The nonprofit organizations that help make our area so special are relying on us all to be generous this holiday season.

It’s the holiday season, a busy time consumed with shopping, baking, and entertaining, all with friends and family in mind. And it’s also the time to respond to those year-end appeals from our favorite charities, which are counting on us in a big way. To jump-start this season of giving, the second annual national day of giving—known as #GivingTuesday—is planned for December 3. Coming right after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, the day is the centerpiece of a campaign to celebrate and encourage charitable activities that support nonprofit organizations across the country. Last year, the first #GivingTuesday drew donations to about 2,600 nonprofits.

We are certainly a charitable nation—and Pittsburgh is no exception.

Americans donated an estimated $316 billion to charitable causes in 2012, up 3.5 percent from the previous year, according to the 2013 edition of Giving USA, an annual report on charitable giving in America released by the Giving USA Foundation and the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. The report notes that nearly three-quarters of the money donated was given by individuals (see page 97).

“Philanthropy is a growth industry,” says Grant Oliphant, president and CEO of The Pittsburgh Foundation, which was ahead of the curve five years ago when it initiated its own Day of Giving. Through this 24-hour marathon giving event, more than $7.7 million was raised this past October for regional nonprofits, with the number of individual donations, $18,194, up from last year.

Right:An internationally recognized professional ballet company, PBT performs traditional and contemporary ballets and develops innovative works. It seeks to perpetuate excellence in the art of ballet through its performances, school, and community initiatives.

As one of the largest grant-making foundations in the city, The Pittsburgh Foundation exemplifies the growing generosity of Pittsburghers, awarding $43.4 million in grants in 2012 while administering a pool of 1,900 donoradvised funds. A donor-advised fund is a named endowment fund that can be established for a minimum donation of $10,000. It allows the donor to recommend grants to specific nonprofit organizations, while taking advantage of the foundation’s knowledge of community issues and needs.

“The Pittsburgh Foundation is a place for people who are serious about their philanthropy, who want to do it well, and especially have some connection with Pittsburgh as a community,” Oliphant says.

He has observed a “generational shift” in giving behavior, with more active involvement by younger donors. That might take the form of serving on a board or visiting an organization—a hands-on way to experience the impact of a gift.

Right: SCC connects children and adults with artists and free creative experiences at its Strip District gallery and in the community. Its programs include exhibitions, classes, a drop-in art project for families, and a retail store with artist-made merchandise.

“The mindset today is much more focused on engaged giving,” Oliphant says. “So, whereas the previous generation might have gone to the symphony and written a check, today’s givers are still likely to write a check to those organizations that they support, but they want to know that there is an outcome for that money.”

It all adds up to a fabulous reputation for the city when it comes to charitable giving.

“Pittsburgh has a long tradition and rich history of being philanthropic, with so many civicminded and private organizations that are dedicated to improving the community,” says Adriene

Davis Kalugyer, manager of public affairs at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.

Right: Consistent with Jewish values and tradition, the JAA honors and enhances the lives of older adults by offering a comprehensive network of social, residential, rehabilitation, medical, and nutritional services.

Bob Nelkin, president and chief professional officer of United Way of Allegheny County, agrees.

Right: Together, Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Carnegie Science Center, and The Andy Warhol Museum are home to thousands of exhibition spaces that make us wonder— about our world, the universe, the past, and the future.

“We are one of the most generous cities in the country,” says Nelkin, a lifelong resident of Squirrel Hill.

The United Way is well known for its fall workplace campaign, whereby employees of local companies commit to a payroll deduction for the benefit of local charities. With 725 local companies running or participating in the campaign— and 60,000 employees fulfilling their pledge—$33.2 million was raised in 2012. Moreover, United Way of Allegheny County has experienced a 12.7 percent growth rate in fundraising from 2006 to 2011.

Operating on only a 12 percent overhead—less than half the national average—the United Way distributes its funds to health and human services charities selected by the donors from a list of 2,300 organizations. It also allocates monies to 62 agencies identified in the Impact Fund that address four vital needs: preparing children and youth to succeed in school and life; assisting financially struggling adults and families; helping frail seniors live safely in their homes; and helping people with disabilities live safely.

One particular area of growth Nelkin points out is the Women’s Leadership Council, which now has 1,800 members donating $1,000 or more, making it the sixth largest in the country—and growing.

“There is a lot of data in studies that says women are more likely to give to charities than men and are more likely to give more than men,” says Nelkin, who credits the United Way’s success to word-of-mouth.

Another philanthropic powerhouse in our community is the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

Left: This three-theater performing arts center in Oakland is home to four Point Park University companies that stage 18 productions annually, ranging from beloved musicals and classic dramas to provocative new works and cutting edge dances.

“In a sense, within the Jewish community, we are both The Pittsburgh Foundation and the United Way,” says Jeff Finkelstein, the Federation’s president and CEO. “We run an annual campaign, and the United Way runs an annual campaign; and we also have a foundation the way The Pittsburgh Foundation has a foundation. So we’re kind of both of those entities.”

Some 4,600 donors contributed $13.35 million to the Federation’s 2013 unrestricted annual campaign, an increase of $350,000 over last year. The foundation raised $14 million in new contributions, bringing its total to a record $180 million under management.

“I always talk about us being the mutual fund of the Jewish community,” Finkelstein says. “A donor can invest in the Federation, and then through our planning processes, through our staff and amazing volunteers, we figure out where we get the most bang for the buck within the Jewish community for that investment.”

The Federation gave away nearly $19 million in 2012, most of which focused on its four areas of high priority: aging and human needs, Israel and world Jewry, Jewish community life, and lifelong Jewish learning.

Over the past six years, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh has been in the top three in per-capita giving among its large-city peer group of 19 Federations.

Above Left: This Squirrel Hill landmark meets the needs and improves the quality of life for children with special needs and their families by providing medical, educational, therapy, and social services.

Above Right: Committed to long-term buying relationships in places where skilled artisans are under- or unemployed, this Squirrel Hill fair trade store offers international merchandise and a wide range of outreach programs that connect local organizations to artisans around the world.

“We see this as the community chest, and it really goes back in Jewish tradition to everybody in the community giving back to the community,” Finkelstein says. “In Jewish tradition, in our Talmud, it talks about something called the kupah, the central pot. And it actually says that even the person who has to receive money from that pot has to give back to the community. So with that obligation to supporting the community, we make an effort to approach everybody.”

With so many options for giving, consulting a financial advisor to take a more strategic approach to philanthropy can be a wise move.

Fox Chapel resident Ahmie Baum, managing director of The Baum Consulting Group/UBS Financial Services, Inc., says most people have a modus operandi he calls “checkbook philanthropy”—writing out a check for $100 here, a couple hundred dollars there, and maybe another thousand here.

Left: New play development is the focus of this South Side theater, dedicated to a full season of all new work. It commissions and produces plays by writers at the forefront of the industry.

“The problem with checkbook philanthropy,” explains Baum, “is people don’t realize that if they have investments that have done well, such as appreciated securities, it may be better to use those to make a charitable contribution rather than cash, because then you don’t have to pay the capital gains taxes, and you still get the deduction.”

He instead advocates a more thoughtful, multi-disciplinary process involving legal, accounting, insurance, investment, and banking professionals working as a team.

“In going through a collaborative, comprehensive wealth management process, one of the outcomes is it shows people where they may have more capacity for charitable giving while they are alive, rather than what traditionally happens, which is, ‘Well, I’ll just take care of it when I’m dead,’” Baum says.

Colin Rosenberg, executive director, wealth management at Morgan Stanley, likes his clients to take many factors into account when it comes to charitable giving, especially with longer life expectancies and increasing health care costs.

“We always encourage our clients to consider their overall financial picture before committing to philanthropic giving,” says Rosenberg, who lives in Squirrel Hill. “It is essential to budget charitable contributions just as one budgets other costs, such as living expenses, health insurance, travel, and any other financial goals.”

Above left: Glass art is the mission at PGC— to teach it, to create it, to promote it, and to support those who make it. Through classes, a contemporary glass gallery, and a state-of-the-art studio, it is fostering a new generation of glass artists and enthusiasts.

Above Center: By matching adult volunteers with children facing adversity, this mentoring network fosters positive relationships that make an extraordinary and transformative difference in the lives of young people.

Above Right: Providing college scholarships to transform the lives of children and vitalize our region, The Promise is a big idea and a concrete commitment to all children who graduate from Pittsburgh Public Schools and who live in the City of Pittsburgh.

With the recent bull market, Rosenberg says people are more generous, but not to the degree one might think compared to tighter times.

“I do believe that people will be more charitably inclined when they feel that they have more money,” he says. “But by the same token, a lot of people are charitably inclined to begin with and try not to let the good years or the bad years affect their ability to give. They realize that these charities are counting on their money, and that without these monies, a lot of charities are not going to be able to do the great work that they do.”

Right: Operating a food pantry is just one way JF&CS helps people struggling with unemployment, poverty, aging, and other life challenges. It provides psychological, employment, and social services to those going through lifecycle transitions and crises.

Jayne Adair, executive director of Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures, says her organization depends on individual contributors, almost all of whom attend Ten Literary Evenings, the nonprofit’s popular Monday Night Lecture Series, held at the Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland.

“They are the heart and soul of Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures,” Adair says of donors. “Our contributors are people who like what we are doing, who have given to us before and are most likely to contribute again.”

Adair, who lives in Squirrel Hill, believes that the more “touches” she and her small staff have with an individual donor—whether in person or on the phone, by e-mail or regular mail—the better the chance of keeping them on board.

Left: Located in an economically distressed community, WCDC promotes revitalization and economic development by strengthening the business district, marketing the community, and forming strategic partnerships.

“And probably the most profound touch is when I can introduce you to Jeffrey Toobin or Ann Patchett or another writer that you’ve wanted to meet for a long time,” she says. “That’s something we can offer that no one else can.”

Whether it’s grant writing or soliciting donations online, raising money for a nonprofit is demanding. With approximately 3,000 registered nonprofits in Pittsburgh, there’s plenty of competition for funding. That’s especially true for arts organizations, which receive just 5 percent of charitable giving nationwide (see page 97). Fortunately for Pittsburgh, local corporations and foundations are answering the call of need.

Right: In partnership with the city, PPC works to restore Pittsburgh’s park system to excellence, undertaking capital projects that have included the Highland Park Entry Garden and Oakland’s Schenley Plaza.

“Pittsburgh really enjoys substantial support for the arts from the philanthropic community, and we also have the benefit of higher foundation support than most other cities,” says Joseph B. Smith, senior vice president of marketing for Dollar Bank and board chair of the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. “But getting the individuals out to support the arts is something that’s a great goal for all cities, and I think Pittsburgh on average supports that on a little lower level than cities our size.”

Dollar Bank has been the title sponsor for the Three Rivers Arts Festival the past three years— one the many reasons it is this year’s recipient of the Outstanding Philanthropic Organization from the Western Pennsylvania Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

“With revenue streams from the government having been cut in recent years, it really makes it more and more important for individuals, and even businesses like Dollar Bank, to increasingly try to support the arts,” Smith says.

