For the past five years an annual Pittsburgh event has celebrated a cutting-edge technology of ecological restoration: goats. Since 2017 an organization called Allegheny GoatScape has utilized goats – “nature’s lawn mowers” – to reduce invasive vegetation and clear away difficult brush in the city’s parks, vacant lots, and other public spaces. This work is … Continue reading Goat Fest 2022
Tag: East Liberty
OpenStreetsPGH July: East End Loop (w/ Video!)
This past weekend featured the final OpenStreets Pittsburgh event of the year. The last route of the summer was a 4.4 mile loop through the East End neighborhoods of East Liberty, Larimer, Homewood, North Point Breeze, and Shadyside. As with the events in May and June, it was another hot and sunny summer day for … Continue reading OpenStreetsPGH July: East End Loop (w/ Video!)
City Scenes: Cycling to East Liberty, Oakland, and back again
Ever since my roommate got his new road bike a couple weeks ago he’s been tearing up the road and trails. He rode 12 miles out to the town of Duquesne this week just because he had the afternoon free. And he’s now completely switched from commuting via public transit to cycling. I had been … Continue reading City Scenes: Cycling to East Liberty, Oakland, and back again
Shots from the Block: Back in the Burgh
After an 18 month residency in Nashville I have returned to Pittsburgh. I had mixed feelings about coming back to the city where I lived for the six years prior to the pandemic. It’s not the move I was hoping to make. I treated my time in Tennessee as a temporary detour, an opportunity to … Continue reading Shots from the Block: Back in the Burgh
The Fair City part 4: Equitable Development & Urban Justice
The following explores how notions of urban aesthetics and urban justice are implicated in contemporary concerns with gentrification and “equitable development.” The term “gentrification” was introduced by sociologist Ruth Glass in her 1964 book London: Aspects of Change. Glass coined the term from the English title “landed gentry,” denoting the land owning social class, to … Continue reading The Fair City part 4: Equitable Development & Urban Justice