Pittsburgh Dish

North Siders dig new library

Groundbreaking event for Allegheny City

Photo and story by Frank Kownacki

Several politicos and neighbors showed up this morning for the groundbreaking of the new Carnegie Library on the North Side.

Barbara Mistick, President & Director of the Carnegie Library, related a story of the short time it took Allegheny City to build its first library to the ground breaking of this new library after the original one was damaged by lightening two years ago.

Mistick mentioned that the new library will hold historical documents and ephemera related to Andrew Carnegie's former home in Allegheny City, making the new library a research area on the history of the one time city. County executive Dan Onorato spoke about how this is yet another step in the right direction for the revitalization of the Federal & North corridor.

Fred Thieman, President of the Buhl Foundation, spoke about his commitment to the restoration work being done in the Allegheny Commons and to reestablishing the original traffic pattern through Allegheny Center.

The estimated time for completion of the new library is one year.

French company to buy Pittsburgh Yellow Cab

Pittsburgh's inefficient taxi system to become even less efficient

Notorious layabout socialist Gauloises-puffers are about to become owners of Pittsburgh Transportation Co., owners of Yellow Cab and other transport concerns in the area.

This ought to work out well in a city populated by ornery folks of German extraction.

Manteca dog surrendered by owner

"Boss" turned over to Humane Society

The owner of the Manteca Bar on Monterey Street surrendered the dog he'd been keeping in the bar's tiny, filthy backyard yesterday to a Western PA Humane Society officer, claiming he can't take the dog home because he's not permitted to have a dog where he lives.

Neighbors called the Humane Society fearing the dog had not been properly cared for since the bar closed last month.

According to Shelley Rosenberg of the Humane Society, the five year-old shepherd mix was brought to the shelter yesterday and will undergo a behavioral evaluation sometime tomorrow. Depending on the outcome of the test, the male dog named "Boss," will likely be available for adoption soon after.

Call the HS tomorrow at 412-321-4625 ext. 281 to inquire about Boss.

Pitt student chronicles North Side

A photographic record, pre-casino

Gabriel Henschel graduated from Pitt this week after having spent last summer in Allegheny West and Manchester with a camera slung over his shoulder. His was not an aesthetic mission; he wasn't there to snap photos of pretty Victorians for a Doors of the North Side calendar. As part of his studies, Henschel spent weeks creating a photographic "baseline" of these neighborhoods that will be in the shadow of the Majestic Star slots parlor. His 75-page study, which includes interviews and statistical analysis, will assist in studying the impact of the casino on the North Side after it opens in 2009.

Read about Henschel and his project in the Pitt Chronicle.

Photo by Gabriel Henschel

Guerillas in the midst

Brighton Road guerilla gardens spring up

A food coop is in the works for the North Side. The large-scale project, aimed to provide a sustainable food system for the North Side, is the the brainchild of several groups including the Allegheny Market House Cooperative Urban Agriculture Initiative. This garden, located on Brighton Road, will become part of a vast locally-grown community food network on the North Side.

Read more about the project here.

First Pittsburgh street newspaper gets first boost

A dream realized thanks to North Side residents

After reading an article posted on Dish last month about a social worker's attempt to launch a street newspaper, a North Side couple contributed $1,500 to the cause.

The residents, who wish to remain anonymous, pledged the first donation to Erica Smith, an outreach advocate and case worker with Operation Save-a-Life, part of Community Human Services. Smith will launch Word on the Street, a newspaper written, in part, by homeless people who would then sell the publication and earn part of of the profits.

Smith needed to secure funding for 300 papers to present to potential advertisers and vendors. After the couple's donation, CHS matched the contribution dollar-for-dollar.

"The couple told me they were tired of conventional ideas as solutions to homelessness," said Smith.

Word on the Street will be the only street paper between New York and Ohio.

Smith is gathering content and working with a tutor on desktop publishing software. She hopes to publish the first issue to present to advertisers by the end of the summer.

"It's all because of the Dish article," said Smith. "I can't thank you enough."

To help launch Word on the Street, contact Smith at 412-621-6513 or email her at ESmithchsc@yahoo.com.

Pittsburgh's only Fair Trade florist

Allegheny West's Kerry Kennedy blazes a fragrant path

by Tiffani Emig

There’s a new pioneer on the North Side, in Pittsburgh and in the U.S. Kerry Kennedy of K.S. Kennedy Distinctive Floral, Gift, & Gourmet has recently become the first florist in the United States to become a member of the Fair Trade Floral organization FLP (Flower Label Program).

Based in Germany, where consumer desire for fair trade flowers is higher, the FLP consists of human rights organizations, trade unions, flower producers, and flower retailers working together to create and uphold environmental and human rights standards for the floral industry.

"Americans have really been concerned in recent years about where their coffee comes from, but we don’t ask about our flowers,” said Kennedy. He explains that he was inspired to join the FLP after watching the documentary Ecuador: Flower Power, which depicts the differences between fair trade and traditional rose farms. One of the best things that FLP farms did to improve worker conditions was to give workers gloves so that they no longer had to use their bare hands to strip the thorns from roses.

"Honestly, I was embarrassed that I didn’t think about the people who grew my roses before,” Kennedy admits. “And I was shocked to learn that there were no U.S florists who had cared enough or been pressured by their clientele to join the FLP. And what does it cost? $93 a year. I didn’t think twice.”

