Ass backwards state cuts transit funds while giving 4.5 million for East Liberty parking garage

As someone coming from somewhere else, one thing I can't get past is the city's deeply damaged self confidence.

Poor little Pittsburgh left with nothing after the mills closed --and now--great, we got a Target and a Home Depot.

Coming from that damaged perspective, the bar is set at a level where almost all development looks good.

from Pop City

After 25 years of vacancy, the Historic Highland and Wallace buildings in East Liberty are under renovation and will once again offer housing and retail opportunities to the community. Construction began Monday on the 103-year-old complex, which is being converted to 129 apartments, 5,000 sq. ft. of retail space, and will include a 180-car parking garage

After 25 years! In East Liberty, where the black people used to live and everybody knows you shouldn't go! At least Pop City didn't try to call it "Eastside". Ooooh, thank you for the retail and housing opportunities!

It's safe now and look we got parking! In fact, we spent 4.5 million in state tax dollars to put in 180 units of parking. Never mind that East Liberty is a transit hub served by many bus lines or that surrounding areas are walkable. The bus service is for poor people. We got parking!

The development hinged on two key funding components: a $4.5 million grant from the state for construction of a parking garage, and federal financing from HUD, both of which the project received.

LOL "It's 100 percent historic renovation" says the developer. A good part of one of the buildings was torn down to make way for the parking, which hardly fits with historic preservation.

Whatever. The bar is obviously set very, very low. Driving and masses of parking spaces are built into the pie and basically forced down our throats at gunpoint. Anyway, this is the kind of self-fulfilling prophecy that helps make the urban tax base and transit system such a black hole.

Pretty good radio show on Pittsburgh's Transit Mess

The following opinion is my own and may not be shared by other contributors to this blog.

Part one of a surprisingly good two part broadcast about the current state of public transit in Pittsburgh. Of course, it's far from perfect-this should be a ten part series at least. Sadly, any story that goes beyond telling some sob stories and asking for more money passes as good journalism.

There are however glaring omissions and misrepresentations. The PG transportation writer says "Transit agencies in every city require government subsidies". Not exactly true. Outside, the US, several transit companies, like Hong Kong's MTR run systems with no direct government subsidies. MTR breaks even at the fare box and makes money developing real estate around it's stations, generating huge profits. (You can buy the stock)

Of course, the fact that transit once did make money-or come close to making money is proven by the historic origins of Pittsburgh's own system in private streetcar lines.

Kudos for at least mentioning that benefit costs from the retired workforce are now almost equal to those working, a situation rarely duplicated by any other transit agency.

Then the PG writer makes the claim that "only two things can be done about this"--Increase funding or cut service. Sorry, but any bankrupt company can tell you that the third thing that could be done is to look into cutting the pensions, increasing the retirement age or making other changes in benefit levels. (Don't get me wrong-this is an ugly situation and some of the people behind these false promises should likely be in jail)

Are we really saying we are willing to eliminate almost all service, just so we can pay pensions? This is pretty much what is happening, although few will say it plainly.

They also fail to make connections between transit and land use. Transit will only pay off and be vital if we adopt land use to transit. They don't go into all the ways we subsidise cars like all the URA parking garages.

They also make no effort to look at the route structure. MTR's system makes money because that is what it was designed to do from the start. Nobody there builds a line to serve a football stadium that sits empty most of the time.

Pittsburgh only cab service offically anounced

In an earlier post, I told you about Pittsburgh Transportation Group's plans to assign a small number of cars to work only in the core city.

From The Tribune Review

The Pittsburgh Transportation Group and city officials will announce a new taxi cab service Tuesday for Downtown, the North Shore, South Side and Oakland.

Jerry Campolongo, director of Yellow Cab Co., a Pittsburgh Transportation Group subsidiary, said the company will start with six new black-and-white cabs and expand to as many as 20 as demand warrants. He said the service is geared toward people living Downtown and visitors to entertainment venues and restaurants.

The significant growth in residents in core areas like Downtown and the Strip, is running straight into a declining and perhaps hopelessly dysfunctional transit system. Cabs alone are not the answer, but they could be part of it.

The original plan was to start with 15 cars to serve The South Side, North Shore and Downtown. Instead the service will cover a wider area including Oakland with only 6 cars to start.

Details: The Newglotch Comes From Morgantics

The Newglotch

New sounds for GA/GI 3!

Shaker Heights looking to create more walkable and urbanist business districts

Shaker Heights, just east of Cleveland is a pretty legendary and wealthy old streetcar suburb. It was high on my places to see list and we saw lots of wonderful houses and hints of urbanism.

However, when compared to a streetcar suburb like Forest Hills in NY or Pittsburgh's Mount Lebanon, the business district was dull and car oriented. (Honestly, this was a quick dive through and we should have spent more time exploring)

From Green City Blue Lake

Sometime around 1950, Shaker turned its back on the street where the Blue Line ends, and grew enamored of the post-war suburban shopping center. Dirty dumpsters and blank walls of the back of shops faced Warrensville Road, which was widened, big parking lots appeared in front of the one-story shopping center, and the rise of the car almost made a monstrous six-way intersection seem like a good idea.

Pittsburgh's Urban Design Associates is getting public input on making changes and is getting a lot of support for making denser, more connected and walkable business districts.

Please comment if you know more about this.

Toonseum, Kelly-Strayhorn and Union Project Ignite GA/GI Fest 2012, Pittsburgh, PA

This year, GA/GI  Festival weekend (say GAH-gee) gets super-sized by Toonseum, Kelly-Strayhorn and Union Project from Thursday, April 5 through Saturday, April 7.

Toonseum is hosting the first in its series of
mini conventions in Garfield to kick off the annual Geek Arts/Green Innovation Festival for 2012. It all starts Thursday, April 5, at the BGC Community center, 113 N. Pacific at 6 pm. Come meet the many emerging cartoonists and animation vendors, who will be featured. The Toonseum Mini Con continues the next evening during GA/GI Fest @ Unblurred on Friday, April 6. This nationally acclaimed art crawl will showcase dozens of eye-popping art exhibits at Penn Avenue galleries and businesses all evening. Festival-goers will enjoy eco/tech displays, pumped up fashion, spoken word, food and fun for all ages!  GA/GI starts 6 pm.at the Pittsburgh Glass Center, 5472 Penn, where you can get all the festival details happening throughout the arts district. One more example:Kelly Strayhorn's Bap Boom Tourism, 8 pm. Or.. You catch this unique performance by Makoto Hirano on Saturday evening, April 7. But you'll still have plenty of time to stop in at a Saturday celebration hosted by Union Project. It's UP's Monster Open House! Child and family-friendly events all day long on April 7, starting 9:30 am.at 801 North Negley Ave.

Said GA/GI Festival Director, Christine Bethea "We never want GA/GI Festival to seem stuck or stodgy. That's why we love collaborating with great partners like Toonseum, Kelly-Strayhorn and the Union Project. They really help us mix things up. And  this year, we think people will love how we've revamped our Friday night fashion segment, making it a 'plein air' extravaganza. We've coordinating a mass designer trunk show where their models can strut through art spaces and restaurants. Kristin Barker, our GA/GI Stylist calls it Fashionation: March of the Fashionistas."

GA/GI Festival is a Paspports Art Diversity Project in partnership with Bloomfield Garfield Corporation, Friendship Development, the Penn Avenue Arts Initiative, Google and other fine sponsors.

