Tag Archives: Northside

Tales from the Frontlines: Doorknocking PGH!

So there I was… walking up a hill on the northside, with streetlist and literature in hand, and Susan Banahasky on my right. When there it was! Oh my there it was. We stopped. We stared in awe. Finally, I came to my senses, made an incoherent noise about having a camera, put everything on the ground, and pulled out my digital camera! (Thanks Mom and Dad) Now, I don’t know the people who own this house, and it wasn’t on our list, so I never had the chance to talk to them, but from what I can tell, they heart PGH and the Steelers, a LOT!

Steelers Pride

Tee-Jay aka Slim aka the Ghetto Will Smith

So if you go to our myspace profile you will hear the most badassest song about Picks-berrrrrrgh ever. Seriously. When do you ever hear St. Clair Village, Mt. Oliver, Knoxville, Arlington and Carrick mentioned in the same breath with such respect and UNITY?

It’s brought to us by Tee-Jay, a Pittsburgh native. This man has skills.

You can purchase his upcoming album My Testimony on April 25th from his myspace page. It will also be available from Stedeford’s Records, located at 417 East Ohio Street on the North Side since 1964.

Please buy local:

“When you spend $100 at the chain Borders Books & Music, your purchase creates only $13 worth of local economic activity. That same $100 spent at a locally owned book or record store generates $45, or more than three times as much local economic activity.� Conclusion of a new study, Economic Impact Analysis: A Case Study conducted by Civic Economics, published by Livable City in Austin, Texas. (brought to us by Sustainable Pittsburgh.)

On that note, check out these upcoming local performances:

teejay

Beleza Community Coffee House

This story was in the Post-Gazette this weekend. The brand-spanking new coffee house is located at 1501 Buena Vista St. on the North Side and, according to Pittsburgh Dish, the business hours are:
6 a.m.-5 p.m. M-F;
8 a.m.-8 p.m. on Saturdays;
and 8a.m.-4 p.m. on Sundays.

Looks like the North Side is blowing up! (In the best way.) We wish the Beleza Seven the best … and we hope this inspires others to start businesses in their own neighborhoods. Everyone will love you.

Saturday Diary: Beleza Community Coffeehouse — changing the world, one cup at a time

Saturday, April 01, 2006
By Diana Nelson Jones, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

belezaMy neighbors file into the Beleza Community Coffeehouse every morning, each of us still marveling that we have such a place. It’s small, just slightly funky enough and run by seven people who must be lauded by someone, so it’s going to be me.

And I swear I do and always will pay for my coffee there.

Beleza — which means “beautiful” in Portuguese — opened a little over a month ago, in a storefront building at the corner of Jacksonia and Buena Vista in the Mexican War Streets. People were standing outside at 7 a.m., an hour early.

“We didn’t advertise,” said Joanna Deming, one of the owners, grinning in amazement. “We wanted to ease into it, so we just e-mailed some friends. I expected to know everyone when we opened, but I didn’t know about 70 percent of them.

“They all knew each other, and everyone rotated around, talking. I thought, ‘This is so cool.’ Then it just started being full all day.”

What Beleza means to our neighborhood is estimable, but the Beleza Seven’s potential is a gift to the entire city of Pittsburgh, profoundly inestimable. The more I learn about them, their values and devotion, I think of what the anthropologist Margaret Mead once said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.”
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