Homewood goes to Harlem

Lord willing and the creek don't rise, my wife and I will visit Harlem tomorrow through Tuesday. We first visited three years ago, and have been eager to return. I have especially dreamed of visiting the real estate development firm Full Spectrum NY, ever since meeting their chief operating officer, Carlton Brown, when he spoke at a green building conference here four years ago.

At that time, Mr. Brown spoke about the newly-completed 1400 on 5th, New York's first green condominium. Monday, I'm slated to visit the Kalahari Harlem, a condominium that is not only mixed-use (residential plus retail), but mixed-income, with both affordable and market-rate units. (Of course, the New York definition of affordable would not be Pittsburgh's definition of affordable).

Besides soaking up as much as I can about Full Spectrum's work, I will of course take the opportunity to speak about Homewood. Especially since the Urban Redevelopment Authority has just issued an request for proposals for a planning study "that harnesses the power of transit as an engine of neighborhood revitalization" in the area surrounding the Homewood EBA stop. Now, Full Specturm may not be interested in revdeloping the area around that EBA stop; they may not be interested in doing anything in Pittsburgh at all. But I cannot NOT let them know about the opportunity.

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Some other folks from Homewood will be letting some other folks in Harlem - and everywhere else - know about another aspect of Homewood's right-now story (not Homewood's 1965 story, its right-now story). Perhaps you've seen passing references to the Homewood Children's Village. If not, here's the nickel version of the story: for something like two years now, a bunch of people, led by Pitt prof and Homewood pastor Dr. John Wallace and Homewood non-profit exec Aliya Durham have been discussing and planning a project to replicate, as far as feasible and on a smaller scale, the Harlem Children's Zone, the no-excuses network of social and academic services established by Geoffrey Canada that gets underprivileged kids on track academically and keeps them on track right into college.

Monday and Tuesday, the Harlem Children's Zone is sponsoring a national conference for people who want to learn more about how they've done what they've done and how they continue to do it. There'll also be a presentation from folks around the country to talk about how they're planning to do likewise. Geoffrey Canada and his folks have been impressed with the Homewood Children's Village folks, so Dr. Wallace will be on that panel, to talk about our folks' planning process so far.

There's a whole delegation from Pittsburgh going up; wish them well, and if you're so inclined, say a prayer. That conference could lift their work to a whole new level.

I am on the edge of my seat. There is so much to be done in Homewood, but with the work of the CMU students, and the work of the Homewood Children's Village committee, and my own street's Save Race Street Committe and our Race Street Project; and with Operation Better Block's plans to step up its game, and the ongoing work of Community Empowerment Association...and folks who I'm forgetting to mention, or may not even know about yet...there is so much that is already being done, so much that is in various stages of becoming....the Homewood that is seems really really small compared to the Homewood that is becoming.

Have a good weekend, everyone! If I get a wifi or 3G connection going, I'll post some notes from Harlem.

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Two questions, one note

Q1. Ran into a "My Homewood" reader recently, who asked if I am planning another get-together for "My Homewood" readers, similar to last year's. I had not thought much about doing so, because I don't have as strong as sense as I did last year of who is reading.

So I put it to you folks - who would like to join other readers for a Homewood-centered party? Not a protest. Not a march. Not a vigil. Not a political anything. Nothing but food, conversation and music (and if the stars align themselves correctly, maybe, just maybe, some push-da-furniture-'gainst-da-wall boogie).

Q2. A few weeks ago, "Extremewells" suggested taking "My Homewood" to radio. What do you think of that idea? How about a program that is streamed on the Internet and archived? What topics/people would interest you most? (Okay, it's a multi-part question.)

N1. There is a "My Homewood" group on Facebook. If you are on Facebook, check it out.

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Long-term vision, 2

I mentioned before that the students in CMU's Urban Laboratory who are studying Homewood have come up with suggestions for improving the environment and diagrammed the anticipated results for 100 years, and I asked, "Who thinks like that?"