For details on these events visit www.gagifest12.blogspot.com 
or contact Christine Bethea @ 412-596-6521

Warhol Museum appoints new curator of contemporary art.

From the Post Gazette

"Nicholas Chambers, an art historian and curator, is the new Milton Fine Curator of Art at The Andy Warhol Museum and will assume his duties in late April.

Mr. Chambers was curator of contemporary international art at the Queensland Art Gallery, a major museum with holdings ranging from the 1800s to contemporary works in Brisbane, Australia.

In 2007, Mr. Chambers was a lead curator on a large survey exhibition of Andy Warhol's work that was staged by the Queensland Art Gallery in collaboration with The Andy Warhol Museum."

Sounds good. So far, I have no reason to doubt Warhol director, Eric Shiner's dedication or judgement.

Under the radar revival of Cleveland's downtown and near West Side neighborhoods

The macro population drop in Cleveland has been so bad, most people don't notice the significant growth in the downtown population to almost 10,000 residents. also underplayed are areas like Ohio City and Tremont which are actually attracting people in the 25-34 age group.

Two good posts on Rust Wire

Signs of Resurgence in Central/Near West Cleveland: A Demographic Analysis

A Nascent Brain Gain in Cleveland’s Urban Core

I left some comments on both posts.

Warhol Museum will open temporary space in Chelsea during May's Frieze Art Fair

This is totally awesome and amazing!

Face it--the Warhol is a national institution and collection that sort of fell in Pittsburgh's lap after no NY institution stepped up to help make it happen.

As a nationally known brand and collection, the intent was always to build international support from funders outside the city. One way to do that is to create an outpost in NYC-at least for a few months.

From Gallerist NY

“Why not do a satellite in New York, similar to the Guggenheim?” Mr. Kost asked, referring to the Guggenheim’s international museum network. “It will be great for New York, and hopefully what we can do is create a semi-institutional feel in this satellite.” While there is no fixed schedule for the satellite’s show, it is definitively being conceived as a temporary project, set to run from May 4 for at least four weeks."

I love this move to keep the museum more relevant and connected to the wider art world.

Keith Haring Foundation starts Tumblr of His Notebooks covering Pittsburgh and early NY years

The Brooklyn Museum is hosting a major show covering Keith Haring's early development.

Keith Haring: 1978–1982

Keith Haring: 1978–1982 is the first large-scale exhibition to explore the early career of one of the best-known American artists of the twentieth century. Tracing the development of Haring’s extraordinary visual vocabulary, the exhibition includes 155 works on paper, numerous experimental videos, and over 150 archival objects, including rarely seen sketchbooks, journals, exhibition flyers, posters, subway drawings, and documentary photographs.

The Keith Haring Foundation will be uploading a scan from Haring's early notebooks each day for the length of the show.

http://keithharing.tumblr.com/

Already several of the images are of pages done in or around Pittsburgh. Honestly, I find it amazing and disturbing that Pittsburgh has never hosted a major show of his work.

My previous post about a show of his early sketchbooks.

Great Brewed Fresh Daily post on creating amazing urban events

With very few exceptions large scale canned events like Superbowls rarely if ever transform people's perception of a city. Also, they cost massive amounts in fixed expenses and usually can't be counted on to happen very often. Your city does not own the brand, so at best you are along for the ride.

Cultural events and festivals can be something else entirely. Not only do they often bring in huge visitor dollars but they often help define a city's identity.

We associate Austin with South by Southwest
We associate New Orleans with Marti Gras
We now associate Grand Rapids with Art Prize
We associate San Diego with Comic Con
We now associate Park City Utah with Sundance
We associate Albuquerque with The Balloon Fiesta
We associate Akron with The Soap Box Derby

From Brewed Fresh Daily

1. Don’t limit yourself You might be tempted to look for something that your city is already good at. But if you’re in, say, Dayton, Ohio, you’re not going to get very far with a tire convention. The good news is, you really can do anything. What connection did San Diego have to comic books before Comic-Con? Not much. Park City, Utah was barely anything before Robert Redford showed up with his buddies to start the Sundance Institute. Good events are really more about people than place.

2. Appeal to a small, but fiercely passionate audience To build big appeal, the best events have always started small. They appealed to distinct subcultures. Sundance had film buffs. SXSW had music fans. Comic-Con had comic nerds. People who are passionate are willing to travel for the right kind of event. Most importantly, they’re constantly trying to find others who are interested in the things they love. They invite friends. They make new friends. The event grows.

2. Don’t make a fun event. Make a “must attend” event You want people in the targeted subculture to feel like they’re not complete unless they make it to this event. One way events have accomplished this in the past is by programming a seizure-inducing amount of activities. The one thing that SXSW, Sundance and Comic-Con have in common is that no human could ever hope to see even half the things going on at each event. Another thing that helps is star-power. Comic-Con had Jack Kirby and Ray Bradbury on the same stage. Sundance had Robert Redford. You’ll need the biggest stars for whatever subculture you’re trying to reach.

4. Give up control You’ve got passionate people. They’re going to have ideas for how to change the event. Let them. Comic-Con started out as an event for comic book nerds. Those nerds love movies. So Comic-Con became about movies, too. This is how your event begins to expand outside of the original subculture, and becomes something truly huge.

5. Sell out. Big. You’ll know your event is on the right track when your original audience starts to complain about how big it’s gotten, and how it’s become all about the money. But anyone can sell-out their core audience. Sundance, Comic-Con and SXSW have taken it to the next level. Each one started for the outsiders. And each one is now essentially run by industry publicity machines. That’s important because the industry publicity machine is what gets the attention of the national media. And we’re not talking about landing the occasional Good Morning America spot that says, “Hey look, someone in Somewheresville is doing something interesting this weekend.” We’re talking about the attention that will leave you wondering where to park all the satellite trucks.

One of the strange things is that, given how wildly successful events like this often are in relation to the dollars spent, few cities put a big focus at hosting or creating great events.

My guess is the biggest reasons for this are--

A) A failure to imagine, small homegrown events could grow to have an economic impact.

B) Fear of a loss of control--(our city will be taken over by nerds, hippies, comic nuts, furries or whatever) Leaders seem to like events they can understand and control.

Of course, for exactly that reason, sucessful dynamic events can help you be seen as a place open to creative ideas and people.

March Events Carnegie Library of Braddock

MARCH

MARCH 3
MAKING LIGHT
Join the Pittsburgh National Society of Black Engineers + learn to build your
very own reading lamp from scavenged materials found around the library.
ages 12 - 18

MARCH 10
SATURDAY 1-3pm
VERY OPEN STUDIOS
Discover what you can make in the Ceramics Studio and Neighborhood
Print Shop! Ceramic and screen printing activities will be offered so
you can try it out. all ages (under 8 accompanied by an adult)

MARCH 16
FRIDAY 4:30-7pm
A CELEBRATION OF KIDDISMS
AND BCLA’S ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAMS
Please join us in the premier of Jim Kidd’s (Braddock resident) limited
edition hand printed artist book. View the book along with other items from
his collection while welcoming our next resident artist, LaToya Ruby Frazier.
all ages (under 8 accompanied by an adult) MARCH 24 SATURDAY 12:00-4pm
*Please sign up for all events
at BCLA’s circulation desk
or call 412-351-5356MARCH 31

SATURDAY 10 am - 2pm
CERAMIC WATER FILTER WORKSHOP
Join Professor Richard Wukich and Professor Ian Nettleship for an intensive hands-on
session of learning to build ceramic water filters, the history, current uses, and the current reserch
and world-wide useability potential. Water borne diseases and access to clean water are some of the
world’s biggest health and sustainability challenges - the ceramic water filter is an economic
and production-friendly response to this urgent need. *$30 SUGGESTED DONATION
SATURDAY 10 - 2pm

GRAND OPENING FESTIVITIES of the
BCLA CHILDREN’S LIBRARY + TEEN SPACE
The Children‘s Library is bigger, better and has moved upstairs! Help us celebrate the
renovations and innovations in the 2nd floor of the library building. Games, art, food
and interactive activities will take place giving us a sneak peak of the programming
in the Children’s Library and Teen Space! all ages (under 8 accompanied by an adult)

Off Broadway Musical, The Roberto Clemente Story gets some great reviews

Walked past Manhattan's Puerto Rican Traveling Theater on my way out of NY and saw this!

