Author Archives: Ryan Morden

Happy Hour This Wednesday to Support the Women’s Center & Shelter

The Women’s Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh in a constant Catch-22. It needs to promote itself and its services to people in the community, but also needs to be discreet and protect the privacy of clients.

Last year WC&S answered more than 5,000 hotline calls, provided legal advocacy for nearly 4,000 clients, and sheltered more than 500 women and children.

But the WC&S also had to turn away 755 women and children last year. They consider turning away victims of intimate partner violence unacceptable. When their beds are full, they always try and find alternate arrangements. However, that’s not always possible.

WC&S is in the middle of a capital campaign to renovate and expand its facilities. The campaign is called Shelter From The Storm, and it needs your support. The goal of expanding their facilities is to ensure they provide sanctuary for those here in the Pittsburgh area who need it.

To get the word out, the WC&S is hosting a happy hour this Wednesday, March 30, at Olive or Twist. The goal is to inform new Pittsburghers and young professionals about what they do and what services they provide to women and children in the area. You can buy tickets at the door or in advance here.

WCS - Happy Hour


What: Happy Hour to Benefit Women’s Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh

When: Wednesday, March 30, 2016 | 5:30-7:30pm

Where: Olive or Twist

Tickets: $25 online or at the door

Follow: @WCSPittsburgh

 

Have a drink with Littsburgh next Tuesday!

Writing is a lonely activity. Reading is solitary pursuit. That is why Littsburgh is hosting an inaugural happy hour next week to bring those who share those two isolated passions together.

LittsburghLogoLittsburgh, a website launched by a trio of booklovers in August, is designed to connect the literary community in Pittsburgh.

The website is a hub for booksellers, authors, media outlets, and nonprofit organizations who share a love for books. Littsburgh hosts a calendar of author readings, book signings, and posts sample chapters of new books.

“We love Pittsburgh and we know the scene is awesome,” Said Rachel Ekstrom, Littsburgh co-founder. “But we want the world to know, we want people to think of Pittsburgh as a literary destination. This site is a big tool for that.“

Pittsburgh is a social city and one of the top 10 literary cities in America (according to one of those random rakings).

Ever since the launch of the site earlier this year, eager readers have been asking when they’ll host an event. They answered with an email this week:

Citizens of Littsburgh, please join us at Spirit Lodge (242 51st Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15201 – http://www.spiritpgh.com/spiritlodge/; CASH ONLY) on Tuesday, November 10th from 5:30 to 8:00 pm for $3 drafts and $10 cheese pizza! Pin a limited edition Littsburgh button to your jacket, tell us if you’re reading or working on anything good, and — most importantly — join us in raising a frosty glass of I.C. Light to literary Pittsburgh!

Ekstrom and her Littsburgh co-founders Katie Kurtzman and Nick Courage each have backgrounds in publishing. All three re-located to Pittsburgh from New York City within the past year or so.

”What struck us is not just the wonderful writers and books that come out of Pittsburgh, but there’s publishing professionals. Katie is a book publicist, Nick is a book marketer and author. I’m a literary agent,” said Ekstrom.

She says there are book jacket designers, editors, literary magazines like Creative Nonfiction, wonderful non profits like City of Asylum. That’s on top of the numerous writers, MFA students and professors, independent bookstores, chain bookstores, university bookstores, comic bookstores, publishers, libraries, little free libraries, zines, university presses, poets, journalists, and author readings…the list goes on.

“As a literary agent I want a bird’s eye view of the whole scene here,” said Eckstrom.

She and co-founder Nick Courage conceived of the website. Courage put it together and operates it. He says Pittsburgh always felt like a literary town and that the overwhelming positive response to the website proves it

“It was gratifying. It was something that was already in the air, “said Courage, who is constantly updating the site with people submitting book events and links to book related organizations.

Just this week there are 12 events on the calendar, and 30 book-related events in the area so far for the month of November.

“There are pillars, like the Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures series to living room readings,” said Kurtzman. “Hopefully people who only go to small things will start going to the big stuff and there will be cross pollination.”

The three of them plan to use their connections with New York publishing scene to bring more attention to Pittsburgh in the form of author tours and big-name author signings.

They say perhaps down the road it can grow into something bigger.

“If this leads to, perhaps, a wonderful world-class book festival that’s set in Pittsburgh. If other opportunities arise for the literary scene, we would love to be a part of that and make that happen,” said Ekstrom

For now, the site is a labor of love and runs no paid advertisements. They told City Paper in September they’d consider ads that were literary-related.

“We know Pittsburgh has great football, and great technology, we have this cool food scene emerging,” said Ekstrom. “A lot of people know Annie Dillard or Michael Chabon, August Wilson, and David McCullough, but there’s so much beyond that too.”

Littsburgh is a great place to start exploring the literary scene, big and small, blossoming across Pittsburgh.

Movement for Increased Passenger Rail Service in Pittsburgh Gaining Steam

Pennsylvanian

The Pennsylvanian, moments after arriving at Pittsburgh’s Penn Station. It rolled in 20 minutes ahead of schedule. The Amtrak route’s on time performance is 91.7%.

