Homewood Nation

As developers move into Homewood, housing has taken center stage and on Tuesday, Nov. 29, about 100 people attended the Homewood Concerned Citizens Coalition meeting at Homewood Carnegie

Library to learn about a slew of real estate developments.

The meeting was moderated by HCCC Executive Director Cherylie Fuller with representatives of the agencies or companies involved in building more than 100 new homes.

The projects include Susquehanna Homes, a s...

Grab a cup of coffee, this will take a little while...

Homewood has become the focus of a great deal of attention by people who want to see it redeveloped. This focus has intensified both the danger and the opportunity that have been close at hand for years now.

A large part of the danger lies in the possibility that Homewood's redevelopment will follow ...

Two weeks ago we were discussing, on these pages of Homewood Nation, whether or not President Obama should have made a swing through Pittsburgh’s African American neighborhoods to wave at his most ardent and unapologetic supporters as he visited the Tech Shop in Bakery Square. At the time I said that I thought that the president made frequent trips to Southwestern Pennsylvania to streng...

Further observations and questions regarding the Animal Rescue League project and residents' responses. Grab a cup of your beverage of choice; this is going to take a while:

In the citations below, TR = the Tribune-Review's story about the first meeting; PG1, PG2, PG3 = Post-Gazette stories following the first, second and third meetings; UMT = Urban Media Today's story, which came after the third meeting.

I) Altogether, the three P-G stories quote a tota...

A few days ago, the Post-Gazette published what was surely last week's best headline:

"Pittsburgh's East End residents growl at plan for new animal shelter."

The story was the last of three within six weeks about the Animal Rescue League's plan to move a couple of blocks east from its location in Larimer, to the corner of Dallas and Hamilton Avenues - and residents' responses to the plan.

The Tribune-Re...

For lovers of Homewood, the year 2014 has gotten off to a dramatic, intriguing, challenging start.

On January 6, Homewood artist and poet Vanessa German thrilled attendees at Mayor Bill Peduto's inauguration with a spoken word piece that brought the audience at Heinz Hall to their feet, and that made me, watching it with my wife on TV, want and wish to be the kind of neighbor, the kind of Pittsburgher, that she ...

Kevin Amos wants to rehab a house in Homewood to make it a hub of musical activity.

Picture, if you will, a house in Homewood. Like many others, it was built in the early 20th Century in the American Foursquare style - 2 1/2 stories, brick construction, with a living room, dining room and kitchen on the first floor and five bedrooms on the upper floors.

Imagine that t...

On Monday, June 24th the Black Political Empowerment Project convened a Homewood community discussion about how to deal with vacant or abandoned properties. The discussion was held at the neighborhood branch of Carnegie Library. Homewood Renaissance Association CEO Rev. Eugene Blackwell, Operation Better Block Executive Director Jerome Jackson, Rosedale Block Cluster Executive Director Diane Swann, and Community Empowerment Association CEO Rashad Byrdsong, were among the 50 community and non...

I went to bed around 3 am last night.

These days, that's early for me.

So I woke up about 10, then did a morning writing exercise that I learned from author Luthor Cale in his book "33 Ways to Reboot Your Life." The exercise is to write three pages, first thing in...

The demolition of houses in Homewood is a complicated story, with multiple facets, so expect a number of follow-ups to yesterday's news.

Like this one.

This is about Race Street, and me, and different ways of doing things.

For those who don't know already, I am chair of the Save Race Street Committee, a resident group formed in November 2008 to make our street safer and more beautiful. Early in our work, we began experiencing the value ...