Pittsburgh Organizations and Their Websites, at a glance

The first organization’s website I chose to focus on is East Liberty Development Incorporation (ELDI). The second website I compare and contrast with ELDI is Hosanna House and the third organization’s website is Thomas Merton Center. All of these organizations are located in the city of Pittsburgh, but have very different missions.

ELDI is a non-profit organization in the heart of the East Liberty neighborhood. This organization works with the neighborhood and other agencies to enhance east Liberty in four distinctive categories: planning, advocacy, facilitation, and investment.

Hosanna House is located in Wilkinsburg and is a community center for this neighborhood. They offer this neighborhood a number of different services; Early childhood education, career development help, and food assistance programs being among the many.

Thomas Merton Center is centered towards peace and social justice. They fight for economic justice, environmental justice, human rights, and other projects to bring about peace to the world. This nonprofit organization has been around in Pittsburgh for over forty years and continues to raise issue domestically and internationally that are not inline with their values of peace and equality.

These three nonprofit organizations all have websites that are informative to their mission and values. The boards of directors for these three organizations are all volunteers. The Thomas Merton Center has the largest number of people of their Board and Hosanna House has the least number of people on their Board. ELDI and Hosanna House seem to both have people that are religiously affiliated as President of their Board. ELDI is the only website that has a short bio of each of their members of the Board. The other websites only list the names of the Board members.

All of these organizations, according to their websites, are a “horizontal” organization. This means they do not have a parent organization in charge of them. All of these organizations are different when recruiting people to volunteer. Thomas Merton Center’s website has almost twenty links to click on with how you can help their causes from your own home. These include writing to your representative, attending different community groups, and receiving their newsletter. There is a volunteer link, but it just tells you how to contact the organization. Hosanna House has a form they ask people interested in volunteering the fill out, but they do not give any additional information about volunteering. ELDI has no link and tab on volunteering with them. The closest to a volunteering opportunity I saw was their information on internships. But, this obviously does not include everyone interested in giving their time to help this organization.

ELDI’s website shows that they are interested in working with the East Liberty neighborhood to “literally invest dollars into projects as well as investing in the quality of life for neighborhood stakeholders.” This organization does not seem to directly interact with the people they serve, the residents of East Liberty. Hosanna House, however, directly interacts with the people of Wilkinsburg and helps them receive basic needs and other important services. The Thomas Merton Center is involved with numerous projects. These projects include economic justice campaigns, educating the public on certain important issues, and projects to advance the rights of prisoners. All of these organizations have very different projects that they are working on. ELDI is development and architecturally centered. Hosanna House helps people everyday and comes in contact with the people they assist constantly. The Thomas Merton Center is directly involved with some of their projects, but they are very politically active.

The Thomas Merton Center has their own newspaper and monthly newsletter to keep people up to date on what they are doing, new projects they are involved in, and things they have accomplished. ELDI does not have this but, they put a link up on their website to give people the chance to see their monthly reports. Hosanna House has a section on their website called “News and Media.” This section allows a chance for people to see what the news and media has said about the organization.  

All of these organizations seem to act in accordance with a structural approach. They see the people they serve in their present situation because of the way society is constructed, not due to their behavior or culture. All of these organizations perform and serve their populations with an asset-based model approach. Hosanna House provides extensive programs and services along with services already offered in society. They make these services fit their population to help them in a more specific way. ELDI does not directly interact with the population they serve, but they believe they are fixing the community for the good of the people. The Thomas Merton Center also uses an asset-based model, instead of a deficiency model. This is so because they believe the people that they serve are wrongly treated and that this needs to stop immediately. All of these organizations believe that the people they serve need a little extra help to get to a good place. This is due to society, not due to the choice they have made. 

Will that Actually Work?

How DO you save a city? Is it by using gentrification and pushing the old out to make room for the new? Does it work when a big business comes in and puts money into a part of town that is financially struggling? Is money the answer or can enacting policy create social change? Or are all of these little pieces of the larger puzzle?

