Good afternoon and welcome to the pre-agenda interview for Wednesday, March 11, 2026 for the Historic Review Commission.

The Public Art Committee and the Civic Design Committee, we're going to take the Historic Review Commission first.

If the clerk will please read the title of the bills.

Bill 131, resolution appointing Catherine Blavelt as a member of the Historic Review Commission for a term to expire January 1st, 2029.

Bill 132, resolution appointing Kay Chase Patterson as a member of the Historic Review Commission.

For a term to expire January 1, 2027.

Bill 133, resolution appointing Luna Froonsgard as a member of the Historic Review Commission for a term to expire January 1, 2029.

And Bill 134, resolution appointing Martha Eisler as a member of the Historic Review Commission for a term to expire January 1, 2028.

Bill 147, resolution appointing Emily Stigge as a member of the Public Art Committee of the Public Art and Civic Design Commission for a term concurrent with that of the mayor.

Bill 148, resolution appointing James Hill as a member of the Civic Design Committee of the Public Art and Civic Design Commission.

Four term concurrent with that of the mayor.

And Bill 150, resolution appointing Kendall Solar as a member of the Civic Design Committee of the Public Art and Civic Design Commission for a time concurrent with that of the mayor.

Thank you.

For the record, we are currently joined by Councilman Schrosberger, although I suspect other members will uh trickle in shortly.

With that, what I would like to do is open it up to our nominees.

If you would please introduce yourself, tell us who you are, tell us why you're willing or want or wanting to serve on this important commission.

Um, and then we'll turn it over to members for questions, and we were also joined by Councilman Warwick.

So we'll start with Mr.

Paterson.

Uh thank you, Council President.

My name is Chase Patterson, and I'm honored to be considered for appointment to the Pis Pittsburgh Historic Review Commission.

I am a lifelong Pittsburger, uh having never lived anywhere else, and I'm proud of it.

Uh my understanding of neighborhoods and the importance of place began early in my life.

I grew up in Beachview where my mother still lives today, and my uncles and aunts lived uh when they were very young as well.

And some of my earliest memories of community and place um come from places like John's Drugstore, the Neighborhood Foodland, St.

Catherine's, and the Carnegie Library.

Uh those places were more than buildings for me and more than storefronts.

They were anchors for our daily life.

Uh places where my family gathered and the spirit of our community was felt.

And so watching Beachview evolve over the years has taught me that neighborhoods change.

But the physical spaces within them carry the memory of the people who built and sustained them.

And so that's a lessons that I've that I've learned in my career, and for nearly a decade serving as a CEO of the Urban Academy in Larmer, I first stepped into leadership there, and many of my advisors encouraged us to tear down our school building.

But what I understood then was something that I've learned, and that is that place and preservation and the future are all intertwined.

And so I believe that the bones of buildings carry the stories of neighborhoods.

And my experience has shaped my perspective deeply.

And so I believe that historic buildings and historic places are not obstacles to progress.

They're opportunities to connect the past to the future.

And so when preserved thoughtfully, they provide cultural continuity, identity, and the dignity that communities need and deserve.

So if confirmed, which I hope to be, I would approach this role with humility, thoughtful judgment, and deep respect for the neighborhoods whose stories are written all across the history of Pittsburgh.

This is a city that has always reinvented itself, and the work of this commission helps to ensure that as we grow, we do not lose sight of where we've come from.

So thank you all for your consideration.

I look forward to your questions, and I would be honored to serve.

Thank you, members of the council.

My name is Catherine Blavelt, and I'm honored to be considered for appointment for the Historic Review Commission.

I am a librarian with 10 years of professional experience in Rare Books Special Collections and Research Services.

Before that, I spent two years managing the Rare Books and Special Collections Department, re-establishing public access to the collection and directing the conservation lab at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Main Branch.

Prior to Pittsburgh, I spent six years at the New York Public Library's Stephen A.

Schwartzman building where I worked in both the General Research Division and the Art and Architecture Division.

I hold a Master's of Library and Information Science with a certificate in special collections from the University of Illinois Urban Champaign.

Throughout my career, I've been I have been drawn to architectural history.

At the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, the first display I curated for Local History Day was on Pittsburgh's architecture.

I went on to curate an exhibit spotlighting Elise McCurr, Pittsburgh's first female architect whose only surviving building in the city, St.

Paul Episcopal Church in the Hill District, is recognized as a historic landmark.

I also champion the digitization of the Home Monthly, a Pittsburgh magazine from the 1890s, edited by Willie Cather, whose April 1898 issue profiles McCure and features her design for a children's hospital at the Marshall Sea Poor Farm near Bridgeville, Pennsylvania.

That building has since been demolished, but the complete run of the Home Monthly is now being digitally preserved and made publicly accessible, ensuring that the record of McCurr's work lives on.

I was also responsible for the care of the Old Stone Tavern Ledger, a document from the 1790s that was instrumental instrumental in securing the building's historical landmark designation.

At C at NYPL, I staff the art and architecture reference desk, helping researchers locate records and historical documentation.

And at CMU, I have access to the architecture archives, which hold the papers of architects like Ben O'Jansen and Henry Hornbossel.

Preserving architectural history has been a thread running through my entire career.

My connection to this work is also personal.

I am passionate about our architecture.

Just last week in Miami, I skipped the beach to see a parking garage by Herzok and DeMuren.

For my first wedding anniversary, I brought my husband to Mies Vanderrow's Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois.

When my family came to Pittsburgh, I found a city with one of the most architecturally diverse connect collections anywhere in the world.

And that architecture isn't distinct or museum-like, distant or museum-like.

It is woven into the fabric of daily life.

On Sundays, my children attend school at Hornbossels Road of Shalom.

During the week, they learn at Ben O'Jansen's Folk School.

Just recently we moved into a Ben O'Jansen house on Kinkinsman Road.

I found an early image of our home from 1911 in Architectural Record, Volume 30, and I have plans to open up the enclosed porch and restore it to its original glory.

I work at Carnegie Mellon University where Hornbossel's campus surrounds me every day.

H.

H.

Richardson's Romanesque Courthouse, Hornbossel's City County Building, Daniel Burnham's Union Station.

These are not landmarks we've not these are not landmarks we visit.

They are the streets we walk, the buildings we enter, the city we live in.

I want to help keep it that way.

I love this community.

I'm raising fourth generation Pittsburghers, and I want the city to remain the same extraordinary place for them and for generations to come.

Through my professional work, I am already guarding Pittsburgh's history, its rare materials, and its cultural records.

Serving on the commission would let me guard it in more in one more way by helping to protect the buildings themselves.

I would be proud to take on that responsibility.

Thank you, and I'm happy to answer questions.

Very much.

Hello, my name is Luna Frielskard.

Thank you all for your attention.

I am a design principal with Indivina Associates Architects here in Pittsburgh.

We do all kinds of work ranging from residential to institutional commercial, really all scales and types of project projects.

Some of the very core uh work of our business is historic buildings and the refurbishment of historic buildings in Pittsburgh.

We've worked on a number of buildings throughout the 10 years that I have been uh living here in Pittsburgh, uh, including it's I wrote a list because there's a lot of them, but including the terminal building on the south side, to which we refurbished uh the existing buildings into new commercial space and created a plaza, an outdoor public plaza with it.

We have worked on the Garden Theater.

We've worked on currently the Wellington and the Pennsylvania or two historic um residential multifamily buildings that are uh just being finished.

We worked on Rockwell Park uh in Point Breeze for over five years, both on master planning, architecture, interiors, and how to insert new new purpose into historic buildings.

Some of the other ones we're working on are have been Masonic Hall and Knights of Malta, the brass building, which houses our own office.

In fact, there used to be an old brass manufacturing business in the strip district.

And we repurposed it for residential and commercial.

And I think it's a very personal project, but you know, a good example of how our office and my personal approach to historic conservation when it comes to architecture is, which is infuse the purposeful life of historic buildings for the future.

Well, without compromising, of course, the architectural integrity and of the building and the uh community and the city as a whole.

Um currently we're working on doing the same thing to the Gulf Tower close by here in downtown, um, which will be a mixed-use project.

So really our um in my work with Indivina I go through a lot of these processes from the design perspective, and I am hoping to bring that experience to the commission and and really um help yeah, provide some insight to how we can best use and guide uh any applicants or any projects towards the best possible use of historic buildings.

It's not just a museum, they shouldn't necessarily just be the way they were, but it's uh a matter of being respectful uh to the original architectural intent and uh also providing opportunities for new use.

So I'm very excited for this hopeful opportunity, and I thank you very much for your attention.

And likewise, if there's any questions, I'm happy to answer them.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

My name is Marty Isler.

I'm a 43-year resident of Squirrel Hill, uh not a native of Pittsburgh, but I'm going to die here with my boots on, as I say to my friends.

So I hope it's not any time soon.

But I certainly love this city.

I'm currently the secretary of the Board of Trustees for the Community College of Allegheny County.

We've been involved in an in bringing to life a number of historic buildings for the college and to repurpose for college use.

And we have tried in every instance to maintain the integrity of the building, the woodwork, not trying to destroy anything that would be of historic significance.

And I think to date we've done a really good job, the latest one being Shellfont Hall that we just opened recently.

I also am a longtime uh supporter of city trees.

I was chair of the Shade Tree Commission for 15 years.

I was a founding member of Tree Pittsburgh, uh founding board member.

I'm involved in a number of uh city projects with my role as president and past president of the Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition, where I've been actively trying to bring some order to Forbes and Murray in terms of having enough benches for bus stops and trees for shade and things that will help the neighborhood maintain its uh unique urban uh status.

I've also recently been and still am vice president and fundraising chair for the Neal Log House.

Uh if you don't know where that is, it's in Shenley Park.

It's a circa 1795 house that was falling down.

Um it was rescued by us incorporating in 2021 as the friends of the Neo Log House.

We began fundraising in 2022 after knowing all of what we needed to do to actually restore the house to historic preservation standards.

And over the course of a year and a half, we raised over $300,000.

We did manage to restore it.

We have a contractor from Holidaysburg, Pennsylvania, who is an expert with log houses, and he was brought in to actually do the work.

We also have restored and gone to great lengths to furnish the neo log house with some items that have been left over from the Junior League purchase in the 1970s, but um many had to be destroyed because during the process of the house being closed for 30 years, lots of critters came in.

You might have seen Fox in there in the newspaper and squirrels, and we had a groundhog that um took us three years to get him a home 17 miles from here.

And we have been struggling to maintain the landscaping, and we have plans to build a Virginia fence, and then our plans are to turn it over to a permanent Lisi, a nonprofit that can run it for future generations.

And we look forward to doing that.

I'm very honored to be uh considered for this appointment, and I hope that I will be able to answer any of your questions, and I thank you.

Very much.

We'll now turn over to members with questions for the record at direct reflect.

We've also been joined by our additional colleague.

Um Councilman Strasberger.

Thank you, Mr.

President, Mr.

Chair.

Uh, thank you all for being here, and for um, you know, clearly you're all incredibly qualified for this role.

I appreciate your willingness to serve.

And I really just have one question because I know this is something that the commission grapples with, and that is how do you think about historic relevance and historic the need for historic preservation when it's a decision that you know is maybe how do you grapple with uh the decision uh to preserve based on the significance of the architecture itself versus the events that occurred inside the building?

Um we've seen those, we've seen varying types of nominations come through that um you know, where the where we know that um there might be a less significant case for the architecture itself, but there have been significant historical events taking place inside, um, and obviously cases that are you know where the where the structure itself is historically relevant might not be popular architecture for all types because preference, you know, is it's all subjective, it's all based on preference, but it's in your historically significant.

How do you think about historical relevance and structure relevance?

And I encourage you, you know, this is for everybody to answer or anyone who wants to answer, um, just to say like I encourage disagreement if you do disagree with one another, that's okay with me.

So whoever starts doesn't have to be the vanguard of the answer.

Anyone is able to start.

I'll start.

Um I believe in balanced perspective.

I also believe in trusting the perspective and the opinion of the staff that would advise the commission based on the guidelines that are in place.

Um and so speaking specifically to balanced perspective, um, if we're permitted by the guidelines to take into consideration what happened inside of the building, then I would absolutely do that.

If the guidelines require us not to take that into consideration, then I would follow the guidelines and the recommendation of staff.

I agree with Chase, what he just said, and I would take that one step further.

I did spend a lot of my career in the field of regulatory administration, and I think writing the requirements and the regulations and the code in language that can be understood and can be applied equitably and can be applied reasonably by the people who are on the commission is key to us moving forward with answering your question.

But I also believe sometimes there are ways to honor what happened inside a building in ways that don't require the building itself to be considered as the final answer.

I think the balance is what Chase started with, and I agree that that's the way to approach it.

Um as someone who's in the business of um preserving histories and culture, I think that a place can absolutely um be very important to the happenings that are there.

I think really listening to the community too, and what they would want and how their relationship with that building, what it's like, of course, like what's safe and keeping up with the codes, etc.

But I really see being part of this commission is this partnership too with the community and what listening to them and kind of um coming forward to being informed by them and vice versa, and how we can work together in a partnership.

But I do feel like it has to be case by case too.

Um, but a place can absolutely inform a history.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's that's why as an architectural practitioner, I think this is such an interesting group and commission to be part of because to me, historic preservation is such a wide range of things.

And it is exactly what you described.

It can be a place, it can be a building, it can be a something, an event that happened that we collectively decide has signific enough significance that it should be honored in the future use of the building.

And when we think about historic buildings, maybe most people think of you know law cabins or uh older buildings, but really we're also going into an era of saying what is architectural significance or building significance that's worth preserving.

It could be the Hertz off and demuran uh parking garage, even though it's not really I mean it's it's a range, and I think they're so uh I would love to contribute in a way to advise on what what is the best use of it and how do we preserve architectural excellence and and cultural excellence as well.

But so I don't know if it's really an answer per se, but I think I I very much agree with you that it is a sliding scale, and it's a very um big responsibility to make those decisions both on behalf of the people that come to us and come to you and want to do something else with the building, and uh to guard the the ones that made it in the first place.

And I think that the best uh the best path forward is to always ensure that whatever is changed is an added value.

It's never a deduction, and doing that with high quality design, construction, whatever it might be, programming is important in my opinion.

But thank you for the thank you for your thoughtful answers, and I'll let my colleagues um ask whatever questions they have.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, Gosperman Sherman.

Uh yes, thank you.

Thank you for your willingness to serve here.

Um I will be relatively brief here.

Um but I do want to talk about uh one of the the you I think a couple people have mentioned the balance of uh historic preservation, and something that we have uh experienced here at a council and in our our city is the weaponizing of the Historic Review Commission.

Oh myone's getting it.

Well that was an experience I never had.

Just for the viewing public.

We all just received a tornado warning on our phone.

So that's what we're doing.

Is that what it was?

Oh my goodness, a tornado.

That's that was how tough this question was uh sorry.

Talk about losing your train of thought there.

Um I wanted to ask about the you know, uh historic review commission being used, you know, as a last effort to kill a project that a community doesn't support.

Sorry.

Okay.

Uh using the historic review commission as a last ditch effort to kill a project that that you know that someone has uh opposition to, uh, and we've seen the the city really be held back by some of you know finding a reason that something is historic, um, finding finding whatever that might be, and then putting it through that process as a way um to kill housing in our city, uh to to move back economic development.

And I want to hear from you about how you would balance um actual historic preservation and your um your authority to to you know is a really important authority to uh stop the the city from moving forward in certain places.

I'll I'll start again as uh as someone who practices architecture in the city of Pittsburgh and regularly come to the historic ummission with projects, you know, it's it's for us it's always a balance between the developers' wants and and uh the pro what the project programming is, which versus the historic character of the building, and there's always stakeholders and players, the community um rules and regulations, of course.

So I think uh I am hoping to balance it uh in a fairly but um I would say development forward way, never at the compromise of quality again.

My freezer's answer is the to me is the most important thing to honor a an and historic building by adding something purposeful, both in terms of programming and architecture.

And to me, that is again high quality materials always well considered planning and design.

But again, it's a case-by-case basis, and there can't be, of course, significant cases where you like this has to stay, because it it is least significant and we can't change it in the way that you want to change it.

But uh I'd like to think that there is a lot of very talented architects in Pittsburgh that are are come with very considered uh approaches and and gentle approaches to projects.

So I'm very much hoping to see some of that and help discuss it with the commission.

I think what you said is important, but I also uh would emphasize that your your topic of what's going to happen after the historic building is saved.

Is there going to be programming?