Well, maybe such extended vision is more common among development people than among the rest of us.

On May 1, I sat with a group of folks for a presentation by Eric Jester, project manager at East LIberty Devlopment, Inc. He spoke about the challenges of doing rehab work on some of the neighborhood's older homes - challenges so great that in some cases it made more sense to build new, rather than to rehab. But only if the new construction met a certain level of quality. The term that he used for what ELDI chose to build was "the 100-year house."

ELDI is building homes with the intent that they last 100 years. Which really isn't so outrageous when one considers the age of Pittsburgh's existing housing stock. It's just a longer time span that I'm used to using in my thinking.

Then there's Benjamin Franklin. The printer/inventor/Declaration of Independence signer planned the use for part of his estate for TWO HUNDRED YEARS.

Serious. In his will, he left the cities of Boston and Philadelphia 1000 pounds each (roughly equivalent to $100,000 today), but limited their use of the money, saying that they could lend portions of it for two hundred years, after which they could the entire amounts that had accumulated would be freed up for their use.

(If you want to check it out, the essence of his plan begins in the 5th paragraph of the CODICIL, with the words, "To this end, I devote two thousand pounds sterling," and ends a few paragraphs later with "...the government of Massachusetts")

Boston and Philly wound up fighting hard over their inheritances.

I shared the Ben Franklin story with Khalif Ali, community organizer for Operation Better Block, while we were in Philly for the confab with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, and told him that part of his job is to infuse 100-year thinking into the minds of people who have been trained not to think beyond the weekend.

Of course, since I dont sign his paycheck, he can reject that. But at the very least, it's something to think about.  I've been thinking about what I would write into a 200-year will, but haven't come up with anything yet.

Until I do, I will focus on a five-year plan for Race Street.

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Today is Election Day. VOTE!

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A Homewood Saturday

The Save Race Street Committee netted about $96 in part 2 of our yard sale, bringing our two-week total to about $300. A lady who works at the Y asked me if we were going to do it every month. A couple of people offered to donate stuff. I have no idea how often the Committee would be willing to do the yard sale, other than what some folks have said about a repeat in the spring. But there may be support for a more regular event than we have imagined.

I took a break from the yard sale to check in with some Operation Better Block folks who were conducting a survey on Race Street: Khalif Ali, Evans Moore, an intern named Ryan (didn't get his last name), and a Hamilton Avenue block club member, Keith, whose last name I forget. Again I took the opportunity to point out the quality of the housing construction on Race Street - the craftsmanship of the brickwork and woodwork, the stained glass windows. And again I pointed out the discounted prices at which houses are available. I had the group stop to give attention to 7311 Race Street, and I said, "You can buy this house today!" - because the house is for sale, the house is listed with a Realtor, the owner is telling the entire world through this Realtor that anybody in the entire world can buy the house right now - for $14,900.

I didn't even mention the first-time homebuyer's credit under the stimulus plan, where a buyer could get back up to $8,000.

With Dwelling House gone, some people have asked whether any other institution will finance the low-income and/or high-risk clientele that the S&L loaned money to. But another question is, will any other institution give mortgages on properties with such low sale prices? The first-time homebuyer's credit may be the best help a lot of people will ever get in buying their first home, and it could make the difference in whether many people buy at all. Someone who might not have $15k to invest permanently, might be able to put it together with $8k coming back in a few months.

It's a wonder that tax-prep firms like Jackson Hewitt and H/R Block haven't tapped into that potential market. But I don't say that they should, because their fees might be excessive.

By the time I got home from the yard sale and got cleaned up, Our House Development's Economic Awareness Day was pretty much over. Did anyone here go? How was it?

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A quick and dirty poll

Would you buy a house in Homewood - to live in, not a rental -if you knew that you could get a 50% rebate on the purchase price?

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Calendar notes

Big doings this weekend in Homewood: Dawn Webb-Turner's Our House Development Inc. is sponsoring the 2nd Annual Economics Awareness Day and Community Appreciation Benefit.