No, the reviews are not universaly great, but many people seem to have liked it. Clearly, the love and interest in Clemente's life runs very broad so lots of people want this to be amazing.

NYtheater.com

Venue: 47th Street Theatre, 304 West 47th Street, New York
Prices: $37.50 - $47.50
Performance Dates: February 14, 2012 - March 23, 2012

Wondering if anyone has seen this?
Tickets On Sale Thru: March 23, 2012
Box Office/Info: (212) 529-1545

Photos of Braddock in 1980

I found this on YouTube, all shots taken by on person who lived in Braddock in 1980.

Been meaning to get back and do a more in depth series of posts about the Mon Valley.

American Modernism @ Metropolitan Museum of Art

My post on The Met's American Wing might have left the impression the museum had few holdings of 20th century American Art.

Actually, they have some awesome stuff, but it's hung in different areas of the museum.

For example

The Alfred Steiglitz photo collection

The Alfred Steiglitz painting collection.

Basically, the collections are huge so it's easy to lose where things are or grasp the total.

Shocking Before and After look at Cleveland's Warehouse District

make a gif

These images are pretty self explanatory. Cleveland's warehouse district in 1960 vs today. It's not so much that all these great, historic, well located buildings are gone, but that the city replaced them with--nothing. Pointless, destruction.

This GIF has been going around.

via NPR
via buzz feed

Youngstown's Rust Belt Brewery looking to expand, turns to Kickstarter

From The Vindicator

"The brewery has struggled to meet rising demand for its product, especially after it introduced four of its beers — the Irish Red Ale,

Blast Furnace Blond Ale, Coke Oven Stout and Old Man Hopper’s IPA — in six-packs late last year.

Beer was previously available in 22-ounce bottles; the switch to standard 12-ounce bottles doubled labor time, including labeling and boxing, which still is done by hand."

Rust Belt is already stocked at local Giant Eagles and a other stores in the Youngstown, Akron and Cleveland area and it's beer distributor would expand sales into Columbus and Cincinnati... if Rust Belt can produce enough beer.

Check it out on Kickstarter.

Karen Lillis Book Release Party Thursday March 8th

Thursday Night Book Release Party in Polish Hill!Karen Lillis, a wonderful writer, is having a book release party this week
Events will be held at Lili Coffee Shop and Copacetic.
6:00pm Meet & Greet at Copacetic... (3rd Floor)
7:00pm Reading at Lili Coffee Shop (1st Floor)
8:00pm Book signing at Copacetic (3rd Floor)
From CP Short List:

Thu., March 8 — Words
Blogger, journalist and small-press advocate Karen Lillis is as busy as anyone on the local lit scene. Lillis' experience with small presses also includes publishing on them: Watch the Doors as They Close (Spuyten Duyvil), her second novella and fourth full-length work of fiction, bows tonight with a release party and reading at Copacetic Comics. The novella's narrator is a Brooklyn woman struggling to create a portrait of her recently departed lover. Joining Lillis is acclaimed, and now-Pittsburgh-based, zine-maker Ocean Capewell (High on Burning Photographs). BO 6-9 p.m. 3138 Dobson St., Polish Hill. 412-251-5451 or www.copcomco.com

Additional presss release information about Karen Lillis and Ocean Capewell:
"Karen Lillis is the author of four books of fiction: the novels "The Second Elizabeth" (Six Gallery Press, 2009) and "i, scorpion" (Words Like Kudzu Press, 2000); and the novellas "Watch the Doors as they Close" (Spuyten Duyvil, 2012) and "Magenta's Adventures Underground" (Words Like Kudzu with New York Nights, 2004). Her fiction was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2010, and her article on the independent presses of Pittsburgh was a finalist for a Golden Quill Press Award in 2007. She blogs at Karen the Small Press Librarian and she is the creator of the online literary portal, Small Press Pittsburgh.
Ocean Capewell was born in Queens in the 80's. She moved to Pittsburgh purely for the hell of it, and is the creator of the long-running zine "High On Burning Photographs". She recently completed her first novel, "The Most Magnificent Rot", a queer punkhouse tour de force that's searching for a good publisher. She spends her days battling bureaucracy at the welfare office and spends her nights baking cookies, writing her second book, and trying to unblock her second chakra."

Cleveland Heights moves to green up it's zoning code

From Green City, Blue Lake

Cleveland Heights is an inner ring suburb just east of Cleveland very close to University Circle.

With its new mixed-use zoning designation and new maximums for parking lots, Cleveland Heights looks to set the stage for more infill development—an act to strengthen its traditional, pedestrian friendly districts. New developments can preserve green space instead of parking; by not requiring a minimum number of parking spots tied to retail square footage formula, the city can alter land-use patterns and break the mold on the worst aspects of big development—the one size fits all solution of paving over lots of open space for a too-large parking lot to fit only the busiest day of shopping in the year.

The city is to be commended for encouraging more biking, especially for those short trips which can be avoided by “requiring conveniently placed, well-designed bike parking for new uses and long-term. Covered bike parking with locker and shower facilities will be required for offices, university buildings and hospitals exceeding 25,000 square feet.”

Bike parking has been consistently cited as the biggest impediment to increased trips made by bike, so the security of knowing there will always be a place to lock up is a good first start (the city would make an even stronger case by developing a bike parking design guideline so that its clear which bike racks are of high quality, and to spell out placement, lighting, security and shelter options).

Sounds off hand to be really great but it's not a done deal.

"The Planning Commission will hold public hearings on the proposed sustainability zoning at 7 p.m. on March 14 and April 11 in Council Chambers at City Hall, 40 Severance Circle. City Council will host a public hearing at 7 p.m. March 26 at the Community Center, 1 Monticello Blvd. The Planning Commission will forward a recommendation to City Council, which is expected to approve the amendments at a regular meeting April 16."

Here are the actual proposed updates

This post is not actively supporting these proposals. If it were up to me, almost all zoning would not exist. (one can still have basic safety-fire regulation) However, if one is to mandate zoning it would be much more logical to allow logical mixed use density and cap the amount of allowed parking, rather than force parking minimums like most zoning codes do. The general thinking here seems right.

Private art collector to open exhibition space in Columbus, Ohio

Ohio, actually has a much larger number of major contemporary art collectors than the Pittsburgh area.

Ron Pizzuti, a Columbus area real estate developer with a considerable contemporary art collection will open an exhibition space in Columbus's Short North arts district.

Pizzuti Collection

The Pizzuti Collection is a non-profit organization, which will present exhibitions of contemporary art with a mission to foster cultural understanding and educational exchange.

