library room
See Library, page 24
A new agreement between Garden Theater Block developers and City of Asylum will push forward two major projects on the lower Northside. City of Asylum announced in mid-March that its new literary venue, community center and book shop Alphabet City will be an anchor in the Garden Theater Block development. “We think this is just great… What could be better than to be a part of the most important gateway to our neighborhood,” said Henry Reese, City of Asylum director and founder. City of Asylum signed the lease for Masonic Hall and several ground-level buildings on West North Avenue, where they will host readings, community events and run a café and bookstore. The agreement between the two Northside organizations effectively solves two separate problems
they’ve wrestled for the past year. In working to fill the empty storefronts of the long-dilapidated Garden Theater Block, Allegheny City Development Group, LLC, which is run through developer Zukin Realty, hit several bumps along the way. As far back as early 2011, the Philadelphia-based developer announced that they were only months away from signing leases with businesses ranging from ice cream parlors to yoga studios. East End Food Co-op was publicly mentioned as a possible tenant for the Masonic building in 2011 and there was a singed letter of intent from Nakama Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar announced in 2012. However Nakama and the Food Co-op both ultimately turned down the Garden Theater Block space, which stalled the renovations and left the key Masonic building empty. Meanwhile several blocks away,
See Garden Theater, page 24
A NS look at the mayoral race By Kelsey Shea For 19 of the past 20 years, the City of Pittsburgh has had a mayor that was born and raised on Pittsburgh’s Northside, but that looks to change in the coming election. Tom Murphy and our current Mayor Luke Ravenstahl both called a Northside neighborhood home at one point in their lives, but Ravenstahl’s announcement last month that he wouldn’t seek reelection and City Council President Darlene Harris’ late-March withdrawal from the race will change that high Northside percentage of recent years.
The five candidates entering the democratic primary are City Controller Michael Lamb of Mount Washington, Councilman Bill Peduto of Point Breeze, former state Auditor General Jack Wagner of Beechview, state Rep. Jake Wheatley of the Hill District and A.J. Richardson of Sheraden. So to better acquaint readers with the candidates, the Northside Chronicle talked to several about our Northside neighborhoods, projects initiatives and the future each candidate sees for the city.
See Candidates page 4