Volume 29 No. 1
January 2013
Technology creates new way to discover old trees By Kelsey Shea
Photo by Kelsey Shea
Winter arrived just after Christmas last month dumping roughly four inches of snow on the Northside. While the roads and sidewalks quickly became slushy and muddy, the snow stayed white and fluffy in Allegheny Commons.
Renaissance grants to NS By Kelsey Shea A local grant program created past April is funding three Northside projects that will have some serious impact on the neighborhoods of the Northside. The Central Northside’s rebranding effort, East Deutschtown’s gateway project and Troy Hill’s redesign of Citizen’s Park are all being financed through The Neighborhood Renaissance Fund. The Neighborhood Renaissance Fund is a program created by Mayor Luke Ravenstahl in April with an initial grant of $300,000. With the goal of helping
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communities foster development plans and giving community groups expertise and guidance in initiative projects, the fund is a collaboration between the Department of City Planning, the Design Center Pittsburgh and the Urban Redevelopment Authority. The Northside projects were three of 12 city-wide projects funded by the grant. Thor Erickson of the Design Center explained that all three projects were chosen because they “all show a component of community support.” See Page 6-7 to read about the projects in Deutschtown, Troy Hill and the Central Northside.
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A new project of the Allegheny Commons Initiative will offer visitors to the park a new way to engage with some old trees. A $7,500 grant from the Sprout Fund will finance a new set signs featuring quick response (QR) codes on significant heritage trees and historic monuments that park visitors can scan with their smart phones to learn more about the history of the trees and the park. “There are over 1,000 trees in the park and a lot of the history of the park is related to the trees,” said Sean Brady, the fundraising consultant for the Allegheny Commons Initiative. “There’s a lot to say about a tree that’s 100 years old [that wouldn’t fit on] traditional signage.” The Initiative hopes to finish the project by July 2013. In January, the Allegheny Commons Initiative will begin
recruiting tree tenders and community members through its Facebook page and e-mail newsletters. They’re looking for individuals who are invested in the community and are looking to get involved with this project. After recruiting volunteers and polling what they’re most interested in reading about, the Initiative will begin its research in the spring for the articles and videos that will be linked by the QR codes. QR codes are two-dimensional bar codes that smartphones can scan and bring up web pages. “This is a way to engage with a younger crowd and convey a lot of information through a simple symbol,” said Brady. The Allegheny Commons Initiative is a community-led program done in collaboration with the Northside Leadership Conference that is working to improve and restore Allegheny
See Commons, page 12
In memorium of Moses Carper By Kelsey Shea As a former president of Observatory Hill Inc., an ecosteward in Riverview Park, a nonprofit founder and board member at the Manchester Academic Charter School, Moses Carper wore many hats in and around the Northside. However, none were quite as infamous as the cowboy hat he wore on his head along with chaps and boots. Known as the “black cowboy” of the Northside, Carper is remembered for the horses he cared for in Riverview Park and the equestrian and agrarian experiences
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he worked to give inner city kids. Carper passed away last month at the age of 81, but left a significant impact on the communities he lived and worked in. Carper was a long-time resident of Observatory Hill where he lived on property owned by his grandfather. He served as on the board of directors of OHI from 2008 to 2011, and served as a volunteer at the visitors center of Riverview Park at the time of his death. “Those who knew him remember him as a kind, patient and thoughtful man who had a love of young people of all ages and
See Carper, page 3
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