Tag Archives: San Francisco

Maxo Vanka Murals & St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church in Millvale

Today’s preservation month post is inspired by the Millvale Musical Festival, which is happening on Saturday, May 13. Millvale continues to gain popularity as a destination for breweries, music, community projects and some impressive community events. If you are headed to Millvale then you need to know about the Maxo Vanka murals, which might be one of the best kept secrets in Pittsburgh.

If you are headed to Millvale for the music festival, you might want to take a little break to check these unique works of art. Even if you are not headed to the music festivals, the Maxo Vanka murals are worth an hour of your Saturday. More details on visiting the murals below.

Photo credit: St. Nicholas Church website.

From Route 28, St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic church looks like an unassuming church building that is tucked away on the bluff. Inside the church, the decor is anything but ordinary, the walls of the church are covered with 25 murals by the artist Maxo Vanka. What makes these church murals unique are the political statements found in several of the scenes. The Maxo Vanka murals have been compared to the works of Mexican muralist Diego Rivera and some of the murals of the Works Progress Administration artists.

Croatian Mother Raises Her Son for War, Maxo Vanka, 1937. Photo credit: Society to Preserve Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka.

All of the murals can be viewed online here.

The other unique thing about the murals is that they have their own nonprofit that works to preserve, restore and promote the murals to an audience outside of the congregation. The Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka was founded in 1991 and has worked to put the murals on the National Register of Historic Places.

If you are interested in learning more, start with the SPMMMV website at vankomurals.org.

Pittsburgh filmmaker Kenneth Love made a documentary about the murals in 2012, “Maxo Vanka’s Masterpiece: The Murals at St. Nicholas Church”. You can purchase a DVD of the documentary from the church.

Visiting the Maxo Vanka Murals

Docent led tours are held every Saturday at 11am, Noon and 1pm. Tours last about an hour. Note that tours may be cancelled or postponed due to parish activities. It is recommended that you register in advance for tours. Private tours are available on request. If you are visiting Pittsburgh on a weekday, be sure to reach out for a tour or if the church is open, you should be able to stop by and see the murals in person.

More information on the VankaMurals.org website. The Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka is also on Facebook.

WPA Murals in San Francisco’s Coit Tower

Detail of one of the murals in Coit Tower.

Last November, I had the good fortune to visit San Francisco. San Francisco has a nonprofit, SF City Guides, that offers free walking tours of a variety of places around the city. Since it was raining we opted for the indoor tour of Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill. If you enjoyed seeing the murals of Maxo Vanka, I highly recommend a visit to Coit Tower to see the fresco murals from the Works Progress Administration artists. The skill of the fresco artists is impressive and these murals also contain many political messages.

Nonprofit completes conservation of St. Nicholas murals (triblive.com)

Lyft Launches in Pittsburgh: Can a Pink Mustache Solve Our Cab Problem?

LYFT (Photo credit: Tribute/ Homenaje)

UPDATE March 2014: If you are interested in trying Lyft – click here to get $25 in ride credit. If you are interested in becoming a driver for Lyft – click here to apply.

I think that one of the things that keeps Pittsburgh from being competitive with other cities is transit. Both transit to and from the city and transit within the city limits.

Can New Apps/Services Address the Cab Problem in Pittsburgh?

If you go to most major US cities – you can hail a cab. It is no secret that, unless you are standing at a downtown hotel, it is near impossible to get a cab in this city.

The lack of access to cabs causes all kinds of problems and puts more cars on the streets, more cars mean we need more parking. More parking means we need more parking garages. The lack of access to cabs also leads to more drinking and driving.

There are three startup companies that have been working on the cab situation in other cities – Uber, Lyft and Sidecar. We’ve heard rumors that Uber has been looking at Pittsburgh for a while and we know they have just hired a Pittsburgh representative. (There is also a local startup CabbyGo but I haven’t learned much about them).

Lyft is launching in Pittsburgh tomorrow (Friday, February 7) – and I think this is a big deal for this town. Lyft is a community ride service and the Lyft cars are identified by pink mustaches.

Image representing Lyft as depicted in CrunchBase

Image via CrunchBase

What is Lyft?

From the Lyft website:

Lyft is like having a friend with a car whenever you need one. Simply download the app, request a Lyft and you’ll be on your way in minutes with a friendly, background-checked community driver. It’s more fun and costs less than a cab.

Lyft is more than just an alternative to a cab, they seem to be building an extensive community of riders and drivers. Check out the intro to Lyft video here for more details on the service and the community aspect.

So, your excited about riding in cars with strangers? Is that safe?

I will be the first to admit that I was very skeptical of the idea of riding in a strangers car or driving other people in my car. But I think the Lyft service is worth a look and from everything I’ve read – I think it is pretty safe. All of the drivers have passed a background check and are interviewed by the Lyft staff.

I’ve heard great thing about Lyft and I wanted to learn more. I downloaded the app and applied to be a driver. Watching the driver education videos really changed my opinion of the service. Even if you don’t want to become a driver, I would recommend that you download the app and start the application. The first step of applying is to watch three videos about the service. I’ve tried to find those videos online but apparently they are only available in the driver application.

Help Lyft Launch in Pittsburgh – Get Free Rides for Two Weeks

To help kick off Lyft’s service in Pittsburgh – you can become a Lyft Pioneer and your rides for the next two weeks are free. You can get the details on becoming a Lyft Pioneer in Pittsburgh on this post I wrote for the c-leveled blog.

You can follow Lyft on Twitter @Lyft and use the #LyftOffPittsburgh to share your Lyft experiences.

‘Fun’ Lyft cars to roll into Pittsburgh (triblive.com)
Lyft to Uber: We’ll beat you with our weirdness (pando.com)
Lyft’s new VP brings data-science chops from Netflix, Google, and space (exclusive) (venturebeat.com)
One-third of cabbies in San Francisco work for Uber, Lyft, or Sidecar (techi.com)
Competition Brings Lyft, Sidecar and Uber Closer to Cloning Each Other (allthingsd.com)

Pittsburgh is for 2nd Homes and Historic Grocery Stores

Null Space, Chris Briem’s blog with lots of interesting info – often about Pittsburgh, links to this blog post from Otherstream – a blog from a North Carolina resident who has just purchased a 2nd home here in Pittsburgh – mostly just because he loves Pittsburgh. I wanted to share an excerpt of his post Why Pittsburgh…

So now on to the bigger and more interesting question of why I would consider a place like Pittsburgh, and how I could assume I might like it better there than, say, San Francisco, given all the relief I felt upon living that particular urban area. It’s a valid question, and it’s one that even my husband asked me at one point.

…

Pittsburgh gives me that “urban” that I crave. I fell in love with the city on my first visit in 1997, and I love it a little more each time I visit. Unlike most sunbelt “boom towns”, the texture is decidedly urban, with a diversity of building types, people, and incomes. Unlike San Francisco and other “sophisticated urban areas” , the mood is neither expensive nor pretentious. And unlike such rust belt icons as Cleveland and Detroit, there’s an actual economy; in fact, Pittsburgh has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country.

Otherstream has some more great posts about Pittsburgh. The author also writes a blog about old grocery stores, Groceteria.com, which is very well put together website with tons of interesting information. There are even some pictures of some Pittsburgh grocery stores on the site – SureSave in Bloomfield, Swartz’s on Carson Street , and Breakers in Dormont.

Congratulations on your new Pittsburgh home! Continue reading →