"I mean, that’s why you become a florist – because you care.”

At least two corporate supermarkets in the Pittsburgh area have carried intermittent supplies of Fair Trade flowers, but K.S. Kennedy stands alone in his exclusive commitment to the Fair Trade label. Kennedy hopes to change this by encouraging other florists in Pittsburgh and across the United States to follow his lead in joining the FLP.

To complement your Fair Trade flowers, K.S. Kennedy carries a fun array of locally-based gifts, the most unique selection of greeting cards on the North Side, and an unmatched aura of positive vibes that stems (pun intended) from Kennedy’s always-positive attitude.

KS Kennedy, Distinctive Floral, Gift & Gourmet, 860 Western Ave, Pittsburgh, 412-322-ROSE (kkennedy256@earthlink.net)

Breaking News: House Explosion in Spring Hill

City emergency departments are at the scene of a house explosion in the Spring Hill neighborhood on the North Side.

More info here from Trib reporter Jill King Greenwood.

Breaking News: Curtains for Steely McBeam

Steelers mascot arrested for DUI on the South Side. Read details here.

Mr. Dish will weigh in on the boozy bust later today.

Nuisance bar closed

D.A. pressures owner to shut down

The owners of the Manteca Bar on Monterey Street in the Mexican War Streets has voluntarily closed the establishment. Sources say the bar's owners, Robert and Frances Lunsford, were pressured by District Attorney Steven Zappala to shut down the bar following public outrage and media attention. The Manteca made headlines last month following the fatal shooting of 27-year-old Dion McIntosh. A stray bullet pierced the front door of a neighboring house, where children were inside. McIntosh's killer has not been found.

A nuisance bar task force had been in place and Zone 1 detectives were collecting testimony from neighbors affected by years-long violence emanating from the bar. Police have responded to numerous 911 calls surrounding violence related to the bar.

Sources say Zappala was ready to issue a temporary injunction to force the bar to close but urged the bar's owner to voluntarily shut down so as not to delay a pending liquor license transfer.

Read about the bar's recent history of violence here.

For more information on the closing read crime reporter Jill King Greenwood's story here.

Mayor, cop brass meet with North Siders

A cordial two-hour meeting addresses mounting violence

Friday afternoon, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, along with Police Chief Nathan Harper and Zone 1 police commander Catherine McNeilly and several other chiefs, commanders and detectives met with about 40 Central North Side residents concerned about the deadly violence that has recently engulfed the neighborhood.

Ravenstahl pledged that the North Side will be the first of Pittsburgh's 90 neighborhoods to receive surveillance cameras purchased with federal grant money. He also announced, in concert with police brass, that Pittsburgh is near to filling all 917 police jobs in the city. At present, there are about 860 police covering Pittsburgh, but the numbers will be bolstered by graduates of two upcoming police academy classes.

An increased number of police, Chief Harper said, will allow each of the city's six police zones to increase the number of foot and bicycle patrols. Police also pledged stepped-up patrols of the North Side in random intervals.

Neighbors, police and Ravenstahl also discussed residents' need to be persistent in notifying police of suspicious activity in their neighborhoods. Any 911 call, said Chief Harper, could provide information needed to solve a case. He also said that District Attorney Stephen Zappala is working on a plan to crack down on street gangs believed to be responsible for most of the recent violence.

Police said that despite frequent and vigorous gunplay on the North Side, Pittsburgh, on the whole, has seen a significant drop in crime. In fact, Chief Harper said, Pittsburgh is the fifth safest city in America.

Ravenstahl had planned to walk through the Manchester and Central North Side neighborhoods along with residents, but the meeting lasted longer than expected.

In related news, reports indicate that Zappala may be ready to enact an emergency injunction in order close down the Manteca Bar, on Monterey Street, where a man was shot dead about two weeks ago. It is unclear if an injunction would interfere with Henry Reese's plans to transform the bar into a cafe.

Breaking News: Man shot, killed in Manchester

A man was fatally shot in the head within steps of Manchester Elementary School on Manhattan Street at about 3:15 p.m. Police received multiple calls from screaming witnesses. Students who remained nearby after dismissal were quickly ushered inside to avoid the body and blood on the sidewalk. After-school classes remain in lockdown. The programs end at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.

Read details of the shooting here.

Photo by Frank Kownacki

Postal police sweep North Side

What happens when they leave?

Multiple postal inspector cruisers are saturating the Mexican War Streets this morning searching for leads on the whereabouts of two shooters involved in yesterday's attempted robbery and shooting of a mail carrier on North Taylor Street.

The United States Postal Inspection Service is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the arrests. Anyone with information is asked to call the U.S. Postal Inspection Service at 1-877-876-2455 and select option 5, or contact the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police at 412-323-7151.

Yesterday's hold-up/shooting is the third gun-related crime in the Mexican War Streets in two weeks. Last Saturday, a thug held a gun to a woman's head in front of Beleza Community Coffeehouse on the corner of Jacksonia and Buena Vista streets at about 8 p.m. On March 13, 27-year-old Dion McIntosh was fatally shot in the chest after he and another man left the Manteca Bar on Monterey Street. No arrests have been made in any of the crimes.