Is it going to be a group that's going to keep it operating?

Is there going to be something that can be offered to the community that is going to be helpful in a way that provides economic development or tourism or whatever it is that we're trying to achieve?

I I think saving it for the sake of saving it without having a plan going forward is a little troublesome to me.

I mean a great example could be we have so many wonderful churches in Pittsburgh that you know has such a rich cultural history, and unfortunately many of them are currently abandoned and indicate being dilapidated, and it's a very typical um dilemma that we encounter if someone wants to buy the church and make it residential, for example.

We think that we can do that in a purposeful and and honorable way to the building, but sometimes encounter just too many challenges to get through the processes to make that happen.

And then five years later the the church is still sitting in decay unused and is becoming a blight to the city.

Yeah, or 10 or 15, whatever it might be.

I mean, um, yeah, that's just one example of it would be great if there was better avenues to help move those things forward because as you say, the community many times will use that as kind of the the beating stick to, you know, there might be one or two neighbors on the block that don't want anything to happen, and then the rest of the neighborhood do not want to see it white it and graffiti all over it.

And right.

So I think that's a just a very real problem that hopefully this commission can help address in a more um efficient and reasonable way.

I think you're exactly right.

In five or ten years, the boarding up and the graffiti and what happens with the parties of people trying to get into the building and maybe not use it for the purposes for which it was intended.

There are buildings around that I think we all know and we have seen for years that are still there and just falling further down.

And I think there should be a way for us to balance what you said and be respectful, but allow it to be maybe made into condominiums or some kind of housing.

I I I absolutely understand what you're saying.

Oh, I was just gonna say, I am com I really am invested in the city of Pittsburgh.

I'm raising my family here.

I want to see it move forward in a thoughtful, productive way, and how we can be purposeful with the changes that are made.

I don't I don't want to see it boarded up.

I don't want to see that happen.

I want it to um grow.

So again, like working with whoever is coming forward on the project that they are interested in and doing the research too behind that existing building, and then thoughtfully taking it to the net.

I think it was what in your opening statement where you were saying about looking to the future but moving forward or looking at the past but moving forward.

That's yes.

I would say council and uh preservation and progress can coexist.

They should, especially in a city like Pittsburgh.

And there's more than enough evidence to suggest that it can be done successfully.

If I can speak to what I believe to be the core of your question, and that is the weaponization of this commission uh for specific interests that may not be aligned with the purpose of this commission.

I believe that vision conveys purpose.

And we are ultimately will be responsible for ensuring that the vision that is presented to us, whether it be for preservation or for uh uh progress for lack of a better term, we need to be sure that it is well intentioned for the community that it's that it's in uh and that it enriches the greater vision of the city.

And I think um while we are certainly political appointees, I'm not a politician.

My purpose on this commission will be to exact um the standards that we are held to uh by way of this confirmation.

And so I personally will not allow myself to be weaponized against this body or any other um for any political purposes outside of progress or preservation.

So uh you know, one of one of the things that's interesting in in Pennsylvania is that you don't have to own a building uh for it to be deemed historic.

That is not the case everywhere.

Um I have a very good friend who's a preservation planner in in Dallas, and you have to own the building if you want to make it historic.

But I can just point at a building and say, let's let's evaluate that as historic, something I have no interest in.

Um and we've seen that happen.

You know, we've we've seen that happen for a variety of different reasons.

Um that is something that we now at council, we make sure that on our agenda we see does the owner of the building support this nomination or not.

I will never support a nomination that the owner does not support.

Um if if if you do if you don't own the building and you don't think you have the capital in order to keep it up to historic guidelines, um someone else shouldn't be pointing at your building and saying that you know this is how you have to have it, and this is how this is the kind of expense you what you're doing is you're saying you have to keep those kind of expenses on this building.

Um it's something that that you know greatly frustrates me with uh the way that we do historic review.

The other thing one of the organizations that comes before you a lot, um they they came in my district and they they wanted they they wanted to nominate something as historic.

Um luckily the community group was like, don't do that.

We that doesn't fit with the neighborhood plan.

Um then they were like, what else can you make historic?

And that's not how we should be doing historic review.

Historic review should not be I'm looking for something to keep myself interested.

It should be that building actually, you know, is the Cathedral of Learning.

It's the the tallest uh educational building, I think, in North America.

That that's something we want to keep historic.

It shouldn't be I'm looking for a project because I want to uh you know keep funding for my organization, so I have to have so many nominations per year.

I I'm curious if you guys can can talk about like how you'll how you'll manage uh you know actually doing preservation with uh you know just folks that that don't own the building and don't understand the economics of what historic building means.

I'll restate that I believe vision conveys intent.

Um so uh how a presentation is made and what that presentation entails will be significant in how uh I will work in collaboration with my colleagues and the staff to formally make a decision.

I also am unprepared to answer the question specifically about um an individual and or organizations identifying buildings uh that they would intend to preserve because I'm not sure how slippery of a slope that is in terms of whether it would prevent the city from identifying a building that it wants to preserve as a story.

Uh and so I would lean on the council of the staff again uh to help inform that decision.

I think providing encouragement to owners for both development and upkeep of of their historic structures is important.

You know, there's a lot of development in Pittsburgh that rely heavily on historic tax credit funding, for example, and NRCAP money, et cetera, that um would not be possible as new construction, for example.

So having this sort of vast historic building mass in Pittsburgh is in my opinion, can be a great advantage.

And I think it just is the commission's job to see through that reaponization, because I'm I completely understand what you mean.

I've I've seen it firsthand multiple times.

But again, it's also uh it's an important balance that should be held by the the city of Pittsburgh and not necessarily only by the building owner or only by the community, it should be helped by um by a third party uh committee, which is what this is.

So I think that's why it's why it's so important.

And so, you know, uh I represent East Carson Street, which I would imagine is the longest historic district in the city.

I I don't know that to be true, but I would imagine it is.

Um of the situations that happened on the district or in the district in the 90s, the the historic designation of East Carson Street uh and the tax credits that were available from it actually were very important in order to revitalize the district when the district was really um dilapidated in the 80s and we were able to move it forward uh was the historic designation going after the tax credits, being able to uh preserve preserve the the buildings along there.

But it's a double-edged sword.

Um because a couple years ago we had uh an old gas station that was turned into a barbecue restaurant, and someone and it's not not contributing, you know.

This is not George Washington never went to this gas station.

This is just uh an old gas station.

Um not contributing to the district, so it's it's not a contributing property.

Someone wanted to turn it into a different restaurant that was going to have a volcano at it.

And I got asked, you know, well, if we do on the outside in the historic district.

And the historic volcano.

They're not I mean they were gonna build a volcano.

Um and so the project was killed in uh historic review, and ultimately that building sits vacant today, and it's been vacant vacant for five, six, seven years.

Nothing, nothing has gone in there.

Someone had a plan to make that happen, but when we killed the volcano, we killed the project, and it sits empty.

And that's you know, the kind of things that can happen from the Historic Review Commission.

And I I need to move move the district forward.

So I I see it, you know, I do see it as a double-edged sword.

A lot of that tax credit money has has dried up and and does not exist in the way that it does before.

So I think the last thing, and this isn't a question, and I know I've been long here.

Um, but I also see one of the roles I would like to see from you is advocating for more tax credit money for historically designated properties to make this possible.

If this is actually something we want to do, it's not going to come locally, but it's we we need that money to come in and make it make it viable.

Um I've got a Chinese restaurant that might go out of business because they don't want to repair their windows in the way that's historically accurate, and they just can't afford they can't afford it.

So, you know, uh that that money needs to I I hope that you can see yourselves as advocates to the state to try to get that money to come come back to us.

I think the East Carson Street is a is a great example of something that's not it's a district, it's a part of Pittsburgh's history that is not just a freestanding building.

And I think that whether it's the volcano or not, by kind of tripping away piece by piece and saying, oh, this particular building in this district is not historically significant, but the it might be okay to do that one, two or three times, but the more times you allow it, and the more times you set precedence um whether the volcano is warranted or not.

But uh the more you chip away, you're not necessarily doing the district as a whole justice, and you might be doing it at disservice because people see Ace Carson Street as a uh historic, you know, it's it's an it's very sick historic significant part of Pittsburgh.

I know it's the longest Victorian main street.

Yeah, and and if suddenly, you know, I've seen in many other cities where the right procedures had not been in place, and then suddenly there's a new Walgreens, and then this thing pops up, and you know, it might not seem like much on a single standing project basis, but then suddenly ten years later, this the area has lost its character.

So being guardians of seeing looking ahead, and it is a very challenging uh challenging thing to have an opinion about because how am I to say that my opinion is better than yours or yours?

It's a very personalized opinion, I guess, to have about historic character, but being able to see the bigger picture of Pittsburgh as a whole and and seeing 10, 20, 50 years ahead, I think would be the goal, hopefully.

Yeah, I mean, but at the same time, I understand like the chipping away, you know, if we build a volcano, we chip away at the historic desert.

We also chip away at the historic value of the district when this the building sits vacant.

Don't get me wrong, I'm I'm an architect.

I like to get things built and get things through.

So I'm I'm certainly uh development forward, but again, it's it's a matter of looking at what what fits right and the the right projects will will fit in that context, and they should be supported, of course.

Yeah, they should be supported.

If that if the Chinese restaurant, if the only reason why they're leaving is because of that building, let's find ways to either through cr tax credits, etc.

to help them succeed, they're a member of that community now and help them, you know, preserve the building in a right thoughtful way and exist there and not, you know.

I'm wondering about that as well.

Some of the facade money, some of the other ways that you can improve your building, would they be eligible for that?

I I think the I think exploring other ways to keep the Chinese restaurant open in spite of them needing new windows that they can't afford at this time.

Yeah, I but it you know at the same time the you know the facade grants, the the money doesn't go very far.

So you know that's a limited budget there, and and we've got other storefronts that also need that money to stay at open businesses and make our other main streets thrive.

Um and and we're putting this requirement on a business um that is now gonna be happy to take their business out to Cranberry or whatever.

You know.

And then I've got another storefront I've got to fix.

So all right.

Uh I think I've I've gone a lot longer than I intended to.

Thank you, Mr.

Sheff.

Thank you.

Councilman Woolworth.

Um yeah, thank you.

Thanks everyone for being here and um for putting your hat in the ring for the commission.

Um it's uh so yeah, I have some questions.

I mean, it's all sort of along the same lines.

Um the first thing is like so with historic designation and you know, any any building that's named to store, you know, the sort of and maybe this is sort of to the councilman's point, it that really scares people off.

Like I have a I have a building in Hazelwood, it's the old Hazelwood Library.

Um it's a beautiful old building, and there have been three, maybe four different folks who have come through with ideas for projects.

Luckily, we just got a grant to to fix the roof so that we don't lose the building entirely, right?

But um, you know, I have someone who's interested in the building now for a pro you know, this is very just very early stages.

But when I talked to them, this idea of historic like it was like, oh, is the building designated historic?

Like, oh, and it was like, yeah, it is, and it was just like, oh I mean, you could just it was just like grown, like to the and so this notion that again, this building could just disappear because we make it too hard for someone to to you know come in and and just kind of do what they want to do with the building.

So I don't know if you have thoughts about that and what the role that the commission might play in those conversations.

That's the balance that we talked about earlier.

You don't want it to stay vacant.

You don't want it.

It's awful.

I mean, it's just like a building, feedy.

It's any structure to be vacant for five or ten or whatever.

It just falls apart.

So you don't want that.

But you have to be able to negotiate that balance of what's the building going to be used for?

Is the outside integrity of the building, at least the way it appears if it's a historic district, is it going to be maintained?

There are all kinds of questions that I would ask going forward.

And I understand I've heard the groan of people that I know that are in uh historic buildings.

But I'm uh inclined to preserve that integrity of the street or of the building or or whatever it is, but I'm not inclined to do it in the instead of allowing it to move forward in a different kind of um mix of uses that would, as I said, preserve what it looks like to the historic district, but would keep it from falling down.

I'm I think that balance is something that we all would have to struggle with.

And I assume it also ties to the to the guidelines that we're adhering to and and reviewing those and in ensuring enough flexibility in order to be able to respectfully address a number of different types and styles of project that it the guidelines are not too rigid and they allow for that for that reuse for a modern purpose, but without letting someone just do exactly whatever they want with it, which could be you know painted purple or clad it in corrugated metal.

I you know, I so it's it is that balance, but uh you know ensuring the the flexibility and the commission's um guidelines and the workings that we're bound by I think is is very important.

I th I think the the issue is more I I mean I I see what you mean, but uh you know the interest in the building is too preserved, right, is sort of an opportunity to preserve to do something good for the community, but I think the concern is more about material, I mean right yeah, like materials, like you know, this kind of roof versus the uh roof that's gonna cost whatever four times as much because it's like the historic this or that.

Yeah, yeah.

So um anyway, well that that's good to know.

I mean, just that that I I feel like that flexibility definitely needs to be there, right?

And because I mean, like with Neil, and and also maybe the history of why the building is, because this, you know, much like the Neil Loghouse is a building that the city of Pittsburgh just let rot, right?

For a very long time.

And that's why it is the way that it is, right?

Like we should have cared for that building long ago, and we didn't, you know, for whatever reason.

Um this conversation about historic districts, it's funny because we had a meeting of um of RCOs from around the city.

There was some talk of changing, you know, the RCO guidelines and whatnot.

And we had there was it was and I I I don't have a historic district in my district, but um there was one person on the call from I think it was like the Mexican War Streets, and they were saying, Oh, yeah, all these reviews, it's such a pet like you want to do one little thing, right?

You want to do one little thing to your house, and it's just like a whole rigmarole.

But then there was also somebody from East Car, you know, from talking about East Carson Street that was like, oh, but we're losing the you know, the yeah, like the character of the neighborhood.

And so in this conversation, and it's what like with the is and and I always say this, and it's funny that the that you're from Indivina because um your firm is does such a good job of making things beautiful and making them fit, right, in the in the in in any number of projects.

And I always actually mention your firm when I'm talking about what is good, right?

Like what what can be in new development, but is like this risk of becoming like mixed city, you know, which we see everywhere, all around the country, just like mixed city, everything looks the same.

It's like this, you know, I feel like you see it a little bit in the strip district, right?

It's starting to happen, and it's just like everything looks the same.

And um I don't know, is and I know that it's not I mean this commission is only if the if the building or whatever is historic, but um I mean I just know I'm wondering if you have any thoughts because of course that's the planning commission thing too, right?

Like for new build.

So if you have any thoughts just about that.

I mean, I know even if it isn't doesn't pertain directly to your commission.

I mean, I that's are you talking about like the di the architectural diversity of the city?

I mean that's why I'm drawn here.

I don't want that to go away.

That's like that's why I'm here.

I want there to be the Mexican war streets where I feel like I'm just you know, like I'm I'm in Squirrel Hill and I'm going there.

I'm just experiencing it in such a different way, the city, and I love that.

I just it's it is so diverse, but at the same time what you're saying of um having the difficulties of, for instance, the library.

I don't want that, I don't want the process to be so difficult that people like shy away for it, and they don't.

I want them to take ownership and feel a sense of pride, and I have this historical building, and you know, that this is part of the story of the city and in these ways, in this different ways.

Um I would hope that I would contribute to making this easier.

I I think it's amazing that people coming forth too in front of the commission are like they want to invest, they want to bring up their buildings or um, you know, better them for for the community too.

And then they have these amazing ideas, right?

If they have an idea and they're coming and they're like, oh, I want to create, I want to go forward.

Uh I would hope that I could be of some use to assist them.

And you know, I I'm I feel like it's a balance, but I'm ultimately I'm rooting for them.

I want I want them to succeed.

I want the city to succeed.

So I agree, and I I too love the Mexican War streets.

Yeah.

And I love the house tours over there.

I love when they do the festivals over there.

And I've heard stories about a window that had to be replaced with a wood window instead of a window that might last for 40 years, or the wood because of the moisture and whatever coming from the roof would destroy it in 10.

And I think to myself, if a man in a galloping horse didn't notice that that window was made out of vinyl instead of wood, would I consider that to be egregious and not allowed?

No, I wouldn't.

I if I if I could look at it and think, well, that it looks exactly like it did historically.

But yet it's more cost effective, it's going to last longer, it'll keep the building from falling down.

I think that's part of the balance that becomes some common sense that you have to interject into whatever the conversation is.

I think council woman, the the tension that you're describing is real.

Um it requires thoughtful decision making on our part.