In Fall 2012, the Pizzuti Collection will open in our permanent home in a newly renovated building in the Short North, Columbus’ Arts District, at 632 North Park Street. We will have a program of temporary exhibitions of contemporary art, selected from the private collection of Ron Pizzuti. There will also be a series of artist talks, guest lecturers and an art library/reference room

I'm a pretty big fan of small museums and exhibition spaces which often connect better to their neighborhoods as well as show off the personal tastes of collectors.

This one looks like a potential gem.

Images from The Met's New American Wing

Even though I have a press pass to The Carnegie, I don't feel free to take pictures in a museum with a pretty strict no photo policy.

Allowing, photography has it's pros and cons. In a crowded museum, like MOMA, one can be overwhelmed by the masses who want a picture of themselves in front of every work on their "bucket list". And, yes sometimes a flash goes off, which is really bad for most work. Damaging flash bulbs are one of the good reasons many museums banned photography.

The Met, being large enough to rarely feel too crowded allows photography in most of it's permanent collection.

I don't take shots too often, but here's a look at some of the newly reinstalled American Wing.



Boy, it looked great! Somehow the museum was so huge, this part of the collection sort of got lost before. A few highlights.

A collection of early American art and folk art--on semi permanent loan from the troubled Museum of American Folk Art

Great Collection of Early American and early colonial Paintings

Whole room of amazing John Singer Sargent paintings

Several really important Thomas Eakins works.

A very strong display of American impressionism- Mary Cassatt, Childe Hassam etc...

A strong display of works Frederic Remmington and other western artists.

A very strong selection of Augustus Saint-Gaudens sculpture.

An incredible selection of Tiffany Glass

Some great Albert Bierstadt paintings.

Many amazing Winslow Homer works.

From what I could see, the collection drops off at the start of the twentieth century and includes almost no American modernism, ashcan school or later American paintings. To a large extent, I think these are grouped in other parts of the museum.

The Whitney Museum is one of the best places to see American Modernism and regionalism. The Brooklyn Museum also is home to an amazing selection of Hudson River school, Winslow Homers and ashcan school works. Sadly, the cheesy, distracting, "educational" way this part of the collection is set up makes it hard to appreciate.

Nashville's new downtown zoning code puts human interaction and walkability above cars

The stereotype is that the high growth, "new south" is all about highways and sprawl. Actually, a lot of cities in the region are building out light rail systems and opening up to more sustainable urban design.

Nashville might be taking the lead with it's new zoning code.

From The Switchboard Blog

“The Plan calls for a ‘thoughtful mixture of uses including residential, retail and office, to ensure that Downtown doesn’t close at 5 p.m. or even after the concert ends or the restaurants close, but is instead a welcoming home for a diverse residential population.’ Multiple stories encourage multiple uses within each building, increasing the likelihood that one of the uses will be active at any given hour. Compare this to one story buildings which lack activity during the off-hours of the single use.

“To be viable, Downtown must accommodate numerous services and functions. By promoting form over use, the DTC allows for a mixture of uses. Because various functions occur at different times of the day – working, shopping and recreating during the day, entertainment and home-life at night – mixed-use, 24/7 neighborhoods use existing infrastructure more efficiently and function in a more sustainable way . . .

“As stated in the Plan, ‘While residential development has flourished in recent years, the creation and enhancement of urban neighborhoods is still a goal. Residential living will thrive in Downtown when residents feel that they are part of a neighborhood, supported by shared public spaces and the services and amenities needed for daily life.’”

WOW! SOMEBODY, ACTUALLY APPLYING JANE JACOBS'S IDEAS INSTEAD OF JUST PAYING THEM LIP SERVICE.

One very important thing is that the code is not just aimed at a small area of dowtown, but is aimed at creating cohesive organic connections between a number of core districts.

My experience from NY, is that by real dynamic places can't live alone. To save a downtown, you must create a base of connected core neighborhoods.

One big thing is they are scrapping minimum parking requirements--something Brooklyn still hasn't done!

From Streetsblog

Two years ago, Nashville scrapped parking minimums completely for its downtown, a fact called to our attention by blogger Charlie Gardner. The elimination of parking mandates in the area seems to have proceeded without controversy, based on contemporary news articles.

New York City, in contrast, is moving toward reducing parking minimums in certain “inner ring” neighborhoods, but it remains to be seen whether they will be eliminated or merely reduced. Here, parking minimums are seen as politically necessary.

Tuskegee Airmen on Essential Public Radio, Essential Pittsburgh

A new radio program on 90.5 called Essential Pittsburgh promises to have some interesting programming. A recent episode has fascinating interviews with men who were Tuskegee Airmen during WWII. Our area has a very strong connection to this group. For the rdio program, which has great interviews with 3 of the WWII pilots, go here
Regarding the Tuskegee Airmen:From the Tribune Review, Oct.8,2009:

The Tuskegee Airmen was a group of African-American pilots who flew with distinction during World War II as the 332nd Fighter Group of the Army Air Corps. Joyce Jones, new president of the Sewickley-based historical society and a former teacher, said there is no mention of the Tuskegee Airmen in school curriculum.

"These people came from this area," she said. "The children can relate to that. I'm very pleased, happy and excited (about the society's involvement in the new chapter)."

There were 983 Tuskegee pilots, eight of whom were from Sewickley.

"That concentration, because it's such a small area, is more than Chicago and Detroit, which have millions of people. They had more pilots, but the percentage here is greater," Effort said.

Tuskegee Airmen also came from other Pittsburgh neighborhoods, such as Beltzhoover, Homewood and East Liberty, said Effort.

"These guys are everywhere," said Effort. "Their legacy goes further than the war. They were the creme de la creme of the African-American race."

Effort's vision for the local chapter includes continuing the mission of preserving this piece of history, fundraising and getting children interested in flying.

Jones said the group is planning a large fundraiser for the chapter. Other ideas include starting a Sewickley Tuskegee Airmen Day and having representatives march in Veterans and Memorial Day parades. They are exploring the idea of putting plaques in town listing the men's names.

The society, entering its 40th year, would like to get local schools involved in teaching the Tuskegee history.

Bobonis, along with Effort and his wife, Elaine, are the other founders of the Greater Pittsburgh chapter. Her father, the late Sgt. Vernol Leapheart, was the crew chief of all the combat planes flown by Col. B.O. Davis, commanding officer of the Tuskegee Fighter Group that flew over North Africa and Western Europe during World War II.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_647023.html#ixzz1o4GM9AH5

The Radical Camera @ NY's Jewish Museum : A few Thoughts

Stuffing in a few shows while I'm here, to see the Whitney Biennial.

The Radical Camera, which highlights some of the great photography associated with The Manhattan Photo League makes an important counterpoint to the Teenie Harris show.

The Radical Camera: New York's Photo League, 1936-1951

In 1936 a group of young, idealistic photographers, most of them Jewish, first-generation Americans, formed an organization in Manhattan called the Photo League. Their solidarity centered on a belief in the expressive power of the documentary photograph and on a progressive alliance in the 1930s of socialist ideas and art. The Radical Camera presents the contested path of the documentary photograph during a tumultuous period that spanned the New Deal reforms of the Depression, World War II, and the Cold War

The show included around 200 works by around 50 photographers.