Image Credit: farm4

Cities everywhere are trying to figure out the best way to save their city and bring struggling parts of the city up to compete with the more affluent parts. I have never really thought about this issue until moving to Pittsburgh. I grew up in the suburbs of Florida. The city problems there were how to preserve the beaches and trouble with overpopulation. But, coming to Pittsburgh has opened my eyes to how different parts of this city make you think, feel, and believe. When arriving in Pittsburgh, I was told not to travel to certain parts of the area and to watch out when going to particular places at certain times of day. I took this advice and did not even think about contesting it. But, I got involved in mentoring middle schoolers in the area of Homewood. Yes, one of those areas I was “supposed to watch out in.” Entering Homewood, I automatically looked at the abandoned buildings and graffiti surrounding me. There were no grocery stores and corner stores that I could identify. It only seemed that this area had a library, community center, a school, and the rest of the area was houses. Other areas around Pittsburgh, the Hill District, Uptown, and parts of the Northside, all seemed to be areas in a similar situation. But, on exploration, I came to see the community projects emerging amongst these areas. All of these areas were working on growing community and urban gardens. These projects have been popular in helping a community become more invested and take pride in the area they live in. They also help fight food insecurity, eliminate food deserts, and help families save money on food. A program helping Pittsburgh with this project is called Grow Pittsburgh. There are many of these programs all over the country that are helping parts of cities rise above their hardships and trying to improve the area.

Another program that is helping communities with economic insecurity and being “put back on the map” is a program called KaBoom!. This is a program that goes to communities without a playground and asks volunteers to come help build this playground in the shortest amount of time possible. Their mission is to “create great playspaces through participation and leadership of communities.” They are trying to help kids become healthier by being able to play outside and to ultimately create stronger neighborhoods.

Both of these programs, Grow Pittsburgh and KaBoom!, are helping cities become invested in certain neighborhoods. And while these might help for a short time period, do they ultimately help the community get “saved”? In Richard Florida’s article, “How Not to ‘Save’ a City,” he comments that no city has been helped by a gentrification approach. This approach, “throwing people out of their homes, neighborhoods destroyed, historic structures leveled, and the community fabric…ripped to shreds,” has never worked. He believes that we are better off helping residents with the resources to build on their community strengths and connecting them with their own community-based organizations.

This helps residents turn their community into what they see is right for the future. They need to work with local government, local business owners, and other institutions to achieve the best for their community.

Image Credit: Globalenrichmentfoundation

So is this “empowering process” achieved with programs like Grow Pittsburgh and KaBoom!? Or is this just the first step towards getting people involved in their community and then going from there? Does there need to be an advocating and political aspect to this process? Do big businesses and institutions in the area need to become involved?

I agree with Richard Florida when we says, “the most successful efforts of renewing old urban neighborhoods don’t come from top-down reclamation schemes but from organic, bottom-up, community-based efforts to strengthen and build on neighborhood assets.” This is what projects like building neighborhood playgrounds and urban gardens are doing. However, can community-based organizations achieve complete renewal by themselves? I think that urban gardens and playgrounds can do wonders on community morale, but when does the community start boosting their economy and start competing with the more affluent neighborhoods around them?

External Links:

Grow Pittsburgh- The website for the urban garden project in the Pittsburgh area

KaBoom!- The website for the playground developing program

"How Not to 'Save' a City"- The article by Richard Florida mentioned above.  

Are the children to blame? No, but...

I am currently interning at Catholic Charities in downtown Pittsburgh. I am working on a number of projects, but one in particular is called Hope Totes. This program is a weekend feeding program for children on free or reduced lunches at their schools. We are focusing on a high school near our offices and hoping that this program will provide students with food for the weekends during the school year. Catholic Charities had one of the most successful feeding programs last summer and are hoping to expand feeding children during the school year. I was shocked to learn about how many students received free or reduced school lunches in the city of Pittsburgh. High schools, in the Pittsburgh area, range from 0% to 75% of students receiving reduced lunches. The schools that do not have any children receiving free or reduced lunches are located in the suburbs and the schools with the majority of students getting these lunches are located in places like downtown and the Hill District. Hope Totes is hoping to reach at least thirty children, in its first year, and provide a mentoring program to go along with giving them a backpack of food for the weekend. The thought behind a program like this is if the children do not have enough money to pay for lunch during the week, what could they possibly be eating on the weekend? These programs are becoming popular nationwide and helping children not go hungry.