Left: Offering intimate, engaging, professional theater, the Public produces classics of the American theater, masterworks from the international repertoire, world premieres, contemporary plays, and musicals of exceptional merit.

Environmental issues generate even fewer contributions than the arts.

Brenda Smith, executive director of the Nine Mile Run Watershed Association gasped when shown that the environment sits near the bottom of the priority list for most donors. “No wonder it’s so hard!” she says of her organization’s fundraising efforts.

Right: Engaging our community in literacy and learning, CLP offers a welcoming place for learners of all ages, providing programs, books, and access to technology that support both self-directed and guided learning experiences.:

Founded in 2001, the association is the steward of the 6.5 square miles of the Nine Mile Run watershed, which includes areas within Regent Square, Point Breeze, Edgewood, and Squirrel Hill. Between 2003 and 2006, the portion of Nine Mile Run stream that runs through Frick Park was the site of the largest and most successful urban stream and wetland restoration ever undertaken by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Right: With a focus on the highest quality of life possible, this organization is dedicated to providing compassionate care and living options that enhance the lives of older adults and meet their changing needs.

The watershed is home to 48,000 people, 250 plant species, 22 different mammals, and 189 types of birds—and the goal of the Nine Mile Run Watershed Association is to address the water quality problems that still exist by reducing the flow of storm water and sewage into the stream.

Smith, a Squirrel Hill resident, is extremely grateful for foundation support, which provides 68 percent of her budget. But she believes it’s also important for nonprofits to investigate ways to generate earned income, as long as the social enterprise is related to the mission. Under the brand StormWorks, the association has developed a market-based approach to storm water management by installing rain barrels and designing rain gardens for homes and businesses.

Left: To provide young people with character-building and life skills lessons, golf is the platform for this organization, which also operates the Bob O’Connor Golf Course in Schenley Park, now an Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary golf course.

“If you can find a way to solve part of the problem you are trying to solve in a way that people will pay for, long term, that’s even more sustainable than getting people to just give you money,” Smith says.

Some altruistic efforts are so big that they prompt the formation of booster organizations to get all hands on deck. That’s the approach Fox Chapel resident Mardi Royston has taken since she first heard about The Pittsburgh Promise.

This scholarship program, unlike any other in the country, has a goal of raising $250 million to fund up to $40,000 for the post-secondary school education of each local student who is “Promise-ready,” regardless of financial need. “Promise-ready” means being a city resident and a Pittsburgh Public Schools student continuously since at least ninth grade, graduating from one of the district’s schools or charter high schools, having at least a 2.5 GPA and 90 percent attendance record, and being admitted to a post-secondary school in Pennsylvania.

“When I first learned of The Pittsburgh Promise, I was immediately affected by what a bold, daring, innovative, and overwhelming commitment it was,” Royston says. “To put Pittsburgh on a stage like that, and say this is what we are going to do, well, we can’t fail.”

Royston assembled a group of friends who founded the Keepers of The Promise last December with the goal of raising awareness in the larger community while growing the membership. Keepers are asked to make a minimum contribution of $300 and then commit to inform and attract additional Keepers. To date, they have expanded to more than 130 members and have raised more than $60,000, including UPMC’s match of $1 for every $1.50 the Keepers raised.

Above Left: A cultural and architectural centerpiece of Oakland, Phipps strives to inspire and educate with the beauty and importance of plants, to advance sustainability and promote human and environmental wellbeing, and to celebrate its historic glasshouse.

Above Right: At the forefront of music drama, Opera Theater presents new works, old works in new ways, and opera sung in English for all ages during Summer Fest in July at Oakland’s Twentieth Century Club and also through year-round education programs.

“The Keepers is a wonderful way for caring folks who are committed to this region and invested in their communities to say we are going to help make sure that we deliver on this promise,” says Saleem Ghubril, executive director of The Pittsburgh Promise.

Clearly, everyone in our community is playing a part—from our foundations to corporations and on down to the individual level.

Right: With recreational, educational, and social services available to the entire community, the JCC offers child care and preschool, camping, adult activities, fitness and wellness opportunities, special needs services, arts and cultural activities, and other programs.

“I think Pittsburgh is blessed…because this is just a giving town,” the Jewish Federation’s Finkelstein says. “There are deep roots here, and people really care about this community. It’s longterm commitments from families who have been here for generations. And we’ve got lots of new people coming into town, and they become Pittsburghers immediately and love this place and want to give back. It’s exciting.”

Left: As this area’s only independent public radio news and information station, WESA gives voice to provocative ideas that foster a vibrant and informed community, while WYEP provides fresh, alternative music.

With many thanks to SHADY AVE magazine for granting me permission to reprint on my website.

East Liberty is a success story unfolding before our very eyes. Projects on the neighborhood’s periphery have been so well received that developers, hoping to fill the demand for more new restaurant, retail, office, apartment, and hotel spaces, are finally…

Fall 2013

Live. Work. Play…and Build. There’s a lot of construction taking place in East Liberty these days, with more to come. New developments abound at just about every corner, and keeping track of it all is work in itself, requiring nothing less than a roadmap—or better yet, an animated PowerPoint presentation.

Steve Mosites and Mark Minnerly of The Mosites Company press the “play” button to start a video illustrating exactly what they have in mind for a $133 million investment in EastSide Phases III and IV on a six-acre site across Penn Avenue from the Target store.

Right: A rendering of the East Plaza that is part of the proposed EastSide III design.

“This is so much, your head is going to blow up,” Minnerly warns jokingly.

Even the video can’t explain all the nuances of putting such a complicated deal together. Pausing it almost immediately, they explain how a $15 million TIGER IV (Transit Investments Generating Economic Recovery) grant awarded to the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) of Pittsburgh made possible the final go-ahead for their master plan of the East Liberty Transit Center. The plan includes the re-positioning of the East Liberty bus station along the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway and construction of a more intuitive, landscaped, and pedestrian-friendly entry plaza.

he video plays on to show various stages of demolition of pedestrian bridges and the National Indoor Tennis Club. An elevated road will then connect Highland and Penn avenues, which ingeniously will be the new grade level for the transit-oriented development consisting of a two-level parking garage with 560 spaces, 43,000 square feet of groundfloor retail space, and 350 apartments. At a total of 650,000 square feet of gross building area, it will be more than double the size of Target. Demolition work is to be completed by late fall, with the entire timeline stretching out into early 2016.

Left: A rendering of an aerial view of the EastSide III complex, with the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway in the foreground and the spire of East Liberty Presbyterian Church rising in the distance.

At the end of the video, Minnerly sums up his vision for this site in the middle of The Mosites Company’s 16 acres along the border of Shadyside and East Liberty. “This is the jewel in the crown,” he says.

The area has come a long way in the dozen years since the Yellow Cab Company’s worn headquarters building and parking lot on Centre Avenue plus a neighboring car wash were demolished to make way for the bustling EastSide I and its anchor store, Whole Foods Market.

Besides convenience to consumers, the success of all phases of EastSide is partially realized in the 600 to 700 jobs generated by EastSide II, Target, and Whole Foods. Whole Foods has been so successful that an expansion is in the works. A two-story extension of the store into the parking lot will add more space for prepared foods, produce, and other departments like a wine and beer bar.

Right: Whole Foods Market, the first of the EastSide complex projects, has been so successful it is now slated for expansion.

But don’t worry—looking for a parking place may actually get easier, too. “Parking would be increased by 50 percent,” says Mosites, who explains how there would be less parking on the Centre Avenue entrance level, but more available when the upper-deck parking area of EastSide II is extended to meet the new second level of Whole Foods. Now the problem is how to make all of these improvements while keeping the store open.

The achievements at EastSide can be traced back to the brainstorm Molly Blasier had in 1998 to lure Whole Foods to East Liberty. Now it has come full circle for Blasier, principal of Blasier Urban, LLC, as she takes advantage of that same momentum she helped foster by co-developing a project with ELDI Real Estate, LLC.

Right: As depicted in this rendering, plans for The Odeon Building include a restaurant and movie theater topped by luxury apartments, all to be built along Penn Avenue, beginning where the former PNC Bank (below) stands vacant on South Highland Avenue.

ELDI stands for East Liberty Development, Inc., a community development corporation formed as a nonprofit by the East Liberty Quarter Chamber of Commerce in 1979 to facilitate the neighborhood’s revitalization. It owns contiguous properties starting at the former PNC Bank at the corner of South Highland and Penn avenues.

Those buildings are slated for demolition as early as next summer to make way for The Odeon Building, which will have a digital multiplex movie theater and a full-service restaurant, both owned by Odeon Entertainment, but operated by Atlanta-based Spotlight Theatres. Fifty-six luxury apartments will be built on four floors above the theater, along with 43 sub-grade residential parking spaces.

“What The Odeon Building will do is finally bring a sense of life to that core strip of Penn Avenue, that older core, which is fabulous,” Blasier says.

Across the street, ELDI has begun work on a $500,000 development called Town Square, slated for completion this fall. The idea is to mimic a European-style cathedral plaza by transforming the front yard of the East Liberty Presbyterian Church. Storm water mitigation will capture the rain coming off the church and water the thousands of plants and trees being added. “We will have created a plaza with landscaping and tree cover where people can go and gather, sit, and have lunch,” says Skip Schwab, investment officer for ELDI.

“It’s going to be gorgeous.”

Perfect timing. You can grab a sandwich and a smoothie from Creamy Creations opening across the street, or take out a soup and salad from Everyday’s A Sundae & Café, which just moved into the former Vanilla Pastry Studio space along Centre Avenue. ELDI Real Estate, LLC is also partnering with developer Matt Ciccone on a $20 million renovation to transform the vacant, centuryold YMCA building on Whitfield Street into a 65-room Ace Hotel, hoping to start construction before year’s end. Ace operates boutique hotels in Seattle, Portland, New York, and Palm Springs. Each has a position for a “cultural engineer” in charge of scheduling programming with local talent that helps to create the unique vibe that led The New York Times to call it “the country’s most original new hotel.”

Up two blocks from the future Ace Hotel, construction is under way on a new Hotel Indigo, part of an InterContinental Hotels Group chain referred to as the first branded boutique hotel. Developer Nigel Parkinson is the owner of Washington, D.C.-based 2414 Morgan Development and its sister company, Parkinson Construction, a sub-contractor on both the building of Nationals Park baseball stadium in Washington and a renovation of the Pentagon.

After an acquaintance introduced him to Pittsburgh, Parkinson started assembling properties in 2005 in the block surrounded by Kirkwood, Whitfield, and Broad streets and North Highland Avenue. When private financing dried up during the recession, the $20 million hotel project was mothballed. But it’s back now, and three existing buildings, including the vacant old Governor’s Hotel, are being preserved and incorporated, along with a new addition, into the 137-suite Hotel Indigo.