The benefit is this evening at the August Wilson Center, and it is titled "A Royal Night of the Legacies." It begins with a VIP social at 5:45 p.m., and the Community Appreciation Program kicks off at 7 p.m., with awards for people and organizations that have served the community in education, business, and community organization. The keynote speaker is Robert Burley, of Burley Consulting.

Tomorrow, from 11 a.m. - 4 p.m., is Economic Awareness Day at the Greater PIttsburgh Coliseum. The day will include workshops, children's activities, live performances, and a community tour.

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Down the street and around the corner from the Coliseum, the Save Race Street Committee is moving part 2 of our yard sale inside, to the Homewood-Brushton YMCA. That's from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Besides fun stuff for sale, we'll have treats.

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The Homewood-CMU connection, 2: Long-Term Vision

At last Monday's Urban Lab session, some students spoke briefly about three aspects of community development that they had focused recent attention on - ecological, commerical, and housing.

On the walls of the Holy Rosary school gym, they had taped up diagrams and drawings to outline some of their ideas. The ecological segment had a series of drawing to show the impact that their ideas could have over certain periods of time - year 5, year 10, etc. I may not be remembering those specific labels correctly. The one label that I do remember quite clearly was "year 100."

I was stunned by the fact that these students would think that far into the future. Stunned and delighted.

I mean, who thinks like that?

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The Homewood-CMU connection

So I was saying, there was a meeting last Monday night with a bunch of CMU students.

The students are enrolled in the Urban Laboratory, a community and urban design studio that is part of the University's Remaking Cities Institute.

The Urban Lab, as it's commonly called, dates back to 1963. Each year, Urban Lab students research a particular community and seek that community's participation in an urban design process.

This year, they are researching and reaching out to Homewood and North Point Breeze, two neighborhoods that share major roads (Fifth, Dallas, and Homewood Avenues) and what could be a major asset, the Homewood East Busway stop.

Their first community meeting was on September 21; the second was October 19; the third will be sometime in December. In the first two meetings they have quizzed residents about how we travel (walk/drive/bus), what we see as community assets, ways that we imagine that vacant lots could be used, and our memories and hopes for our communities - among other things.

Two big points here:

1) The Urban Lab folks are building on work done this summer by a different group of CMU students, in a new program called UDream. Those students' task was to develop a vision for Homewood-Brushton, a vision that they shared in a public meeting on August 19, and that they published in a document that you can download here.

2) For Urban Lab students, the end goal is not simply to produce a document, even a really nice one like the one above. Nope, this is what the profession calls a "design-build" project, which means that the goal is to actually build something - in this case, something "catalytic" that can help to spark transformation. So, by this time next year, there should be something new in Homewood.

I am eager to see what they come up with.

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A week in - and out of - Homewood

Trying to stay of top of things in Homewood is becoming a full-time job (that's an observation, not a complaint). For instance, these events all took place last week:

1. Monday, students from Carnegie Mellon University hosted the second of three meetings for the Homewood and North Point Breeze communities to share information about, and receive input for, an ongoing project to construct a joint vision for the two neighborhoods. Was fun, as was the first one.

2. Wednesday, the steering committee of Operation Better Block's Block Watch Plus met. I don't know how much I am allowed to tell about that.

3. Thursday and Friday, I joined 15 or 20 others on a two-day trip to Philly to learn about initiatives there to redevelop vacant lots.

4. Saturday, the Save Race Street committee held a multi-block yard sale. Gray, chilly weather notwithstanding, we cleared about $200. And we still had enough stuff left over to say, "Let's do it again." So, we're planning a part 2 this Saturday.

More later, especially about 1 and 3. For now, the point is, Homewood is simmering, in a good way.

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Homewood in bloom

Just sharing a pic from a couple of weeks ago. This is a flower garden maintained by Mary Savage, with help from the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, at the juncture of Frankstown and Bennett.

Happy Monday!

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