And it requires us to not only be thoughtful about the importance that preservation has for the character of communities, but also what that potential preservation may be sacrificing for the future of that community.

Um and ultimately what will be important in those deliberations for me is where the community stands, where you stand as its elected representative, and then frankly, leaning over to staff and asking what the hell can we do?

Are we allowed to do this?

Um then you know, if it's controversial, so be it.

Um history tells those stories too.

And so I I think it's important to know from the gate that we should be leaning on the council that we have as staff to make sure that whether the tough decision we're about to make is an okay decision to make, and if so, we stand tall on it and we wait for the next vote.

And I also think that since the the requirements, the regulations haven't been rewritten since 1979, basically, that's there's probably a lot that we can do with rewriting that and the process for application and things that need really need to be updated.

I think we can all agree that that's something that 1979 isn't exactly where we should be in terms of writing requirements for a historic review commission.

Yeah, I mean, I think if I understood your question correctly, I think you know the the real estate development in Pittsburgh as anywhere else is economically driven.

That's that's just reality of it, and whether it's a historic building or it's a new building, you know, your question about why do the why does it all look the same?

Because developers want to maximize as much as they can within the parameters that are given in in the zoning and the in the in the planning guidelines, and that's completely understandable.

Our job is to uh make sure that the projects that are being brought forward, and that's more of a city planning uh question, of course, for the new buildings that that they do they are interesting, they do benefit you know the pedestrian experience, they have architectural character, and uh I think finding in ways to incentivize developers to provide take more care and and spend more money, frankly, on architecture, and and the goal is to have buildings that are historic buildings that are beloved and preserved a hundred years from now, just like the ones that we're trying to preserve through the commission.

And I think to me that is sometimes the danger of of this sort of uh the newer development is that it's very fast and it's you know um so trying to take care as much as you can and and give developers opportunities because regulations and restrictions do not foster development.

Um so that's outside of the realm of of this particular group, but I think that's what you are getting at that it's not you know, it's all tied together as a web of economy and development for for Pittsburgh as a whole, and the historic preservation is just one one piece of that much larger puzzle.

It is tied to historic review because it's the character of our neighborhood.

Some of our neighborhood is historic, some of it is ugly as sin.

And it was allowed to be built, and my humble opinion never should have been.

But that's again the balance.

I think all of these commissions need to work together to make it possible to develop these sites that we have, but also to consider what it does to the uniqueness of our neighborhood.

The South Side is different from Squirrel Hill.

It's different from the Mexican War Streets.

It's different from the Hill District.

That we need to recognize that and help these developers not just put white and black buildings for blocks and blocks so that it has no character, in my humble opinion.

Yeah.

It's um I lived in Germany for a long time and in towns that were destroyed in World War II.

Are you German?

I'm being a new Danish, never mind.

Okay, but um, but I know I maybe mixed out what you're talking about.

But it's like at the times the towns made a decision, you know, after the war, like are we gonna go modern or are we gonna go make it look exactly how it used to?

And it's very strange, I mean it's kind of odd.

Like you can go to Freiburg and it's like, oh, this is so old, but actually it's a good replica or like Stuttgart, which is all modern.

So we have to do it more gradually than that, which is good.

But um uh the last thing I wanted to ask about is um parks.

So we have some like recently historic designation, I think of Frick Park, historic designation of Shenley Park.

Um, you know, I like I came into office fighting a project of you know, we're uh of like a road project going through a park, this idea that we protect our parks, and um, but at the same time there are projects, you know, there's the golf course project which is looking to modernize the food, you know, like so how I just your thoughts on kind of the balance between preserving these very old parks that really are like an incredible asset for the city.

I mean, it's it's to me it's the most valuable thing that Pittsburgh has are these incredible parks, like right in the heart of the city.

Um from your viewpoint from the commission, you know, how do we preserve that, but then also allow the parks to evolve for the needs of of park users.

I was very involved in the um Pittsburgh in the golf course, the golf club building that was um in some neighbors' opinions should have been preserved and restored.

And actually, it was three buildings built in three separate sections with no HVAC that worked together and flooring that was falling apart, and um it was literally in part a falling down building and preserving it, it had no historic relevance that anybody could find, but the idea of tearing it down just some neighbors didn't want to see it happen.

But now we have this really nice-looking Arnold Palmer Center and first T golf club house that I think is uh a statement of what can be done if you do it correctly and if you work with the architects and the developers, etc.

But the golf course itself, it's been there since 1896, but it has evolved.

The T's have changed, the greens have changed, the the scope of the the hills and the sand traps and the and the trees, and it's changed over 1896, and it's changed to meet the needs of the people who use it.

And I think that has to be considered in this mix of changing anything that happens in our parks that our people want to enjoy the parks.

They'd rather have nine holes than 18 holes.

It doesn't have to be 18 holes.

Some people would like to see a driving range.

I'm not a golfer, so I have to consider what the people who use the facility want.

So I think that in the case of the parks, it's the use, it's the users of the parks, I think, who have to have a tremendous say in what happens going forward.

Go ahead.

No, I was I I second largely what you're saying.

I think preserving the land mass as these breathing breathing spaces that are you know belongs to all of us essentially in Pittsburgh, I think is the most important part.

And as you say, it's probably looked very different in 1890 or whenever it was done.

But that's not to say that you should just uh that it should just be a carte blanche to plop down whatever structure or event or you know, because it could also turn into an amusement park or a circus.

You know, I can and the I think what so many Pittsburghers enjoy about Freak Park and Chenley Park is that there are these vast areas that are kind of wild and you have the feeling that when you walk through you, you know, you know, people walked the same path a hundred years ago and it probably largely looked the same, and that's okay.

But so it is again the balance of being able to interject either temporary and gracious, you know, installations or something that's meant to be, you know, maybe it's a way of if someone wants to make uh uh an activity or a building, well, build something that can be disassembled and move somewhere else in 20 years from now, as an example, if not.

But just kind of that approach of non-permanence in these uh park spaces, I think could be an interesting way to look at development.

I I would ask myself, particularly in this instance, uh what's in the best long-term interest of the community.

And there are some communities that that do not have access to the types of resources or forward thinking that other communities do.

And it would be incumbent upon me to ensure that the voices that we're hearing um to discern whether they are the loud minority or whether we're not hearing from the silent majority.

And that I imagine for you all specifically is a very challenging perspective to have.

Um but it's one that we will also have to accept as a responsibility to determine whether or not again the vision that we are hearing that is presented to us conveys the true intent of of the thing that we're hearing.

And so, you know, I would want to make sure that we're equitable, but that you know we're fair and just and that the future of the community is at the forefront of the decisions that I will be making and that I hope we will make as colleagues.

I just wanted to add that I think the parks are spectacular here.

They're one of my favorite parts of the city, and I would be very much inclined to preserve them in any way possible.

This idea of building something and moving it, I would be on board with that, like a movable structure or something.

But they really enhance the community.

I think everybody should have access to a green space in cl close proximity to where they live if if possible.

I would I'm for the parks.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I definitely feel very strongly too that they're public, right?

Like they're not like the parks can be very juicy because they sit between communities, right?

And they could be a very like, you know, enticing idea to use a park to connect to community.

But that's yeah.

Um well, this is very encouraging, and I think one thing, you know, in the planning commission hearing, this actually came up this idea, this community engagement question, right?

Like, you know, like what you know, what when are we dealing with um just kind of you know, neighborhood busybodies, I think was the word, versus like large-scale, you know, and and it was this conversation like it, well, you know, public engagement, it's hard for people to come out, and it is, right?

Like these types of meetings, most people aren't able to come.

But when people do, I I I hope that, you know, as as um commissioners, you know, when they're it for for whatever reason, whether it's an emotional attachment, whatever the reason may be, when you have, you know 50, 60 people show up to to advocate for something, and it sort of takes you by surprise, you know, like, whoa, this is uh this is the this is not just like your typical one or two neighbors kind of you know putting up a fight because they don't want no, you know, they won't just want things to stay the way they are.

Um I don't know if I I don't know if you have experienced those types of situations in projects that you've been involved with, maybe have you look chase like you maybe have.

So again, I go back to vision conveys intent, you know.

They the 50 or so could be a well-organized loud minority.

So sometimes we will make I assume a decision that those 50 folks don't want us to make but we will have to make it in the best interest of the community consistent with the guidelines as if it were any other decision to ensure equitability and the integrity of the work that we do as a commission.

That's of course what's so nice about the plans if you happen to have a neighborhood plan or we're working on a comp plan is it gives you that you know you can say look you already you know we already talked about this as a as a collective I know for me I think of the and luckily we didn't I didn't have to make a decision.

I just got to watch but um was the um Irish center.

I mean it was I it that took me by surprise you know like the just the sheer volume of people that came out um in opposition to that project and uh I was definitely glad that I did not have to make the call it was the ZBA that made the call on that one.

But anyway well thank you all so much I really appreciate it.

I don't I don't have any further questions.

Thank you.

In the course of answering their questions you really answered the questions that I had.

So I will simply thank you all for your willingness to serve and I think what you've discovered is there's always a sort of a healthy tension between historic preservation as well as potential progress moving forward.

And I think all of us have had to deal with it over the years, especially um Councilman Sharland point about nominating something but not being the owner of it.

We actually had a our former colleague was actually looking at legislation that would say if you were to nominate my home to be historic, you would have to do so with the funds to ensure that it was able to be made maintained historic.

And so that's always been a a healthy tension.

I think the hardest historic vote that I've had to deal with since I was here was the historic was a civic arena, excuse me.

Which from an architectural standpoint was absolutely historic.

But it was also historic for a lot of negative reasons as well.

And so there was a tension there that had to be grappled with so I share all that just to say I don't necessarily envy the position you're in, but I thank you for your willingness to serve and I thank you for your willingness to make hard decisions but I believe having listened to you all you have truly the best interests of our community at heart and so I thank you.

With that we'll let you go and we'll ask for Emily.

Emily Stege James Hill and Kendall Solar so please go forward Mr Hill good to see you again.

Good um we'll start with you introduce yourself uh tell us a little bit about yourself why you're willing to serve and then we'll go down the line and then we'll take turn over to members.

Sure.

Hi everybody my name's James Hill uh lifelong Pittsburger grew up in a bit of Highland Park in the Hill district have worked here at the city for a bunch of years um at the Cultural Trust for a bunch of years.

I always like to say proud graduate of our Pittsburgh public schools and that's really where my uh my love of the concept of civic architecture began.

You you know council president Gadiral Chenley High they don't build buildings like that anymore but I I really think the height of kind of civic architecture is is that it is meant to inspire.

You know buildings like this, buildings like some of our fire stations in our neighborhoods, the idea of you know steeples from firehouses and police stations kind of have often formed the fabric of neighborhoods and I think the city can be a very good not necessarily preserver but you know capture of the intent of the idea that public service can still be a noble and important aspect.

And I think that our our buildings in our public realm can reflect that without necessarily costing a lot of money.

We're like kind of that last standard bearer I think of the idea of of noble service and everything we build from our buildings to our parks to things like that I think can reflect that.

Um personally, I think a lot of you guys know I am uh deeply interested in keeping these these buildings in good condition and showing that the city can always put its best face forward because for a lot of our citizens, you know, they they never make it down here.

Uh what they will see is their fire station, their police station, their park project.

That's their version of the city, you know, in their neighborhood.

So what can we do on this particular commission?

What I hope to do to help us put our put our best face forward.

Good afternoon.

My name is Kendall Solaire, and thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today.

Um I'm a proud resident of the Pittsburgh Greenfield neighborhood where I live with my husband Scott.

Nearly a decade ago, I moved to Pittsburgh site unseen.

I quickly fell in love with the people, culture, and places that make this city special.

And over time, I've developed a deep appreciation for Pittsburgh's layered landscape, its rivers, bridges, and neighborhoods, and how the built environment helps shape the city's identity.

As both a student of urban planning and a practitioner of design, I've long been interested in the role that public architecture plays in civic life.

I believe that the spaces and structures that belong in the public should be accessible to everyone and designed with care and beauty so they can serve as a lasting source of pride for the city as a whole.

Professionally, I serve as the interior design director at Shelton Design Associates here in Pittsburgh, where my work focuses on residential renovations in primarily historically significant homes and also boutique hospitality projects.

My role frequently involves balancing preservation with thoughtful design that allows us to function better for how we live today.

I earned my Master of Interior Architecture from Chatham University here in Pittsburgh.

And my undergraduate studies were at Texas AM University focused on urban and regional sciences, where much of my work explored how underutilized abandoned industrial spaces can be thoughtfully redeveloped into meaningful community spaces.

I'm grateful to Mayor O'Connor for the nomination and his administration and would be honored to contribute my perspective and experience to the work of the Pittsburgh Civic Design Commission as the city continues to evolve.

Thank you for your time and consideration, and I look forward to questions.

I have lived in Pittsburgh for 13 years, not my whole life, but it is the longest I've ever lived in one place.

Um where I could thrive as a creative person.

And so my creative background is in writing, but I've had the privilege of working at Pittsburgh Center for Arts and Media for almost nine years now.

I'm their director of education and communication.

So I work with a group of 40 to 50 artists who develop and run our um robust schedule of uh community arts classes, workshops, and summer camps for youth in the summer.

Um and through this work, I've really had the um unique experience of not only creating opportunities for artists themselves to get paid for their work, but also to see firsthand how they can have an impact on the community.

Um I would say a lot of our students who uh come to take classes with us are people who would self-describe as non-artists, even though they are very regularly making art.

And I think these opportunities for um the community and the general public to engage with the arts and artists who are living and working in the city has the power to really break down some um boundaries and you know make it a little bit easier to access um art beyond just um you know, we have wonderful museums, but I think when people are able to access art in their day-to-day lives, whether it be a hands-on experience or public art that they're seeing um, you know, on their daily commute or at their public park, um, it can be really powerful.

Art tells a story of um, you know, people, the places that they um live in.

And so I would be really honored to serve on this commission and the public arts committee within it to be able to expand my work within public art.

Thank you.

And with that, I'll turn over to members, Councilwoman Strasberger.

Thank you.

So, Emily, um I've had the privilege of working with artists um when we had funding, we don't anymore to to disseminate to artists as part of the ARPA COVID-releafing.

And um I thought it was a really great learning experience as to how to apply when we do have the opportunity to apply funding for public art, for um for you know other other spending that would probably be a little bit different from from the public art um committee.

Um it was it was a great learning experience as to how that can be um that process can be made more transparent, more accessible, and I know that that's what we hear, right?

Like artists um we're not doing a favor to artists when we say come and you know do business with the city.

We are they are important, they are um they drive economic um they're economic drivers for the city and there's just like such a wealth of experience that we can gain from artists.

So I guess with that, do you have thoughts about whether it's within the formal um kind of membership of the public art committee or as um you know um someone who can be a uh an advocate for changes within the policies within the the with the uh at the staff level, how um we can make the city more accessible to those who wish to um do business with the city and and really demonstrate the wealth of talent that we have in public spaces.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think in my experience um working with artists, I find that um they often have the ability to do like a project, and it's great, and um whether it's public art or it's an exhibition, and I think where we lack is our public, I think still needs more arts education about why is it important to support artists and why um should we purchase art and support artists who are living and working in our city?

I think um you know there's a lot of funding that is no longer going to be available for these bigger projects, and I think um one way to kind of combat that is to connect our communities with artists and um you know teach them about this is what goes into creating this work of art and why um you know it's important to be maybe choosing local art versus um you know something from Target or you know whatever it may be.

And I think um on this commission I hope to have the opportunity to um promote projects that kind of have that educational aspect within them.

Terrific, thank you.

Um and I guess for everybody, um why are you most interested?

You've some of you have addressed it a bit, but why are you most interested in serving?

What what do you hope to um accomplish by surveying?

And I know you've been nominated, you didn't you know you might have raised your hand, but um what's the driver behind this for you, for each of you.

Okay.

Um so for me, I have um experienced a lot of joy in the impact that I have at Pittsburgh Center for Arts and Media, and I feel really connected to the work as an advocate for the arts and artists and our communities, and I think this opportunity would allow me to expand that work beyond just the organization that I've worked for.

And um that's really exciting to me.

Um my biggest driver is just the love that I have for the city as a whole.

Um as I mentioned, I moved here almost a decade ago and just fell in love with the opportunity that Pittsburgh has in every corner and every alley and every building possible.

Um and so to be able to put my hat in the ring of being able to see the creative work that other people can present to us and have some kind of say in it, I think is an exciting thing to be able to contribute to the city.