Central North Siders want to know what will happen to the neighborhood after the postal cops leave and residents' safety is left to a financially strapped police department. Long-term solutions are being sought.

"It's not the fault of the rank-and-file cops," said a resident this morning. "The city needs to step in and support them. There's only so much they can do on a limited budget."

Many Pittsburghers are urging for the city to introduce a community policing program such as the one implemented by Nick Pastore, former police chief in New Haven, Conn. During his tenure in the 90's, he fostered outreach to the community, assigned officers to walk the beat in troubled neighborhoods rather than cruising by, established connections with civic, church and gang leaders. He also set up police substations headed by local district managers who met with the citizens of their district. His program became the model for police departments nationwide.

It worked. Until a few years ago when New Haven removed the program. Crime's back and citizen's there want community policing returned.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Police Chief Nate Harper have dangled the community policing carrot, but Pittsburghers have yet to get a taste.

Postal worker shot on North Side

A U. S. Postal worker was shot on North Taylor Street in the Mexican War Streets this morning at around 10:30 across the street from Caruso Beer. Witnesses heard four shots and saw two males in puffy coats running down Palo Alto Street toward North Avenue. They were also said to have been wearing brown hooded sweatshirts and are described as being around 5' 2" or 5' 3".

The Postal worker was shot in the hand according to early reports and is expected to be OK.

For more information read Jill King Greenwood's story in the Trib.

Photo by Frank Kownacki

A brief history of nuisance

The following are links to incidents surrounding the Manteca bar and attempts to shut it down:

Oct, 12, 2007 Shots fired in front of the bar in broad daylight

Oct. 24, 2007 Judge dismisses code violations against bar

Dec. 19, 2007 Task force forms to take on bar

Jan. 29, 2008 Neighbor announces plans to buy the bar

Feb. 5, 2008 Bar goers caught on tape stealing surveillance cameras

Mar. 13, 2008 Deadly shooting outside bar

Mar. 13, 2008 Judge submits transcript to PLCB in 1995 after murder trial involving bar

Mar. 13, 2008 Bar reopens hours after deadly shooting

Criminal reporting

Post-Gazette not quite right

From yesterday's Post-Gazette about neighbors attempts to shut down the Manteca bar:

"The bar has drawn the attention of the city's Nuisance Bar Task Force in the past, but crime in the area seemed to slow after a nonfatal stabbing about a year ago, police and residents said."

In a story with as many holes in it as the front door of the Manteca bar once had, yesterday's story by Wade Malcolm and Moriah Balingit boldly stated--with minimal attribution--that crime in the area has ebbed within the last year.

Au contraire, cub reporters.

If in the area you mean within blocks of the Manteca, there was this, this, this and these.

Sounds like paradise.

Shields demands apology, resignation

Pittsburgh City Council president strikes back at Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern's gay bashing

Ms. Kern:

Today I listened to your remarks related to your views on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people (GLBT). I was thoroughly disgusted by what you had to say and astonished that someone who presumably took an oath of office to uphold the U.S. Constitution and the laws of this nation would espouse hateful, bigoted and un-American views.


I sit here in my office and only wonder who else might be on your "less equal" list. I also wonder, if we should follow your illogic, what it is we should do about this "threat" to the nation? Round them up and put them in extermination camps? How would you have us "cut out this cancer" assuming we do away with our Constitution and Bill of Rights and host of other civil rights we enjoy in this free and democratic nation? Of course you always have the option to relocating to a country that embraces polices of persecuting those who are "less equal." But then AGAIN, you to may run the risk of being persecuted yourself.

Your remarks, whether you know it are not, provided an incredible display of ignorance and intolerance. You incite others to cause harm and even death to those who are of the GLBT community. New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned his office for far less an offense than the ones you committed in your remarks. I would hope that you too would recognize your offense and do likewise - resign. 


I find no place at the table for a public policy maker who would espouse hate, discrimination and bigotry. Your remarks amply illustrate why you are unfit for office and the honor of representing the best interests of all law abiding people in your legislative district. 


As the President of the Council of the City of Pittsburgh, I require an apology from you for your senseless, mean spirited attack on one my colleagues and the Council as a whole. I would think, should you take the time to reflect upon your hateful, bigoted words. An apology is also in order to the GLBT community and their friends. Short of a a miracle, I do not expect that you will. I find persons of your ilk completely blind to your ignorance.

In any event, I would hope that the fair-minded people of Oklahoma will disavow your position in this matter and take the matter up with your state human relations and ethics commission. I would also ask that your legislature censure you and all other hate mongers who truly are a threat to peace loving and law-abiding Americans everywhere. 


Sincerely,
Douglas A. Shields
City of Pittsburgh
President of Council ~ 5th Council District
Room
510 City County Building

414 Grant Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15219

412-255-8965
doug.shields@city.pittsburgh.pa.us
www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us

Shots fired (again) on the North Side

A resident on Buena Vista Street heard about 19 to 20 shots at around 11:10 p.m. and saw multiple police cars peel out of Zone 1 on Brighton Road.

Several 911 calls came in from Monterey and Jacksonia streets and Brighton Road. Police are trying to locate the shooters.

According to a police source, shots apparently started in the alley behind Buena Vista Street, traveled through the Family Dollar lot, across Brighton Road, through the Zone 1 lot onto Brighton Place.