Image Credit: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Does a program like this help a certain demographic and provide them with resources that might not normally be accessible to them? There is an overwhelming amount of African American students that are receiving free or reduced lunches and that might not have access to healthy food on the weekends. Does a program, like Hope Totes, help these children get out of poverty and have a better chance to compete with their other schoolmates? How can children, who are hungry when they are trying to do school work, expect to contend with their fellow students that do not have to think about fulfilling their basic needs? My hope is that these programs help children that are in this position, but why are they in this position in the first place?

            Referring to the “culture of poverty” theory, the idea that attitudes and behavior patterns keep people poor, determines the link between why people are poor and how their culture might explain this. In the article, “ ‘Culture of Poverty’ Makes a Comeback,” by Patricia Cohen, she touches on certain aspects of people’s culture, like marriage, types of neighborhoods, and segregation, and how the views on these subjects contribute to poverty. Instead of earlier notions about people being lazy and blaming the poor for being poor, the new argument recognizes that a variety of factors contribute to poverty. The factors contributing to poverty are anywhere from political to economic reasons for the poor staying poor. The findings that researchers saw were not always parallel with what people assume. This article came more from a structuralist perspective because they see poverty as a problem occurring within society. Part of this article talks about neighborhoods that have more violence. This limits the ability for students to learn. This is because they are not able to communicate outside the family, and if the parent did not go to college, so the child does not have access to communicate on a higher level. This can be one side of the argument why these students do not do as well in school as students who’s parents went to college, but what else can attribute to this notion?

            In association with children receiving free school lunches, the “culture of poverty” cannot fully explain why these children cannot afford to buy lunch at a regular price and cannot say that their culture leaves them hungry. Some of these things are out of their control and even their caregiver’s control. So what can explain why some families do not have enough food to eat? What explains children receiving free or reduced lunches are more likely not to graduate school, or to get arrested, than students that do not?

Image Credit: Tote4Pgh
In the article, “The Poverty of an Idea,” Maurice Isserman writes about arguments for and against the “culture of poverty” theory. A book written by Michael Harrington, published over fifty years ago, says people are not poor because of the choices they have made, but because society is hindering them from getting ahead. These two articles describe the same thesis. The theorists and writers that are quoted in each article seem to define the “culture of poverty” in different ways and to use it when they deem appropriate. But, it is stated in one of the articles, that Michael Harrington was originally for the concept of the “culture of poverty” because he thought it would help the government enact more policies to help the poor. But, people used this concept to work against the poor and blame them instead of the wrongdoings of society. These two articles describe the original notion of the “culture of poverty” and the new notion for it. But, one is described in a more systemic view and the other is a cultural view to why people are poor. So, where did things get confusing and people start saying that people are to blame for their own poverty? Or, why are people not to blame for being poor?

A child going hungry, especially in the United States, is unacceptable. Programs can be started and food can be given to children in need, but does this really solve the problem? Is racism the problem that is hindering these children? Is it an institutionalized problem that hurts this population? No matter your opinion, the poor are staying poor and children are the largest population being damaged by this fact. The simple giving of food or clothing cannot solve this problem. There needs to be policies enacted and society needs to change as a whole to help this population succeed.

External Links:

'Culture of Poverty' Makes a Comeback- an article by Patricia Cohen, mentioned above, describes the new view to the "culture of poverty" thesis.

The Poverty of an Idea- an article by Maurice Isserman, mentioned above, takes the view that the "culture of poverty" theory has been misinterpreted over the years and might not mean what people think it does.