Um because I contribute in the way that I can through my own work and to expand that uh is an exciting opportunity, I think overall.

Yeah, I mean it's it's hard to explain why you love something.

You know, I I just I love public buildings, I love architecture, I love the role these spaces play in the public lives for the same reason I feel compelled that you occasionally will find me in the lobby with a broom and dust band if I can help improve what we've built here and what we build every day in the public space and these grand public spaces and and not so grand and in the various scales.

I I just want to do it.

You know, it's it's hard to describe why you love something, but you just do.

Thank you.

I have no further questions.

Thank you all so much for your willingness to serve on this on these committees.

Thank you, Conservatives.

Yes.

Uh thank you again for your uh ability to serve here and your interest in uh the city and and what we look like and and how we grow here.

First question I want to ask kind of for all of you.

But so many things every time we meet with the firefighters, every time we meet the police officers, everything needs uh these significant upgrades.

But we're also very much strapped for cash.

And I I'm curious, kind of from your perspective.

If we design things to the best design possible, we'll be able to we will have build bus.

And I I want to hear kind of where your your thoughts are on in that balance between getting those firefighters the upgrades that they should so desperately need in the the uh medic stations, those upgrades because they they literally live out of their work office and you know these are often in pretty deplorable conditions versus making sure that they they look the best that they can.

Yeah, I mean I I don't think those things are you know mutually exclusive.

I think particularly with our our fire stations and stuff, a lot of that work is generally gonna kind of almost be out of the scope of this commission.

If we're talking, you know, plumbing upgrades, heating things in the in the buildings themselves.

That's not really areas I think that we would be having much say on.

That's of course up to the Department of Public Works to tackle as they see fit if we're talking building replacements and things like that, or you know, major upgrades to the exteriors of a lot of these fire stations, for example.

I think that's where we come into play.

Um it is the balance, but I I don't think that it's something that can't be done.

You know, I think best is also you know, subjective, you know, what is considered best can vary by area, neighborhood, city, country.

Um I I think we're pretty capable, and we've seen that I think so far with fire stations that have been replaced.

Uh I'm thinking of uh on Lafayette Street up at uh up there with that new uh EMS station that they there was an old uh an old one there, they were able to take it down, take the component parts of it, save the beautiful parts incorporated into the new design, so you're still recalling the old place and and you know, fully r rebuilt that EMS station.

So I think it's easier than it may seem for us to balance that because uh again, we're not the historic preservation side of it anymore.

You know what I mean?

It's just that what is a good public building and how can we incorporate the best of old and new into that.

Um as a design professional, I'm pretty familiar with being given a budget.

And um one of the best practices that we do at my firm is dreaming really, really big at the beginning of a project and trying to make it astronomically more expensive than what it should be, and then value engineering it back because when you dream as big as you can, you end up coming up with some really amazing ideas that can benefit a lot of people in the process.

And when you get those ideas, you realize what the priority is for a project, and then value engineering that budget back to be able to fit that initial budget.

So I think that is that's the challenge of some of these projects is figuring out what the priorities are and dreaming big and then figuring out how to value engineer that project back to a budget that the city feels comfortable with.

And it will never not be a challenge.

Um, but there are ways to do it and ways to be creative with materials and um phasing and um just so many creative ways that you can go about finding the right way to do it.

And luckily it's not our job to find the right way to do it.

It's our job to help guide and assess the the projects that are put in front of us.

So I would agree that that balance is important.

Um, you know, I'm I don't come from the design side of things, but um I do come from a creative thinking sort of background, and I think any time that there is you know a tricky problem to solve um regal regarding you know budget, money dreaming big, um, you know, you have to get creative with it, and I would be willing to kind of you know think about how we can best do things while also maximizing where our dollar goes.

Uh I only have one further question and uh kind of any of you can answer this.

Um I just want to know uh what is the best thing about being married to Scott.

It's an inappropriate question.

Um you don't have to answer that.

Thank you.

I don't think I'm going to, yeah.

Thank you, Mr.

Shah.

Councilwoman Woolworth.

Yeah, thank you.

Um yeah, thanks to everyone for being here and for agreeing to serve.

Um yeah, so I guess I'll I'll um you know, one thing that I that uh that I feel like we haven't done a great job with some of our new concerns like in the newer areas of the city, right?

Is um and I think it's probably just because it wasn't sort of on the radar as much as it is now, right?

Maybe a decade later, is um public access to public.

So you know, you'll have, and I've I think of like around East Liberty and areas like that, like you'll have these public squares kind of.

But if you are walking, it's very hard to get.

I mean, it's like you just have these like walls of building, you know what I mean?

Like it's like the giant target, it's just like a wall, and you can't.

I mean, it's fine if you're driving, right?

But it's hard, even just crossing the street, like so if if you just have any thoughts about that, and I know um James, we we talked a bit at the table about there was like a street vacation for the trust arts thing, and it was like, you know, and it's concerning, right?

About the public being able to access on foot, you know, and and when we build things, you know, if the city owns it, it's one thing we have a little more control.

But um, so if if if you have thoughts on that and how this commission might be able to help, you know, improve the walkability of our of our especially our new built environments in public spaces.

Yeah, I I think it ought to, you know, it's gonna depend a lot on the project.

Uh I'm sure you'll forgive me, I'm struggling to kind of think of exactly where the civic design is going to confront a lot of that stuff directly.

You know, I guess I assume, you know, let's say we're building a new park, perhaps, you know, somewhere one of these developments is going on.

Um I I think you just have to really approach that's gonna sound a little silly too, like the old-fashioned way, you know, as green and as open as possible to make people feel in inviting from the moment that they get there.

Um, and then I think an area that we can be a perhaps a little more uh directional in is ensuring when we're let's say the Department of Public Works does come to us with you know a new park in this space, is maybe that's an area where we can question them a little bit more about have they properly worked with DOME, you know, city plan, etc.

and so forth before they bring it to the design, because I think where a lot of that area does mix is that we often find that the architects just build a building, you know, they design a thing and then they're just in front of civic design.

And to your point about access, walkability, those sorts of areas that don't necessarily cross the lines, you know, they might not talk to those areas as much.

So maybe that's an area where we are questioning them about these things that makes them go, oh, you're right, we did need to talk to mobility and infrastructure about crosswalk improvements that were out of the scope.

But I think that's where we can, you know, as people who are experiencing this stuff a little bit outside of it, have a holistic looking kind.

I think that's really the job is to push them to think of other things, other issues, how it will be experienced by the public that they might not necessarily think of because it's my job to design an EMS station, you know, and they're in their minds kind of stop there.

It's my job the job to design this plaza and not necessarily the things around it.

I think it's also important to um well to piggyback off of what James said, asking questions is like our number one goal or my number one goal if I were to sit on this commission because there are a lot of reasons why architects and designers make decisions that they do and they present it as if they've talked to us about all of these reasons why, and they're and we don't really know until we ask the questions.

And something that might seem different than before might actually be a more accessible pathway or a more accessible way of getting from one place to another if we were to just ask more questions and understand what their perspective is as designers and architects and planners and everything.

So yeah, I think I think my my perspective on it is to ask as many questions as possible and always keep accessibility in account for sure, because you know, those are the people that um need uh advocacy to make sure that our public spaces are for absolutely everyone.

So I second what my colleagues have said, and I think in terms of asking questions, I think for me in asking questions of folks who propose different projects, I would be looking for um sort of those bridges between what an architect might want, and then also um how can the public engage with a space and that's accessibility, but that's also you know, how does it look?

How do you experience it as you know a pedestrian, as somebody you know, going for a walk through your community and kind of gathering that information to understand what kind of impact that space will have on its community?

When you were saying that too, and I think helping to push them that a lot of this stuff like isn't expensive, you know, thinking a little bit more about signage and the percent for art and how you can really, you know, what was something in the neighborhood that was around here.

You know, those things don't add anything to the project budget really.

But I think sometimes they get so stuck in the nuts and bolts of completion that all those little details that do create more welcoming public spaces, you know.

Lantern, you know what I mean?

Like there's all sorts of little things.

I think that's it is tight.

Um, you know, it doesn't necessarily have to be that we are we are incorporating um function, but are also to my next question.

That is both ramming the art into the individual project to like a neighbor, like a you know, sort of citywide where neighborhood by neighborhood.

Um and I know much to the chagrin of our city planners.

I recently um you know, asked counsel to vote in the negative on an artist who was chosen because I um and again it was like an it was just a an executive decision, right?

I was just like, I don't, you know, the community, I know the community needs this mural, right?

I know that we need that, and this artist that I you know just doesn't do that, and I don't want that money, you know, it was just so so my question is um to and I think that with art I mean more than anything else when it comes to art in in a community, it is an opportunity for community engagement, right?

Like it's not urgent, right?

It's not urgent that we get this art in right away or or whatever, right?

So there really is so um so my question is kind of twofold.

One is like for you looking at a project, what would count as meaningful community engagement to for you, especially in an underserved community, right?

Like, you know, in in some communities you're always gonna get engagement, that's fine.

You know what I mean?

You can sort of count on the folks who are interested will come out and engage, but in other communities you you may not, right?

You may have one or two people, and that really isn't representing so that so what would sort of count for you as meaningful community engagement, um, and then also where's the balance between like purpose and community function versus like you know, artistic license, because we also don't want to ram it down the artist's throat, right?

Like that's something like you know, you would have some artistic freedom as well.

So yeah, I think for me, um meaningful engagement in an ideal situation would be um you know, community members are able to participate in the project itself, whether it is um helping with the design or helping with the implementation at Pittsburgh Center for Arts and Media, it's not my department, but I um have seen our artists in schools and communities program um carry out projects like this in um different community centers or schools, and I think especially for youth in an area, it can be really powerful um for them to feel like they had a big role in um creating something that they get to see every day and that makes their uh community more beautiful.

Um but like you said, there's not always going to be that ideal engagement.

Um I do think that when something um when public art is going to go into a community space, it is important um for that artist to be willing to meet with community members and get their input about what would be the best fit.

Um I think there is such a balance between you know them having creative license um but also understanding that this is a project that's you know beyond just them.

It's something for um everybody.

And so um it might involve a little bit of coaching, but I think um, you know, when reviews reviewing proposals, for me it would be important to um see that an artist is willing to kind of have that sort of engagement with the community instead of just here's my project, I don't want to make any changes and I want to do it as is and just you know make it happen.

Um I think there are lots of talented artists and the art would look great, but I think um there's just so much more power if a community feels uh like they've had a say and a part in that art that's going to be part of their daily lives.

Uh I agree with uh community engagement um on on all levels of a new project.

Uh if it's going to involve the community using it, they should have a say in what's going on.

Um and also uh referring to the design professionals on you know, precedents in other cities and that sort of thing that have been um successful in other places, uh, because not everything has been done in Pittsburgh, so new things are sometimes good to bring into the thick of it.

I can't speak informed about working with artists specifically.

I don't I don't have experience with working specifically with like public art.

Um but I do believe that art that makes you feel things is important, whether or not it's positive or negative.

Um and I hope that perspective can can be respected uh to a certain level, obviously, for the city.

Um but I do believe that art is subjective and um I think it's important to keep that in mind whenever we are creating new spaces and having people talk about it is important because that brings people there as well.

Um yeah, I think that's what I have to say about that.

Yeah, I think a little bit uh Kendall's point, the civic design side is obviously a little less art focused, perhaps than than the art side, you know, thinking of like park projects.

They already have such a robust community engagement project process that's run by the city throughout the entire project.

I'm not sure there'd be much left for for us to say at that point.

That wouldn't just be meddling in, you know, a process that had already been well underway, all sorts of meetings that they have over over that for the time.

You know, but I think you know, thinking to more the more of the building side again, let's say that is where we can push public works is other side who isn't necessarily as art focused, you know what I mean?

They don't think in that way where let's say we're doing a fire station in Homewood, we know that there's the public safety training academy at Westinghouse.

You know, is there some way where those students are involved in how do you design a fire and what do you learn?

And you know, is it something as simple as the handprints in the you know what I mean?

There's all sorts of little things that make communities feel a part of of of those sorts of projects that I do think we could be helpful in pushing because I don't think that our guys just often think like that in those ways.

And you know, there's that weird fine line of how do you make like a fire station feel like a welcoming space, you know, but there's all sorts of creative small things I think that we can then push that again to my point.

Like that isn't expensive, that doesn't derail the project, you know.

These days they're doing a lot of prefab stuff, so there is only a certain amount of space you can then get into and and meddle with and push them on.

But I think there are lots of ways we can be more creative and intentional about the building side and civic design about because I would wager I'd I don't know, obviously, but I'd wager like those are the meetings that probably no one shows up to, you know, is the public works EMS station meeting unless you know it's on a plot of land that somebody's upset about that doesn't have anything to do with the building necessarily that has to do with the project as a whole, right?

So I think we can be more intentional and I would actually want to think a bit more and see what other cities do about incorporating public art into fire stations and police stations and EMS stations and and you know whatever the next garage looks like, you know, how do we make those things feel a little more welcoming?

And often I think that's gonna be like pushing, you know, pushing them to partner with the art side and with other artists and think, oh like you know, the signshop buildings at the strip, you know, hot area, lots going on, big blank walls and nothing.

You know, if we were gonna renovate that, that should be a cool area to do something interesting in that incorporates all sorts of community and put on top of the existing processes that we have.

Okay, great.

I don't think I have any other questions.

Thank you so much.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Um and thank you for the robust conversation.

Um I'll look forward to you all serving, and I look forward to how you'll be able to beautify and artify our city.

If that's a word.

Okay.

Um with that haven't exhausted the business of this agenda.

We are adjourned.

Good morning, everyone.

Thank you for joining our February commission meeting, uh, Clean Pittsburgh Commission.

Um hosted here on the City Channel.

Thank you so much for City Channel.

Um, I'll start by doing an introduction.

My name is Amiya Queeley.

I am an uh sustainable procurement specialist in OMB and a resident of East Liberty.

She I'll pass it off to the other co-chair.

Listen, hi, my name's Lisa Everhurt.

I am the other co-chair, and I'm also the program director with Allegheny Cleanways.

And I am a resident of Perry Hilltop.

I will pop corn to Helena.

Hello, everybody.

I'm Helena for Copieros.

I'm the environment enforcement co uh specialist uh for the City of Pittsburgh, and I live in Brooklyn.

Let's see, I'll pop up I'll pop it over to Anna.

Good morning.

Hi, I'm Larson Sheller.

I'm the collection events coordinator with Pennsylvania Resources Council, and the co-treasurer with the CPC.

Um, I'm a resident of Bluefield, and I will popcorn to Deborah.

Hello.

Uh, Debbie Steinberg.

I am sustainability manager with Carnegie Mann University, resident of Squirrel Hill.

And I was distracted preparing the notes, so I'm not sure who we didn't pop horn to yet.

Maybe that's J Bonheur, environmental assistant and women manager with Pittsburgh Public Schools.

I reside in my Washington.

I'll pop on over to Katie.

And I will popcorn to Daryl.

Morning, my name is Dr.

Daryl Payne.

I am the education manager for Humane Action Pennsylvania for the Places Collaborative.

I live on the North Side in Brighton Heights.

And I think we got everybody.

I don't.

Is there anyone that they've actually jumped on?

Okay, I'll pop going to Barbara.

Hey all my name is Barb.

I'm a city council for District 5.

Thank you all for joining us this morning.

I will go ahead and share my screen.

Um to look at the agenda for today.

Oh gosh.

It's always okay.

A good time trying to figure out which window.

And you have multiple windows.

That's okay.

Okay, it looks like it's visible.

Okay.

So today this is kind of a little bit of a busy meeting.

Uh today, uh, I guess everyone had an opportunity to review.

Um, and even there were some additions.

Um then we have our January minutes to review quickly.

Um, you know what?

I don't I don't I'm not gonna open it for you.

I'm just gonna open it directly.

All right, and here are uh the currently draft minutes um for our uh January meeting.

Does anyone have any um amendments they would like to make before we uh vote for to approve the minutes?

I'll just do a quick scroll in case more at least their memory jogs.

Okay.

Um can I get a motion to approve these minutes?

I motion to approve.

Thank you, Larson.

In a second.

Second.

Okay, are there any uh Debbie?

You're gonna get on me for this one.

Um abstentions.

I abstain.

Okay.

Thank you, Katie.

Yeah, Katie Weddick.

Sorry, thank you, Katie.

Um, and uh any oppose.

Any opposed, but all in favor of uh getting these minutes finalized.

Raise your hand or virtual hand.

Uh thank you so much.