Sid Grossman
Bernice Abbott
Bill Witt
Ida Wyman
Wegee
Lee Sievan
Arthur Leipzig
Morris Engel
Lisett Model
John Vachon
Ruth Orkin
Aaron Siskind
Rosalie Gwathmey
Marion Palfi
Jack Manning
Lucy Ashjian

Anyone who doubts that journalists, artists and photographers can change the world should see this show. In some ways, it was a bit chilling, given what we now know about the way their images of complex, vibrant communities like Harlem as troubled and damaged helped pave the way large scale urban renewal.

"Being a photographer is making people look at what I want them to look at" ... Ruth Orkin

The whole show has a great push and pull between photographs taken to make a point about poor working and living conditions, racism and social injustice and a gut level love and fascination with the street life of New York. (about 75% of the shots are of NY)



Check out the site which includes a number of videos and an amazing map of where some of the pictures were taken.

The Radical Camera: New York's Photo League
The Jewish Museum in New York
November 04, 2011 - March 25, 2012

Columbus Museum of Art

April 19, 2012 -Sept 9, 2012

Pittsburgh Area Lenten Fish Fry Map

An amazing map showing what looks like almost every Fish Fry in the Pittsburgh region.

Fish Fry Map

Teenie Harris Images "re-tell the musical history of black America in the 20th Century"

Wow! another knoockout story on Teenie Harris, focusing on shots of the incredible lost music scene in The Hill. Many of these shots taken in the Hill, but also at locations like Oakland's Syria Mosque. Other shots were taken at Harlem venues like The Savoy Ballroom.

Sarah Vaughan, Lena Horne, Duke Ellington, Ethel Waters, Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson, Earl 'Fatha' Hines, Erroll Garner, Billy Eckstine, Roy Eldridge, Honey Gun band, The Ink Spots, Mary Lou Williams, Eartha Kitt, Nina Simone, Art Blakey, Billy Strayhorn

From the UK's Daily Mail

Melvin Rose, master craftsman and son of Cleveland's Rose Iron Works founder dies

From The Cleveland Plain Dealer.

"He was the custodian of one of the great legacies of the Arts and Crafts movement of Cleveland," said Stephen Harrison, curator of decorative arts and design at the Cleveland Museum of Art. "He wore that mantle with humility and pride, and that pervaded everything he did."

Harrison said that Melvin Rose continued to ensure that Rose Iron Works "became a haven for craftsmanship and artisanship when machines took over and began taking the men out of the craft."

In 2008, Melvin Rose was awarded the Cleveland Arts Prize Lifetime Achievement Award for Design."

Cleveland should get more attention as a center of great craft manufacturing and industrial design.

A great in depth profile of The Rose Iron Works from The Plain Dealer

Rose had founded the company that bore his name in 1904, and Feher, who had moved here from Paris at his behest, would be his most famous colleague and collaborator. While the iconic screen was used to illustrate the breadth and depth of American Art Deco, you could also say, zooming in more tightly, that no one could write the history of design and architecture of 20th-century Cleveland without considering Rose Iron Works. "It's the best Art Deco ironwork ever done in the United States," says Henry Adams, an art historian and professor at Case Western Reserve University, who once devoted a graduate seminar to the firm's work. "Not only is their workshop extraordinary, but the story of Rose is the great American story."

Examples of the firm's artistry have been featured at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C.

In Cleveland, the company's legacy penetrates the present and past -- whether manifested in elaborate dressing-room doors at Halle Bros. department store, the sculptural sign for the G.W. Mercer floral shop on West 25th Street or the gates of the Van Sweringen estate in Shaker Heights. Not far from the art museum, you can find an iron mural by Martin's son Melvin on the walls of the Cleveland Botanical Garden and an adjacent gate Melvin designed at the Western Reserve Herb Society.

Through the early 1950s, the company was one of the nation's leading designers and creators of ornamental and functional works, crafted in wrought iron, stainless steel, aluminum-copper alloys and glass.

Rose Iron Works website

Cleveland sports teams wanna crap on the city's head again: asking for extension of "sin taxes"

Yup, it's the new world where having a drink or two is a "sin", but pillaging the public treasury is not.

From The Plain Dealer

Voters and fans supported the sin tax in 1996 to help build a new stadium to ensure a football team return to Cleveland.

But since the Browns returned, the team has struggled on the field changing coaches and quarterbacks, routinely leaving fans frustrated with a last place team. Still the Browns are owed the money for repairs per the sin tax and lease agreement with the city under the Mayor Mike White administration.

Monday afternoon Browns officials and city leaders met to talk about how to pay for $5.8 million in repairs to seats, ramps and concrete at Browns Stadium.

Well, it's better than in Pittsburgh, where people voted against the stadiums and got them anyway.

The irony here is rich since these were no doubt sold as investments that would help the local bars, clubs and entertainment venues. Instead, they are being driven under by taxes.

The Browns want credit for the money they have given to local charities. Scumbags--you are a charity living on the dole.

Rumors are flying that The Indians and Cavs will join the lobbying effort for a tax extension.

From The Cleveland Leader

The sin tax was originally approved by Cuyahoga County voters in 1990 for a term of 15-years to pay for the construction of Progressive Field (formerly Jacobs Field) and Quicken Loans Arena (formerly Gund Arena) through what was known as the Gateway project. Then, in 1995, voters approved extending the tax for another 10 years to help build Cleveland Browns Stadium. The sin ax put a tax on cigarettes of 4.5 cents per back, 16 cents per gallon of beer, 32 cents per gallon on wine and mixed beverages, and other spirits at $3 per gallon.

By the end of 2015, bonds issued by the city of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County to pay for their shares of the construction of all three projects will have been repaid. Each of the three professional sports teams has 30-year leases that put the burden of capital repairs on the city and county governments.

Please Cleveland, respect yourself and stop being kicked around and treated like garbage.

Pittsburgh's Creative Scene

Pittsburgh is finally starting to gain national traction as a place where technology, art and creativity meet.

Best part about this video is how little thay had to stretch to make it. I can think of a lot of great area companies, game makers, ad agencies, designers and particularly architects that were not included. Also doesn't include the very large number of area firms applying creative technologies to things like weapon systems--something that they might not want to hype.

It's an easy come easy go situation, in that many of these start ups may not be around in a little while, but it looks like there's a lot more on the way.

A few of the companies listed.

Schell Games
Deep Local
Body Media
Songwhale
Maya Design
ModCloth
4 Moms
Interbots
Lightwave International
Beatbots
Animal
LEMUR
Evil Genius Designs

Some stuff they left out.

Yinzcam
Edge Studio
Slate XP
Left Right Studios
Etcetera Edutainment
ClankWorks

New Collaboration to create the largest film production facilities outside of California

From The Post Gazette

"The best film and video production facility for movies outside Southern California will reside in Pittsburgh with the collaboration of a Strip District production studio, Carnegie Mellon University's entertainment technology program, Paramount Studio Group and the company that produced the digital imagery in the movie "Avatar," .

A big part of this project is an expansion of CMU's Entertainment Technology program, allowing students to take classes at the new studios in The Strip District. When completed, the studios will be the largest sound stage outside of LA.

Great talk about Kickstarter, crowdfunding and DYI culture

The Huffington Post has this amazing, if now slightly out of date video about, Kickstarter and the rapidly emerging culture of DYI, creativity and invention that's out there.

Lot's of good points are made about how the process adds a level of connection and sense of personal ownership between projects and their funders.