Right: Plans are in the works to convert this former YMCA building on Whitfield Street into a boutique Ace Hotel.

“There’s some aspect to older buildings that you cannot replicate,” Parkinson says. “It’s easy when you tear down and build new, but when you renovate, you have to think.”

The Hotel Indigo is part of a complex Parkinson is calling Indigo Square, which launched with a recently completed plaza of unique shops. Olive & Marlowe sells gourmet olive oil and balsamic vinegar sourced from California, while Kiya Tomlin Pittsburgh specializes in custom-designed dresses for women, teens, and children. Next door is chemistry, where owner Jeneane Hugus carries women’s contemporary clothing. Two doors away, her husband, Brent Hugus, and his partner, John Nicklas, are planning an October opening for their second location of Luxe, a kitchen and bath design showroom.

“It’s definitely picking up with all the new construction and new retailers here,” Jeneane Hugus says. “And we are glad to be one of the first ones here.”

Just across the street from Indigo Square, Julia Reynolds opened The Shop in East Liberty a year ago selling what she calls “everyday artwork”—affordable art, home goods, and jewelry. Her shop is within walking distance from the home in East Liberty she bought from ELDI. “I love it here,” she says “I think ELDI has a good thing going. It seems they created this essential perimeter around East Liberty, and gradually over time, it’s sort of moving inward toward the core of the East Liberty business district, which I think has been a pretty smart move on their part.”

ELDI is selling two properties on the corner of Penn Avenue and Penn Circle East across from Target to Tony Dolan, president of Alphabet City Development. They will be assembled with a third parcel he already owns. The project, named East Liberty Center, is (at press time) in the approval process, and designs indicate new construction with one level of retail and five stories of office space above.

Right: The first of the cluster of upscale boutiques to open in the core of the neighborhood, The Shop in East Liberty carries artistic goods for the home.

“I want it to be a signature building—one that would be worthy of its position in that neighborhood given that it will be one of the first new projects within East Liberty’s core in a very long time,” Dolan says.

Just on the edge of where the business core meets newer residential development is the East End Cooperative Ministry’s nearly completed Community House, a $14 million project that will allow the nonprofit organization to operate its various programs under a single roof and expand its services. EECM is an interfaith ministry that helps at-risk youth, the hungry, the homeless, and others in need throughout the East End.

“The Community House duplicates what the neighborhood looks like,” says Myrna Zelenitz, executive director of EECM. “Lots of porches and places for people to sit, so it’s where everyone in the neighborhood can come together. I’m thrilled for the community. Everyone will be welcome with open arms.”

Of course one of the major coups underlying the East Liberty renaissance has been the location and subsequent growth of the Google Pittsburgh offices in the nearby Bakery Square development along Penn Avenue in Larimer. Emerging entrepreneurs have followed suit, starting up their high-tech businesses in coworking and incubator spaces in East Liberty like The Beauty Shoppe, Thrill Mill, and, most recently, AlphaLab Gear, which is launching this fall.

“It’s an up-and-coming place where the young, progressive people in the city want to live,” says John Dick, founder and CEO of CivicScience, a polling and data mining company. Dick, a Fox Chapel resident, started his business in the Strip District, but moved to East Liberty recently to better attract software engineers to his company.

And as more and more “Googlers” and other young professionals move into the East End, they are seeking places to live nearby.

Gregg Perelman of Walnut Capital is answering the call. His firm and Massaro Properties partnered in the $30 million renovation of the Highland and Wallace buildings, converting what were originally designed as professional offices back in 1910 into 117 apartments. Mainly one-bedroom, but also some two- and three-bedroom units, rental rates at Walnut on Highland range from $1,300 to $2,000 depending on the view, the layout, and the number of windows.

Left: Bakery Square, the redeveloped former Nabisco plant launched in the summer of 2010, has brought young professionals into the area and helped fuel the need for more new apartments

“There’s a pent-up demand,” Perelman says. “It’s very gratifying to see that people are embracing the idea of moving into East Liberty. In Pittsburgh, we are all about borders and where you can go and can’t go, but people from out of town, they look at the whole area, and not at borders per se. So for them this is a very cool apartment building to be able to move into where everything is brand-new, and they can walk out and be in a neighborhood that is coming of age.”

For tenants of Walnut on Highland, it will be an easy elevator ride down for a haircut at Great Clips or to meet friends for a margarita and enchiladas at Patron Mexican Grill opening on the first floor of the Wallace Building. Across the street, Bobby Fry and his partners at Bar Marco in the Strip District are opening The Livermore bar and eatery in the former Waffle Shop space.

“East Liberty is really an amazing center for innovation and a young style of living,” Fry says. “And I think The Livermore will absolutely appeal to the people here because it’s modeled after a lot of bars in Brooklyn, where there is a similar kind of scene as East Liberty.”

Right: Constructed in 1910, the Highland Building was designed by noted architect Daniel Hudson Burnham, whose other works include the Frick Building in Downtown Pittsburgh and Union Station in Washington, D.C. Walnut Capital converted it into an apartment building, which opened to tenants over the summer.

The Livermore and Patron are just the latest additions to a burgeoning dining scene in East Liberty. Last year, pioneering local restaurateur Kevin Sousa (of Salt in neighboring Garfield) opened Union Pig and Chicken, a full-service barbecue eatery, on North Highland Avenue in the neighborhood’s core. Months later he launched Harvard & Highland, a craft cocktail bar, right above it. Then award-winning chef David Racicot opened Notion just a few blocks away, bringing sophisticated fine dining to the core.

These new establishments have joined other nearby popular restaurants like Spoon, Brgr, Plum, Paris 66, Dinette, and Tana in creating a critical mass of acclaimed dining options to draw people in from across the metropolitan area.

“It’s good to see new businesses coming in to give people a lot more options as far as restaurants go,” says Kristian Trapl, manager of Don’s Appliances, which moved into the heart of East Liberty seven years ago. “It’s good to see that people are investing in this area of Pittsburgh.”

Left: Diners on the patio at Plum, situated at the corner of South Highland Avenue and Penn Circle South, have a front row seat to the redevelopment taking place at the Wallace Building across the street.

Real estate developer Eddie Lesoon, Jr. of The Wedgwood Group has invested heavily in area. He owns property throughout East Liberty and is doing his part to attract people to the neighborhood. Over the past six years, as other developers were building and renovating on the perimeter, Lesoon went straight to the heart, revitalizing buildings on Broad Street and near the intersection of Penn and Highland avenues.

Right: New light fixtures on the Highland and Wallace buildings complement the historic structures.

“East Liberty Quarter Chamber of Commerce had the vision to say that the only way East Liberty as a whole could survive and succeed is if we went down the middle and purged the place of all its negatives, which is the old bars and the other places where people were hanging out,” says the developer, who is the chamber’s vice president.

Left: Flower baskets, spearheaded by the East Liberty Quarter Chamber of Commerce with help from local businesses, add color to Broad Street.

Those efforts paid off when tenants like Sousa, with his popular restaurants, Reynolds, with her tasteful shop, and several incubators moved into Lesoon’s properties. Now he’s “very, very excited” about his most recent new tenant, Peace, Love, & Zen Holistic Wellness Center, which is opening its doors this fall and featuring the region’s first Himalayan salt cave (see page 81). “It is going to draw in a lot of people from all over the city of Pittsburgh to see it,” says Lesoon.

In addition to crediting the neighborhood chamber for helping to bring about the positive changes he is seeing around him, Lesoon also offers “a huge thanks” to the URA. “Without the URA, we could have never done it—their guidance, their funding; they were great,” he says.

Right: Union Pig and Chicken has become an East Liberty hot spot.

Lesoon’s desire to attract high-quality tenants is shared by the other major developers in East Liberty, who all have their eye on the prize, says Lori Moran, vice president of Ballymoney Real Estate Services, Inc., which manages The Village of East Side on Penn Avenue.

“We all have the same philosophy, which is it’s better to sit on a vacancy and not collect rent then to lease to someone who’s not good for your shopping center,” she explains. “Bakery Square is doing that. Mosites is doing that. And we’ve been doing that since we brought in Trader Joe’s back in 2006.

“So could we be 100 percent leased? Absolutely, with our eyes shut. But you can lease or you can revitalize,” she says with emphasis.

Left: The Wedgwood Group’s freshly renovated properties dot East Liberty’s core. The building on the left will soon open as a holistic wellness center.

That philosophy seems to be working. The recent arrival of Alterations Express, plus a few lease agreements pending at press time bring the first-floor retail occupancy rate at The Village of East Side to 92 percent.

A few blocks away, Walnut Capital has begun executing a master plan to expand Bakery Square, which has reached capacity with more than 1,000 employees working there at Google, UPMC, the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon’s Software Engineering Institute, and the Veterans Administration Pittsburgh Human Engineering Research Laboratory.

Called Bakery 2.0, the $130 million project is under way across the street from Bakery Square on a 12-acre parcel in Shadyside once occupied by Reizenstein Middle School. In the plans are 400,000 square feet of office space, two apartment rental buildings with 175 apartments each, and 57 townhomes for rent. Construction has begun on the first of the two apartment buildings.

“Basically we are creating a campus environment here,” Perelman says. “With the [Springhill Suites] hotel, new restaurant [Social] opening here, all of the office tenants here, now we have a place where people can live in an apartment or town home, and it just makes it one big campus that we have created here.”

Left: A rendering of the Bakery Square 2.0 development that is now under construction across the street from Bakery Square, which is also pictured here.

Though technically just beyond the borders of East Liberty, the Bakery Square projects are strategic elements in the continued revitalization of the neighborhood. Everyone seems to get the significance of moving toward the core and bringing back a healthy variety of businesses so there is something for everyone.

“On the one hand you have Julia [Reynolds of The Shop in East Liberty], who opens a darling little gift shop,” says Moran, who is also president of the East Liberty Quarter Chamber of Commerce. “And on the other end, you have the 800-lb. gorillas of Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Target, with everything in between. Having a mix of tenants and a mix of uses is the key to sustaining a revitalization program. And that’s what we have.”

Yes, but…“People are still upset that the car wash is gone,” Schwab says.

Right: Café tables on Penn Avenue are a small but significant sign of the turn-around taking place in East Liberty.

With many thanks to SHADY AVE magazine for granting me permission to reprint on my website.

Summer is the season when skin is on full display, revealing tattoos often hidden from view the rest of the year. But what if you’ve had a change of heart about that heart you’re sporting on your shoulder? Laser technology is the answer—and a few local businesses are using it in charitable ways to change people’s lives for the better.

Summer 2013

On a busy afternoon in Sinners and Saints tattoo shop on South Highland Avenue in Shadyside, there is a distinct hum. It’s the whirr of electric needles pulsing at 15 times a second from what are essentially modified doorbell buzzers—a technology using electromagnets that has remained the same since the 1800s.

Five full-time tattoo artists concentrate on their work while chatting with their clients who have selected a piece of artwork for display on their hand, arm, chest, shoulder, back, or elsewhere. By pressing on a foot pedal, the artists control their needles that will deliver the ink about one millimeter below the surface of the skin.