Gloria Skillings arrived at Pittsburgh’s Penn Station from Philadelphia on a recent August evening. She opted to take the train for the scenic value and because it’s less hassle than flying.

Still, Skillings laments Pittsburgh’s Amtrak service, “It’s limited.”

She’s right. Only one train per day departs from Pittsburgh and services Harrisburg, Philadelphia, New York City, and places in between. Likewise for travellers coming from NYC. They get one shot at getting to Pittsburgh on passenger rail. The Amtrak route is known as the Pennsylvanian

Stops Along the Pennsylvianina

Station stops along the Pennsylvanian. There were 12 roundtrip trains 45 years ago. Today there’s just one.

A group called Western Pennsylvanians for Passenger Rail is pushing for increased service on the Pennsylvanian. They say there’s enough demand to support three trains a day between Pittsburgh to New York City and vice versa.

The all volunteer organization started gathering around four or five years ago. They wanted to fight to give Pittsburgers more travel options.

[Tweet “There were 12 roundtrip trains between #Pittsburgh and #NYC 45 years ago. Today there’s just one.” cc @Amtrak]

“We have a population in the city that doesn’t have cars. That lack of choice means you’re isolated here unless you have a car,” said Lucinda Beattie, a WPPR board member.

Beattie says Pittsburgh has a successful downtown and that linking to other city centers by rail is vital to its continual growth. “Its important for us to remain a competitive metropolitan area,” she said. “We have a significant student population. Students are a major audience for passenger rail.”

WPPR found that people were receptive and liked the notion of more passenger rail, but needed hard numbers to prove its viability.

The group partnered with The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership to create a study to find out if any of their ideas were realistic. The results showed that not only is it feasible, it’s relatively affordable with an estimated price tag of $10.5 Million-$12.8 Million annually. That’s compared with the $2.6 billion Pennsylvania spent on highway and bridge projects in 2014.

The study was released in spring of 2014. Since then, WPPR and the PDP started making presentations to municipalities and other interest groups. Earlier this summer, they met with the Pennsylvania House Transportation Committee.

It was boost to their mission to meet with the policy makers who have the power to make their idea a reality. Both Democrats and Republicans who serve on that committee were receptive to increased rail west of Harrisburg. Though the Pennsylvanian is run by Amtrak, it’s primarily funded by the state and managed by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

“There are 13 passenger rail trains per day between Harrisburg and Philadelphia,” said Beattie, who also works as Vice President of Transportation at the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership. “The challenges are getting PennDOT engaged to request extra service from Amtrak.”

She says once the state budget impasse gets resolved, the PDP and WPPR will continue to build off the goodwill generated by the House Transportation Committee meeting. Rail supporters will encourage lawmakers to engage with Amtrak and Norfolk Southern, who own the tracks between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh.

“This is where advocacy comes in.” said Beattie, saying that the cost of the proposal is so much less than many transportation projects ever pay. She says additional benefits include the fact rail is more environmentally friendly, it serves sparsely populated communities where bus service is limited, and it’s more accommodating for people with disabilities and the elderly.

More than a dozen individuals and organizations officially signed on in support of increased service on the Pennsylvanian, including Greater Pittsburgh Hotel Association, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, and Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto.

In a letter to PennDOT Secretary Leslie Richards sent earlier this year, Mayor Peduto urged the agency to enter into discussion with Amtrak about increasing service to and from Pittsburgh.

“The addition of two more trains would help increase this city’s connectivity, much of which has been lost over the past five decades, as passenger rail, bus, and airline options have been decreased,” Peduto said in the letter.

Buzz about adding train service is growing. Toby Fauver, PennDOT deputy secretary for multi-modal transportation said recently that he hopes to see one additional train between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia within the next 10 years.

Gloria Skillings, a resident of Pittsburgh for more than 40 years, says service has been limited ever since she can remember.

“I think I could remember taking a daytime train to Chicago,” said Skillings, thinking way back to her earliest days in Pittsburgh.

Travellers do have two other daily train options: a midnight train to Chicago and an early early morning train to Washington D.C.

WPPR would love for increased service on those lines too, but since it travels through several states and the District of Columbia it’s more challenging to advocate for. Right now the group is focusing on making passenger rail across Pennsylvania thrive.

.@PennDotNews – Please expand rail service on The Pennsylvanian to #3trainsaday! #WPPR @NARPrail

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Follow Western Pennsylvanians for Passenger Rail on Facebook here.

A Visit to Rachel Carson’s Other House

Pittsburghers celebrate Rachel Carson, famed scientist who changed lives and how we look at the environment, as one of our own. Honors don’t get much bigger than having a prime bridge downtown named after you: Carson, along with Clemente and Warhol, make up our iconic Three Sisters bridges. There’s also a 35.7 mile Rachel Carson nature trail, and the Pennsylvania even named a state office building after her to house environmental protection and conservation departments.