Um and I will go back to our agenda for today.

Um just going and uh moving forward uh with our uh guest speaker, um humane action Pittsburgh.

Uh Daryl, uh Daryl Payne.

I apologize for not adding your last name here, and that will be something I want.

Uh thank you for joining us and uh give you the floor.

Do you need to present anything?

Are we just gonna get to the yes?

I do.

Um I do have a quick uh presentation that I would like to share.

So ahead.

Thank you.

All right, I'm an amateur with Zoom.

Uh can you guys see the uh presentation on your screens?

We see that right sharing the Zoom screen screen.

Is it Zoom screen?

Okay, let me see.

Hold on one second.

Yeah, this is something I often have issues with as well.

Yeah, I usually use teams, so uh I have a learning curve with uh Zoom.

Yeah, we have I guess the city has us using both, so it's it's I guess it's great to be cross-trained.

Um so I click on share screen and then I get three options Microsoft Edge tab window and entire screen.

Like which one do I say?

Are you hosting is it PowerPoint in your edge window or yes, yeah?

My PowerPoint is definitely in the edge window.

Um so I would choose that like if you have tabs, choose that tab that you have it in and then present your Microsoft Edge window.

Yes.

For some reason is not showing up as let me try this.

Did it come up this time?

No.

It was just me.

Can I email it to you?

Can you bring it up for me?

Is that what I'm saying?

Um and while we do uh let's see.

I think you just you have my email.

I can go back up.

Um perhaps while uh I don't know how quickly this will move, not that we need to move it right next speed here.

Um, but perhaps we can about switching the order of the five.

Were you gonna suggest having council person?

Yeah, while we figure this out.

Um if that's okay with you, Daryl.

Um we can just give uh Barb an opportunity to speak on what she would like to speak on, and then we'll come back to you.

All right, the floor switches to Barb Warwick.

Good morning.

Great.

Thank you.

Hey everyone, good morning.

So yeah, so I just wanted to check in.

I um uh I we we spoke a little bit about the bill that I have uh um in front of council that um among other things would put a uh a minimum distance for waste transfer stations, you know, a minimum distance of 500 feet between homes and businesses, right?

For waste transfer stations.

Uh this bill, of course, you know, came about uh when I found out that Republic Services is wanting to convert their recycling center, it which is in the Hazelwood neighborhood, um, to a waste transfer station.

And you know, this is a recycling center that's caused lots of harm to the community, and uh, you know, turning it into a waste transfer station basically will mean that every garbage truck in the city and every Republic Services garbage truck comes through the neighborhood, you know, polluting the the air and just making noise and worse problem with rats, etc.

etc.

etc.

So um I you know the bill got through the planning commission.

We got a positive recommendation, which is great.

Um, but I am uh to be honest, I'm a little shocked, right?

But I am having trouble getting my fellow council members to commit to supporting this bill.

Um uh I do have four map, including myself, I have four, um, but you gotta count to five, right?

And ideally six.

Uh so it it, you know much to my frustration, I will say, um, I am finding myself having to organize the neighborhood yet again, right?

The whole neighborhood came out for the planning commission here and got about 50 people to come out.

15 or so testified um at Planning Commission.

And um I am having to get you know, rally folks to come again, like now come down to city council.

Uh, but you know, you do what you gotta do.

So at any rate, what I was hoping though, oh, and and another thing that I wanted to clarify just for the Clean Pittsburgh Commission, I think I forwarded an email in the meantime, like you know, through all of this, because you know, it there's this conversation that you know we it's it's detrimental to our garbage fleet and and makes our logistics of picking up garbage difficult.

The fact that we have to drive 20 miles out to Imperial or 20 miles out to Monroeville.

Um what I have uh uh found out since then is that you know there is a fully functioning waste transfer station in McKey's Rocks, about five miles from the city county building.

Um I've talked with the folks there, it's Noble Environmental.

Um they can handle a thousand tons a day.

You know, the city produces about 200 tons a day.

So there is, you know, now it's not right in the city of Pittsburgh, right?

But it is far c it's much closer than um, you know, then Monroeville or Imperial.

We have a fully functioning waste transfer station.

And uh what I discovered uh is that we've never even talked to them, right?

So like the city has never even gone to tour the site, has never, you know, reached out to them about so, you know, we're currently in year two of a five-year waste hauling contract with the Imperial and Monroeville sites.

And so, you know, that that's a big question mark for me is if this issue is so critical, which I I think it it is, right?

Like that seems like a very um, you know, it seems like a big problem that we're driving so far with all of our waste, you know, but why from the city operations perspective have we not explored the existing waste?

You know, why are we just sort of saying, oh, well, Republic says they're gonna build one maybe and you know, be operational maybe in three years, maybe in four years, we don't know.

This sort of vague, uh, we're just gonna count on that one because that's easier.

And that that you know is not okay to me.

So I I think it's important for folks to realize that there is an alternative, right?

This is not like the one and only thing, and we will there's no, there's there's no other options than doing this thing in Hazelwood, right?

There are certainly other options and those options need to be explored.

Um and I hope that that happens.

And I have actually hopefully started that ball rolling by making those connections.

Um so at any rate, all that to say uh I if if if the commission would be open to writing a letter of support for the bill uh to you know, two members of council, you know, either send it to the clerk or whatever.

And if anybody on the commission, so my my hope is to discuss this bill this coming Wednesday at standing committee meeting, which would be 10 a.m.

on Wednesday.

Uh if anybody from any of the organizations participating in the commission wanted to come on their own behalf to support the bill, that would be wonderful.

I'm of course rallying um some of our environmental folks who do air quality work, you know, um hoping to get folks to come out.

And um at any rate, but but for for this conversation, if the commission would um would be so kind as to write a letter in support, it would be much appreciated by me and also obviously by the residents of Hazelwood, because we at this point it's feeling like we need all the support we can get.

So awesome.

Yeah, that's yeah, from an environmental justice perspective, 100%.

We don't want to, you know, continue to cause harm as a city to our own neighborhood to you know, our own neighbors.

Um as you mentioned, um, I'm just with the timeline.

You're gonna try to do a uh uh discussion on the terminology escapes you just said it on Wednesday.

Um Wednesday.

Yeah, and then for this uh to come back up to vote, you know.

I guess, you know, when when do you are you gonna wait until you get the support and then you got you're gonna put it on the docket for voting, or is there a specific timeline you have in mind?

So I'm it's it's a little tricky.

So right now, so the other side of this, the other side of this battle that I'm fighting is at the state.

So the DEP is currently reviewing the application for so the DEP permitted this site a number of years ago to be a waste transfer station.

They should have never done that, in my opinion, just a totally outrageous that they did that.

But currently they are reviewing Republic Services application to reissue that permit to them, right?

I am really trying hard to get to to push them to not um Representative Abney, who represents Hazelwood, has written a letter to the DEP in opposition to the reissuance of that permit.

It's a great letter.

I think I I I included it in the email.

Um really it's a great letter.

Um I'm gonna make sure everyone reads it.

Um so, but they have their timeline on the website keeps moving back, keeps getting pushed farther and farther out, which I think is promising, right?

Uh, but now it has been pushed out to early March.

Uh my feeling is that if I can get this bill passed before the state makes its decision, that puts us in a better position, right?

Because if Republic gets their permit, right, like gets that permit in hand before we can pass this bill, then they can say, well, we already got the you know what I mean, it sort of creates an argument for them to say, well, we should be able to do this.

It's already been permitted.

So, you know, I would like to get this at least this bill wrapped up as quickly as possible.

There's another bill that's gonna come to the table later on about rezoning the riverfront, the entire riverfront.

Um that's a separate bill, again, you know, put on the table because of this situation that we're in.

But um, but this first one sort of defining waste transversations and where they can go and where they can't go, um, is I think I think the stronger bill too, to be honest.

Thank you.

Oh, Lisa, go ahead.

Um just a quick question.

If it's appropriate to ask, is there a reason why um there's resistance to the bill um for like for for those council folks who haven't attended is the what is their reasoning for that?

Uh I it's unclear.

I think I think a lot of it is concern that the administration isn't supportive of the bill.

But you know, you know, you don't want to do so.

I think that there may be some resistance because I do know that like, you know, public works is sort of like, well, this would be really helpful if we had this thing in Hazelwood.

And I'm like, right, but we also have this one in McKee's Rock.

So I would like to see public works do more to solve this problem with the existing resources that we have around the city.

I don't know.

So that is my like I said, I I I feel like I have a solid four.

I would like to have five or six.

Thank you.

Yep.

Are there any other members have any questions for councilwoman Barn.

Okay.

Well, thank you for so much for uh the context, the email and this discussion.

Um we'll uh listen and I you know, uh we'll pull together and uh we have like a little bit of an advocacy committee brewing.

Um and uh oh Helena, do you have a last minute question for Council Person Barr?

Oh no, I just I just wanted to make sure like I'm being as transparent as possible.

Considering my my role with the city, with any letter of recommendation, I would have to abstain.

That's just what my my role is.

I just wanted to make sure it's on record.

Yeah, I mean, you're not the only one who's written me already to abstain.

So um yeah, we'll we'll um a lot of us are kind of cross-poly and all over the place dealing with things.

Um so uh we'll we'll we'll do that.

Alyssa and I will come together um and uh move forward with you know pinning a response and see how quickly we can get that to you.

Um great.

Hopefully before next Wednesday, but you know, everyone's maybe we'll see.

Um at least before your vote.

So yeah, so thank you so much.

Um and anyone who hasn't had an opportunity to look through the email, please do is full of lots of good information that Barb has, you know, compiled and you know, about uh this uh effort um and you know the importance of you know not continuing to to bear have communities bear the brunt of um a lot of uh you know uh I guess you could say smog and and you know just all the things that come with having a um a waste transversation um or you know some of the worries that come with that.

Um yeah, we don't uh yeah environmental justice is very important.

Um but yeah, thank you so much.

Um so we will move forward with the agenda.

I do have the next uh Daryl's presentation in front of me.

Um I can share that.

Give me a second.

Hopefully.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Yeah, no problem.

Uh perfect.

Um there it is.

Okay, cool.

Go ahead.

Go ahead.

All right, great.

So hi, good morning, everyone.

My name is Daryl Payne again, and I am the education manager for the PLACS Collaborative for Humane Action Pennsylvania.

So I would like to do today is spend a few minutes with you to talk about who we are as Humane Action Pittsburgh, some of the initiatives that we are working on currently, and how we like to partner with um organizations around the region and how you can actually contact us.

So as our as our name says, we're Humane Action Pittsburgh.

We are humane.

We believe in showing kindness and compassion and sympathy towards people as well as animals.

Our mission is to unite and to empower diverse communities with the information needed so they understand how the environment works.

They understand how um plastics uh could impact them.

They understand how um various uh laws that were passed can impact them.

So our whole goal is to uh work with communities, collaborate, and ensure that the information of uh uh of uh animals and information of um what we do is uh is is put out in the communities.

Um our vision is also a world without animal suffering, um and we want to make sure that all animals are being treated with compassion.

The nice thing that we do is we actually are an interconnection with different things, right?

So we are an animal rights group, but we also are interconnected with other initiatives that impact animals.

And that will be said in my next slide.

Can you um forward next slide?

Do I have control of the slides?

I'm trying to move on to the next slide.

I'm sorry, yeah, I was muted.

Um I accidentally moved forward.

Is this the slide you want to be on a show and move on to the move on to the next one?

Next slide.

Yes, okay.

Thank you very much.

So here are the initiatives that I was referring to that has the interconnectivity with the animal rights and the animal work that we do.

So the first one is love your wild animal.

We are currently working on a campaign to educate residents of Atagena County and beyond on humane techniques that serve as an alternate to trapping.

Another initiative that we are working on is this initiative called Pittsburgh Plogging, which is a uh an initiative where our volunteers get involved to pick up litter around the city.

Um they pick up litter with jogging or walking, um, also uh with accessible activities for all fitness levels.

But essentially what our volunteers do is they go around the city and they pick up litter wherever they see litter.

Um and then if you combine these two together with classes collaborative, they kind of all kind of work together, right?

So the love your wild neighbor is about you know, uh making sure that um animals are treated in humane way.

And if we pick up the litter that is within the city or or county, then that will also aid in ensuring that animals do not show up on our on our doorstep or are unwanted.

And then this and then the plastics collaborative is a is an initiative that we work on to kind of get the word out on how detrimental plastic could be.

Plastics show up in in everything, it shows in our water, it shows up in our food.

So our goal here is to ensure that we get the word out on how we could reduce the plastics that are being produced uh in in our communities.

Uh next slide, please.

So we're very uh big on community engagement.

We have several different uh tenants that we believe uh sort of like guides us in our community engagement.

The first one is building partnerships.

We we believe in having mutual respect, share accountability, as well as it making sure we take the responsibility and a commitment to ensure that we're getting the awareness out to the various diverse communities and to ensure that whoever we're partnering with, we're partnering with those those people in an accountable, transparent, and a responsible way.

Creating community is a second uh point where we foster an environment where everyone feels valued and heard.

We foster empowerment by giving the communities the tools, building trust with community members as well as what I mentioned earlier, is giving them information to succeed.

And all this is setting the standard, establishing Bismarck for excellence, as well as delivering results.

And as I mentioned before, there is a link between the initiatives that we do.

There's a link between the litter, the litter and unwanted visitors in our neighborhood.

Um we provide the the insights with the Love Your Neighbor companion on how we can humanely um handle those situations.

Again, with the unattended leader creates an open invitation for various issues, and then the plastic initiative that we're working on helps us uh get the information out on how hazardous pollution, plastic pollution can be within our within our communities.

So we would like to work with the commission um going forward.

We would like to be a part of this group.

Um in the last slide, we uh I put in there the uh executive director of HAP, who her name is Natalie, and I am my name is there as well.

So if you have any more inform uh questions or if you want more information about who we are as HAP and the initiative that we work on across the region, please reach out to us and we'll be happy to work with you and collaborate with you, collaborate with you as well.

With that said, are there any questions for me?

No questions?

Any questions?

Well, um I you know I've seen the, you know, when Natalie initially reached out to me, I did, you know, she kind of gave me a little bit more uh similar spiel.

And I there's a you know connection between, you know, like how clean our environment is, you know, as it pertains to human waste, whether it'd be food or whatever, and you know, the critters that we share our environment with.

So you know, a lot of and having worked in environmental services where people, you know, often call saying that their trash has been shredded and they haven't been, you know, it's not in a container and it's not secure.

And it's just like, you know, your animals will find it.

They have really good noses.

And you know, we can do more as you know a community if humans to, you know, uh be nicer to our neighbor and keep them safe and out of our waste, right?

And so yeah, this is I see there's a lot of alignment.

Yeah.

And I think uh you know as we move forward, we do have a like a membership committee, you know, we will pass this along to them and you know they will engage with you all and you know kind of usher you through the net that membership process which is still a little still forming in the new administration.

But I'm you know I'm hopeful that you know there is um an opportunity to collaborate um and have you uh HAP as an organization on the commission.

So um yeah we we have a little bit of a a process to figure out and to move forward through but um give us a little bit of time uh thank you so much for this presentation and we'll we will be in touch with those next steps.

But yeah thank you so much to I mean I'm a vegan so I don't want to toot my own horn but I've been living the life of animal awareness um and and um in in kindness for quite some time so I'm very uh appreciative of humane action in Pennsylvania and the work that you guys do.

So um well thank you for the opportunity to speak um and thank you for the opportunity to be here and I look forward to working with the commission going forward.

Yeah thank you so much I will stop the share.

And we will get back to our agenda.

Got a lot of windows open um okay so after a little bit of switcherooing in our agenda we are on to the neighborhood of focus committee and I will go ahead and hand that off to Lisa thank you.

As you can see the neighborhood of focus committee has not met yet that is 1000% on me.

I did send out an email with some date and times and I know at least one of those dates has already passed uh at the end of the day today I will send out an invite to everyone who has raised their hands um to be in that committee to set up a meeting I'm guessing for next week um we have some dates there that worked with folks so we'll work on that um until then there are two main things um we wanted to discuss uh for today's meeting jumping kind of down to the recommendations uh we're calling for recommendations for our 2027 2028 neighborhoods of focus so just to start kind of putting the bug in everyone's brain about interested neighborhoods um I have listed here all of our previous neighborhoods over since the beginning of the CPC ideally we won't repeat because there are so many other areas that we as the uh CPC have not touched yet so if we could wait to do any duplication until we've made it our best efforts through more areas of the city um so please take a look at this maybe start thinking about areas neighborhoods um parts of the city that you as an individual and organization uh you know department of the city have a particular interest in last year not last year when we were looking for this seasons rounds um neighborhoods of focus folks just kind of submitted where they had a particular interest I know it's uh ACW at the time we were working in district three so we shot out some neighborhoods in that area um and I want to say was Helena and some other folks had particular interest in the neighborhoods that we are in now so it was just submitting um based on on where you guys are interested in so we'll probably have this discussion further into the year maybe more in the summer um but we should I'm guessing Almo correct me if you think differently but like September October be making our vote so we can have that prepared and then start planning for what um wrapping up this season's and getting ready for next seasons.