The shop is well known for its active walk-in business and famous regulars. Rapper Wiz Khalifa, a Pittsburgh Allderdice graduate, stops by frequently with his entourage and has most of his work done by tattoo artist Mad Max and owner Todd Porter. And hip-hop superstar Mac Miller from Point Breeze sat with Mad Max for a John Lennon portrait on his right arm and with Michael Monack (aka the elusive and acrobatic graffiti writer Mook) to have his birth year in Roman numerals put on his hand.

Sinners and Saints and our other seemingly countless local tattoo shops are all part of the $1.65 billion tattoo industry.

Right: At Sinners and Saints in Shadyside, Michael Monack applies a tattoo to a customer.

Some 45 million Americans—an estimated one in five adults—have at least one tattoo, according to the Pew Research Center. Clearly they’ve gone mainstream; even Barbie now has tattoos.

“I’ve tattooed everybody from drug dealers and gangsters to teachers at Winchester Thurston, cheerleaders, engineering majors, murderers, brain surgeons, and everything in between,” Monack says. “It’s such a broad spectrum, it’s insane.”

A 2012 Harris poll determined—perhaps surprisingly—that 86 percent of people with tattoos have never regretted their decision; the poll says tattoos make people feel sexy, attractive, strong, spiritual, and rebellious.

But what if Mom was right when she said you’d rue that fire-breathing dragon that snakes up your back and curls its red flames around your bicep? Or what if you and Amanda aren’t in love forever after all, despite what it says on your forearm?

Luckily, for the other 14 percent of people who have felt “tattoo remorse,” there is a safe, highly effective option using laser technology to reverse what may have seemed like a permanent decision.

Bridget Miller, a certified laser technician and owner of East Side Laser Center in Shadyside, has been removing tattoos since 2006. This year, she will see approximately 280 patients for tattoo removal, which requires multiple appointments spaced six to eight weeks apart and can cost far more than the price tag of the original ink.

“I’ve removed tattoos from surgeons, lawyers, law students, bankers, stay-at-home moms—I do them all,” Miller says. “They are tired of them!”

The $65,000 laser system she uses delivers infrared light aimed at the embedded ink for extremely short pulse durations of just three nanoseconds, so as not to burn or scar the surrounding tissue.

“The laser penetrates to the deepest part of the dye, about a millimeter down, and starts to shatter it into miniscule pieces, which are then flushed out through your lymphatic system,” Miller explains.

Laser removal is the standard of care today for tattoo removal, but it’s not foolproof. Even after the final treatment, a slight shadow or “ghosting” of the tattoo may still remain for some clients.

Rhonda (who only wanted to use her first name), 43, works in Shadyside and is a regular client of Miller’s. After her seventh laser treatment, she is about halfway through the process of removing a tattoo “of a spiritual nature” she got on her wrist a year ago.

“Shortly after I got the tattoo, I realized that wasn’t the best professional decision I could have made because in my administrative role, my company has a policy of requiring that it be covered up and I didn’t want to do that,” she says.

Everyone’s pain tolerance varies, but Rhonda says the laser treatments feel like her skin is burning off. “It is the most painful thing I have ever gone through,” she says. “I’d rather give birth to 10-pound baby twins without an epidural.”

Brittany Oliver, an aesthetic laser specialist at The Skin Center in Shadyside, says patients who come to the medical spa for tattoo removal tend to fall into four categories: those who no longer care to have tattoos; those who would prefer more inconspicuous tattoos; those who have initials or names from previous relationships; and those coming out of college who find resistance in getting employment because of visible tattoos.

Left: Bridget Miller using a laser technique to remove a tattoo at her East Side Laser Center.

Among The Skin Center’s clients are those who have tried to enter the military, but are unable to meet regulations regarding visible tattoos. “We are currently offering free tattoo removal [for those patients], providing they furnish us a letter to that effect from their recruiting officer,” Oliver says.

Miller also gives back to the community by removing tattoos from gang members— pro bono. She started this work in 2009 when Kim Kaufman, then a clinical assistant with Western PA Child Care, asked her if she would treat a girl who had gang-related tattoos next to her eye that would preclude her from getting a job.

Kaufman, founder of the nonprofit Rethink My Ink, says it’s not about whether you have tattoos or not. “It’s the visible tattoos with negative connotations that are going to limit a person’s opportunities in life that I’m concerned about,” she says.

So far, Miller has done laser treatment on more than 100 gang members to remove their tattoos. “Normally, when someone has a tattoo removed, it costs roughly $200 per treatment and it takes 10 to 15 treatments,” says Kaufmann. “But Bridget has never said, ‘I can’t do it.’ That impresses me.”

In an essay to Rethink My Ink, a young man named Nafis Brown wrote about the effect he felt his gang-related tattoos were going to have on his college prospects: “As I sat in the college admissions office just last week, I felt extremely uncomfortable, as I often worry about what people think of my facial tattoos.”

Kaufman then referred him to Miller, who began treatments, and Brown’s academic adviser informed Miller that Brown is now “smiling from ear to ear” knowing that he will be able to move forward with his college plans.

“This is why I do what I do with these kids,” says Miller.

With many thanks to SHADY AVE magazine for granting me permission to reprint on my website.

Spring 2013

Joggers, cyclists, children, and even dogs passing by can’t help but turn their heads to gaze toward the historic, well-manicured greens of the Frick Park Lawn Bowling Club. The slow-paced “action” that harkens back to a more civilized time elicits an inevitable curiosity from every being.

On the greens, members engage in the sport of lawn bowling—or bowls—that has been played in some fashion since the ancient Egyptians around 3,200 BCE. As the sport spread across the world, it took on a variety of nuances and names, including rolle bolle (Belgian), pétanque (French), and ula maika (Polynesian).

“It’s a lot of fun,” says Randy Ober, a club member and Regent Square resident, who regularly walks to the green along Reynolds Street in Point Breeze with his wife, Anke Bakker, through Frick Park. “It takes about 15 minutes to learn and a long time to get good at it. But if you like games of strategy and tactics, this is it. It’s a game of finesse, so brute force will work against you.”

The game played in the United States is similar to the Italian game of bocce, but with rules that were formalized in Scotland. At the beginning of each game, a white target ball—the jack—is rolled out between the second hog line (69 feet away) and the ditch (112 feet away). As in bocce, the object of the game is to get your ball, actually called a bowl, closer to the jack than your opponent. Players from each team take turns rolling their bowls toward the jack. Once made of wood, bowls are now made of a hard resin and weigh about three pounds.

The Frick Park Lawn Bowling Club near the Frick Art & Historical Center has two adjacent greens. Each green is divided into eight, 15-foot-wide parallel strips, called rinks, meaning eight games may be played at the same time on each green. So that the greens are worn evenly, play is north/south one day and east/west the next.

The game is played as singles, where each player has four bowls; or pairs with two teams of two where each player has four bowls; or triples, the game played most often at the club, with two teams of three players, each with three bowls.

“It’s my first team sport, actually,” says Phyllis Genszler, 65, a Point Breeze resident for 39 years and retiree from PPG. “Jack [Philips] and I have been dating for 25 years, since 1988, and we always used to walk by here. And he said, ‘If I ever move to this area, I want to try lawn bowling.’ Three years ago he moved here, and I said, ‘OK let’s try it.’ It was something we could do together, and we liked it.”

Right: This undated photo of the Frick Park Lawn Bowling Club greens, which were built in 1938, shows how little things have changed since then at the facility—or with the sport in general (above).

The Roman legion is said to have introduced lawn bowling to England, and the game became uniquely British when the bowl took on a shape that is not quite spherical. Weighted more to one side than the other, the bias causes the bowl to curve left or right as momentum is lost. The Southhampton (Old) Bowling Green Club in southern England has the world’s oldest green, where the game of bowls has been played since A.D. 1299. It was so popular in England in the 14th century that King Edward III reportedly outlawed bowls when his soldiers were neglecting their practice of archery.

“The game is a very old, very traditional game,” says club member Dave Wicker, who commutes to Pittsburgh seasonally from Florida for his data storage business and lawn bowls when he’s residing in Aspinwall. “It’s the only sport in the Commonwealth Games you can win while wearing an ascot and smoking a pipe,” he laughs.

It is believed the British built the first bowling green in the U.S. in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1632. And it wasn’t until about 300 years later, in 1938, that construction commenced for the green and clubhouse in Point Breeze built by the National Youth Administration as part of the Works Progress Administration. By then it was the second public green in Pittsburgh, the first being in Schenley Park, where only a mere vestige of that site remains. Today, the green at Frick Park is the only public green in Pennsylvania, with the next closest being in New Jersey.

“In its heyday in the ’30s and the ’40s, the Frick Park Lawn Bowling Club had around 175 male members and 75 women, though they were not considered members,” explains club president Eileen Luba, a nurse at UPMC Shadyside who won the 2003 national pairs championship with her partner, Lois Saladin of Squirrel Hill. “Later on, in the 1990s, the city came to us and said they could no longer keep the greens and were just going to plow them under. And we said, ‘Oh, please don’t do that, because it would cost us $100,000 to build a new green.’”

Similar to the arrangement between the city and the Pittsburgh Zoo, an agreement was reached to make the club responsible for upkeep of the green although the property remains part of Frick Park. The club’s yearly dues of $175 a person go toward the labor of professional groundskeepers who mow and maintain the greens just as they would a putting green on a golf course. Members then take on some of the easier tasks of applying top dressing, weeding, raking, and maintaining potted flowers.

Left: At a ceremony last summer to dedicate their refurbished clubhouse, Frick Park Lawn Bowling Club members paraded through the park to the greens, led by a bagpiper. Scotland is the home of the modern version of the game.

The 50 or so core members range in age from 23 to 88, almost evenly divided between genders. “One of the things I like about it is that men and women can play equally,” Ober says. “I’ll be the first to admit that my wife is better than me. She has better touch than I do and is much more accurate than I am.”

The Frick Park Lawn Bowling Club oversees a full schedule of intra-club league matches during the summer months on Tuesdays at 10 a.m. and Wednesdays at 7 p.m. On weekends, men and women participate in singles and pairs ladder tournaments.

Neighborhood nights are Thursdays, when anyone interested in trying lawn bowling is encouraged to come at 7 p.m. and receive instruction. Comfortable clothing and flat-soled shoes are the only requirements to get started. Club members are also willing to assist those wishing to host a birthday party or outing at the green.

Members congregate after matches around the clubhouse, which was refurbished in 2011 with funds from the Allegheny Regional Asset District.

“I think the biggest component is the social aspect,” says Luba’s husband, Hank Luba, a retiree from advertising sales, who does the instruction. “But we do belong to the Northeast Division, so you can play very competitively on division levels and in national tournaments. It’s very adjustable to how intense you want to be about it.”