Business as usual

Manteca mourns Wednesday night death by opening Thursday afternoon. Discuss.

A history of violence at the Manteca

"I don't understand why that bar's still operating."- Judge  David R. Cashman, 1995

Brian O'Neill, North Side resident and esteemed columnist for the Post-Gazette, penned this story about another murder at the Manteca. It was published in the P-G on Jan. 16, 1995.

Punishment Should be Shared

Noble Hamlett, 72, and receiving chemotherapy for colon cancer, isn't getting much sleep these days.

"You have that on your mind constantly, all the time," he says. "You couldn't get no regular sleep."
It isn't his sickness that keeps Hamlett awake, though. It's the thought of going to jail.

Common Pleas Judge David R. Cashman sentenced Hamlett last week to a one year less one day to two years less two days. That's for involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of Kim Thrower 13 months ago. Hamlett could serve the time in the Allegheny County Jail.

Hamlett stood on his Central North Side stoop and fired eight shots from a small pistol in the early morning hours of Dec. 18, 1993. He hit three people. The outburst came only after one of Thrower's companions smashed both Hamlett's windows and another threw a bottle at the old man's head, drawing blood.

Meantime, a third man -- an 18-year-old who had accidentally shot Thrower in the leg in the Montego [Manteca] Bar next door, setting this chain of events in motion -- was firing a 9-millimeter pistol into the air.

Nobody was charged with anything but Hamlett.

The jury found him not guilty of two charges of assault against the men he wounded. But, following Cashman's direction, the jury would not let him walk for shooting Thrower.

"There was never any evidence (Thrower) did anything other than sit on his stoop," Cashman said.

"She is the totally innocent bystander ... You've got a 25-year-old mother of five who shouldn't be dead and you've got a 72-year-old man who shouldn't be attacked by a belligerent drunk.

"It's a tragic case any way you look at it," the judge said.

Hamlett, out on bail for the past year and living in another part of the city, can only hope his attorney, Ann Simms, can find the right words to keep him from going back to jail.

House arrest ought to be enough for this frail man who had never been in trouble with the law before. Judge Cashman sounds like a man who would like to cut Hamlett a break, but he needs a reason.

"Give me the proof the medical condition exists," he told me. "That may be a good enough reason."

Simms included a letter from his treating physician in her petition to modify the sentence, submitted Friday. The doctor says Hamlett's health would be endangered in jail, where the mass of people greatly increases the risk of infection.

Society would get no benefit from sending this man to jail. He should not have gone back to his stoop to shoot at people in the street. He went too far. He shot an unarmed, wounded, drunken woman. But Hamlett still seems less responsible for Thrower's death than others that night.

Hamlett might simply have gone to bed after decorating his Christmas tree, but he was frightened and humiliated into reckless actions.

If an 18-year-old hadn't been in the Montego Bar, drunkenly brandishing a gun; if someone in the bar had called 911 rather than banishing the wounded Thrower and her companions to the street, nobody ever would have heard of Noble Hamlett.

"You can put the whole responsibility for this sad tale right at the feet of that bar," Cashman said.

He has ordered a transcript of the trial to be sent to the Liquor Control Board and the State Police.

"I don't understand why that bar's still operating."

It's still in the neighborhood and Hamlett's across town, back with the family he tried to protect with his gun. He was the only man in the house that night when 6- and 7-year-old children slept upstairs. He was in jail a few nights later when some slimebucket shot up the house with an assault rifle.

Nobody was hurt. Nobody was charged for that shooting.

Deadly shooting outside nuisance bar

One dead, one injured at a bar the city won't close

Photos by Frank Kownacki and Sarah Higgins. Click photos for larger views

The Den of Violence otherwise known as the Manteca Bar on Monterey Street was the site of another shooting last night. This one ended with a bloody sheet left in the middle of Jacksonia Street.

27-year-old Dion McIntosh was fatally shot in the chest after he and another man left the bar. McIntosh was pronounced dead at the scene and the other victim, his brother, was taken to the hospital and is listed in stable condition.

The shooter fired from across Monterey Street, where multiple shell casings were found on the sidewalk. A home and a building owned by the Mattress Factory on the corner of Monterey and Jacksonia were hit but no injuries were reported. Neighbors said the shots sounded like "a cannon."

In January, North Side resident Henry Reese, co-founder of  City of Asylum/Pittsburgh announced plans to purchase the bar and turn it and a neighboring building into a performance space and cafe, but the bar has remained open despite years of pleas from the neighborhood to shut it down. A nuisance bar task force had been in place and Zone 1 detectives were collecting testimony from neighbors affected by violence emanating from the bar. Zone 1 Police Commander Catherine McNeilly reported last December that the Nuisance Bar Task Force inspection turned up very little "police-related" activity.

Last October, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's 311 Response Center coordinator Wendy Urbanic reported that Housing Court Judge Kevin Cooper quashed the Bureau of Building Inspection's attempt to close it.

Police are asking anyone with information about the shooting to contact the Homicide Squad at 412-323-7161.