I think you know uh, you know, as I've kind of come into the role of helping with uh leading this commission, I have seen the need to, you know, do more uh you know uh reach for perhaps to like some commission uh to some council people as well, you know, like if we're choosing an area, um, you know, we can utilize some more of that support direct from um whoever the council representative may be.

Um and you know, that's kind of um yeah, start everybody who start the better you can plan, right?

Um yeah.

Great, yeah.

Um okay.

Uh so until we meet, um, that was really all like we'll and we'll go more just talking about council reps and getting more folks engaged.

Um that is hopefully something we'll do more with the committee.

But the other part um wanted to talk about today is the Bob Awards and closing this round of neighborhood of focus.

Um we will see uh Helena put a great um annual report together that has included all of the details of the work that has been done in the neighborhoods of focus so far.

Um Helena, I was in there a little bit and made some adjustments to the cleanways section.

And um so just that little bit.

Um I changed oh uh, but it includes all of the neighborhood of focus stuff.

We'll go more into that once we get into Helena's section, but I just wanted to shout it out because work has been done.

I know like it's sometimes hard to show and talk about everything that's going on, but like there is work there.

So I do want to say we were we did good stuff last year.

But for closing out and the Bob Awards, I am gonna Afton's not here.

So Omo, if you want to talk more about the Bob Awards, because I still am a little confused on what that is.

That's fair, that's fair.

It's been a while since we've had one.

Um so it's kind of it's a celebration of um, you know, one of the kind of uh I guess uh start the initiators of the Clean Pittsburgh Commission and reading up and cleaning it up.

It's Bob O'Connor, our current um mayor's uh father, um, who you know he passed away quite early into his um his tenure as a as mayor.

Um and so you know, in order to show appreciation to you know the work that he was able to accomplish specifically around litter abatement and a clean cleanliness and uh the built environment, um, you know, the Bob Awards was something that we were putting on for quite some time.

I it things got a little jostled, and we haven't had one since COVID um hit and um the last uh Bob Awards, well I'm sorry, let me let me step back.

It is a is a recognition of uh volunteers and people who really are putting in the work in you know, whether it just be in their uh neighborhood or you know, maybe even wider, um, it's a volunteer recognition event and uh a celebration of all the work that is being done by our neighbors and by the commission, um and you know, just recognizing all that hard work.

Um so that's kind of what the Bob Awards is about and bringing to people together a celebration of you know the work that we do um to keep the city clean.

Um the last one we had was in Homewood.

So as you look, it's been quite a while uh since we've had a celebration, and I thought since we were um uh since we were um uh gonna be closing this neighborhood of focus out, this cycle out, um it would be an opportunity to have it in the neighborhood of focus, celebrate the neighbors and our neighborhood of focus that have been doing work um with you know, of course, um not with our support, but in even in spite of our support, but we want to be able to have an opportunity to celebrate those people.

So um that is uh some something we would like to do.

It's usually like in the late summer kind of area.

Um and yeah, so we have a little bit of time, but you know, time pat and that time flies.

So um I am uh I have a uh previous uh commission member who has expressed interest in helping us in that kind of way to get it back in action.

Um and I am going to turn back and and see how we can you know get even more support to host this event.

Um but that's basically um it.

Uh we would need to find if we wanted to have it uh in a location that um is uh in it rain or sh rain or shine probably would be inside.

So if anyone has any suggestions for a location within the neighborhoods of focus or in that area on the west end, um that would be very helpful.

Um but yeah, that's basically it.

Does anyone have any questions in relation to been uh neighborhood of focus bywards?

Uh Helena, go ahead.

I know of a location that the the shared and active lit living center, they're pretty like a good um core building in in our neighborhoods of focus.

So they and they have enough they have a pretty good footprint too.

So but I mean it's nothing it's not like Vellum or anything, it's just like you know, a building, but at least it's like it in rain or shine, and the parking is not too bad either.

So that's that's an idea.

That's good.

Okay.

I'll I'll I'll note it.

Thank you so much.

Um yeah, so uh Lisa, we look forward to your invite.

Um I'll do my best to show up, but as we start doing committees, I don't always have we don't always have to be everywhere at every time.

So um, but go ahead.

Yeah, no, this will just be a topic.

I'll I'll include this in our agenda for the committee as we get set up.

Um with the name, since this will be our first meeting, we'll want to kind of set some the foundation for what this meeting or what this committee includes, what our roles and responsibilities are.

But I think this is a good conversation to start now.

Because like you said, it we time is gonna fly.

We only meet you know once a month.

So we want to make sure that we if we're gonna do this, um, we do this.

We start, we start now to kind of put this together and make sure we have submissions space, the whole works.

Um if depending on when we meet, if it works with your former commission member to attend to maybe start talking about what um what that looks like, what an event would be, how that would be pulled together, that would be great.

Otherwise, I'd be happy to follow up with them uh directly to see what they have in mind.

Um but other than that, that's what I got.

So moving forward, I will follow up with the meeting invite for the neighborhood of focus.

Um, and we'll talk about the Bob Awards and set the foundation for that committee, and also for everybody start thinking about areas that you have interest for the neighborhoods of focus for the next uh two year um session.

I don't think we have like this past season, this was our most four neighborhoods um for two years.

It is like it's a lot, it's a pretty big footprint.

I would say we probably shouldn't go more than that.

Um so maybe thinking of between one to four neighborhoods.

Anything more than that, I think we might be spreading ourselves a little thin based on what our resources and capacity are.

And I have a question, I guess.

Um so like should we also take it into into account the expanse of a neighborhood?

Like if if neighborhoods, you know like the size of the neighborhood.

Yeah, you know, because you know how like Esplan ex is like a little chunk.

Meanwhile, like Squirrel Hill South is huge, you know, in comparison.

I was just wondering if that's what also like how many neighborhoods we should suggest based on just the size of them.

I would say suggest what you're interested in, where you think there's a need, and then that can be part of the discussion.

All right.

Yeah.

Something to consider.

Um great.

Um and in and you know, given this is our last year of this cycle, you know, we're still doing work and even um going into uh this next line item of the finance committee, you know, there's still an opportunity to find um some of you know the work that our uh neighbors in the West End and our neighborhoods of focus are doing.

Um great.

Um I will go ahead and uh we're going to the finance committee and I'll move it over to Larson, and she will uh I'm gonna stop sharing um in case you would like to share the budget.

Yeah, I'll share my screen.

Um can everyone see my screen?

Yes.

Okay.

So we don't have a whole lot of requests in yet.

The big things are that we there's a line here where you could see the 11,000 that was encumbered from last year.

Um so that's also an amount of money that we're working with, aside from the regular $30,000 that we ended up getting.

Um we have a request from a Sheridan community group to get $500 just for sort of like outreach and marketing materials.

Um it seems like it's in line.

We haven't done a vote yet, I believe.

Right.

No.

Um then from environmental services, they're requesting uh $4,050 to get vouchers for the community to subsidize the cost of e waste.

Um I don't know what Helena, was it also for it says H HW here, but it was it just for e waste or also HHW.

Yeah, it's it's for it's for both.

Okay, cool.

Um so that is what we have right now.

Um but now's a great time to be getting in your requests so those can be sent to Afton and I, and um then we can review it at the next finance meeting, which would be in a month.

Awesome.

Um I guess do you think we should yeah, I think we should try to um just make hold a vote on uh funding this uh shared and earth day marketing funding.

Um I do want to just point shout out to with the finance committee.

We are working on an SOP.

Um we started that conversation on Tuesday.

So this particular batch of this request with the Sheridan community group, um community council, they it's on a timeline.

It's for their April cleanups that they do every year for Earth Month.

So in order to get the marketing material, they need to know now if if they have the support of this and they have this funding so they can put in the order and do all the things for future requests.

We will be prepared with an SOP to kind of help with guiding our decision on what is appropriate and not appropriate to bring to the committee for.

Yeah, and and just double up on that.

Yeah, this isn't uh I think this is an appropriate and just going through our missions is an appropriate use of funds to help bring awareness to you know uh a neighborhood cleanup.

Um okay.

Well, I would like to call for votes.

Um if that makes sense.

Yeah, yeah, go ahead.

Yes.

So I would move that the CPC approve funding for the Sheridan Community Council.

$500 for marketing material for their annual April neighborhood cleanup.

I Googled the wording, so I would get the wording as correct as possible.

It was perfect.

I need a second though.

I guess I could second.

I second.

Okay.

Um any of uh any abstentions.

Okay, and guess all in favor raise your hand.

Okay, I see.

I we have a quorum.

Great.

I think you say.

All right.

Um great.

Okay, so we got that one.

Uh and uh any objections first.

Oh, any oh, any any objections.

Okay.

I mean, we I think we had all participating in this one basically.

Well, we had to say the words though, just so the words are.

Yeah, you're right.

You're right, you're right.

Thank you, thank you.

Keeping me on track.

Um, so uh so we hit both those items on the finance uh committee.

Thank you so much, um Larson and Afton in in absence.

Um I will go ahead and just step into the membership committee real quickly.

Um we will be having our uh first meeting on February 20th.

Um we do have um three people currently kind of in the queue.

Uh I've established a connection with the mayor's office to um, you know, kind of just get that process started, even if their process is not as um you know still working itself out.

We do have connections and we have a little bit of a process until until it changes or gets updated.

Um so far I I have only uh out of the three, um we do have Pat Pat Kelly uh been devour and um uh Aaron Tobin.

Uh so far I've only received one out of three, unless I was not CC'd.

Um one is understandable, Aaron is out um and been waiting on you.

Um but I'll reach back out to both of them and um hopefully we can get those through and then you know, uh if we if as we have this meeting at this uh membership meeting, um, and we reach out to the Humane Action Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, that'll be another one that'll need to go through.

So um I am assuming that the process is kind of the same on the other side.

You do meet in front of the council, they vote on you and all that stuff.

Um they vote to approve, and then you get actually approved on the mission for a four-year term, uh commission for a four-year term.

Um, but that's pretty much it.

We will report out on um how that goes um on the next meeting.

Um and it's kind of an as-needed uh um meeting schedule for the membership committee because we won't always have membership members right awaiting it um waiting to be approved.

Okay, all right.

Thank you so much.

I will go ahead and hand it over to Melina.

Outreach, so good news, y'all.

I've been a busy B and making sure that the work is you know moving forward on the 2025 annual report.

Um I believe the link is on the agenda, correct, for everyone to click on.

I I think so.

My computer is so slow.

It's not, it is not, but then let me let me I guess share my screen, I guess.

Um let's see.

Uh one second.

But yeah, it's it's you know basically all the bones are all put together.

Just need um a couple of members if they want to um put any updates, they can email me.

You know, everyone knows who they are, you know, that they haven't given me an update yet.

Um the goal is to get it all final by March.

And I'm and I'm sure that the the new uh communications team in the mayor's office, they want to approve it before we put it on the city website.

Um because they were just they were wondering what I was up to since I do a lot of dabbling in Canva and Facebook and whatnot.

Um so let me pull yep, I'm pulling it up now.

Let me share my screen.

And hopefully this works because my computer does not like for me to be too productive.

All right.

Can you guys see that?

It's coming.

It's a little slow, but it's a city computer.

I don't know, sometimes.

Oh, there we go.

Here we go.

Oh, looks great.

So just a little bing bada boom.

And just you know, message from the code shares, whatever we want to say about how excited we are that everything we did for 2025.

You know, garbage Olympics highlights.

And and disregard any um uh any I guess watermarks you see because I'm trying to get my premium subscription paid for again this year.

So we gotta get that all figured out real quick.

Uh but you know, so that does so ignore those lines, you know, those those are fine.

Um you know, neighbors of focus info, some nice pictures.

You know, gotta have Buster in there, you know.

You know, the the the highlight of environmental enforcement, getting some new more staff.

Still waiting on my Christmas tree tonnage.

You know, the snow didn't help anything with logistics on that.

So I'm waiting to get that number in.

Um and just you know, waiting on, oh yeah, I know I can uh list.

I went in and alphabetized this.

Uh oh, yeah, it's a good idea to alphabetize.

Yeah, that's a good idea.

I know you put the call.

Sorry, that's what I'm saying.

Yeah.

It just the comment that um since we're shouted out in the upper in the neighborhood of focus section, I don't think we need another.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'll take I'll take that out.

Um my computer might freeze on me.

Oh, it's already freezing.

I can't do edits in real time.

It freezes up, so I'll I'll fix that.

Um yeah, and so he's got, you know, I I like my little my little hands with the microphones.

I thought that'd be cute.

And um, member updates.

Um I'll probably I did email everybody on Aaron's list of other contacts for the PPC.

Um I'll I'll reach out to them again.

Maybe I'll give them a call.

Um, just to see if they want to say anything.

Um I know like River Life, I know like you said, like you mentioned, Omo, that some members are not like officially in our commission yet, but I thought calling them mission-aligned organizations would fit.

And if you guys have any fun photos of your activities, uh please send them my way.

Um just I thought having a photo collage be a new addition to the annual report if we wanted to do that.

Um think that's it.

So it's looking pretty pretty snazzy.

And there you go.

Thank you so much, Helena.

This is um, I'm glad we have you because um I am a little too, I don't know, I've I perfectionist even.

I mean, like I would never struggle.

I would struggle.

Um and it looks like a lot of people.

Well, I'm just glad we had that snowstorm, so I had some good chunk of time to like really just kind of put it all together.

So yeah, I I was gonna re-app uh because there's a couple of blank spaces in there.

If Helena has asked you for any kind of um uh reporting out on your you know some of the things that you've been doing um as yeah in connection with or as um you know an organization of the Clean Pittsburgh Commission.

Um please do provide um your blurbs.

Um we are hoping to have this release in the second quarter.

So um and you know, we would like to have it finalized in a good chunk of time so that the mayor's communications team can review it and you know provide feedback so that we can meet that timeline.

So please do uh Helen uh hang on.

Um Deborah, go ahead.

May I make just a quick question?

Um thank you for going through this comment.

Thank you going for going through this.

When I first looked at it, I thought the photo clause was specific to the mission-aligned organizations and that's later.

That is true.

Yeah, maybe just put it on its own page.

I think that's yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I like that.

Okay.

Photo collage, home page.

If you have any photos, if you have any photos, send them uh send them my way.

Um, you know, because you know it'd be it'd be it'd be good to look at annual reports from 20 years from now and be like, oh, remember how young I looked?

Um okay, any other feedback um from Helena?

Um I don't really see any other hands.

Um, like I said, thank you so much, Helena.

Um we will go ahead and if you wouldn't mind stop sharing, I'll go ahead and move on.

I might I might have to I might have to kick myself out of the meeting because the computer totally for us.

I wonder.

Yeah.

But uh what you know, let me I'll do I'll do my best to kind of get this out of here.

Good luck.

Oh I've stopped your sharing.

Apparently I have those abilities.

Um I did not know I had the power.

Oh, thank god.

Okay.

Um okay, so on to the next kind of problem.

Um membership organization updates as time allows.

We do have a little bit of time left.

Um we're going to 1130 is needed.

So um then make the rounds.

Is anyone want to go first?

I can share some cleanway stuff.

Um our cleanups have been on hold.

This will be the third week in a row because of this.

I cannot express how much I hate the winter.

I left Minnesota to avoid this.

So the fact that it is following me here makes me so angry.

Um because of that, we have been on hold for all of our cleanups.

We can't see the trash or you know, bear on dig it out from the ice and the snow.

But the goal is for next week with the warm weather coming, that hopefully most of the snow and the cold will be gone.

We'll be out cleaning.

So if you are interested in getting out of your houses, please join us.

Um just keep an eye out for immaculate collection stuff going on.

Um the draft is coming and more work is being done.

You'll start seeing some uh you know, pend out roads being cleaned up, the roadsides are getting cleaned, uh, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.

You'll start seeing some planting and gardening happening a little bit earlier this season in prep, so definitely keep your eye out for that too.