At the start of a game, an observer might see team members shaking hands with their opponents and wishing them, “Good bowls.” As the game progresses, hushed chatter and archaic expressions transport one to a past never forgotten. “You have shot.”…“The jack is alive in the ditch.”…“Throw a runner up the gut.”…“Chop and lie on this bowl.”…“Knock me up.” And “You’re just like my husband—you are short and tight,” which is invariably followed by much laughter.

“Don’t you get good vibrations just from feeling the grass under your feet?” asks Eileen Luba, while moving into position for her next bowl. “And when evening comes, along with the lightning bugs and the nighthawks, this is a beautiful place to be.”

Visit lawnbowlingpittsburgh.org for more information.

With many thanks to SHADY AVE magazine for granting me permission to reprint on my website.

Money is not the only charitable gift you have to offer.

Holiday 2013

If time is our most valuable commodity, then to give of it is to be at our most generous. Nationwide, about 64.5 million of us generously volunteered at least once during the year ended September 2012, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That was equivalent to a volunteer rate of 26.5 percent, which declined just slightly from the previous year.

But Pittsburgh is bucking that trend, and volunteering here is on the rise.

“We have over 6,000 volunteers who participate in all of our volunteer programs that we organize,” says Christy Stuber, director of volunteer initiatives for United Way of Allegheny County. “We are seeing an upward trend in the number of volunteers.”

Maria Bethel of Squirrel Hill is one of 400 volunteers in the Be a Middle School Mentor program supported by the United Way. For the third year in a row, she is meeting with a young student on Wednesdays after school at Pittsburgh Sterrett 6-8 in Point Breeze. A working mother of three, Bethel carves out this volunteer time because she recognizes that many kids don’t have the family support that she took for granted as a child.

“When you look back on your own life, you remember that one person who took time out to help you with a problem, who said, ‘Don’t worry, it’s going to be better down the road,’” Bethel says. “I’m glad I can be that person.”

The largest volunteer matching resource in our region is Pittsburgh Cares, which sends approximately 18,000 volunteers to about 250 nonprofits over the course of a year. Of those, 60 percent are women and 40 percent are men, which perfectly reflects the national ratios.

Nonprofits are looking for “skills-based volunteers” who can contribute both their talent and time, says Benjamin Weaver, community programs coordinator for Pittsburgh Cares. “We are always looking for volunteers who can do basic accounting, website and graphic design, information technology support, and marketing, and a lot of people have those skills in Pittsburgh,” he says.

Their impact is tremendous; the estimated value of the hours donated by Pittsburgh Cares volunteers this past year equaled nearly $1.1 million, according to Weaver.

But with some 3,000 nonprofit organizations registered in Pittsburgh, there is much more work to do.

“There are so many opportunities and so many nonprofits that are underfunded, which is why volunteering is so needed,” Stuber says. “It’s part of how we are a great civilization. We help each other.”

With many thanks to SHADY AVE magazine for granting me permission to reprint on my website.

Henne Jewelers

Celebrating 125 Years

Fall 2012

According to family lore, jeweler Rudolph Joseph Henne stood on
a hilltop above East Liberty in 1886 and surveyed the landscape below to scout the prime location to open his new shop. He put $5 down on a dwelling house at 6018 Centre Avenue, presuming it would become the neighborhood’s main street. After converting the lower floor to a store, R.J. Henne opened for business in 1887.

This fall, Henne Jewelers is looking back at its success over four generations in celebration of its 125th anniversary. The store is the oldest jeweler in Pittsburgh and a Shadyside fixture, selling new and estate jewelry and watches, with extensive design and repair services.

Like so many fine jewelers of the 19th century, R.J. Henne started as both an optician and watchmaker, having learned the trade from a cousin in Pittsburgh. He had worked for several local jewelers when he began repairing watches out of his mother’s house. A growing clientele prompted him to buy the two-story building on Centre Avenue that provided him with his own shop and a convenient residence above.

Left: The storefront where it all began—6018 Centre Avenue in East Liberty—with Rudolph J. Henne standing in front with his son Rudolph G. “Gerry” Henne in 1904.

Though Penn Avenue ultimately became East Liberty’s main thoroughfare, his location (where Paris 66 bistro is today) proved ideal. Its proximity to a railroad station became the foundation for a thriving business repairing watches for train conductors—important work back then to help keeping the trains running on time.

Right: After the Civil War, a fraternal organization of Union veterans called the Grand Army of the Republic established posts throughout Pennsylvania. In this photo, taken sometime between 1887 and 1904, proud members of the GAR posed in front of R.J. Henne with their flags and banners flying.

Henne married in 1897, and two years later, he and his wife, Margaret, had their only child. Weighing just three pounds, Rudolph Gerard “Gerry” Henne was born on the second floor of the shop building on the coldest day in February 1899.

“Having been born over the store, I have spent practically all my life in the store,” Rudolph Gerard Henne is quoted as saying in 1952 in Guilds, a publication of the American Gem Society. “I learned watch and clock repair after school and on Saturdays through my grade school and high school years. In 1918, I was called into the service and because of the end of the war was discharged on December 11. I arrived home and started work on December 13 of the same year.”

“My father inherited the business in 1934, when granddad died,” explains Jack Henne, who was four years old at the time. “He was the first certified gemologist in Pittsburgh. He was strictly in sales and management and had a few people working for him at that time repairing watches and stringing pearls.”

Squirrel Hill resident Jean Armstrong, 86, recalls first going to R. G. Henne’s in the late 1950s. “He had a sense of humor and enjoyed telling jokes,” she recalls. “And no matter how old you were, he always gave you a roll of Life Savers.”

Left: Three generations: Gerry and Jack Henne flank little John Henne on the stoop of their East Liberty store in the late 1960s.

Jack Henne remembers getting his first taste of the business at age 12. “I started off fixing old Westclox bedside alarm clocks that you couldn’t ruin,” he reminisces. “They had a loud tick and were very crude when you look at them from today’s standpoint, but they worked pretty well. It wasn’t much to fix them.”

He later earned his credentials as a certified gemologist and used to do nearly all of the store’s appraisals. By the time his father died in 1982, he had already been running the business for nearly seven years.

Seeing the changes under way in East Liberty, Henne moved the store to 740 Filbert Street in fashionable Shadyside in 1978. In 1994, he decided to break through a wall and expand to the corner of Walnut and Filbert streets.

His son, John Henne, remembers that move and his first job at the store. “In the basement there was this old bow machine that had to be 70 years old,” he recalls. “I was 12 when I used to make the ribbons for our signature gift-wrapping package.”

Right: Jack Henne, Meg Henne Gibson, John Henne, Anne Henne Rockwell, and Nancy Henne after the 2003 move to their second—and current—Shadyside store at 5501 Walnut Street.

After college, John Henne worked as an accountant at KPMG before joining the family business in 1992. His sister, Anne, joined the business three years later.

“At first I didn’t want them to ever come in the business because I liked the way our family was,” says their mother, Nancy Henne. “Anne was with Anderson Consulting, and when she wanted to come in, it was Jack’s idea to hire a business consultant. He worked with the whole family and suggested that our younger daughter Meg and I both come into the business, too. He taught us how to work together and communicate. It never would have worked without him because we really needed help. It’s worked to draw us all closer together, which is pretty amazing.”

Left: John Henne inside his store.

In recent years, both Anne and Meg have elected to stay home with their children. Since the fourth generation came into the business, it has grown to 27 employees, including the much sought-after Chris Travelstead, a Certified Master Watchmaker, of which there are only 511 in the country.

“I love what I do,” says John Henne, a Fox Chapel resident and now full owner of Henne Jewelers, which moved to its present location at 5501 Walnut Street in the Rollier building in 2003. “We deal with people most often during the happiest times of their lives, and jewelry is one tangible way of expressing their love and appreciation for somebody.”

For its 125th anniversary, Henne Jewelers is planning a celebration the week of October 22 to thank its clients, with events happening every evening.

And the lineage continues. John Henne has four boys, all in grade school. “I hope to treat my boys just like my father treated me,” he says. “I do not want there to be any pressure on any of them to feel the need to carry on a family tradition. I want them each to pursue their own dreams and desires.”

So the answer to whether a fifth generation will someday run Henne Jewelers is, of course, just a matter of time.

John Henne holds a pocket watch that has been handed down to him. It was originally given to his grandfather, “Gerry” Henne, by John’s great-grandfather, Rudolph Joseph Henne, and his wife. The inscription reads “From Father & Mother, 21st Birthday, February 22, 1920.” John carries it daily and says, “Winding it is actually one of the first things I do in the morning.”

With many thanks to SHADY AVE magazine for granting me permission to reprint on my website.

Summer 2012

When James B. Clark of Rowland & Clark Theatres opened the Manor Theatre in Squirrel Hill on May 15, 1922, its auditorium accommodated 1,500 moviegoers—making it one of the most spacious in all of Pittsburgh.

“Squirrel Hill’s Manor Has the Atmosphere of a Country Club” read a headline of Moving Picture World magazine that summer. The Murray Avenue building, designed by H.S. Blair as a blend of Elizabethan and Tudor styles, was intended to “harmonize with the surrounding handsome residences.” A fireplace accented the parlor, the men’s lounge was finished in dark oak, and the foyer floor was made of marble. Heavy velour draperies, set in full-height panels, embellished the auditorium’s walls. It was grand.

As a neighborhood theater, residents could easily walk there. Typically, an evening’s entertainment included a feature, a comedy, and a short. On Saturday, August 23, 1924, for example, Never Say Die was the attraction, followed by Tootsie Wootsie and an Aesop fable.The projectionist would change over reels between two Simplex projectors running 35- millimeter film, the standard format that has been used at the theater ever since it opened.

Until now.

This summer, the Manor Theatre—the oldest operating movie house in Pittsburgh and one of the longest continuously running businesses in Squirrel Hill—is celebrating its 90th birthday with a conversion from 35mm film to digital projection.

“It’s like comparing old-fashioned television to flat-screen, high-definition home theater,” says longtime owner Rick Stern, 58, a Fox Chapel resident who grew up in Squirrel Hill. “The crisp, clear sound qualityis amazing. No more flickering from film being fed over sprockets.”

Two-thirds of all indoor screens in the country have converted to digital, according to Patrick Corcoran, director of media and research at the National Association of Theatre Owners. “The transition to digital cinema represents the most significant technological change in the theater industry since the advent of sound,” Corcoran says.

Stern is taking advantage of a 10-year financing deal whereby the film studios— which save money by shipping digital files instead of 35mm prints—will pay the theater a “virtual print fee” each time a first-run movie is played. He will recoup most of the $300,000 investment required to install an upgraded sound system, server, and four Sony 4K digital projectors—one for each of the theater’s four screens.

“We estimate the film studios collectively will save a billion dollars per year once they stop shipping film prints, which will be sometime in 2013,” Corcoran predicts.

So it’s now or never for theaters to apply for the funding program.

“When you are looking at spending all this money for the digital conversion, you are making a real commitment to stay in the business for at least 10 more years,” Stern says. “And then the question you ask is, how far do you carry it?”