Call these numbers to pressure the city and state to close down the bar:

Nuisance Bar Hotline - 412-323-7777
Tonya Payne, city council member - 412-255-2134
Mayor's office - 412-255-2626
PGH enforcement office of PA Liquor Control Board - 412-548-2050
311

Shots fired on North Side

Multiple shots were fired at around 11:15 p.m. on Monterey Street on the North Side. Police units responded within minutes of the shooting near or inside the Manteca Bar.

"There are shell casings right outside my door and my house is part of the crime scene," a neighbor said. She was sitting in her living room when she heard the shots.

911 was flooded with calls seconds after the shooting.

Police Chief Nate Harper is at the scene where a crowd of about 40 people has gathered. Two flatbeds trucks from McGann & Chester, a towing agency contracted by the city to remove vehicles involved in major crimes, are at the scene. The medical examiner arrived with two vans at around 12:15 p.m.

The shots may signal the end of a cease-fire brokered between gang members in February.

More details in the morning.

Hey! Wait a minute, Mr. Postman

USPS worker accused of being sticky-fingered cineaste

From the Associate Press:

A U.S. Postal Service employee in Pittsburgh has been charged with stealing Netflix movies from 13 packages he handled.

The grand jury indictment returned Tuesday doesn't say if 52-year-old Randall Johnson was a mail carrier or worked elsewhere for the post office when the thefts allegedly occurred in November.

Johnson faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine if he's convicted of one count of mail theft by a postal employee.

Dish has done a little digging and uncovered a few of the titles Johnson is accused of denying Pittsburgh-area film buffs.

They are:

* Tom Poston's oeuvre
* The Postman Always Rings Twice
* You've Got Mail
* Stand and Deliver
* The Life and Times of Cliff Claven
* Deliverance
* Il Postino
* The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (confounded us, too)

March 12, 2008 in News | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 04, 2008

Feds yank housing funds

In two years, many people with HIV/AIDS in Pittsburgh could be homeless

Last Tuesday, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) imposed a 24-month lifetime cap on housing assistance received through the Ryan White CARE Act. Housing aid received prior to Mar. 27 won’t count towards the cap.

The news shocked the HIV/AIDS service community.

The National AIDS Housing Coalition (NAHC) called the policy “mean-spirited” and “short-sighted.” The group urged HRSA Secretary Mike Leavitt today to withdraw the change citing “a downwardly spiraling economy” and “low or no available affordable housing in most of the country.”

In Western Pennsylvania, about 1,800 people have HIV/AIDS and about one-third of them use Ryan White housing funds. Many will have to immediately apply for Section 8 housing, for which there is a long waiting list. According to the Post-Gazette, “federal funding formulas are forcing the Pittsburgh Housing Authority to gradually reduce the number of Section 8 rent vouchers it offers.”

"This is a death knell,” said Pittsburgh native Susan Howe (pictured), a 63 year-old former nurse who contracted HIV after a brutal rape in 1997. “If I don’t get into senior housing, I’ll be on the street.”

Howe, whose life story is weaved through the book, AIDS in America, testified before the Senate in 2005 for housing rights on behalf of the HIV/AIDS community.

"I was good at making those Republican senators cry,” said Howe. “We won then and we were able to keep it going. Until now.”

Howe fears that many people with HIV/AIDS will become homeless.

"The HUD system is very hard to get into,” she said. “Even if they do take applications there’s sometimes a two-year waiting list. People won’t take care of themselves on the streets. This is devastating.”

March 4, 2008 in News | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 03, 2008

North Side, Ellsworth immortalized on cotton

T-shirts let people know where you live

Julia DiNardo's line of Pittsburgh-themed neighborhood t-shirts just grew a little larger. In addition to Squirrel Hill, Shadyside, Highland Park, Sewickley, South Side, Oakland, Point Breeze and Lawrenceville, the Burgh-born designer has added the North Side and Ellsworth to her Neighbor Teaze collection.

Both shirts--"Ellworth: Keeping Shadyside sweet since 1985" and "North Side: Birds, Blitzes and Bratwurst since 1907"--will be introduced on Mar. 8 at CoCo's Cupcakes Cafe from noon to 8 p.m. An after party will be held at the Firehouse Lounge in the Strip. CoCo's will also launch their Neighborhood Cupcakes, a line of new cupcakes they've created for various Pittsburgh neighborhoods. Shirts are priced at $32 each on DiNardo's website. Both Coco's and DiNardo will donate 10-percent of the proceeds to Dress for Success Pittsburgh.

Shirts can be ordered on her website. DiNardo's looking for a retail outlet on the North Side so if you have suggestions, email her at juliadinardo@hotmail.com.

Last year, Brian O'Neill asked readers to pen their own neighborhood slogans and Dish's (long-winded) suggestion for the North Side was mentioned.

March 3, 2008 in News , North Side | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 29, 2008

Pretentious wanker dies

Tries to swipe Cope's thunder

While Pittsburgh columnists celebrate the life of Myron Cope, two newspaper writers (and Dish contributors) in New Haven, Conn., ship William F. Buckley to Potter's Field.

From Christopher Arnott of the New Haven Advocate :

William F. Buckley has gone to meet his maker, unless you consider that his maker was really Yale, which figured in the title of the book with which he made his name, God and Man at Yale, and many of whose alumni provided staunch support for Buckley's egregious rebranding of conservativism.

