Volume 27 No. 8 August 2011
Blooming on the bridge
State budget cuts take a toll on the Northside By Margaret Singer
Photo by Kelsey Shea The CASGED added a little color to Tripoli Street Bridge and furthered their efforts to reconnect East Deutschtown with Historic Deutschtown. Check out the full story on page 8.
Work begins on new park By Kelsey Shea After about a year of planning, construction will finally begin on Allegheny Public Square this month, as a part of The Children’s Museum’s Charm Bracelet Project. At a meeting at The Children’s Museum July 28, just just three days before construction began on Allegheny Public Square, the museum, contractors and community members met to discuss plans and construction. “I believe many of you have been looking at that sunken plaza for the past decade, and I believe it’s taken a turn for the worse,” said Chris Siefert, deputy director of The Children’s Museum, who presented the new plans for the
park and moderated the community meeting. Siefert said the newly designed park will include bio swells, meadow grass, tables, benches and an art installation by Ned Kahn called “Cloud Arbor,” which will be a series of 32-foot-tall poles that will create a cloud 9 feet above the ground. The park’s new design will revert back to a simple, updated “X-pattern,” similar to its original design in the 1890s. The finished park will have around 70 trees and be 70 percent grass, where now it has 20 trees and is about 65 percent concrete. “I think this will be a wonderful addition to our neighborhood,” said
See Square, page 15
INSIDE
-News briefs 4 STORIES, COLUMNS, -New Warhol Director 9 FEATURES & MORE -Going Green 12
June 30, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett signed off on a new $27.15 billion state budget that sought to eliminate an over $4 billion deficit without raising taxes. Already, many organizations and institutions in the Northside are feeling the cuts. Local state-funded primary and secondary education institutions and affiliated organizations are especially feeling the pinch of a tighter budget. The cut in major education programs spending totals $863 million. Overall, spending will be returned to 2008/09 levels, the last year before federal stimulus funding was made available. The Community College of Allegheny County will receive 10 percent less funding this fiscal year than they received last year. “In recent years, we had gotten stimulus money to fill the gaps, but that funding has expired,” said college spokesman David Hoovler. “We knew the reduction was coming and accordingly adjusted our annual budget.” The CCAC Board of Trustees approved a $2 per credit increase in tuition and also placed a freeze on all hiring. The school will additionally need to look at other areas, including class sizes, to see if there are other ways to work within the new budgetary constraints. The school plans to
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continue its open enrollment. “We want to keep education affordable and maintain the quality,” Hoovler said. Pittsburgh Public Schools are also feeling the crunch. According to Ebony Pugh, the district’s budget deficit for the 2011-12 school year is expected to be nearly $24 million and by 2015-16, it could reach $100 million. Meetings are being arranged to talk to residents about possible school closings. “We have begun conversations with the community on some difficult decisions that lie ahead,” said Pugh. “We’re going to be looking at everything.” Meetings run by A+ Schools, a community alliance for public education, will be on the Northside at the Pittsburgh Project and Northview Heights Citizens’ Council at the end of July. However, some aspects of the budget cuts will assist education. One benefit is an initiative to measure long-term teacher effectiveness and establish a more effective teacher rating system when assigning tenure. The budget also looks to apply stricter standards of achievement for state charter schools. Other institutions that are both directly and indirectly affected by cuts in the budget are local museums. The Carnegie Science Center
See Budget, page 13
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