PublicSource | News for a better Pittsburgh (https://www.publicsource.org/category/in-depth-news/)
Property owner Prasad Margabandhu’s practices serve as a prime example of the challenges municipalities and tenants face when trying to hold landlords accountable for failed properties and dangerous conditions.
Explosions of anti-Semitic violence like the Tree of Life shooting can sometimes appear to come out of the blue. And many people reference only the Holocaust in Hitler’s Germany when discussing anti-Semitic violence. But in reality, anti-Semitism functions as a system of oppression that goes beyond these violent acts.
Some public health researchers believe we need to address a “collective illness” that allows such hate to thrive in the first place
In the past four years, residents and journalists have filed at least 4,540 requests for public records with the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. About half the time, the city or county agreed to release all or some of the records.
While the city granted more records than the county, city records came at a higher price. The city charged requesters a total of $13,000 in copying and other costs, showing its reliance on paper records. In all but six cases, the county released records at no cost and in digital format whenever requested.
“Are we really providing opportunities for families to live here — for people to really grow roots in the neighborhood?”
During the past five years, campaign pledges and task forces aimed at boosting affordable housing in Pittsburgh have pointed to the need for an inclusionary zoning [IZ] policy. More than 800 jurisdictions across the country have implemented IZ policies. So, what is IZ? How is Pittsburgh implementing it? And will the policy tool ease housing costs for low-income Pittsburghers?
As housing prices and rents rise in the Pittsburgh region, some residents face an additional hurdle — they're often denied housing they can afford.
PublicSource spoke to more than a dozen local and national experts and public officials to gauge what kind of impact Amazon might have on Pittsburgh’s housing, job market, tech sector, education system and local governments. Here are six things that are likely to happen were Pittsburgh to become the HQ2 city.
What does the First Amendment look like in practice? In Pittsburgh, it looks like men and women gathered in prayer at First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, Rodef Shalom or the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh. It looks like journalists asking questions and holding those in power accountable, or demonstrators outside a federal courthouse on Grant Street protesting immigration policy.
Some area school districts, including Pittsburgh Public Schools, Mt. Lebanon and North Allegheny, are using mindfulness practices to reduce stress and anger among staff and students, to improve mental health and to create a calm and compassionate atmosphere in their schools.