Without Buckley, right-wing humbuggery might have become a fading fringe of old-world bigotry a half-century ago, but he was able to revive the robber-baron attitude, dress it up in Ivy League trappings and turn it into one of the enlightened movements of the 1960s, giving it a veneer of articulate, literary respectability. Bastard.

Rowan & Martin's "Laugh-In" booked Buckley for an indulgent and unjudgmental segment, joking that they'd fly him in on a plane with only a right wing. But his own humor was always of the smug, self-centered, dismissive type. When faced with an argument he couldn't match, or an opponent more well-spoken or worldly than himself (Gore Vidal comes to mind), he lost his intellectual reserve and got insulting and threatening.

Even his mystery novels sucked--as shallow and archaic and anachronistic as his rhetoric. As student overseer of the Yale Daily News, Buckley was arguing that the university was impossibly liberal two decades before it allowed women to attend (a decision he abhorred) and while it still had a quota on how many Jews could be admitted. He was pro-segregation during the Civil Rights revolution. The only blessing we can take from Buckley's long life was that he never held public office.

For more bile, see esteemed former Advocate staffer (and Yalie) Paul Bass' laudable burst of venom, and community comments, here.

Photo below by Frank Kownacki

February 29, 2008 in Christopher Arnott, News | Permalink | Comments (3)

February 19, 2008

Gangs on the Internet

The web ain’t just for porn anymore (though there’s still some great porn out there)

The Pittsburgh Tribune Review reports that Pittsburgh gangs, like their counterparts elsewhere, are using the Internet to recruit members, brag about their exploits, threaten one another, and participate in the LOL cats phenomenon.

The kids call this practice net-banging. Kind of like gangbanging, but on the net you see. In any event, there are 41 recognized gangs in Pittsburgh with a total of about 875 members. Many carry firearms and, day-by-day, more are carrying laptops.

While it’s nice to see novel uses for the information superhighway, Dish fears that Pittsburgh gangs new to the web might be missing out on a few of the intricacies of Internet marketing. A few YouTube videos and a myspace page or two are nice, but there’s more to getting your name out there.

A good place to start is with a catchy url, such as Pittsburghdish.com. Dish takes a look at the North Side’s seven gangs and offers a url suggestion for each. Cybersquatters beware.

1. Manchester Original Gangsters. <manchesterunitedtosellyoudrugsandsuch.com>
2. Northview Heights Crips. <comefortheviewstayforthebeatdowns.org>
3. 2500 North Charles Street Crips. <northcharlesincharge.com>
4. Brighton Place Crips. <thecrippiestcripsonthenorthside.net>
5. Wilson Avenue Gangsters. <wilsonhasballs.edu>
6. Tre-Eights  (Perry and Charles avenues). <treeightsenough.com>
7. Hoodtown (The Mexican War Streets). <hoodiehoodietwoshoes.com>

February 19, 2008 in News | Permalink | Comments (2)

February 11, 2008

ShearFuzion

A tonsorial revolution

Some might call it the scomb. Barber/inventor Enrico Bellisario calls is the ShearFuzion, and the device, he hopes, will revolutionize the tonsorial arts.

Bellisario has been cutting heads in Oakland for 40 years. His shop now stands on Fifth Avenue, across from the Kauffmann Medical Building. About a decade ago, while cutting his own hair in front of a mirror, a vision came to him in the form of a dropped comb.

What if, he thought looking at the toothy hair-wrangling device lying on the floor, if he could simplify things, by combining comb and scissor into one implement? To do so, he thought, would allow him to cut his own hair more easily, combing and cutting with the same hand while holding the lock to be trimmed in his free paw.

The experiments began. He tried a half-dozen glues in an effort to adhere comb to scissors. He drilled holes in the scissor in order to have a larger surface for the glue to grab onto. He had to find a way around the problem of the sterilizing solution eroding the adhesive.

While working on a way around these problems, Bellisario thought that he should protect his intellectual property. To the Oakland branch of the Carnegie Library, where he researched patents. A client, who also happened to be an attorney, helped Bellisario with his research, but when he discovered that no one else had imagined a similar invention, he applied to patent the ShearFuzion. In 1999, he received the patent.

That was the easy part. To find a manufacturer interested in assembling the ShearFuzion, that was a much more difficult task. After spending years amassing rejection letters from United States-based manufacturers, he was crawling around the Internet looking for other options. Google led him to a Taiwanese manufacturer. The company was game.

Six prototypes later, Bellisario was satisfied. Last week, he received a shipment of the finished product.

Bellisario says he intends to market the ShearFuzion to national haircutting chains. These entities, he says, are volume-oriented businesses. The more hair they cut, the more profitable they are. The ShearFuzion, he says, can trim time off a cut, as the barber doesn’t have to shift the comb from hand to hand.

“I feel that once [barbers] get used to it, they’ll be able to save at least 5 percent on a haircut time-wise,” he says. “And the precision of the cut will improve because they’ll always be able to keep their eye on what they’re cutting.”

And more satisfied customers, he says, will mean more return business.

The ShearFuzion has another virtue, Bellisario adds: It can be quite the relief for a barber, such as himself, suffering from carpal-tunnel syndrome.

“There’s much less physical stress,” he says. “I’ve never felt better.”

