Volume 28 No. 10
November 2012
Spring Hill plans community parklet at neighborhood entrance By Kelsey Shea
Photo by Kelsey Shea Over 5,000 Northsiders spent Saturday afternoon in Allegheny Commons Park for the 21st annual Citiparks fall festival, Pumkinfest. Check out more smiling faces that stopped by the Northside Chronicle’s table online at www.thenorthsidechronicle.com.
Mexican restaurant opens at Federal North By Kelsey Shea Taco Bell isn’t the only taco stand in the Northside anymore. El Burro, a takeout Taquería featuring tacos, burritos and roll tacos, will open November 2 at 1108 Federal Street. Co-owner Wes DeRenouard described El Burro’s fare as the type of “border-style Mexican” food that he and his co-owner grew up eating in San Diego. El Burro will offer vegetarian options, breakfast burritos, housemade chorizo and roll tacos,
INSIDE
which he explained are similar to flautas. DeRenouard teamed up with Derek Burnell, owner of Round Corner Cantina in Lawrenceville, to open the Northside location. “We felt like this was a really up and coming area, and we wanted to take advantage of that,” said DeRenouard. “We’re excited to be here.” Wes explained that his partner Burnell selected the neighborhood and that he has a “great eye,” for
See El Burro, page 9
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After two years of planning and negotiating with the city, Spring Hill residents are looking forward to the revitalization of their neighborhood’s gateway. A city-owned lot at the corner of Damas and Homer streets will be the site of a new parklet and decorative wall that will welcome visitors to the Spring Hill neighborhood. The wall will feature the mosaic art work of local artist Linda Wallen, who will use tiles from The Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild to show the German and agricultural history of Spring Hill. Wallen, a resident of Spring Hill, created and installed several other mosaic murals on homes on Yetta Avenue after she was inspired by a trip to Barcelona in the late ’90s. The mural was funded by a grant from The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh’s Charm Bracelet Project to the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild. Wallen worked on the mural with a class of high school
students who interviewed older residents of Spring Hill about their experiences growing up in the community. After extensive interviews, Wallen said they began to put the experiences the Spring Hill residents had discussed into images relating to the neighborhood. “To put a young 16-year-old guy and a 62-year-old woman together and ask them to compare their cultures was really a treat,” said Wallen of the interviewing process. The tiles will picture farming, a pub, the spring and other images to tell the story of Spring Hill’s past. The mural is finished and currently in storage. It was originally planned to hang on the wall of the fire station, but was designated to the planned wall due to the unsuitable condition of the fire station’s wall. Spring Hill resident and project contractor Chris Waraks said the parklet will be a key focal point in
See Spring Hill, page 12
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