Click here to view the embedded video.

This video is great exposure for Pittsburgh as part of the national conversation about livable cities.  If we are going to talk about what brings people to cities – transportation is a key.  BikePGH has been doing a great job not only in advocating for cyclist in Pittsburgh, but for bringing a new awareness to the conversation around transportation and our communities.   Even if you aren’t a cyclist, you should consider supporting the work of BikePGH – the have built and continue to create an amazing community of active (active as in they cycle and active as in engaged citizens) Pittsburgh residents.

What do you think of bike sharing? The City Paper suggested a bike share program as a good idea for Pittsburgh.  Its kind of like ZipCar for bikes and it has been very successful in other cities.  Check out the City Paper article here.

A community of connected individuals, young professionals, investors, and concerned citizens who have the power to make things happen just by the click of a mouse is a revolution; and it’s happening in Pittsburgh.

Why not take it to the next level?

Google is searching for the best place in the nation to test their new ultra-high speed broadband network and Pittsburgh is “ready, willing & able.”

Google will create a one-gigabit per second Internet service network, which will be 100 times faster than what is currently offered by companies like Comcast and Verizon. What’s even more remarkable about this project is that Google promises to offer competitive rates so that up to 500,000 people in the chosen community would be able to afford and enjoy the service in their homes, offices, and public places.

Steve Klabnik, Chief Technical Officer of local startup CloudFab, is enthusiastic at the prospect of Google choosing Pittsburgh. “It’s like when the first cars couldn’t go very fast; only short trips were possible. Once engines got better, they enabled longer trips.” Steve is also interested in the prospect of Google becoming a competitor to Verizon and Comcast. “Right now, there isn’t much competition for Internet services around here. Google would make Verizon and Comcast improve their service and drop their prices, which is good for everyone.”

From now until March 26th, citizens and local officials can submit their suggestions to Google as to why their city or community should be chosen for the trial. It has also been noted that the Google Fiber trial will not cost the chosen community a penny- Google will take care of all of the expenses related to the testing.

The City of Pittsburgh firmly believes that Pittsburgh is the best choice for the Google Fiber experiment; they’ve set up a website with more information and a link to contact Google directly. The site also includes a comments section to share thoughts and questions along with representation from a slew of community supporters including the Pittsburgh Technology Council, UPMC and Carnegie Mellon University.

In speaking to KDKA this week, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl was quoted as saying: “Google has said it will pick a city that proves that citizens and businesses are excited as its government. We are excited, we are ready, we are able, but we need your support.”

Mike Woycheck, Technology Analyst at Innovation Works, believes that the Google Fiber initiative would have far-reaching benefits: “The Pittsburgh tech startup community across all sectors such as web/software, entertainment, medical applications, networking, and others would gain a significant competitive advantage by getting an early opportunity to understand where the world will be in a few years.”

Adam Jette, a computer programmer, put it bluntly: “More tech means more work, and more work means more competitive salaries.”

Regarding industry leadership and efficiency, Woycheck added, “Companies that are developing significant content offerings such as video, rich media, and gaming/entertainment could leverage gigabit speeds to position themselves as industry leaders in their respective field(s). More and more startups moving to cloud computing offerings such as Amazon’s Web Services and Google’s App Engine could deploy their web/internet based applications much more efficiently while maintaining flexibility to host whatever resources they need on-site cost effectively.”

Do you think Pittsburgh is a great location for the Google Fiber tests? If you’re interested in adding your voice to the cause, make sure to let Google know your thoughts by March 26th.

Photo credit: Brian Cohen

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• Pittsburgh, Seattle Announce Interest In Google’s Fiber Trial (tech.slashdot.org)

Big Burrito’s (They are the folks behind the most tasty dining spots in Pittsburgh – MadMex, Kaya, Soba and others) Chef Bill Fuller (and food blogger) appeared on the NBC today show this morning (it will air here in Pittsburgh at 1pm) for a Super Bowl cook off. Bill is a regular guest on KDKA’s Pittsburgh Today live and does a great job. Today was no exception. He put together an amazing spread of super bowl food that shows off Pittsburgh. On super bowl days – fried onions are vegetables.  In addition to burgers and bacon – Bill shows off some other local favorites – Iron City Beer and Gobs.  Where can one purchase those delicious looking treats?

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Click here to see some of our other posts about the Big Burrito Folks.

I enjoyed talking to the reporter for this article – t-shirts and Pittsburgh have been a theme a recurring theme. When I first started screen printing t-shirts 5 years ago, the first shirt we made was the IheartPGH shirt, the blog came a few years later. My friend Breen came up with the idea for the Pittsburghers are Tasty t-shirt which has also been very popular.

It was a kind reader of IheartPGH that first emailed me about Spreadshirt about 2 years ago. Spreadshirt.com is an awesome web platform that lets anyone design and sell t-shirts on the web – the IheartPGH shop is powered by Spreadshirt and I get to help other groups use t-shirt to tell their stories too.

Turning to T-Shirts to Spiff Up Downtrodden Cities

By CATRIN EINHORN
Published: July 13, 2008

ST. LOUIS — As Jeff Vines pulls down the iron on the heat press in his small studio here, he is trying something far grander than simply searing another image onto another T-shirt. The machine hisses, Mr. Vines opens it and sizes up his handiwork: a cotton weapon in his quest to revive his long-challenged city.

