why Pittsburgh Archives

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I wrote about the Why Pittsburgh Party on Friday and I wanted to post a follow up because I was worried that the info would get lost in the weekend emails. The Post-Gazette beat me to it with a great article about the upcoming Why Pittsburgh Party on September 17, 2009 (click here for the party details).

Here are some highlights from the article:

Carrie Hagan, a graduate student in history and policy at Carnegie Mellon University, met Ms. Wilson through the League of Young Voters and joined the party committee “and the next thing I know I am throwing the party,” said Ms. Hagan. “I couldn’t stand the idea of not being part of something like this.”

…

The Detroit party was “a qualified success,” said Ms. Szurpicki. “We had around 100 people and collected over 80 good photos” of participants holding a white board with the phrase “I Will Stay If …” completed.

“The photos show that people want better regional cooperation, public transit, bike lanes, curbside recycling, things like that. And what has come out of this is people saying ‘I am staying to be a part of something,’ ‘I am staying because I want to help build that curbside recycling program.’

…

“I fell in love with this city the moment I crossed the bridge and have not looked back since,” she said. “I’ve been a lot of places and this is the kind of place I want to live.

via post-gazette.com

One of the ideas that came out of the GLUE (Great Lakes Urban Exchange) Conference back in March (see my post about the conference here) was the idea for the I will Stay If campaign – the folks behind GLUE are using this as an opportunity to talk about why people want to live in these Great Lakes Cities.

The first party was held in Detroit over the summer – check out the article about the party here (more photos here).

Some of the folks who have come together to help plan the Pittsburgh I will Stay If party have adapted the name slightly to Why Pittsburgh? – and are inviting anyone who is interested to come join the party on September 17th at the Shadow Lounge.

This is a great way to meet more people who are passionate about Pittsburgh and to connect to the GLUE network of other people who are passionate about their cities too.

If you are new to GLUE – check out Gluespace.org – follow their blog and sign up for the Gluesletter. You can also follow GLUE on Twitter @gluester. They have some really great info about cities and projects in other cities – as well as some great photo contests.

RSVP for Why Pittsburgh on Facebook here.