Stern’s daughter, Alexa, a Highland Park resident, helped make that decision. She worked as co-developer with her father to oversee what has become a $250,000 renovation, including the transformation of the concession area to a comfortable lounge and bar for patrons to enjoy an appetizer or cocktail.

According to a 2010 Nielsen survey, 42 percent of moviegoers dine out before or after the show. “We are hoping to capitalize on the dinner-and-a-movie date night experience,” says Alexa Stern, a psychotherapist at Mercy Behavioral Health.

Rick Stern is a seasoned restaurateur who owns Willow in the North Hills and Spoon and BRGR in East Liberty. He is drawing on these successes, while conferring with Brian Pekarcik, his partner and executive chef at the East End restaurants, on options for light fare that can be carried on trays that conveniently attach to the cup-holders. The offerings may vary—from Buffalo wings, kosher hot dogs, and personal pizzas, to panko crusted shrimp tempura, pot stickers, hummus and pita chips, and zucchini fries.

“Just fun stuff,” the elder Stern says. “We are even thinking of offering Coppola wines, which we thought would be appropriate since Francis Ford Coppola is a famous movie director.

Award-winning architect Jen Bee of Jen Bee Design designed the theater’s new interior. “We’ve brought out some of the original charm of the Manor,” says Bee, noting how a beautiful plaster medallion detail was uncovered when the original ceiling was exposed during the renovation.

Moviegoers will also enjoy the $100,000 investment in blue leatherette seating made by Greystone Seating, a Michigan-based Ford Motor Company spin-off. “The Manhattan rocker is the same seat as in a Lincoln Town Car,” Rick Stern says. These ergonomic, 40-inch high-backs are four inches taller than the previous seats, which were installed during a 2004 renovation.

Both Stern and his daughter laugh about growing up in the theater business. Rick Stern describes his grandfather, Norbert Stern, as a real estate owner and drive-in pioneer who opened South Park Drive-In in Bethel Park around 1939. It was the first in Pittsburgh and one of the first in the country.

The next generation, Stern’s father, Ernest, and Ernest’s cousin, George Stern, bought theaters from owners who believed television would be the death of the film business. They built up their theater circuit, including the Manor, to 90 screens under the name Associated Theatres, which the Sterns sold in 1974 and bought back in 1978. By this time, the chain had grown to 200 screens in the tri-state area, representing most of the screens in Pittsburgh. The Manor then continued its convoluted ownership history, passing out of and then back into the Stern family in 1992.

“This is what I heard about every night at the dinner table,” remembers Rick Stern, whose first job was working the oncession stands at The Fulton (now the Byham Theater) downtown as a 15-year-old.

“My father, Ernest, was always buying or building theaters, so we were constantly going to theater openings,” he recalls. “And my Mom decorated a lot of the theaters. I remember them going to England and buying a suit of armor to display in the lobby of the King’s Court Theater [in Oakland]. It was an exciting business to grow up in.”

With the curtain closing on his Squirrel Hill Theatre in 2010, the Manor remains one of the last of the independent theaters in the area, along with the Regent Square Theater on South Braddock Avenue and The Oaks Theater in Oakmont.

“It was a tough choice to close that theater,” Stern admits. “We found that when we had the Squirrel Hill Theatre and the Manor, we were forced to play more commercial product and compete with the big boys down the street. There wasn’t enough specialized product to fill 10 screens.”

It’s a nationwide phenomenon. With the surge in multi- and mega-plexes, the number of indoor screens in the U.S. has increased over the last decade by nearly 10 percent to 39,042, while the number of indoor theaters
has declined by more than 20 percent to 5,240—about half of which have four screens or fewer like the Manor.

Upon closing the Squirrel Hill Theatre, Stern says what he heard from his loyal clientele was: “Please don’t close the Manor. Please make sure we always have our neighborhood theater.”

“So we said, ‘You know what, we know that the Manor is a special place, a gem of the neighborhood,’” he says. “We only have four screens now, so we no longer have to spread the product out anymore. We can pick and
choose all the best product that will do well in our specialized film market niche—limited release, art, foreign, upscale films that might play along with one or two other theaters in the Pittsburgh market.”

Movie-lovers from Squirrel Hill and well beyond have responded accordingly.

“The Manor is my favorite theater,” says neighborhood resident and pianist Yeeha Chiu, who likes to walk to see a film in good weather. “They have all the first-run movies I want to see. It’s a gathering place for Squirrel Hill.”

Rick Stern says that is very typical of comments he hears, which echo his own feelings for the theater. “The Manor holds a sentimental place in my heart—like a connection to my past and my childhood that I can’t give it up,” he says.

“I feel the same way,” Alexa Stern says. “It was my first job at 15 when I worked at the concession stand. It’s the last and only theater that my family owns, and I feel strongly tied to it.”

She continues: “When I think about trends in the movie business and other businesses, it’s always been ‘bigger and better.’ But I think there are a lot of people who reject that and want to keep businesses smaller and keep
businesses with history and character alive, and I think that we offer something different.”

“Here’s looking at you, kid.”

With many thanks to SHADY AVE magazine for granting me permission to reprint on my website.

Summer 2012

By: Charlie Stewart

When the PGA Tour made a presentation to the Fox Chapel Golf Club board this past December asking if it would consider hosting the Constellation Senior Players Championship in June, board members had to think quickly. It would be the club’s first time hosting a PGA event, but they would have less than half the normal time to prepare.

On the other hand, the board felt compressing the schedule could be an advantage by reducing the number of meetings and phone calls that would inevitably occur throughout a year’s worth of groundwork.

“We knew we would be jamming 12 to 14 months of work into what has become essentially four months,” says Skip Avery, the club’s general manager. “However, the PGA Tour actually runs this tournament themselves, so it’s less labor intensive from a management standpoint than the Curtis Cup, which we hosted in 2002. But it did mean we would have to be very focused.”

The board unanimously accepted the offer, and so the Constellation Senior Players Championship comes to Pittsburgh this summer from June 26 to July 1. “We are honored to host many of golf ’s greatest champions,” says club president and Fox Chapel resident Arthur Scully.

The event—one of the five majors on the PGA Tour’s Champions Tour—will include the world’s best 78 players who are at least 50 years old and who qualify. It is hoped that 10,000 spectators will attend each day to follow their favorite players like Fred Couples, a former world No. 1 and this year’s defending champion.

Above: On the historic course at the Fox Chapel Golf Club, the approach to the 18th green takes players over a stone bridge, creating a scene reminiscent of the classic holes in the British Isles.

Below: With up to 10,000 spectators expected for the PGA event, the Fox Chapel Golf Club is recruiting nearly
1000 volunteers to help handle all of the logistics.

The prestigious field includes other past winners of some of golf ’s most coveted major championships during their younger days on the regular tour, such as Tom Watson (8 majors), Hale Irwin (3), Bernhard Langer (2), Tom Lehman (1), and Mark Calcavecchia (1). A practice round will be held Tuesday, June 26, with a Pro-Am tournament the following day. And since there is no cut, all 78 players will be on the course for the entire 72- hole (four rounds) medal-play event— Thursday through Sunday—the only four-day event on the Champions Tour.

“We brag that this is the strongest field that you will get on the Champions Tour,” says Chelsea Stewart, tournament services manager. “At $2.7 million in prize money, this is the highest purse on the continental U.S. on the Champions Tour, and the players get a crack at winning a major.”

Stewart and a small team from the PGA Tour have been camped out in temporary quarters in Fox Chapel since February to help make sure everything goes smoothly. Part of Fox Chapel Golf Club’s responsibility is to coordinate the recruitment of the 800 to 1,000 volunteers required for duties ranging from picking up players at the airport to checking press credentials
in the media center.

Stewart has been advising longtime club members and co-general chairpersons Courtney Myhrum and Tom Reading as they delegate responsibilities to their volunteers. The PGA Tour staff has found it refreshing to see how excited the volunteers are about the tournament. “The commitment by Fox Chapel’s members to do it right has been so impressive,” says Brian Goin, COO of the event and vice president of championship management for the PGA Tour. Goin grew up in Pennsylvania and refers to Fox Chapel’s historic course as a “gem.”

Other area golf clubs are contributing their time and talent. Longue Vue Club, Oakmont Country Club, Pittsburgh Field Club, and The Pittsburgh Golf Club have all recruited members to marshal holes throughout the four-day event, as well as the Pro-Am tournament.

The goal of every PGA Tour event is for the net proceeds to support local charities within the community where the event is being held. Since 1992, the Constellation Senior Players Championship has raised more than $8 million, and a major beneficiary this year will be The First Tee of Pittsburgh, headquartered at the Bob O’Connor Golf Course
at Schenley Park. The nonprofit organization aims to help build character, instill strong values, and promote healthy choices in young people through the game of golf.

As for the course itself, which opened in 1925, the club has kept as faithfully as possible to the layout conceived by its architect, Seth Raynor. His specialty was taking the natural landforms of the surrounding farmland to recreate the classic hole templates of the British Isles. Most of the tour competitors have never played Fox Chapel, but soon they will be alltoo- familiar with the Redans at holes one and six, Punchbowl at two, Alps at seven, and the spectacular approach over the meandering creek and up to the 18th green in the shadow of the clubhouse.

“Players prefer to come to a course like this instead of a cookie-cutter course with island greens because this is the type of course they grew up on,” says Myhrum, a Shadyside resident who serves on the USGA Women’s Committee.

Not very long by tour standards, the course currently measures 6,696 yards from the blue tees. “The PGA Tour felt that our course sets up well for seniors,” Avery says. “So they will play it as long as we can make it, but we are not going to make any wholesale changes to the course.”

The PGA Tour’s agronomist has been consulting with course superintendent Jason Hurwitz as to the required specifications for green speeds and height of the rough. With such a high caliber of golf, the members course record of 63, set in 2005 by nine-time club champion and Aspinwall resident Mike Foster, might be challenged.

“I’m looking forward to seeing how the players execute the shots I’m familiar with and where they leave themselves for the approach to the green, depending on pin placement and how fast or slow the greens are,” says Fox Chapel’s assistant golf professional Eric Suvak.

“When you go through the list of the field, there will be a bunch of great names who will be strolling down those fairways,” Goin adds. “It’s going to be fun.”

For more information, including how to buy tickets and volunteer opportunities, visit www.cspgolf.com. The tournament will be broadcast live on the Golf Channel all four days.

With many thanks to SHADY AVE magazine for granting me permission to reprint on my website.

Spring 2012

We heard the collective groan when PennDOT announced the Squirrel Hill Tunnel would be under construction for the next three years. Could the traffic bottleneck on the Parkway East really get any worse? Sure, it will be a hassle, but we saw the $50 million rehabilitation project as an opportunity to reflect on the history of one of our area’s most significant landmarks…

Ordinarily, kids aren’t allowed to play on the highway, but on the afternoon of June 5, 1953, the Taylor Allderdice High School band performed at the western portal of the Squirrel Hill Tunnel for the dedication of the Penn Lincoln Parkway East. The brand-new, eight-mile stretch of highway from hurchill to Bates Street in Oakland was the initial phase in the creation of a total of 27 iles that would carry Routes 22 and 30 to and through Pittsburgh and then westward until he approach to the Greater Pittsburgh Airport that
had opened the year before.