Thank you.

I I like this uh my favorite thing to think on that it doesn't make me very happy, but I call it the Great Melt, um, where you start the ice starts to melt and you see like all the the litter that's been hidden or people like I've seen I don't know, I've seen countless people think that the snow's gonna hide their litter right in front of me, and I'm like, what are you doing?

Um so uh I can only I've seen some melting happening, and I'm like, oh uh bags, frito bags.

Um so uh if anyone feels like suiting up in general, even if you can't join Alligating Cleanways on these warm days, please feel free to get out there and get your little grabbers, little leader grabbers and grab up that um the remnants of the Great Mill.

Um okay.

Uh thank you.

Thank you, Allegheny Cleanways.

Um would like to share next.

I'll go.

Um in the Office of Management and Budget, specifically to my role.

Um I uh one of the things that we were able to release recently and is out for bid is uh after and I have been working for about a year on releasing compost uh pilot of like um expansion on our zero waste um municipal plan and also um the inclusion of a a composting pilot.

Um, it's it's you know, we are still in the early stages, uh you know, answering questions, you know, getting people prepared to submit their bids, but very exciting work happening in order to in you know, increase our portfolio of uh waste management services.

Um, you know, it's not going to happen soon, but it's it's uh we're taking those steps to make it a reality to make ourselves an actual zero waste city.

Um, hard work, but good work.

So uh very excited to, you know, get that out into the world, and hopefully we can see ourselves actually having uh composting services somewhere in the future.

Um, that's it.

That's all I've been doing.

Uh Gauss and Oh, that's great news.

I just want to mention.

Um talking about we were talking about food waste today.

You know, there was some discussion.

I was invited to this presentation.

It's very interesting.

It's a company that is, I think working with Pitt that is trying to bring a commercial kitchen scale food waste management device.

And apparently this device is not only reduces food food waste volume, but it also produces a self self stable output that can be used as an animal feed, which is very interesting.

So I was invited to this presentation.

I think it's a pit.

It's on March nineteenth.

I'll see if you know I can send the input to anybody else.

But it's you know, composting, that's very interesting.

Cool.

Awesome.

Thank you for sharing.

Um, Deb?

Um, uh, if no one else has anything else to share, um I guess I will call for a motion to adjourn our meeting.

Okay.

Cool.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you, everyone.

Have a great February, and we'll see you guys in March.

Thank you.

Good afternoon and welcome to Pittsburgh City Council's cable cast post agenda on the climate action plan for March 10th, 2026.

And uh although we do not have any council members with us yet, I'm sure we'll be will we will be joined shortly by other council members.

We will start with an introduction from our invited guests.

We have uh Yvette Mongola Winston, director of the Department of City Planning, and Flora Marion, Assistant Director of Sustainability and Resilience in the Department of City Planning.

Welcome.

And I'll turn it over to the two of you to introduce yourselves and for um a brief presentation.

And thank you for having us this afternoon to share the work we've been doing around um climate and resiliency the last couple of years.

Um Florida to my left is the assistant director in charge of that work, and uh much of her team is actually behind us, so um also just want to recognize that they um do an extensive amount of work across many areas, and so we've tried to do this presentation as um an overview um across the various elements of the work, but we can provide much more detail following this, or if you reach out to us if you have specific questions about elements of the climate action plans.

So hopefully today is um an overview and just beginning of a continuous conversation about where we're headed.

Uh so good afternoon, council members and public online.

Uh thank you all for all joining us today on this session on an update on the climate action plans three point oh.

My name is Flor Marion.

I have worked for the city over over eight years and have been leading the sustainability and resilience division for a little over two and a half years.

As you can hear, I am an immigrant from France.

I have been in Pittsburgh for over 17 years.

I have now a custom French team there accents, so feel free to ask me to repeat a sentence and to slow down, that's fine.

Uh it is an honor and a privilege to share the great work we have been advancing on climate action to create a safer future for our world.

The advancing is bugging now.

Okay, we are good to go.

So as the director uh touched on already, uh, since several council members are newer since the climate action plan updates three years ago, and as well as the director and member of my teams.

Uh we will focus today on making council members and Pittsburghers more familiar with our division's work on the climate action plan and the project happening across the city.

We start by introducing the sustainability and resilience team.

Then we look at the how climate change is affecting Pittsburgh, what the climate action plan is, uh how it fits in a broader planning framework, and what our team is responsible for implementing.

We share concrete progress in each of the chapters of the plan and close with next steps and practical actions for the residents.

I mean, moved once, so there is just a delay.

Safe delay.

Okay, here it is.

It's good, it's gonna force me to be slow when I present, so it's not good.

Uh so who is leading climate action uh in Pittsburgh?

Well, since our department strategic plan in 2024, climate justice is a core value of the department.

So the answer to this question is all of us at DCP.

Uh, my team is surrounded by many talented colleagues, and we value the collaboration with them.

Uh specifically, uh we have a core team focused on sustainability and resilience.

Uh, Matt is leading planning for energy, Aftin is covering waste, Isabella grows our green space, Kayla is addressing stormwater issues, Alice collecting data, and Mara is focusing on hazard adaptation.

Together, we advance the city strategy for environmental protection, climate mitigation and adaptation, and addressing hazards that disproportionately affect our vulnerable communities.

Um the climate work is citywide.

We collaborate closely with DOMI, public works, parks and recs, innovation and performance, uh, the office of the mayor and OMB to deploy climate action.

It's truly an all-hands-on-deck effort.

Uh I also want to take a minute here to act on the many local institutions and over 250 nonprofits working in this space.

Uh, the climate action plan update the mayor is proposing will be an opportunity to explore the collective success uh on climate action in Pittsburgh.

I'm happy to come back at the table with many of those partners if we want to focus on uh one topic more precisely, but it was hard today to choose one or two partners to join me to talk uh with you here.

So, climate change impact in Pittsburgh.

I want to take a minute here uh to look at how climate change is already impacting us.

It's real, it's happening, and it's impacting our daily life.

Uh, this is a picture of the April 29th uh windstorm that really impacting Pittsburgh severely last year.

The impacts are here, precipitation are getting more intense.

In fact, they are more 30% more intense that in the 70s.

Uh, this picture down here is uh from just this Saturday.

I don't know if you remember the day started really beautifully with sunshine and round temperature, and then we had a downpour in the afternoon.

And this intensity is just happening more and more.

Uh similarly, we still have uh uh very intense snowfall, but overall you can see the trend line on the snow uh snowchart on the top corner, top right corner.

It's snowing less and less.

Uh, there is less snow coverage uh in Pittsburgh.

In fact, uh, as I mentioned, I've been here for 17 years uh coming from France, and I remember uh being surprised by how long the winter was, the snow was falling, and there was no ones on the on the floor for several weeks in a row.

We've not really seen snow staying over winter in several years now.

Um that's because the temperature are rising uh in Pittsburgh, they are 3.4 Fahrenheit warmer now than they were in the 70s.

Uh you will also notice that it's getting staying warmer deeper into the fall.

Uh summer heat is lingering, and the nights are less cold.

There's uh 17 less nights that are freezing night in Pittsburgh.

Uh this last chart is showing you that winter, the blue colon, is a season that is really warming the most by a five-fiber night.

But you can see that spring, fall, and summer are also uh uh warmer than before.

So all of these uh uh changes are increasing the risk of hazard frequency and magnitudes.

Uh sorry, the legend is a little small here, but the first chart is a number of tornadoes by decade, and you can see clearly that the last colon uh see a huge spike in tornadoes, and this is only for 2020-24.

So the decade is not over yet, and yet we are surpassing the averages of the decades in the past.

The next chart in grid is uh flood count.

Uh, you can see those also uh trending uh trending uh higher.

Uh we have river flooding, but we also have flash flooding risk in Pittsburgh.

And then uh finally, all of these uh changes are uh impacting our slopes, uh our risk of landslide are increasing.

Uh, this is our five-year average expenditure uh for the last 15 years, and you can see uh here again that we're spending more and more challenges landslide.

So I know we are unfortunately facing many crises colliding, uh, but these changes are costly and disruptive.

Housing, energy, human rights, and uh sit at the climate, sorry, climate sit at the nexus of housing, energy, and human rights crisis, and if we don't solve for this tension, uh it's only gonna get worse.

So we should not sideline climate solution when we're thinking about those other crises.

I also want uh to bring to your attention that the American public overwhelmingly supports climate solutions.

Uh the complicated first chart uh in black and white is a charge from nature, and you can see the lighter uh color dot is actual support for uh narrative supporting climate solutions, and the darker color dots are both what the public perceives their peer to think and what policymakers perceive support to be for climate action.

So the conclusion of this chart is the public is demanding and supporting climate action, so we should not afraid to be bold on making those choices.

I also wanted to point that uh 41% of Americans are very concerned about environmental issues.

This is the highest they've ever been.

So we can be bold on climate.

So now I will introduce uh what the climate action is.

Sorry, I am turning my pages here.

So um the climate action plan 3.0 is our roadmap for reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and improving Pittsburgh overall resilience, health and quality of life.

It was adopted by Council in 2018.

It's a guiding document for decision making.

It is organized in seven chapters uh GAG inventory, energy, building efficiency, transportation and land use, waste, food and urban agriculture, and ecosystem.

So this is a heavy slide, sorry about that.

This highlight the primary goals of each of the chapters.

Um we want to be tracking our uh data annually, we want to reduce our emissions uh by 50% by 2030.

We would like to power the city with 100% clean electricity by 2030, uh, reduce energy and water consumption by 50% by 2030.

Uh, we want to reduce on-road transportation emissions by 50%.

Uh, we want to get to zero waste uh landfill by 2030.

Zero is actually means 90% reduction, it's not a pure zero.

Yes.

Uh and uh we want to improve our local food system, and uh our goal is to increase our carbon sequestration.

So now I want to focus a little bit on uh how the this plan relates to the other local plans.

So like I mentioned, the plan was adopted in 2018, and since then the city has issued reports and plans to build on some of the strategy listed in the climate action plan.

So we have taken a deeper dive on specific topic to address climate action.

I also want to point out that uh the state uh uh SPC and PRT also passed uh climate action plan in 2024, uh, with some of them having net zero goal by 2050 or 2045.

So this is great context that we should leverage when we do our climate action update.

Uh those plans were passed in 2024.

There is also a lot of local planning effort happening right now this year.

Uh the city has plans, the county has some plans, and SPC also release the final climate action plans.

Uh those efforts should wrap up this year.

So there will be a great opportunity to leverage the findings, uh, both farm engagement and recommendations to leverage in our next update.

So now we'll uh dive into the role of uh the sustainability and resilience division specifically.

So our mission is to advance uh Pittsburgh's vision for environmental protections, climate change mitigation and adaptation, develop strategies to address the impact of climate hazard on vulnerable residents and communities.

We're currently focusing on renewable energy, energy efficiency, EVs, greenways, stormwater, compost, and adaptation.

And how do we do that?

Where we listen, we uh listen to our communities and to our teams.

Uh, we do some research either internally, working with our local university or getting technical assistance.

Uh, we develop plans, uh, either implementation strategy or funding strategy, we help implementations, and then we also amplify.

Uh we go back to our communities to share the successes, we also share them uh regionally with other partners and nationally, so we can learn from each other.

Um I want to highlight some of the partnership and collaboration we've had uh uh sorted by the chapter.

So in food and urban agriculture, we work with Sparks and EREX and uh we develop we helped uh improve the Adopt a Lot program.

Uh in the ecosystem chapter, we work with public works environmental services, real estate and finance, uh the Office of Emergency Hazard Management, and uh Peace Berk Water on Energy.

We work on benchmarking with the building owners, we work with public works on utility management, and we uh work with 26 partners with WIPEC.

Uh for buildings, we help uh uh public works and we do some benchmarking, we report our data to many partners.

Uh we work on different projects on transportation with PRT, DOMI and PPA, and then I can see.

And on waste, we work mostly with environmental services and with Connect.

Here is a map of the engagement that the team has done uh just in 2024 and up to today.

As you can see on this map, there is pins almost everywhere in Pittsburgh.

Uh, we've engaged with your communities on climate action uh all year long.

Climate is not uh uh avoiding anybody, and every pizza burger is impacted by climate change.

So now I want to dive on the progress the team has done on the climate action plan.

Uh so this uh section is structured with uh the title of the chapter, uh, the primary goal of the chapter, and then uh one of the strategies that the project is linked to is highlighted in blue.

So while we have not uh reported annually on our GHG inventory up until now, we recently got gained access to uh ClearView 2.0, which is an interactive dashboard online.

You can find it on our web page.

Uh and this tool uh will make it easier for us to track our emissions.

So we're very hopeful to be able to report annually going forward.

In fact, we sent data requests to our utilities uh and transportation partner to get the data, and uh we're actively engaging with many of them, so we're hoping to get some information uh back to you next month.

Uh it's been unfortunately difficult to get information from the gas utilities, and we would love to work with you if you have any suggestion on making this happen.

So we collect this data to share it back with our public, but we also use it to benchmark against our peer.

So we share it with uh the CDP or AC2 Puddy to obtain score annually.

Uh we recently joined a lead for cities uh at the beginning of last year.

It was a one-year program for us to uh report more in depth on our policies and programs, and we just submitted the data.

We think we're going to get gold.

This is not official, so don't share it yet, but we're waiting for the the writer uh reported from lead for cities uh in the coming months too.

Uh with regards to energy generation and distribution, I want to highlight two projects.

Uh the Western Pennsylvania Energy Consortium.

This consortium regroup 26 participants to purchase power in bulk on the wholesale market.

Uh, this gives us budget stability because we don't buy all of our energy at once, but we purchase it in blocks, so we can choose the best moment in time to do those purchases.

It also allows us to be more responsive to renewable purchase opportunities.

In 2024, we were already uh more than half of our electricity was coming from clean energy, and this model is uh going to help us uh achieve our 2030 goal of 100%, provided that the grid situation with the data center and how they will be powered uh get results.

There's lots of pressure on the electricity market right now, so they could influence our likelihood to reach this goal.

Uh so meanwhile, we are also investigating installing solar panels on city facilities, uh, with specifically looking at the forestry divisions to put ground-mounted panels.

We're specifically looking at the forestry divisions to put ground-mounted panels.

We receive federal funding for this project.

It's on pause right now, but we're hoping to get an answer very quickly.

And this site should provide more than one uh 129% of the site electricity consumption.

With regard to building energy efficiency, we uh opened Medic4 earlier this year.

Uh this is one of our first building compliant with the net zero ready ordinance.

Uh it's a very uh low energy using building, but it's also most importantly uh a very comfortable high-quality building for the occupants.

Uh so it's really by following this ordinance, we're increasing the quality of the buildings we give to our city staff, therefore supporting them and doing their job.

It's also developing a local scale workforce.

Every building that is uh being uh built or redesigned for the city is we have with this requirement require the workforce to match this need, and so with receiving this training on our buildings, we're helping other uh business owners uh get access to this talent.

Uh you also probably notice streetlight being changed in your neighborhood.

Uh this is a massive project for the city.

35,000 street lights are being replaced.

Uh people are reaching out to ask us uh how we design this ordinance, and we're happy to share this information with them.

We were in the news.

Uh and this will save maybe a million.

We're estimating a million dollars a year once it's completed.

Uh I'm hoping this is gonna alleviate some pressure on the budget, but I'm also hoping we find a way to maybe reinvest some of this fund in energy efficiency project for the city.

We are also working on building an energy efficiency uh towards helping our residents.

Uh during the last administration with uh Duken Light, uh rebuilding together Pittsburgh Action Housing.

Uh, we developed energize Pittsburgh.

Um this pilot uh is closing now.

Fully household received uh additional energy efficiency or electrification measures.

This is an additive program, so those candidates were selected for other programs like uh stabilization or home repair or weatherization.

Most of the federal programs have a cap of funding, and so the contractor coming in to intervene in this home are limited in all of the intervention they're doing and have to prioritize the requirement of those programs.

So by bringing in this additional source of funding, we're able to leverage them being in the house and maybe demolishing a wall or intervening one way or another to add another layer and therefore reducing the energy burden of this uh this household.

It's been very successful from the resident to the contractors, and we're really looking forward to continue working with this administration and they can save to identify new funding.

Uh, we're also working with Duke and Light and GBA to increase the to develop a process for the utility to uh quantify how uh infrastructure investment in neighborhood could be uh leveraged at the PUC level.

Um now in chapter four, which is focused on transportation and land use.