Kickstarter expects to pass the NEA in arts funding

Depending on how you look at it, this is either a really good sign of grass roots, creative funding or a grim look at how little we value arts at the federal level,although the federal government also funds the arts through the NEH, educational grants and a wide range of other programs.

Personally, I'm mostly in the camp that sees this as totally great! The NEA while a core funder of some major institutions, has failed completely at supporting a dynamic and creative ecosystem. Most likely, one can't expect it to do so.

From The Huffington Post

In general, Kickstarter projects follow a looser definition than the NEA's, described as "creative" projects rather than solely artistic ones. The NEA's recent grantees include Magic City Smooth Jazz, supporting their Jazz in the Park series, and the Puppetry Arts Theater, Inc. in Brooklyn, NY, to support a production of a new musical, "Antropomorphic" (see a list of recent grant recipients here), and are often meant to promote arts education as much as specific projects.

Strickler added that the company views the implication of the $150 million number "in both a good and a bad way."

It's best described as the National Endowment For Certain Famous and Connected Institutions, Artists and Curators. (the folks who likely need that kind of funding-the least)

Hopefully this is just the start of a trend, both online and off to better fund creativity at all levels. Remember also that Kickstarter supports seed funding for projects rather than continuing support for institutions.

(P.S. In spite of the term "endowment", the NEA, has no funds set aside or invested and is funded on annual basis out of the general Federal budget)

Wow, Youngstown having troubles with downtown free parking. Installing Meters

Who knew poor, depressed Youngstown is now having some pretty big parking problems. More than a thousand people now work downtown with more nearby at YSU. An emerging retail revival is causing big problems for store owners as parking for potential customers is taken by downtown employees, exploiting the two hour free street parking by moving their cars around every two hours.

The city plans to install meters. Good for them!

Discovery Channel casting for new show: Looking for America's Top Engineer

The Discovery Channel is looking for America’s most creative and daring techies, machinists, inventors and engineers to design, build, and BLAST their way to a Grand Prize on their new competition TV show TOP ENGINEER.

A handful of lucky men and women will be chosen to take on exciting challenges from various engineering fields at the state-of-the-art WET design facilities (www.wetdesign.com) in California.

No, you don’t need to have an engineering degree to compete on this show, but you MUST be able to design, build, test and integrate an idea into a final product that WORKS. These will be fast-paced, hands-on, VISCERAL challenges! If your experience is strictly behind the keyboard, then this show is NOT for you.

We are looking for visual effects experts, accomplished home shop machinists, contractors and engineers with backgrounds in electrical, civil, structural or mechanical engineering.

If you have an outgoing personality and are ready to get your hands dirty for the chance to win a GRAND PRIZE and the title of TOP ENGINEER, then we want to hear from you.

Remember, this is a competition on reality TV, so really shy folks, not into the stress, constant creative challenges and public spotlight, are likely not right for this.

Full details here.

Brite Winter Illuminates Cleveland Creatives + Ohio City

Cleveland events have few prouder glories than highlighting its greatest neighborhood success stories. Last week’s Brite Winter celebrated both the blossoming of the start-up festival in its third year and the city’s most progressively developing district, Ohio City.

If there were any doubts Ohio City is now one of Cleveland’s premier arts and culture hubs they were quelled by Brite Winter Festival’s line-up of the city’s most promising and most established creative forces. Moving from last year’s location in the Flats to directly adjacent to the bustling West 25^th, the festival turned the usually lively neighborhood into a complete block party takeover.

The night was lit with interactive installations created by many of the most up-and-coming designers in the Cleveland art scene. As the evening went on the crowd swelled and a giant snowflake by cyancdesign glowing in the usually vacant lot became a symbol of the festival. Nearby, open pit fires burned alongside an audience dancing to jangly indie buzz act The Lighthouse and the Whaler on the outdoor main stage. The whimsical scene was accented by the presence of art event leaders The YoyoSyndicate, who brought the 50 People 1 Question film project, and Cleveland festival veterans Ingenuity Cleveland, who examined the art of sound with their ‘Whisper-ma-phone’.

Most engaging of all was Brite Winter Festival’s use of local businesses as musical venues. Not only were bands stationed throughout the night at Ohio City mainstays such as Great Lakes Brewing Company, Garage Bar, and Touch Supper Club, crowd favorites were the most unconventional stages: Bonbon Café, Joy Machines Bicycle Shop, and Market Avenue Wine Bar. The folk of Jack and the Bear has never sounded so intimate as playing a floor set to a wall-to-wall crowd in the trendy newcomer bakery Bonbon. A block away, Cleveland hip-hop was at its most organic, on ground level in the dark basement of Touch Supper Club with the stylings of DJ ESO.

A sensory overload marked the triumphant return of this year’s Brite Winter Festival. Beyond the charming and ambitious art, beyond the packed bars and stages, Brite Winter’s move to Ohio City was a testament to the possibilities of local businesses investing in local talent. And that’s what makes Cleveland’s culture keep blossoming.

More Thoughts on Civic Branding on Urbanophile: Don't Brand Your City

Another post about urban branding, seems like it's in the air.

Don't Brand Your City

The North Shore Connector: Can We Make It a Train to Somewhere?

The Post Gazette put up this promo film of the soon to be open North Shore Connector.
Powerful. Awesome. An amazing asset built at great expense. Now, let's see what we can do to make this pay off beyond linking to the stadium, casino a few events and hotels.

The North Shore is most certainly not "nowhere", but our misguided, development patterns have come close to making it so by putting cars above human based development.

I will try to come back with more thoughts soon.

Video compilation of Teenie Harris profiles in the national media

The Westmoreland Museum, which hosted a earlier Harris retrospective, uploaded a montage, highlighting some of the attention paid to Harris and the communities he photographed. Almost all of them are really well done, so don't just skip through it.

Seems like many were done during the period of the earlier show, but some are newer.

"what he shows so clearly and forcefully in these photos is the sense of community that existed"

Great talk about city brands on Rust Wire: Some advice from Don Draper

Rust Wire put up a post about Cleveland's latest efforts to tinker with or create it's brand.

An Illustrated History of Cleveland’s Varied Attempts at “Rebranding"



Cleveland Rocks by Ian Hunter

A commenter than linked to this awesome article about urban brands with some advice from Don Draper.

"Face it you can't escape from who you are"

The problem, it seems, is a fundamental misunderstanding of what branding a city really means. Talk of “creating a brand” suggests a blank slate, a point of ground zero where we begin the process of establishing who we are. But cities are living organisms, with a legacy of past behaviors and no shortage of current, on-the-ground realities, which means–like it or not–they already have a brand.

Jackie Benson, a long-time player in place-based marketing, puts it this way: “If you’re the guy who doesn’t return phone calls, it doesn’t matter how much you talk about your personal commitment to your clients. You’re still the guy who doesn’t return phone calls. That’s your brand.”

People imagine that folks know nothing about the city and will believe anything pumped out by the PR team. The reality, is often that they know, a bit, and that you already, for better or worse, carry that brand.

Cleveland's biggest moment of civic branding happened in 1969



It was the city where the river caught on fire.

What's the ad guy gonna say? No, The River Didn't Catch on Fire?

Now we have some new branding for Cleveland.



It's the city with the former county executive on trial for large scale political corruption.

OK, and then it's the city that's home to The Cleveland Browns-etc....

My point is you can't hide or evade the things people already know about your city and culture that are true. If they are really, bad like being known for lots of violent crime, pollution or corruption, you likely have to work on changing those facts.