But getting there first required the monumental undertaking of digging through the high ground in Squirrel Hill. The result was the Squirrel Hill Tunnel, which has been a vital link in Pittsburgh’s development ever since. It was the second of the city’s three major tunnels to be completed and ranks as the 17th longest vehicular tunnel through a hill or mountain in the United States.

The Squirrel Hill Tunnel is so much a part of our lives, yet at times unseen, lying quietly 200 feet below us as we drive along Morrowfield Avenue or stand on the playing fields of Community Day School at the intersection of Beechwood Boulevard and Monitor Street. Its story dates back to the Model-T days of the 1920s, when a group of engineers first conceived of the idea for the road that would become the Parkway East.

Getting the Parkway East approved and built was a true test of perseverance, political will, and persuasion. From 1935 until the parkway’s completion, planning and implementation ultimately spanned the administrations of six governors, two boards of county commissioners, and three mayors. The project had the backing of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development and such key figures as Richard K. Mellon and state attorney general James H. Duff of Carnegie.

Through their influence, Governor Edward Martin announced a $57 million improvement program in 1945, which included the construction of Point State Park and the Penn Lincoln Parkway East. “This is the greatest combination of improvements ever before undertaken by the state for the benefit of the western part of the Commonwealth,” Martin declared at the time.

Before the Parkway, traffic from the eastern suburbs was congested going into Downtown via Routes 22 and 30, which overlapped starting in Wilkinsburg. From there, the convoluted route of the combined Route 22/30 traveled through the East End neighborhoods of Point Breeze, Squirrel Hill, and Oakland. Traffic flowed from Penn Avenue to Dallas; left on Dallas; right on Wilkins; left on Beeler; right on Forbes; and onto the Boulevard of the Allies to Downtown.

“It was slow-going,” remembers Shadyside resident Henry Hoffstot, who was 35 when the Penn Lincoln Parkway East opened. He used to drive Route 22/30 in his 1931 Pierce- Arrow sedan going to and from his wife’s farm in Ligonier. “I would take side roads just to avoid the traffic on Penn Avenue,” he recalls. While determining the final corridor for the Parkway, alternate routings—such as going through a central portion of Frick Park and tunneling under Schenley Park—were considered and dismissed. An open cut into Squirrel Hill that would have destroyed an entire residential neighborhood, including the Morrowfield Apartments, Taylor Allderdice High School, and the former St. Philomena’s Church was even contemplated.

In 1939, the Pittsburgh Regional Planning Commission retained Robert Moses, one of America’s foremost urban planners, to develop a long-term plan for reconfiguring the highways into and out of the city. In modified form, the design Moses referred to as the “Pitt Parkway” was adopted, according to Todd Wilson, a Squirrel Hill resident and traffic engineering consultant who has studied roads, bridges, and tunnels since boyhood.

“Robert Moses was the one who developed all of the parkways in New York City and all of the infrastructure improvements,” Wilson says. “Originally, the parkways in New York were built to link parks together. The automobile was a luxury in the 1920s and 1930s, and people would get in their cars and drive to the park and have picnics. It was a weekend outing. That’s how the term ‘parkway’ came to be.”

The Parkway East was aligned to weave through previously undeveloped or underdeveloped hillsides and creek valleys, so as to minimize the destruction of properties and developed areas, according to Wilson. “Following the tributaries of Nine Mile Run and Four Mile Run, the only major obstacle in this alignment was the high ground in Squirrel Hill,” he says.

Michael Baker, Jr., Inc.—on the way to becoming one of the country’s largest engineering design firms—was selected as the principal designer of the Parkway East, including the Squirrel Hill Tunnel. It was the first major highway design contract awarded to a private consultant by the Pennsylvania Department of Highways. With the retention of Norwegian-born Ole Singstad, a civil engineer and internationally recognized tunnel authority, the design task commenced.

Daily traffic was predicted to reach 40,000 vehicles a day by 1960. To handle this volume, twin bores roughly 29 feet wide and 4,225 feet in length (eight-tenths of a mile) were approved. Each bore would have two, 12-footwide lanes.

Louis Perini, president of B. Perini & Sons, Inc. of Massachusetts, won the bid to construct the Squirrel Hill Tunnel, which eventually came to $18.1 million—then the largest single contract ever granted by the Pennsylvania Department of Highways. Perini had not gone past eighth grade, but his firm was noted for doing high-quality work on challenging projects, such as the Tuscarora Tunnel on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Pittsburgh Press reporters following the tunnel’s progress noted that “workmen began hacking into the hillside above Commercial Avenue near Frick Park on September 7, 1948.” Excavation started ten weeks later. The men drilled both tube faces simultaneously, using “30 pneumatic rock drills that pierced a total of 114 holes for each blast.” Twenty men to a crew, working three shifts a day, made their way through Squirrel Hill’s sandstone, limestone, and shale at a rate of 12 to 24 feet a day.

It was said to be like working in a coal mine, where the risks are high; the lives of three workmen were claimed, including Evert J. Hungerford and John E. Morse, who both died in a rock fall on February 14, 1948.

In all, 400,000 cubic yards of rock and earth (enough to fill the Rose Bowl in Pasadena) were excavated and loaded onto dump trucks. One ingenious contrivance was a large turntable that turned the trucks around inside the tunnel so they could conveniently exit with their loads.

When a section of the tunnel was cleared, a preassembled, reusable steel form, patented by the Blaw-Knox Company of Blawnox, would be rolled into the tunnel on rails. Concrete was then pressure-forced behind the form to seal all crevices and encase the rock and earth in solid barriers. Modified somewhat, the same forms were used for lining the walls of the Fort Pitt Tunnels with concrete.

The Parkway East opened with great fanfare in 1953, Allderdice marching band and all. The outlook of Pennsylvania’s Department of Highways, as written in a pamphlet distributed for the dedication, was optimistic and romantic:

“As motorists travel the Penn Lincoln Parkway East, they are impressed by a sensation of free and open space, both on the roadway and off to either side in sharp contrast to the jam-packed traffic encountered on entering streets. The sensation is akin to flying at low altitudes as they skim along above buildings and the Monongahela River.”

Angry motorists today inching toward the Squirrel Hill Tunnel entrance at rush hour might beg to differ. Is there some sort of spell that takes hold of drivers and makes them slow down when approaching the tunnel? Fanciful theories abound. It’s claustrophobic. There’s a monster in there. It’s a Pittsburgh custom to brake for tunnels.

Engineers point to two main causes of congestion. First, the tunnel was designed to handle 40,000 vehicles a day, but traffic volume has increased by 10,000 every decade, so 105,000 vehicles now try to funnel through each day on average. And as anyone who has risked life and limb entering the Parkway at Greenfield toward Monroeville could tell you, the on-ramps create slowdowns as vehicles merge.

“We have about 30 incidents per week at the Squirrel Hill Tunnel,” says Tom Diddle, PennDOT highway maintenance manager and supervisor of the crew of 15 who work in shifts 24/7 to respond to emergencies and monitor and maintain the tunnel. Incidents include not only overheight trucks getting stuck (which happens just once or twice a year), but also trucks that must turn around because they missed the last exit after triggering the overheight sensors. Add to all this flat tires, breakdowns, people running out of gas, and accidents, and you have a serious bottleneck.

“Sometimes you wonder how people can be in an accident when they are only going five miles an hour,” laughs KDKA/AAA traffic reporter Kathy Berggren, who observes traffic slowing to a crawl by 6 a.m. at the tunnel on weekdays.

“The Parkway East ranks 26th in the nation, when measuring per-person-hours delay per mile during the morning rush hours,” says Bill Eisele, a research engineer at the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) and co-author of the 2011 Congested Corridors Report, the first nationwide effort to identify highway stretches that cause significant congestion. Over an entire year for the Parkway East, TTI estimates 1.3 million person-hours of delay, 724,000 gallons of wasted fuel, and a total cost in time and fuel of $31 million.

Don’t expect the situation to improve when PennDOT finishes the $50 to $60 million makeover of the Squirrel Hill Tunnel that is scheduled to get under way this spring. It is approaching 30 years since the last rehabilitation of the tunnel in 1983, according to PennDOT District 11 executive Dan Cessna.

“The major change in appearance that motorists will notice is that the arched tunnel roof is going to be visible when the existing six-inch, cast-in-place suspended ceiling is removed,” Cessna says.

The ceiling height is currently 13’ 6”. It will be posted for 14’ 9” eastbound and 15’ 6” westbound after the work is completed in July 2014. “Trucks have gotten taller,” he explains. “And this will reduce the number of overheight trucks being stopped.”

Still, the renovation is not going to relieve congestion on the Parkway East. “That is not the intent of the project,” Cessna says. “The intent is to ensure the structural and physical capacity of the tunnel for the next 30 years.”

Meantime, the traffic will certainly get worse, as you can look forward to the usual single lane restrictions—from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.—and tunnel closings (eight full weekends for each of the two tunnels) over the next two years.

So take a deep breath, recline your driver’s seat, and tune in your car radio to Kathy Berggren reporting, “The Parkway East is backing up to Wilkinsburg from the Squirrel Hill Tunnel.”

With many thanks to SHADY AVE magazine for granting me permission to reprint on my website.

Logs crackling in the fireplace, candles burning on the mantel, holiday lights on the tree, and lots of cooking going on—just a few of the reasons why home fires are more prevalent in winter than any other season. But the good news is that there are incredibly dedicated local firefighters who put their lives on the line to protect us all.

Holiday 2012

The call comes in to the Aspinwall Volunteer Fire Department at 7:45 p.m. on a week night.

“Residential fire alarm— O’Hara Township,” the 31-year-old Assistant Chief Joe Giuffre Jr. says calmly as he and Nick Scheid, 73, stand up from the table.

The siren above the firehouse is already sounding. In just two minutes, the men suit up into their turnout gear—boots, pants, jacket, and helmet—and roll out in Engine 102-1.

Scheid, former chief and a retired mechanical engineer for Mobil Oil Company, is driving, and Giuffre, an admissions officer at Duquesne University, is in the officer’s seat manning the radio and checking the fastest route by GPS.

In the middle cab section, three other volunteer firefighters have appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Lou Curcio, 49, an emergency dispatcher for Allegheny County, is adjusting his headset. Iraq War veteran Walt Rosado, 28, who works in human resources for the United States Army, tightens his seat belt. And facing backwards by the window is Jake Poznik, a Fox Chapel Area High School senior studying HVAC at the A. W. Beattie Career Center. At 18, Poznik is the department’s newest active firefighter. He had been riding his bike when he was notified about the alarm by text message.