Uh obviously, transportation work is led by DOMI.

We also have a transportation uh planner in our integrated planning team.

Uh, our team did work on two projects.

We are uh helping DOMI with the EV charger infrastructure.

Uh we are following the EV task force recommendation, and we deploy 100 chargers at 21 sites uh across the city.

Uh for your information, there's already 12,000 EVs in Pittsburgh, and the number of ownership increased by 40% uh since 2024.

So there is a demand for it.

Uh this funding is thanks to a federal grant that is on pause right now, but is being resolved in the court, and we're hoping to get the funding really soon.

As soon as funding becomes available again, the team is ready to bring those chargers to your neighborhood.

We also work with uh Bag Pittsburgh and uh RMI to evaluate uh uh locations for potential heavy charging stations for e-bikes near multifamily uh buildings.

Uh those uh residents have more difficult to charge cars or access uh those bikes and they will benefit from it the most.

So we have some site to proposing next iteration of POGO.

Uh on waste and resource recovery.

Uh, we conducted a uh a composting pilot several years ago that we already reported on.

So I wanted to update you on the next phase of this project.

We created what's called an ITQ, so we could put our local composter on the uh ready-to-go list so that they are already on contract with the city.

So whenever we decide uh to run uh a next iteration of the composting pilot, they're already on contract with the city, so we can really activate these resources very quickly.

So we asked some of our vendors to voluntarily report this information to us through a platform called Clupify.

We just changed their name actually.

And then finally, the plastic collaborative reach out to us recently with some proposed update to the city sustainable event guide.

And so we worked with them and hoping to put it back on the DPW environmental services website.

On food and agriculture, uh the this is not work done by the team, nonetheless, it's helping the climate action plan.

So I'm happy to highlight the work here.

The city has revamped the adopt a dot program to increase access to uh and um increase access to the program to the the residents of the city and specifically it's expanding the definition of approved garden elements.

They also updated the least term, and so we're really hoping that this new change will bring more uh urban farm in the city.

And I also want to highlight that Pittsburgh has three city farmers uh that are really advancing uh access to local food and helping manage the the food markets in Pittsburgh.

And then finally, getting to the last chapter of the climate action plan.

I want to highlight a couple of projects.

Uh, one of them is our data-driven tree planting for urban resilience.

Uh so we created a data-driven replicable approach focused on implementing a tree planting program that increases the tree canopy where it is the most needed in the city.

And it's fostering long-term community care and maintenance of the trees.

Uh so this tree canopy strategy maximize climate resilience benefit to the community that are the most vulnerable.

With this grant funding, we were able to deploy the strategy on five site, and we planted 148 trees there.

Uh, what is really special with this project is that we had funding to really do strong public engagement, and those tree planting event turned into block party.

There was music, food truck, uh the community coming together with city staff to plant those trees, and it really made uh climate uh climate action really concrete for those neighborhood.

In fact, the team is looking forward to go back in the spring while the trees are budding to see how the neighborhood has been transferred by those pilots.

This project is uh such a leading project that we received an award, a smart city award just last week.

We also worked on the greenway expansion over the last year.

Um, so the city has uh over 10,000 city-owned vacant parcels that were uh saved for study.

Uh, some of them have been in the system for 40 years.

And so by analysing those parcels carefully, we were able to release 7,000 of them back to the market, but also identify 300 3,000 of them that uh should not be put on the market and should be preserved for greenways.

Uh by doing so, we're reducing the risk to properties and we're increasing uh recreational areas for Pittsburgh.

And last but not least, uh, we work with Waterno Alliance to develop a framework for green infrastructure deployment.

Uh we have a lot of flooding and water quality challenges in Pittsburgh, and so we develop uh a framework that uh uh prioritize and identify funding for area risk combined zero overflow, uh, flood risk and environmental injustice across Pittsburgh.

Uh we did the framework in the last year, and now we're piloting uh a site in Lincoln Lamington, working with the communities to identify vacant lot that would be best suited for green green infrastructure.

This was a lot of information.

Uh I'm happy to uh take some questions at the end.

We're also happy to meet uh one-on-one in briefing or coming back to the table to discuss this in more detail.

Uh so our next steps.

Uh we will continue to learn research plan and support project and policy implementation.

Uh, we are actively doing engagement for our greenway and stormwater.

Uh we are doing research with several technical assistance partners.

I want to give a shout out to the PGS Lab program where we are currently looking into doing thermal imaging of some of our neighborhoods with drone so we could identify homes that might need intervention.

Uh we have an RFP out for our zero waste and compost plan.

And we will start working on outlining how we want to tackle the climate action update that the mayor mentioned in this campaign.

We will continue to support project and implementation.

Uh like I mentioned, we're looking forward to voting on the EVs, um, the solar panels, uh, those programs around energy burden and uh greenways.

In fact, we will come back to the table this year with some legislation around the green weight and stormwater code updates.

Uh and then finally, I want to amplify a lot of the sustainability work happening in the region.

Green Building Alliance is having the material and resource week right now.

Two of our city staff are talking at this event.

Uh Energy Week is happening at CMU next week.

Uh Pete is having the Environmental Summit in April, and then finally, Savague City Staff.

We'll be speaking at the National Adaptation Forum in May.

Uh there's a lot more event climate happening in Pittsburgh.

So feel free to reach out or look online, and we're happy to connect you.

So I hope that seeing all of this action inspired us on in the room and online.

And so I want to leave uh this discussion with some recommendation for action for our residents that you can uh pass along uh during your your discussions.

Uh so first we would like all of Pittsburgh to make a plan for emergency.

Uh Reggie.gov is a website that will provide guidelines on how to be prepared in case of emergency.

Uh Earth Month is coming up in April.

There will be a lot of volunteering opportunity.

So find out if you want to help a cleanup or plant some trees.

There's gonna be a lot of events that you can feel like you're contributing to the solutions.

Uh I also recommend to talk with your employers if there is a sustainability or recycling pilot at your work, and maybe you can launch an initiative if nothing is happening just yet.

Uh we should all grow native plants for pollinator.

It's better for nature and it's easier to maintain.

Uh in the same vein, uh, we need to slow down our water in our neighborhood.

So if you have the space for a rain garden or a rain barrel, uh we encourage you to look into it.

You can get a free energy audit with Duke and Light, and after that you may be able to access rebates to electrify or deploy more energy efficiency in your home.

If you are able, you can also look at PA poor or switch to switch to green energy or install solar panel on your home.

And then finally, if your vehicle is starting to age, maybe you should consider switching to an electric vehicle or maybe any bike.

Thank you so much for your time today.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm happy to answer some questions now and coming back later to for a deeper dive.

Thank you so very much, Assistant Director Marion and um director, would do you have anything to add now, or do you want to wait for questions?

Um, I think for me, this is uh an amazing recap of you know the various aspects of the work.

And for somebody who's not deep in you know this world, I think having those tangible actions for residents is a lot of what matters in the neighborhoods, what we can be doing to, you know, make slight incremental progress.

So thank you.

Great.

I do want to note that for the record that council member Barbork has joined us.

And before I turn it over to her for some questions, um I wanted to just state that the intention here has been over the years to hold periodic post-agenda hearings on the climate action plan.

Because I was a li, I just happened to be elected for the first time in 2018 when the last iteration of the plan was updated.

The intention was to hold one every year to sort of hold our own feet to the fire and say where are we today or this year versus our goals or 2025 or 2030, etc.

or 2050 goals.

Um hasn't exactly been an annual update, um, which uh you know has to do with factors including the COVID-19 pandemic, another big um uh shocks and stressors that came our way.

But um, but I think this is a really helpful recap, especially as we're looking to 4.0 and um and understanding you know where we are, where we need to collect more information and what action items we know we need, in addition to then putting you know uh another another plan together.

So I know I have a lot of questions, but I'd like to turn it over to my colleague, Councilmember Warwick to ask whatever questions she has and anyone else who might join us after.

Yeah, thank you.

Um and yeah, thanks for all your work and the comprehensive presentation.

Um thing I wanted to start with and just ask you about is you know, around specifically around transit, right?

That's um an area of of key interest for me, and I know for a lot of folks.

Um, reducing our reliance on cars, obviously is something that we can do.

It's good, you know, it's it's good for the climate, it's improves air quality, you know, reduces emissions emissions, reduces noise, you know, improves health.

Um we're doing a lot of work with DOME around uh you know, the vision zero safe streets, right?

Like making our streets m more walkable, more bikeable, just making them safer.

Um but one area where I feel like we are lagging, and I'm curious if if city planning has looked into this at all is I don't want to say we're lagging, like there so um the availability of uh pogo bikes around the city.

So obviously we can't, you know, we don't have control over PRT.

Although I will say I feel that the city of Pittsburgh should have a seat on the PRT board and that as a city we should be far more engaged with PRT than we are.

I feel like historically there's kind of been this like not so much so in the past years, but kind of like, oh that's that's the county, that's PRT.

We don't have any, we can't help, you know, nothing we can do.

Um but so aside from the partnership with PRT, you know, recently AHN announced that it was pulling their support for the Pogo bikes.

Um they are giving them a little bit of a runway of about a year, but still that's very disappointing, you know.

And I I mean I I am a firm believer, those bikes the you know, now that they're that they're e-bikes for the most part are so popular, and over the years I have seen um a change, like the more stations that are available, the more types of people you see using.

Like if they are there, people ride them.

And that seems to be so um just you know, with regards to transit, I don't know if you wanted to speak at all to that to sort of what you're looking at at city planning and how you're kind of bringing together the players.

Uh so I will re-emphasize this uh EV study we did.

We had the opportunity uh to work with RMI, uh EV, yeah, not EV, sorry.

They reach out about EVs and we actually uh focused on e-bikes because really like you said, uh the more we have them, the more diverse the population using them is, and the more we see them be wrong.

So it seemed really important to us uh to to look into increasing these access.

So I know that Bag PGH has uh a map of uh station they want to roll out now, uh but we identify uh three stations that are outside of the Bondary that would really significantly significantly increase ridership.

And um and Domi and Bag PGH were really uh uh thankful for this to the uh data coming to them.

Uh we have a transportation planner that is not on my team.

I don't know if Andrew Brief Trina is there to add yes.

Um yeah, I want to add a couple of things actually because um I actually have a very close um partnership with Pogo, with their organization and what they're trying to do.

And I happen to have taken one of their um community rides in Hazelwood.

And I was impressed by how they have changed the culture by being intentional about teaching more people to you know, get comfortable with bikes and so forth.

So I think this has raised for me what we can do to support them and getting more of those stations, especially at places that have less transit options and when they're reliable on one primary road, like second avenue.

So I think this for me is um opening up an opportunity to like work closer with Pogo to really um think about where those locations are needed and also in the context of the comp plan because we are thinking about how people get around better and have more options that we're not uh we're not working in a vacuum with what's happening at PRT, you know, and so I'm trying to keep in the big picture of um how we manage like investment in um transportation for people who are here today, but hopefully as we grow, we're gonna need more of it and not take it away.

So um I think it's something that we need to look at closer.

Yeah, I I I definitely feel I mean, as far as pogo, you know, we talk a lot about our large nonprofits making contributions.

I mean, whether you look at, you know, Oakland based uh, you know, whether that be the universities or the hospitals.

I mean, to have more pogo bikes around the city makes everybody, you know, whether it's students, whether it's healthcare workers, right?

It really makes it much easier for people to get to and from their kind of you know core locations.

Um and I, you know, it it would be nice to see the contribution there because it is a funding issue, right?

At the end of the day, so I think if they if Pogo had 40 million dollars, I mean that was a conversation I had maybe three or years ago.

We could have a pogo station within a five minute walk of every house in Pittsburgh, and that would completely change the landscape for transportation in this.

We would be a bike city, like within you know, four years.

So I think that's something we can dig more into near term and explore what are other potential funding sources and so forth.

Yeah.

I mean, uh you know, as as uh it's sometimes hard, you know, with with the nonprofits, there's like smaller nonprofits, there's sort of this idea of like, well, you're kind of in charge of figuring out your own funding.

But you know, this one is really critical and the service they provide the city, you know, is whatever we can do to make sure it's a good thing.

It's definitely a bigger expand.

Yeah, you know.

Yeah, yeah.

Um the next uh sort of yeah, the street lights, what a great win.

Kudos to Domi on that, really.

And I love that they can be adjusted from uh from a computer that is I've never seen them dimmed.

I didn't know that was.

I think the the North Side I think is complete.

So all of the North has the streetlight.

Uh the West Side is well underway as well as the Hill District, and I think they're slowly moving uh east now.

Yeah, yeah.

No, it's really super.

I've had a number of residents say, oh, hey, it's a little bright, and then like the next day it's dimmed.

It's very convenient.

I'll do another plug here.

If you uh indeed go to the street light change near your house, uh call three one one and indicate the intersection specifically, you need to tell them which streetlight you want to adjust it.

If they don't have the information, they cannot do uh the adjustment for you, but they are really uh available to make those changes.

So call three one one.

Yeah, yeah.

Um I did want to add so a little bit sort of this is kind of on the topic of EVs with it with relation to DPW and you know what sort of DPW has a partner in you know reducing litter.

Um it it just feels to me like there, and I I know it's a very high mountain to climb, but it it does feel like DPW could be doing more, but I don't know if that's a funding issue, if it's a training issue, if it's right, like, you know, just whether it's cleaning up litter just as a matter of course, whether it's putting more recycling cans and trash cans around, but then also of course collecting those k right.

Um and then the other part of the question is I have heard some concerns around the EVs with garbage garbage trucks recycling trucks about whether those are working out, like as vehicles.

So I can give you a quick update here.

Uh so our fleet team uh were uh on the leading edge of EV adoption.

So we did work with uh um a manufacturer of EV trucks, and it's true that we have gone through a long pilot to really adjust those trucks to make sure they are safe for all drivers and our residents.

Uh it has taken some time, but it's important to do the work.

Uh we are a city of innovation, so I think it's important that we don't just wait for products to be perfect for us to use.

It's also part of our world as leaders to uh start those first contracts and work with the manufacturer and and get the product right.

Uh and I want to congratulate the manufacturer and the fleet team.

They've been and and DPW will be driving those trucks.

They work together over the years to get those trucks where they need to be, and I think uh they are almost ready to roll out and we should see them collecting garbage in Pittsburgh in 2026.

Okay.

Um let's see, what else do I have?

Oh yeah, my last so um I had a uh an interesting conversation.

I don't know if you know Lucy Um De Barbero.

Yeah, so we had yeah, she's with energy efficiency empowerment.

So they raise money so that um nonprofits that do affordable housing like HI Rising Tide, whatnot, can can make those houses energy efficient, right?

So she helps raise those additional funds.

Um and she and I were talking about a home the idea of a home energy score um, you know, for houses in Pittsburgh for selling houses.

But anyway, but it it was it's an interesting idea.

And what I wanted to ask just sort of legislatively what are things that council sh could be doing, right?

That we could be that that then are also something that we could actually implement.

Because it's one thing to pass legislation is another thing to actually do the thing, right?

Yes.

So the home energy score is uh a platform from the EPA.

So it's a federal tool so we with the current context is difficult to know if these resources will stay available but they're this been developed many years ago it's been used in several cities.

I think we can avoid it out in a way that it's not uh adding a new burden on anyone so uh I and I think it's really important for uh for buyers for home buyers to know how much the house uh costs and even for renters quite frankly that that's a different uh another layer to tackle but uh utility uh bills are getting higher and people should have the information uh before they uh sign a lease or uh a buyer house to to what they should be expecting to be spending in in hitting and cooling that house so uh it's not an easy month to clear but I'm happy to work with you on that because I truly uh uh support the the idea of this transparency yeah it would be that that would be something interesting to sort of talk with realtors and talk with you know maybe even landlords and how we could how you would even you know where would that even go you know as yeah I I don't know if you uh remember but several years ago we uh added uh information about solar panels and grid feature on the on home in the MLS list so uh I'm sure we can build on this initiative and see how we could uh add a home energy school yeah okay um I don't think I have any other questions um yeah and you know more tree bl I just have tree planting with a star like yes more as much tree planting as we can do so anyway thank you I appreciate it so much for your questions today thank you council member and I have a few questions as well uh I'll start with uh this is uh clearly a plan that we are implementing and working on can you just for those who are curious about how this fits into our yet to be finished comprehensive plan sequencing yes integrated yes uh external to that you know how it how it talks and relates to that yes I will start and then look to floor for your additional detail.

Um our um proposed approach and I think was always an understanding that the comp plan would