An increase in the number of reduced school lunches- an article that talks about how the number of children receiving free or reduced lunches is growing and the reasons for this growth.

A list of schools in the city of Pittsburgh and the surrounding areas that tells the percentage of students receiving free or reduced lunches. 

Image Credit: MackenzieChild

______ for Mayor!

Watch: Video for the Mayoral Debate

Last week, I attended a mayoral debate at the University of Pittsburgh. The “Pitt Political Review” and the local radio station sponsored this event. Three of the Pittsburgh mayoral candidates, Bill Peduto, Jack Wagner, and Jake Wheatley, answered questions from the audience of undergraduate and graduate students. There were a number of issues raised in this debate from how to change the morale on the police force to improving public transportation. The event highlighted the policy issues that candidates agreed upon and some they would like to change from current policy. A big topic brought up was the power of professionals and institutions in Pittsburgh. But, I was surprised on how many topics the candidates agreed on together. There were few differences between them and one of the main disparities I saw was the importance of money. This topic was brought up in reference to candidacy contributions, whether huge non-profits should be taxed more, and should there be a separate checking account for the new mayor. All of the candidates agree that Pittsburgh needs to get on board with other cities and stop living in the past.

Image Credit: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The more I thought of this debate, the more I came to think about Richard Florida’s plan to change cities to see economic growth. Richard Florida's "creative class" argument is based on boosting economy. When a city increases its "creative class," they will increase their economy. Florida states, "because new technologies, new industries, new wealth, and all other good economic things flow" from the rise in the "creative class. These candidates did not refer to the “creative class” and only mentioned homosexual couples once. They all agree that the benefits given to heterosexual couples should also be given to homosexual couples. This might attract more homosexuals than in the past and, Florida argues, a higher “gay index” is one factor that could help a city become more economically developed. But, what if the new mayor of Pittsburgh became aware of Florida’s “creative capital theory” and actually made a point to turn Pittsburgh into a more creative hub for people that are artists, authors, musicians, etc.? Could this help Pittsburgh become a stronger, more economically driven city? Would this theory help Pittsburgh became a city to live in the present or even the future, rather than in the past? 

One way that I feel the new mayor could do this is by putting money and effort into a more complex transit system. Some of the candidates talked about Pittsburgh’s transit system and how it does not even come close to being compared with other cities. They brought up San Francisco, Boston, and Washington D.C.’s transportation network and how this factor contributed to improving the city. Jake Wheatley mentioned that there needs to be a rail line from Oakland to Downtown, the two main hubs for employment in the city. This rail line will help people get to their jobs and really connect the city. The other candidates seconded this approach and felt there needed to be rail lines across all places in the city; north, south, east, and west. The “creative class” might be drawn more to a city with better public transportation and a city that takes pride in making it easier to travel to events all around the city.

Also, with more than three major universities in the Pittsburgh area, we need to keep graduates from all majors in the city to help improve this “creative class.” Not only do cities need technological or health professions to boost the economy, they need the careers that fall into more of the "arts" categories. Pittsburgh is a city of museums, music concerts and shows, and nightlife. So what else can be done to create a category of people that are drawn to this part of Pittsburgh and help promote this way of life? Richard Florida says that these groups of people are drawn towards a city that has diverse populations and a tolerant environment. The more varied the city is with foods, exhibitions, and festivals, the greater the possibility that this class will come to inhabit Pittsburgh.

Image Credit: Alphachimp Tour

Whoever the new mayor is, they need to think about this group of people and how they can contribute to the city of Pittsburgh. There needs to be greater emphasis on attracting the “creative class” from elsewhere and also for keeping them after graduation. According to Richard Florida, enhancing this class of people can help the economy, and therefore put Pittsburgh on the map as an all around transformed and vibrant city.

External Links:

Article on Mayoral Debate- An article from the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" about the debate held last week and what the different candidates think they could do to improve Pittsburgh.

