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Class trip to Homewood to tour Cluster 4

Recently, Dr. Grossmann’s master-level course, Building Sustainable and Resilient Cities took a field trip to Homewood to have a tour of Cluster 4 with Operation Better Block’s (OBB) Gabby DeMarchi. The current Homewood grant project team members are in this class along with other first and second year Falk School of Sustainability graduate students. Gabby […]


Updates on Morgan’s Homewood research

Morgan has interviewed 13 people living in Homewood so far. An overwhelming majority of respondents are in favor of some type of inclusionary zoning model to incorporate an equitable amount of affordable housing in an apartment complex. Most of the respondents view East Liberty negatively, with one factor as the perceptive displacement of long-term residents. Respondents […]


Meet our newest team members!

During the first weeks of this semester, Dr. Grossmann connected with the new incoming graduate cohort and recruited the newest members for this team to continue to build on the work with the community partners in Homewood.   Lilly Freedman, MSUS ‘20, With a background in both sociology & environmental studies, she is interested mainly in […]



Morgan Block: Conducting Property Surveys in West Homewood

At Operation Better Block, we are continuously conducting property surveys throughout the rest of the summer. According to our survey map, many of the homes surveyed are owned by either the City of Pittsburgh or the Urban Redevelopment Authority, which is an interesting find for anyone thinking about the future of Homewood. A stark contrast […]


Morgan Block: Examining Homewood’s Housing

The past month at Operation Better Block has served as a great learning experience. Some of my assignments have been surrounding the topic of housing in Homewood. Housing is a major issue in many, if not all, Pittsburgh neighborhoods, and housing contains significant value in sustainable cities. Interestingly, the City of Pittsburgh owns many vacant, […]