If your leadership fails to engender trust, you can’t sell strength. If your policies are not incentivizing what you want and penalizing what you don’t, you can’t sell vision. If your zoning promotes sprawl and your citizens are disconnected from civic participation, you can’t sell community.

What you can do is build up and sell the great things about who you are even if they won't appeal to everyone.

Like Cleveland might not be a great place to go on a diet.



But you know, a few people might like that. In fact, Cleveland has lots of great and very real things that many people would love.

Part two soon.

What is Transit Oriented Development?

Yes, you heard right--

"In the first 6 months of 2009, 18% of all housing construction permits for the entire state of New Jersey, were in Jersey City."

"People who used to own two cars, now only own one, people who own one care only use it on occasion."

"We don't require parking in most of the development, that your looking at."

There's a maximum parking ratio for much of this development, but there's no minimum.

"A key part of it is changing the zoning."



It's not just something they are doing in New York and New Jersey.



Hopefully, a conversation about this will develop in Pittsburgh, Cleveland and other communities around the region.

Potentially Great Moment for Transit Oriented Development as The Cincinnati Streetcar Breaks Ground

Can we say it? Pittsburgh's transit situation is an epic clusterf...k with service on even the most critical core routes being cut or eliminated.

A core problem is that we have always sold transit as basically a charity item (or jobs program) and never properly connected transit investments with development. Am I excited about the opening of the North Shore Connector? Only mildly, since it mainly connects to a sports facility used a few times a year and a gambling casino targeted at a broad base of car oriented gamblers.

For purely political reasons we supported many suburban money losing routes with few riders which helped people think that transit is a waste of money. (when is the cost of a road ever questioned)

Cincinnati's streetcar excites me-because it actually is the product of a new way of thinking about how people get around and how land will be used. I'm not saying they will get this right, but they are thinking in the right way.

Ground Broken For Cincinnati Streetcar



Something tells me, suburban voters get it, which is why they hated this project from the start. The streetcar means the city property owners can use land for something other than storing cars.

Great website reviews and maps hundreds of Ohio Festivals

Beneath Ohio's image as a bland state is a huge amount of history, diversity and just plain weirdness. Festivals are a great way to discover all that.

A few examples--from the over 200 festival reviews on the site.

Cleveland Asian Festival

The Port Clinton Walleye Festival

Taste of Cincinnati

Tremont Greek Festival

Medina Ice Festival

Avon Heritage Duct Tape Festival

Gene Autry Days – Kenton

Larchmere PorchFest – Cleveland

Toledo Lighthouse Festival

Bucyrus Bratwurst Festival

IngenuityFest – Cleveland

Ohio River Sternwheel Festival

Skunk Fest – North Ridgeville

Pyrotopia Fire Arts Festival comes to Homestead: April 27th & 28th, 2012

Pyrotopia overview from Pyrotopia on Vimeo.

This now long awaited event got delayed a bit but now has finalised dates and location. It will now be held around The Pump house in Homestead.

Keep up with the details here.

It will be the East Coast’s first-ever festival dedicated entirely to fire arts, presenting fire’s diversity of use by artists and celebrating humankind’s primal fascination with fire.

Pyrotopia will entertain and enchant attendees with the use of fire and related media such as electricity and light in artistic ways. Activities at Pyrotopia will include
• fire dancing, spinning, hooping, swallowing and other performances
• interactive fire sculptures and games
• fire-related demonstrations
• a gallery show of fire-related and inspired imagery, sculpture, video and other media
• workshops and lectures on fire science, history, safety and other topics
• and more

Anyone who went, want to share a post about Cleveland's Brite Winter Fest?

This is a time sensitive request. If you went to The Brite Winter Fest, in Ohio City and have pictures, video or thoughts about it, you can share, it would be much appreciated. Cross posting is fine.

Email: diggingpitt@gmail.com

Cleveland's Cash Mob Movement shows off it's Awesome DYI Culture

Yes, Cleveland is home to Jimmy Dimora, and a lot of just plainly misguided city leaders.

How, does it survive? Well, Cleveland also has a totally awesome, DYI, and local craft businesses culture. Born in Cleveland and spreading around the country is the cash mob movement, a grass roots way to connect, discover and support local shops.

From the Plain Dealer

An enthusiastic 'cash mob' gathered in front of The Grog Shop concert venue at Coventry Road and Euclid Heights Boulevard to, as organizer Andrew Samtoy said, help "get people back into the habit of supporting their local businesses."

After Samtoy announced the cash mob 'rules' - participants must spend $20 and meet three new people - the crowd of mostly 20 and 30-somethings made their way down the bustling Coventry strip to the night's target business; Big Fun Toy Store.

Owner Steve Presser warmly greeted the surge of new customers, as the mob quickly descended upon the store's seemingly endless supply of vintage memorabilia. Billed as offering "a shopping experience like no other", Big Fun's quirky stock of everything from Troll dolls and KISS refrigerator magnets to Dick Goddard greeting cards and 'Billy Bob'-style teeth produced plenty of smiling faces and a steady stream of purchases.

May Building Plan gives Cleveland Negative buzz In Atlantic Cities

I know this plan is allegedly dead,(I don't believe it) but I can't drop it. It symbolises so much of what has gone wrong in downtown development plans that so often put attractions for tourists and suburban commuters above the basic structure and design of the city.

Atlantic Cities picked up the story which has some very good comments.

This is a building almost everyone who has been to downtown Cleveland has seen and admired. It's not just beautiful, but screams out how useful it is for almost anything from retail, to office and residential.

Owners of Cleveland's Historic Downtown May Building propose gutting it for Casino Parking

Image from the Wikipedia (public domain)

More about this building

OK, they were turned down by the city planning commission.

The building's owners, a Florida-based investor group, had hoped to create 734 parking spaces on four floors and remove the windows for ventilation.

An architect working on the project said that that building's ground floor would be maintained for retail, and that housing and offices were possible on the upper floors. But plans submitted to the city focused on the parking proposal, which was limited to the second through fifth floors.

The commission seemed shocked that with all the "investment", in the area, like the nearby, football, baseball and basketball arenas, the soon to be constructed massive convention center and casino, that the owners didn't see more value in renovating the building for any higher use.

Of course- creating massive single use facilities, specifically aimed at bringing in huge crowds to such a small area was almost certain to inspire just this kind of development. Already several other historic buildings had been torn down for casino parking.

My sad guess is that these neighboring developments, taken as a whole subtract, rather than add to the building's potential value for offices, or residential. How many people say, gee I want to have an office right by a casino (a small casino might be different) or a huge stadium? Fewer are likely to want to live there.

Even so, Cleveland, still has the bones of a great downtown-and this building is a very big part of that. There is also a tight and growing demand for residential space downtown. One can only hope this building can make it.

2013 Carnegie International Curator's Blog getting Some Attention

I have to say, I liked the last Carnegie International, but it didn't exactly stretch your brain, consisting to largely of established American and European art stars-showing works in the very tight confines of a traditional museum and making very little use of Pittsburgh's unique landscape or history. Not surprisingly, the curator pretty quickly skipped town.

I have heard some rumors, that the new curatorial team is looking to possibly use some alternate spaces outside the museum. I sure hope so. If their blog is any indicator, they are much more involved in the neighborhood art scene. Their curatorial trips also indicate a show that spans a much wider range.

Write up in Gallerist NY

Some sample posts.