Bellisario says the ShearFuzion is a family affair, with his wife, Lori, and daughter, Estee Wagman, helping with development and marketing. For more information on ShearFuzion, go to www.shearfuzion.com.

February 11, 2008 in News | Permalink | Comments (2)

February 07, 2008

Duquesne Starbucks hates our planet

Coffee purveyor intent on filling landfills with landfill

Duquesne’s student newspaper, The Duke, has uncovered quite the scandal. The on-campus Starbucks, it seems, just throws recyclable stuff into the regular trash, apparently hoping to release all sorts of greenhouse gases, choke seagulls with plastic, poison fish, melt glaciers, raise the Earth’s average temperature by no fewer than 5 degrees centigrade by 2012, club baby seals, found a theocracy, aid and abet al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, mandate interspecies marriage, and support Dane Cook’s career.

Below are excerpts of The Duke’s take on Starbucks’ effort to make Al Gore weep:

According to Starbucks ex-employee Aaron Pfeiffer, the contents of the containers near the entrance of Starbucks, which claim to recycle cans, bottles and other plastic, don't end up where customers expect.

"We throw it right in the trash bag with every other piece of trash, regardless of content," he said. Starbucks employee Mike Curtis confirmed Pfeiffer's statement. "

"They [the managers] said, 'Those don't get used [for recycling.] Just make sure there's nothing in there. And if there is, throw it in the trash can.'" "

"It's there as an image," Perko said.

Read full article here. Good reporting.

February 7, 2008 in News | Permalink | Comments (8)

February 06, 2008

Pride explodes in 2008

Bigger budget sparks weeklong gay fest

The Delta Foundation of Pittsburgh announced yesterday that this year’s gay pride festival and parade has expanded into a seven day celebration.

A $165, 000 budget increase plus a sponsorship from Mellon Bank will bolster activities to include a bar crawl, a pool splash and a five-block long street party. It will also fund PrideMag Pittsburgh, a 40+ page publication that will feature maps and guides to the fest.

The Delta Foundation, a reincarnation of the former Tavern Guild, took over management of the festival from the GLCC (Gay & Lesbian Community Center of Pittsburgh) last year. It will also launch a gay information website in June, a project initially to be spear-headed by the GLCC.

Members of the gay community hope some of the money raised at the fest be used to build a new community center and not merely fund future fests.

February 6, 2008 in News | Permalink | Comments (1)

Clinton's Connecticut clinch pinched

Despite saturated stumping, Nutmeggers point to Obama

Photo by Jeff Glagowski

From the New Haven Independent:

A funny thing happened on the way to Super Tuesday: New Haven and Connecticut took center stage.

One presidential candidate — albeit from 2004 — came to the Stevenson Road home of New Haven schools Superintendent Dr. Reggie Mayo just before the Super Bowl Sunday. John Kerry gave a brief, energetic pitch for Barack Obama to a gathering of some 60 political activists and Yale students busy this weekend lining up votes for the Illinois senator in Tuesday’s Democratic presidential primary.

Meanwhile, the two current Democrats candidates made plans for last-minute stops nearby. Hillary Clinton was planning a Monday morning appearance in New Haven at the Yale Child Study Center, her second Connecticut visit in eight days. And Obama plans to visit Hartford’s Civic Center Monday afternoon for a campaign rally.

And leading GOP presidential candidate John McCain came to Fairfield Sunday.

All this in a small state, just one of 22 states (plus American Samoa) voting in what is basically a national primary Tuesday, with delegate-heavy states like California and New York the big prizes. Until the past week no one expected Connecticut to play much of a role in the primary or to host visits from leading candidates. Now the race between Clinton and Obama has tightened, too close to call, Nutmeggers have registered to vote in record numbers, and the state suddenly matters. New Haven has come alive with hundreds of volunteers canvassing neighborhoods all over the city in the lead-up to the primary.

State Rep. Jason Bartlett, co-chair of Clinton’s Connecticut steering committee, said his candidate is looking for a knock-out punch. Obama has no chance of winning other New England and mid-Atlantic states, Bartlett argued, which leaves Connecticut — currently too close to call — his only hope of a regional victory.

February 6, 2008 in News , Politics | Permalink | Comments (1)

February 05, 2008

Say cheese, chump

Man caught on camera stealing camera

Three men, possibly peeved over the sale of the infamous Manteca bar, were caught stealing a surveillance camera mounted to a house across the street. On Jan. 24 at around 2 a.m one of the men shimmied up a utility pole and yanked down the camera seconds after his big close up.

The other two men appear on tape as if they were lookouts (video 1).

The robbery victim found one camera on the ground the next day. The other camera has not been found.

"On the tape [video 2] you can see they kept looking out the bar door and watching my house for two hours," the victim said. "A while after I turned off the lights my dog started barking. After I watched the tape I saw what happened."

The victim reported the incident to the police who took a report by phone.

The incident occurred within days of the LCB liquor license-transfer notice posted on the front of the bar. The troubled bar will be turned into a cafe and performance space.

February 5, 2008 in Manteca Bar, Mexican War Streets, News , North Side | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 31, 2008

Gangs targeted following girl's death

Police, anti-violence groups say victims, gang members getting younger

"There are young people dying on the streets every week," said El Gray, program director for the nonprofit One Vision One Life violence prevention group. He also told Jill King Greenwood of the Tribune-Review in her story today, "Every week, somebody is not coming back to school, because they've been shot and killed, or because they're the ones under arrest for it. That's a reality for young people today."