The St. Louis-themed shirts that Jeff Vines and his identical twin, Randy, make are not for tourists. They sport neighborhood references and inside jokes unintelligible to those not from here. Some easily offend, displaying profanity and raunchy innuendo. But to the Vines brothers, their edginess is part of their mission for St. Louis — a place many of their friends from high school fled — to rehabilitate its image from the inside out and, ultimately, to make future generations want to stay.

“You have to get the people who live there to be the best advocates for the city, or else you don’t really have much,” Randy Vines said. “So you need to change the psyche and change the way they see their own city.”

The Vines brothers, 30, are not alone in their effort. In cities like Youngstown, Ohio, and Detroit, damaged by the decline in manufacturing and decades of population loss, entrepreneurs in their 20s and 30s are pushing back with the simple stuff of T-shirts, tote bags and soap. Faced with condescending attitudes from outsiders and grumbling from many locals, they are determined to peddle in pride, and hope to convert others in the process.

“It’s reframing the identity of these places that have been misrepresented,” said Abby Wilson, a co-founder of the Great Lakes Urban Exchange, a new group dedicated to bringing post-baby boomers together to work for the health of postindustrial cities in the Great Lakes region.

The Vines brothers’ company, STL-Style, makes retro-looking T-shirts that extol and lovingly tease St. Louis; slogans include “My Way or Kingshighway,” and “Where the Mullet Meets the River.” In Pittsburgh, Lindsay Patross, 28, offers T-shirts and aprons that read “Pittsburghers are tasty.” At City Bird in Detroit, siblings Emily and Andy Linn, 30 and 25, make clocks, lamps, earrings and bracelets patterned with maps of their city. Another company, Rusty Waters Apparel, sells skull-adorned T-shirts celebrating Youngstown, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. A quote on the company’s MySpace page says: “Don’t mess with the underdog. Rustbelt Warriors!”

Another Rusty Waters Apparel design depicts a downtown Youngstown building, the Home Savings and Loan, hanging upside down from the neckline, with birds flying around it.

“The fact that it’s upside down signifies the struggle that Youngstown has gone through,” the shirt’s designer, Kate Butler, 24, explained. But the birds are flying right side up, symbolizing hope, she said.

These T-shirt makers know, of course, that their merchandise will not cure the deep-seated problems of their cities. But they see them as one way to fight against powerful stereotypes, and consider them more authentic than city officials’ public relations campaigns.

Mark-Evan Blackman, chairman of men’s wear design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, said T-shirts can have a profound effect on social change, and that these shirts should not be underestimated. “It’s saying we’re cool, we’re here,” Mr. Blackman said. “We’ve not jumped out of the boat, this city is cool and we’re making it cooler, and look at us.”

T-shirts became popular in the United States after they were issued to soldiers and sailors in World War II, he said. They became acceptable to use as outerwear, and companies and political campaigns soon realized that T-shirts could be turned into walking billboards.

The tourist-oriented location T-shirts, of course, are hawked the world over. The iconic “I ♥ NY,” started by a state marketing campaign in the 1970s, is widely mimicked, and has been parodied in some Rust Belt cities; perhaps to portray gritty authenticity, the Rusty Waters Apparel version replaces New York’s heart symbol with an anatomical heart.

In 2002, Michael de Zayas catapulted a place-driven apparel craze with Neighborhoodies, a company he started after he was hounded for the hooded sweatshirt he made, emblazoned with the words Fort Greene, the name of the Brooklyn neighborhood he loved.

People love flaunting where they are from and where they live, said Jana Eggers, chief executive of Spreadshirt, an online retailer that lets users design T-shirts and other apparel and sell them online.

“It’s all about identity,” Ms. Eggers said. Shirts featuring places are popular items to make and sell using her site, often displaying inside jokes.

But can they affect a city?

“It’s not the T-shirt that’s turning around the image,” Ms. Eggers said. “It’s the conversations that start.”

While some of the T-shirt makers said they made essentially no money on their merchandise, most dreamed of building successful businesses and expanding to other Rust Belt cities.

In their first year, the Vines brothers sold about 250 T-shirts; six years later, in 2007, they sold about 1,400, plus some 300 other items, including underwear, onesies and stickers. Both work full-time jobs.

About 40 percent of their T-shirts, they say, go to people who have left St. Louis. Occasionally, they get e-mail messages from homesick St. Louis natives.

“Thanks for promoting my favorite city,” wrote Jim Saracini, who left St. Louis 30 years ago after failing to find the right job there.

But as Randy Vines sat at his desk, stuffing T-shirts into envelopes to ship out, he seemed especially pleased to see an order going to a St. Louis address. “One more proud city resident is going to be sporting these,” he said.

Park takes place all in one day in a public park in Los Angeles, as 11 disaffected Angelenos find both love and loss in unexpected ways.

Park is a comedy starring Billy Baldwin, Ricki Lake and Cheri Oteri.  I am intrigued by the clip where someone is beating an SUV with a sledgehammer.  More clips are available on YouTube.  Park has received rave reviews at some of the film festivals, including audience favorite at the 2006 CineVegas Film Festival.