Symposium on building art institutions in Africa-In Senegal

A look at a sculpture park made out of garbage in Senegal

Political Puppet Theater from Poland

A look at Beirut's Arab Image Foundation

Artist Apartment Talks in Lawrenceville

A trip to The Maxo Vanka Murals

The Cleveland Museum Extends it Reach with a New Annex in Ohio City

This is not exactly news to many people but it was news to me.

If you dig around on the blog, you can see I've been somewhat negative about The Cleveland Museum's very ambitious-almost dangerous efforts to supersize itself-while in my opinion doing nothing to better integrate itself into the city.

My feeling about this plan to create an annex on Cleveland's West Side is totally different. Wow! nice.

I love the comments from the Bidwell's about the annex becoming much more of a place for experimentation.

"The Cleveland Museum of Art and the Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell Foundation announced on September 16, 2011 a collaboration that will bring additional exposure for contemporary art to Northeast Ohio and for the first time in its history expand aspects of the museum's programming and exhibitions to dedicated space outside of its University Circle campus. Titled the Transformer Station, this new arts venue takes root in a former transformer station built in 1924 at 1460 West 29th Street in Cleveland's Ohio City neighborhood."

Up until a short while ago one would not have guessed from it's institutions that Cleveland is home to a good number of very important contemporary art collectors. In the next few years that will be totally changed, with the opening of the new Cleveland MOCA, The Transformer Station Gallery; Spaces Gallery and expanded Cleveland Museum contemporary galleries and of course The Akron Art Museum.

Cool Blog by West Virginia Artist, Robert Villamagna

Took me a long time to find, Robert Villamagna's personal blog where he documents some of his creative process, teaching experiences, exhibits and other random stuff. It's also a peak at many of the art happenings going on in West Virginia.

Check it out. http://wvartist.wordpress.com/

New Street Art: Benjamin Banneker Sign In The Hill District

I really like this raw folk art/ street art piece I saw in The Hill District. I think it's on Centre Ave but I'm not sure.



One thing street art can do is make people more aware of their regional or cultural history. My guess is that was the main intent of the creator of this work I saw in the hill. Sad to say, I had only a very vague idea of who Benjamin Banneker was-but I looked him up after seeing this.



From the Wikipedia

"The title page of an edition of Banneker's 1792 Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Almanack and Ephemeris stated that the publication contained:


the Motions of the Sun and Moon, the True Places and Aspects of the Planets, the Rising and Setting of the Sun, Place and Age of the Moon, &c.—The Lunations, Conjunctions, Eclipses, Judgment of the Weather, Festivals, and other remarkable Days; Days for holding the Supreme and Circuit Courts of the United States, as also the useful Courts in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. Also—several useful Tables, and valuable Receipts.—Various Selections from the Commonplace–Book of the Kentucky Philosopher, an American Sage; with interesting and entertaining Essays, in Prose and Verse—the whole comprising a greater, more pleasing, and useful Variety than any Work of the Kind and Price in North America.

The 1792 almanac included the times for the rising and setting of the sun and moon. Weather forecasts and dates for yearly feasts were also included. Readers also saw a tide table for the Chesapeake Bay and home treatments for illnesses. In his 1793 almanac, Banneker included letters sent between Thomas Jefferson and himself.[17] The title page of a Baltimore edition of his 1795 almanac had a woodcut portrait of him as he may have appeared, but which a writer later concluded was more likely a portrayal of an idealized African American youth."

I liked this work a lot.

Eat Your Heart Out, Pittsburgh: Cleveland's West Side Market Celebrates 100 Years

Warning--this video is not for vegetarians.

Why is it so hard for a Pittsburgher or Clevelander to acknowledge one great thing about the other city? Just admit this is pretty great.



A whole bunch of celebrations are planned.

From Cleveland.com

A traffic-stopping street festival is planned for Oct. 7, a rare Sunday that the market will be open, and will include food by local restaurants and celebrated food trucks, as well as a parade with costumes created in workshops led by the Cleveland Museum of Art's Parade the Circle organizers.

The market's actual birthday is Nov. 2, a Friday. The gala event will be celebrated Saturday, Nov. 3 (billed as the first day of the market's next century), featuring homeboy restaurateurs and award-winners Jonathon Sawyer and Michael Symon -- along with a dozen or so of their nationally renowned chef friends. Tickets will be priced at three levels, with the most expensive providing the closest access to chefs. The Great Lakes Brewing Co. will be releasing a centennial brew.

New Organization, Alternative Appalachia aims to support non traditional arts

http://www.alternativeappalachia.org/

"Alternative Appalachia aims to provide exposure to filmmakers, musicians, visual artists and writers living in Appalachia whose art form does not conform to traditional regional styles. We intend to initiate social awareness of the wide spectrum of creativity occurring in the region through our website and other platforms. Alternative Appalachia strives to challenge stereotypes of art in the region and will create a support system for artists and develop interest in their work"

Check out the submission guidlines for each art form

P.S. No exact definition is given for what they consider, Appalachia, but all of West Virginia, the greater Pittsburgh area (actually most of Pennsylvania) and South East Ohio, is usually considered in this region.

In an earlier version of this post, I made the assumption, they gave grants. After looking further at what's on the website, I think they are more about creating a forum to make people more aware of alternative work being made here.

Just a heads up that they exist--check out the details.

James Simon's Welcome to Uptown Sign

Sorry about the low quality of these images, I don't drive and this is not a spot I normally pass with a camera at hand. When I did, there was a pretty serious back lighting situation.

Both me and Jean were a bit surprised by the weird location of this sign, which is in a parklet few neighborhood people would go. In fact, you really can only see it well, as you leave the area and head towards the South Side.

Beggars can't be choosers, and this was the spot the city must have given. James did a wonderful job bringing a creative and colorful entrance to the neighborhood.

You might know that James also did an amazing Welcome to Braddock sign.

"Industrial Strength": The South Side's Emerald Art Glass House profiled in The Times

We were watching as this weirdly great new house was starting to loom over a factory on Pittsburgh's slopes.

From The NY Times

"It took three years to build, but the Emerald Art Glass House (named after the Zielinskis’ company, Emerald Art Glass) now hovers above the factory in the South Side neighborhood, overlooking the Monongahela River, railway line and bridges.

Eric Fisher, the couple’s architect, says proudly that the cantilevered extension is three times the length of the one at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater. And that it recalls the tradition of the owner living over the shop."

It gives a lot of the back story of how it was built and the owners who built it. Also has a nice slideshow.

In case the Times link doesn't work, even if you subscibe and log in, here are a few more related links.

In Rusty Bridge

On Wreck and Salvage

Amazing Milestone: Two Kickstarter projects raise over a million dollars.

So many things I should post about.

Wow, most people assume you can't raise really big money through crowdsourced funding and most people and organizations don't try.

"LOS ANGELES — Last night at 6:42 pm in New York, a Kickstarter project raised $1 million. Double Fine Adventure, a video game designed by San Francisco game designer Tim Schafer and his team at Double Fine Productions, is a downloable “point-and-click” graphic adventure game. Backers get both the game and a real time documentary filmed by 2 Player Productions as the game develops."

From Hyperallergic

Stunning but not a record because 4 hours earlier another project passed the million mark.

Obviously, I find so many reasons to love this. In spite of supposed efforts at outreach, the vast majority of conventional government and foundation funding goes to the same folks and ideas over and over.

What is the record for an art project?