SOCIAL JUSTICE
Foster Tarver served 49 years as a murder accomplice. Should Pittsburgh’s housing authority deny him housing forever?
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Should a murder conviction disqualify a person from public housing?
PUBLIC SAFETY
Could Pittsburgh’s proposed gun control bills disproportionately impact black residents?
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“Any ordinance like this… always lands on the backs of young African-Americans,” Rev. De Neice Welch said broadly about gun control laws. “Always.”
DEVELOPING PITTSBURGH
Construction and criticism: The history, mission and inner workings of Pittsburgh’s Urban Redevelopment Authority
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From modern efforts to make Pittsburgh a Rust Belt success story to missteps in urban renewal, the Urban Redevelopment Authority [URA] has played a critical role in rehabilitation efforts in the city. In the seven decades since its establishment, the agency has contributed to the construction and revitalization of homes, businesses and contaminated brownfields
EDUCATION
In charter school bid, Imani Christian Academy looks to become a publicly funded, secular school
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Imani’s charter application appears to follow a trend by other religious schools nationally in recent years. After struggling financially to stay afloat, some have chosen to transform into charter schools to create a steady revenue flow, even though it requires giving up their religious mission.
Aftermath: Synagogue attack
How some Pittsburgh-area faith leaders have addressed security concerns since the synagogue shooting
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“If we know that xenophobia and Islamophobia and vilification of marginalized and minority communities is less of an issue in America, then people will feel safer. If we know that that’s not the case and we are not moving towards that, then people don’t feel safe.”
SOCIAL JUSTICE
After fleeing Guatemala, some Ixil immigrants are seeing Pittsburgh as a destination for a new community
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The Ixil immigrants in Pittsburgh are almost exclusively from Santa Maria Nebaj, often referred to as Nebaj. In 2014, unaccompanied Central American minors had just begun to arrive en masse.
SOCIAL JUSTICE
When Manuel was deported from Pittsburgh to Guatemala, he entered the ‘deportation-to-death pipeline’
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Francisco's 23-year-old son had gone out the night before and never returned home. The following day, Francisco's neighbor came knocking on his door to inform him that Manuel had been killed and his body was laying on the side of a road nearby.
DEVELOPING PITTSBURGH
‘Milking’: How some absentee property owners contribute to blight in the Pittsburgh region
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Urban design expert Alan Mallach believes owner Prasad Margabandhu was trying to “milk” the failed property by attempting to eke out rent revenue while spending as little as possible on repairs or taxes.
DEVELOPING PITTSBURGH
Owner of troubled Valmar Gardens apartments has record of problem properties, unpaid taxes and ‘shell games’
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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.
SOCIAL JUSTICE
Trayvon Martin’s mother tells Pittsburgh audience to push for justice seven months after the death of Antwon Rose II
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Sybrina Fulton, whose 17-year-old son Trayvon Martin was killed by a Sanford, Fla. neighborhood watchman in February 2012, gave encouragement and advice to Pittsburghers seven months after the killing of Antwon Rose II by an East Pittsburgh police officer.