Carson was born on a small farm in nearby Springdale. She was raised in the area and graduated from Chatham University with a degree in biology (known as the Pennsylvania College for Women at the time). But Southwest Pennsylvania actually shares Rachel Carson with the suburbs of Washington D.C. It was at Carson’s home in Colesville, Maryland that she wrote “Silent Spring,” the 1962 book that documented the health dangers of using pesticides.

Rachel Carson's home, located in a quiet Maryland suburb outside of Washington, D.C.

Rachel Carson’s home, located in a quiet Maryland suburb outside of Washington, D.C.

In true Rachel Carson fashion, Dr. Diana Post and Cliff Hall were outside the Colesville home, making a pollinator garden during my visit in May. It’s to combat the decline of honeybees. More than 40 percent of bees in managed colonies died last year. Scientists aren’t sure why exactly, but insecticides are prime suspect.

“We’re trying to give them more habitat, more special native plants. These are all plants bees could use for their pollen collection,” said Dr. Post, a retired veterinarian.

Silent Spring advanced environmental justice at a time when the powers that be assumed they could master nature. Carson focused on DDT, a chemical used to kill insects like mosquitos. It was supposed to be a solution for insects ravaging farms. It was sprayed in the suburbs as a way to prevent Typhus, which was spread by lice.

Dr. Diana Post standing where Rachel Carson had her desk. Post holds a framed picture of Carson sitting in the space more than 50 years ago. The hope is to make the picture a reality and restore this portion of Carson's office to the way she had it.

Dr. Diana Post standing where Rachel Carson had her desk. Post holds a framed picture of Carson sitting in the space more than 50 years ago. The hope is to make the picture a reality and restore this portion of Carson’s office to the way she had it.

DDT boosters downplayed, or ignored, its unintended consequences before Rachel Carson published her research. She started collecting evidence that DDT was deadly to wildlife. One detail stood out above the rest in her investigation: Birds at a Massachusetts sanctuary were dropping dead after being sprayed with DDT. Carson envisioned a global dystopia, a spring silent of songbirds.

Dr. Post, a veterinarian by training, is no stranger to chemical’s ill effects on animals. She became concerned about the weed killer known as 2,4-D and its harmful effects on dogs. She linked up with the Rachel Carson Council, an organization for like-minded individuals founded in 1965. Post eventually became executive director, then president from 1992-2013.

In 1991 Carson’s Colesville, Maryland (11701 Berwick Rd.) home was christened a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Dr. Post and Hall, who have been married for 30 years, acquired it in the late 1990’s. They founded the Rachel Carson Landmark Alliance, an organization devoted to caring for the home. Their goal is to maintain the sense serenity and wonder Carson had when she lived there from 1957 until her death in 1964.

“Many people who find out about Rachel Carson become inspired to carry on her work. Young people, college kids, even older people,” said Dr. Post, explaining why it’s important to maintain Carson’s spirit more than 50 years later.

Carson herself wrote of the fondness she had of her home in a letter to a friend: “It contributes to serenity. I do love it and everything I can find time to do inside or out gives me real satisfaction.”

The only effect denoting the significance of this home a plaque placed above a side door.

The only effect denoting the significance of this home a plaque placed above a side door.

Where the house and property are rich in Carson’s spirit, this is not a typical landmark. There are no signs directing drivers to the place, there is no parking lot, and no gift shop with Rachel Carson memorabilia. Other than a plaque above a side door, it’s just another house in an ordinary cul-de-sac community. In fact, up until 2002, Post and Hall acted as landlords and rented the home to families.

Then, in 2002, the two got a zoning exception to put a functioning office in the house and moved the Rachel Carson Council there. But, they were extremely careful not to disturb the neighbors.

“It took a lot of work,” said post about getting the exemption. “We didn’t want to alienate our neighbors with the slightest grounds. They could have objected to anything, like having extra cars parked outside. We had to be very careful.”

Being a National Historic Landmark obliges the owners to host an open house once a year to the public, and that’s about it.

“If you own a property as a private individual, it’s like a precious burden,” said Dr. Post. “It’s your fun thing, and if you get a kick out of it, great, enjoy yourself. And Cliff and I do. We love immersing ourselves in stuff about Rachel Carson.”

They get around 300 visitors a year. Some come for the annual open house, which typically happens in May (near Carson’s birthday) or occasionally school groups come for field trips. They have ambitions to make restorations to the interior of the house and restore it to what it look liked in Carson’s day.

View from Rachel Carson's living room window

View from Rachel Carson’s living room window

“She sat in front of this window, “ said Dr. Post describing the window, which faces an area of expansive growth. “That area was designated by Rachel Carson to stay wet under foot for the birds and the frogs. Every owner since then has kept it wild.”

While the nation’s nearby capital overflows with monuments large and small, Carson’s house is an overlooked gem. Pittsburghers who find themselves in the D.C.-area should put it on their list of places to see.

Dr. Post welcomes visitors, and would like to see more: “Anybody wants to come are encouraged to. All they have to do is call or email.”