King Greenwood reports that "in 2007, 98 homicides occurred in the city and county. Of those, 64 victims were age 30 or younger."

Gray is familiar with North Side violence involving teens, having participated in several peace vigils since 2006. Those events centered around the deaths of Darrell Miller, 19 and Trevor Greer, 18.  Damien Blackwell, 19, was shot and killed in Observatory Hill on the North Side last July.

This week saw the death of 12 year-old Jolesa Barber who was killed on Monday night on the North Side. One of the two suspected shooters is Michael "Meese" Gist, 15, a member of a North Side gang. On Tuesday, Ernest Tolliver, 15, was shot and killed in the city's East End. Police say the shooting may also be gang-related.

The North Side Old Timers, a group of African-American retirees, focus their anti-gang efforts on neighborhood pre-teens. They organize BBQ's, skating parties and Halloween distribution locations to bring youngsters into a safe environment.

They fear that once kids reach even their early teens, it may be too late to keep them out of gangs.

Photos: El Gray, above; Below, a woman tells vigil goers that she fears for her son's future surrounded by gangs.

January 31, 2008 in News , North Side | Permalink | Comments (0)

Indie Giant Eagle goes corporate

Dingy North Side supermarket may see change

According to Giant Eagle spokesman Dan Donovan, Bill and Ethel Quinlan, the owners of the independently operated Cedar Avenue Giant Eagle supermarket located at 318-320 Cedar Avenue, have decided to retire from the retail business and transfer the operations of their store to Giant Eagle, Inc. The Cedar Avenue supermarket will become a corporately owned location at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Feb 2.

Area residents have long complained about the poor conditions of the store and quality of food.

The Quinlans have operated the Cedar Avenue location under the Giant Eagle banner since February 1990. All approximately 60 store employees will have the opportunity to transfer to the corporately owned Cedar Avenue store.

January 31, 2008 in Business & Retail, News , North Side | Permalink | Comments (4)

January 30, 2008

Arrest made in AK-47 shooting

Feuding North Side gang members responsible for fatally shooting 12 year-old Jolesa Barber and critically injuring her mother

According to Tribune-Review Homicide Reporter Jill King Greenwood, police have arrested Anthony "Tone Bone" Wilson, 30, of Brighton Heights today and are searching for another suspect, Michael "Meese" Gist, 15, of North Charles Street (pictured below). Read more on the suspects here.

The young girl was killed Monday night and her mother was severely wounded while inside her sister's home on Brightridge Street. Bullets from an AK-47 penetrated the house. Police have said the older sister may have been targeted but now say a male visitor inside the house was the intended victim.

Read King Greenwood's account of Jolesa's promising life here.

January 30, 2008 in News , North Side | Permalink | Comments (2)

Phone scam spreading

Cops, feds issue warning

Photo by Jeff Glagowski

Pittsburgh's Zone 1 Police issued the following warning this morning:

This has been verified by both Snopes and the FBI. It is spreading fast, so be prepared should you get a telephone call in which the caller claims to be a jury co-coordinator and says that you are subject to arrest for having failed to appear for jury duty. If you protest that you never received a notice, the scammer asks for your Social Security number and date of birth so he or she can verify the information and cancel the arrest warrant. If you give out any of this information, your identity may just have been stolen.

The fraud has been reported so far in 11 states, including Oklahoma, Illinois and Colorado. This swindle is particularly insidious because they use intimidation to try to bully people into giving information by pretending they are with the court system. The FBI and Federal Court System has issued nationwide alerts on their web sites, warning consumers about the fraud.

January 30, 2008 in News | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 29, 2008

Police probe second AK-47 shooting

Last night's killing of a young girl not the first time a fully automatic rifle was used

Detectives recovered a fully automatic weapon today at the scene of last night's shooting that killed 12 year-old Jolesa Barber while inside her sister's home on Brightridge Street. Police suspect the sister may have been targeted.

This is the second killing on the North Side involving a fully automatic weapon. Last year, Trevor Greer, of the North Side, was gunned down near the corner of Jacksonia and Saturn Way. Detectives on the scene said the gunfire came from a moving vehicle that sped away. The weapon was never recovered. The shooter was not formally named, though it is speculated that he was killed in retaliation for Greer's death. 

Despite the use of a fully automatic assault rifle in both crimes, it's unclear if the shootings are related or if it's the same gun. Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are assisting in the investigation of last night's shooting.

Read more about shootings on the North Side here. For information on gang activity in the neighborhood go here.

January 29, 2008 in News , North Side | Permalink | Comments (3)

Shooting kills girl last night

A 12 year-old girl was shot and killed last night in a hail of automatic gunfire that penetrated the front door of her sister's home on Brightridge Street on the North Side. Police said the killer sprayed at least 40 rounds into the house which is located behind BreadWorks.

For excellent coverage go here.

Update at 3 p.m.: Police receive tips. Go here.

Photo by Frank Kownacki

January 29, 2008 in News , North Side | Permalink | Comments (0)

Manteca sale on again

Reese releases plan to neighbors

Photos by Frank Kownacki