"The Cities and Their New Elite"- This is the article describing Richard Florida's "creative class" notion and how this group of people will help improve cities.

For more information about each of the candidates from the debate, these are links to their websites:
Jack Wagner
Jake Wheatley
Bill Peduto

Broken Windows, Broken Rules

            Last month I had the opportunity to travel to Havana, Cuba for a spring break trip. I went with my graduate school and we were there for a little over a week. We attended lectures by professors from the University of Havana, went on site visits to numerous community projects around the city, and met many people that explained to us the nature of life in Havana. During my trip, I could not help but realize that there were two parts of town. There was Old Havana, and then there was the rest of the city. Whenever we went to Old Havana it was full of tourists, high-end restaurants, and boutique type shops. The people eating at these restaurants and buying items from these stores were not Cuban. The only Cubans I saw in this area were trying to sell items on the street to tourists to make their living. The other parts of Havana had buildings covered in graffiti and bars on windows. No one was ever out walking around and there barely any places to shop. This dichotomy made me think of the broken windows theory by James Q. Wilson. This theory states, “if a window is broken and left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken.” It means that if a neighborhood or a part of a city doesn’t clean up the graffiti or fix what is broken, the neighborhood will crumble down with it in regards to crime and violence. This theory applies to Old Havana and the other parts of the city because people take great care of Old Havana. They make a point to keep the locals out of this area and not be able to become consumers here. The rest of the city has more police standing guard. The feeling you get when you walk around there is that no one really cares if the area is kept up.

                                                                    OLD HAVANA                               

Image Credit: Mountainsoftravelphotos

                                                       OTHER PARTS OF THE CITY

Image Credit: Solsikken

           Havana is definitely not the only city where it is like this. Pretty much every large city in the world has an area of town that is more “run-down” and seems less safe. How do cities change this? Do they put more police in that area? Does the city use gentrification as a solving method? Does that really solve anything or does that just push the problem to another part of the city? There are so many questions and maybe there isn’t just one answer.

            An article, about broken windows theory, comments about how in New Jersey they thought a foot police patrol response was their way of solving crime and reducing these problems. So, five years after this started, an assessment was done to see if the foot patrol solved the issues in the area. The findings were very interesting. The assessment concluded that the foot patrol had not reduced crime, but it made the people in the area of the foot patrol feel safer. So the foot patrol did not technically help reduce crime rates, but if the people feel safe did they solve one part of the problem?

Image Credit: nicmyers
Juarez, Mexico

                     

A recent article in The Atlantic, talked about how the broken windows theory is relevant in a previously dangerous city in Mexico, Juarez. There have been a horrible number of murders in this city and there are many abandoned buildings and homes. Apparently, a new police chief was hired and started to change all of this. He started to place cops in various places around the city and have the citizens know there was now a police presence in the city. At first, there were a lot of problems between the gangs not wanting the police around. There were shoot-outs nightly and people dying daily. But, the police force kept going and rose above the problems. Now, people feel safe around their city. Almost 200 businesses have opened recently and people are moving back into the city.

           Juarez is one example of a city that needed the police around to stop crime and improve their way of life. People feel safer in this city now, so business are emerging and people are moving back again. Their broken windows are getting fixed. This could be because of a number of things, but it could be because of the role of the police in the city. To solve problems in certain cities, where people do not feel invested in their city and where crime escalates because of the lack of caring, there needs to be a number of factors working together to help solve the problems. Each city is different, but people are similar. They want to feel safe in their homes, and they need to see concrete proof that this is going to happen, or they move to another city and leave the broken windows behind. 

External Links:

Broken Windows Theory by James Q. Wilson- An article in The Atlantic about how broken windows theory is relevant to solving crime, or not, and the basis of this theory.

The "Broken Windows" Theory worked in Juarez- This is the article from The Atlantic I mentioned in my blog. It explains that increasing police presence has helped this Mexican city reduce crime and help their people feel safer. 

A sociological approach to the "Broken Windows" Theory and how each part of the theory affects the city as a whole.