The engine’s siren accentuates the heightened sense of awareness and anticipation of the unknown that are palpable in the truck. Only that noise and the scratchy sounds from the radio, hardly understandable to the untrained ear, break the firefighters’ silence.

Variations of this scene play out time and again within the well-coordinated network of courageous firefighters—both volunteer and paid—who gladly, willingly, and vigilantly look after our neighborhoods every hour of every day. They are the minutemen of our time. They are ready to handle anything and everything from a strange odor, to lifting an elderly person who has fallen, to a fully involved structure fire.

And they are needed.

The 250 public service tele communicators at Allegheny County’s 911 Communications Center in Point Breeze took a total of 1,242,513 emergency and non-emergency calls in 2011. That’s the equivalent of approximately one call from every man, woman, and child in the county.

Today’s real challenge is answering an increasing number of calls dispatched to the fire departments with a decreasing number of volunteers, who represent 70 percent of the estimated 1.1 million firefighters across the country, according to the National Volunteer Fire Council.

In 1975, there were 300,000 volunteers involved with the fire service in Pennsylvania. “The numbers continue to dwindle, and today, I actually think the number is close to 60,000,” says Ed Mann, fire commissioner of Pennsylvania.

“Years ago there were waiting lists to become a volunteer fireman,” recalls Scheid, who volunteered for the Aspinwall fire department in 1964 at age 23 to give back to his community and make it a better place for his fellow residents. “Nobody has a waiting list anymore. But we are luckier than most fire companies because we have a lot of people— 25 firefighters and nine juniors 15 to 17 years old.”

Left: At the Fire Training Academy on Washington Boulevard, city firefighters conduct annual hose tests to insure that each hose can withstand the necessary water pressure without leakage.

Of the 500 calls Aspinwall receives each year, 25 percent are false alarms. For instance, people call if their smoke detector is beeping when all they need to do is change the battery.

“But you’ll never hear us complain,” says Scheid, who has seen the total number of annual calls grow from 30 to 500 a year. “We would rather have you call us, even if it means getting 10 firefighters out of bed. We would prefer to come to check and determine whether or not we need to be there. If not, we will tell you ‘good night’ and to get a good night’s sleep.”

Neighboring O’Hara Township has two companies, Pleasant Valley Volunteer Fire Company and Parkview Volunteer Fire Department, which cooperate with Aspinwall, as well as other nearby or adjacent municipalities including Blawnox, Sharpsburg, and Fox Chapel. They work under a mutual aid agreement, whereby surrounding companies are requested to assist based on the nature of the emergency.

Right: The Pleasant Valley Volunteer Fire Company is one of two serving O’Hara Township and other surrounding communities.

“We all work well together,” says Pleasant Valley Captain Brian Kozera, 39, who joined in 1988 at age 15, having grown up listening to the siren going off at the fire hall right up the street. He is director of fire protective services for DunnRight, LLC, a commercial kitchen services company in Lower Burrell.

“We are all on the same terminology,” Kozera continues. “I went to Fox Chapel Area High School with a lot of those guys in the other fire halls. And now my kids are going to school with their kids. So we all know one another and know how to cooperate.”

Five new members joined the company in the last two years, according to Kozera, whose son, Logan, joined four years ago, also at age 15. And another son is about to turn 15 and follow in the same footsteps.

“We tell people they don’t have to be firefighters to help the department,” he says.

“They can help us on the administration side—keeping books or minutes. Maybe they jump on a fire engine and come on a call. Once you are a member, you can get on the engine. Hopefully that gets them interested.”

For those who commit to firefighting, whether as a volunteer or paid professional, the qualifications required are extensive. Paid firefighters do their training at the Fire Training Academy on Washington Boulevard in Highland Park. Volunteers must take a state-mandated minimum of 188 hours of coursework at the Allegheny County Fire Training Academy in North Park. Besides “Interior and Exterior Fire Fighter,” classes run the gamut from “Natural Gas Emergencies” to “Vehicle Rescue” to “Pet CPR.”

“The training that you go through requires climbing ladders and not being afraid of heights,” says Chief Bill Peoples of the Oakmont Volunteer Fire Department, where the minimum age requirement is 21. “An interior firefighter is going to put on a self-contained breathing apparatus, so you can’t be claustrophobic. You also need to be strong enough to move a 160-pound dummy out of a room and have common sense.”

Left: Oakmont volunteer firefighters (left to right) Captain David Carroll, Assistant Chief Ray Rogers, and Chief Bill Peoples.

And they have to make it a priority. “Once you join our fire department, your job, your home life, and your health are important, but we want to be number four or five on your priority list,” Peoples says. “When we are out at a restaurant and get a call, we have to take off, leaving our spouses. We can’t just say, ‘Well, I’m not going on this one.’”

Will Tippins was 16 when he talked his parents into letting him join the Fox Chapel Volunteer Fire Department, which has stations on both Fox Chapel and Dorseyville roads.

Right: protective gear for Fox Chapel’s volunteer firefighters hangs unbuttoned, for quick access. When worn with masks and oxygen tanks, standard gear weighs 60 to 70 pounds.

“My mother thought I was going to get hurt, but it’s actually really safe here because they focus on safety during training and on calls,” says Tippins, who just turned 18 and is a senior at Fox Chapel Area. “I always wanted to learn what I would do in the event of an emergency, and this was the answer. Training to be a firefighter gives me the ability to be prepared. Also, I used to stay at home, play video games, do my homework, and that’s it. This has really brought me into the community. And there’s a really great bunch of guys down here.”

Tippins says that studying for his EMT (emergency medical technician) certification introduced him to the medical field, and now he is thinking of becoming a trauma surgeon. Plan B, of course, is to be a professional firefighter.

It took three weeks after joining up before his first call. “It was a fire alarm that turned out to be nothing,” he says. “But I still got the rush of getting on the engine and the lights and sirens. It opened the floodgates.”

Left: Clothes always sit at the ready so firefighters can quickly jump into their boots and pull up their pants. This set sits right in front of the fire truck door at 18 Engine on Northumberland Street in Squirrel Hill.

It’s the same rush whether one is a volunteer or paid professional with the Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire, like Lieutenant Lloyd Browning of the D-Line with 18 Engine on Northumberland Street in Squirrel Hill.

“When you are coming up to a house you know is on fire, it’s pure adrenaline,” he says. Browning agrees firefighters are wired differently. “It’s not normal human nature to want to run into a burning building,” he says. “We’re all willing to risk our lives and get into danger to save a life if need be. That’s just a characteristic most people don’t have.”

Browning, 42, a Taylor Allderdice graduate and an ex-Navy avionics technician, estimates he fought about 12 “decent” fires in the past year. He says sometimes the best they can do is to preserve the structures next to a burning building by preventing a fire from carrying on down the block.

“I was at work when I was alerted that my next door neighbor’s house was on fire,” Shadyside resident David Hillman says.

“When I arrived, the house was engulfed in flames. Multiple companies of Pittsburgh firemen were spraying my home from all sides to keep it cool and protected, and I was extremely grateful they were able to save it.”

For the firefighters, the sense of reward can be just as great.

“This is the best job in the world,’ Browning says. “It’s rewarding internally whenever you get to save a life or help someone save their house or property. And with the way the hours work, I can spend a lot of time with my family. My wife just tells me to not talk about my job with our kids.”

Away from home, Lt. Browning has his own quarters at 18 Engine, where the firefighters sleep and nap in the bunkroom, originally the stable for when pumpers were horse-drawn. 18 Engine is a single house operating a quint, a sort of hybrid between an engine and a ladder truck. Four platoons or lines (A, B, C, and D), each with three firemen and an officer, are assigned to the house. Each line is on for 24 hours from 8 a.m. to 8 a.m. the following morning, and then off for 72 hours. They bring their own bedding and food and personally split all expenses for any amenities, like lounge chairs, couches, tables, TV, refrigerator, and equipment for the weight room.

Since the firefighters have to share the cooking at the house, they are fortunate when the chef is Mike Skruch, the two-time grand prize winner of the annual chili cook-off, an event that raises funds for The Salvation Army while raising awareness for fire safety and prevention and the mayor’s free smoke detector program (batteries included).

Skruch, on the D-Line with 8 Engine and Truck in East Liberty, won with his “Backdraft” chili recipe. “It was a landslide,” laughs the 40-year-old former driver for Pitt Ohio Express. “My chili is sweet and spicy.” If it’s his turn to cook, he might also make chicken cordon bleu with garlic potatoes and fresh steamed broccoli. “I just try to keep everybody happy,” he says. “If they like it, I make a note. If they complain, I just dirty up more pots and pans for them to wash after dinner.”

With the public’s awareness of the importance of smoke detectors, plus more advanced fire alarm and suppression systems, cell phones, public education campaigns, and fire retardant products, there are fewer calls for fires and more for emergency medical services. More than half of the 43,159 calls that Pittsburgh’s Bureau of Fire responded to in 2011 were of a medical nature, which is why about 80 percent of Pittsburgh’s firefighters are EMTs.

Left: Among the team at the City of Pittsburgh’s 8 Engine and Truck are (Left to right) driver Rich Shay, firefighter Dan Doyle, and Captains Tom Reiser and James Petruzzi. Their Art Deco-style East Liberty firehouse was built in 1929.

“The firefighters have always shown their compassion, sensitivity, and extreme respect for my husband—I mean this from the bottom of my heart,” says Squirrel Hill resident Betsy Marcu, expressing her appreciation after firefighters responded immediately to her 911 call when her husband fell down the steps three years ago.

Still, the job can take its emotional toll.

“I don’t think there is another job in the world that is as exciting, challenging, terrifying— physically, emotionally, and mentally— as this job,” says Lieutenant Kurt Reinheimer, 32, a fourth-generation firefighter at 17 Engine and Truck in Homewood, which is the first to get to Point Breeze. “Saving somebody from a fire, car accident, heart attack, drug overdose, anything, is an amazing feeling. But if we start our shift at eight in the morning and someone dies on us, there’s really no time to mourn. We still have the whole shift left, with the community counting on us.”

Like when the residential fire alarm went off in Aspinwall recently, with firefighters Scheid and Giuffre in the front seat of the truck racing off to the unknown. Once at the scene, they learned that smoke from an outdoor grill had wafted into the kitchen and set off the fire alarm. Giuffre radioed to return the other companies already in route. “False alarm,” he announced.

Left: Patriotism is in proud display on the grill of this fire truck at 17 Engine and Truck in Homewood.

False alarm, perhaps, but better safe than sorry, says Patrick Shaw, a lieutenant with 17 Engine and Truck and a former Marine who served on active duty for six years including during Operation Desert Storm.

“It’s a nice feeling when a random person stops at the fire house and says, ‘I just want to say thanks for what you guys do,’” Shaw says. “I would like people to remember that regardless of what your emergency is, we are here for you 24/7, 365 days a year. No matter what you need, no matter what time of day or night, call 911, and we will be there, without a doubt.”

With many thanks to SHADY AVE magazine for granting me permission to reprint on my website.