A Chatham University blog about the work funded by Bank of America
Community Organization: Located between N. Lang, and N. Murtland St. in Homewood, Pittsburgh, PA the Black Urban Gardeners and Farmers Cooperative of Pittsburgh (BUGs FCP) work on several parcels of land leased through the City of Pittsburgh’s adopt-a-lot program. BUGs thrives on a mission of serving as a collective of Black men and women involved […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
More people need to come to Homewood to see what it is like. Too often, Pitt students are sheltered by the comfort of Oakland to venture out and witness what the city truly looks like. I think if more people witnessed Homewood, more people would demand action, and more action would ensue. I learned SO […]
When I began my tree inventory in late May, I didn’t know much about Homewood and lacked some knowledge/experience in conducting a tree survey of a community. However, as the months passed, all of that changed. I learned about and experienced the significant passion the community has for change and continual progress in their neighborhood. […]
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 […]
For my internship, my primary focus will be planning and managing the creation of our green infrastructure course that we are (hopefully) offering to Chatham students and high school Homewood residents in the Fall. The class will be called “Storm Water Management in Urban Developments,” and will observe methodologies to reduce flooding in Pittsburgh, particularly […]
My first weeks I helped out by organizing information about the various projects OBB has done. Through access to meeting notes and emails relating to the projects, I now have a deeper understanding of how non-profits create projects and how they go about reaching out to their community. It’s very rewarding to help OBB keep […]
Thanks, Bank of America! Thanks to the generous grant funding by Bank of America, Chatham University professor, Iris Grossmann, Ph.D., of The Falk School of Sustainability and Environment, was able to recruit a team of students and other faculty members to work on what we hope to be a multi-year community-based sustainability project in Pittsburgh’s […]