Category Archive: Pittsburgh Tribune Review
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Black leaders seek delay in Schenley decision
By Bill Zlatos
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, February 27, 2008A group of black community leaders is urging the city school board tonight to postpone or vote against a proposal to move students from Schenley High School in Oakland.
In a letter dated today to board members, the Black Political Empowerment Project or B-PEP urged the board to reconsider Superintendent Mark Roosevelt’s proposed closing of Schenley. Roosevelt wants to close the school because of the estimated $64.3 million cost of removing asbestos and upgrading the building.
Under Roosevelt’s plan, to be voted on today, the district would close Schenley and move students this fall while it decides whether to shut the school down permanently or renovate it. As a result, the board is considering the following actions:
* Relocating Schenley students who would be in grades 10 through 12 to now-closed Reizenstein in East Liberty; * Shifting 174 students in the robotics technology program at Schenley to Peabody High School in East Liberty: and * Sending ninth graders who live in Schenley’s feeder pattern to a proposed University Prep School at Milliones in the Hill District.
B-PEP Chairman Tim Stevens recommended hold off on moving the Schenley students until the district develops a comprehensive approach to meeting the needs of the nine high schools that did not meet federal academic standards.
Bill Zlatos can be reached at bzlatos@tribweb.com or 412-320-7828.
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Vote on closing Schenley High School delayed
By Bill Zlatos
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, February 21, 2008City schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt said he delayed a vote on closing Schenley High School to give supporters time to raise money to fix it and to study if it would be cheaper in the long run to repair the structure.
“We think it is indeed worth the time and exploration,” Roosevelt told members of the school board at Wednesday’s agenda review meeting. “It does not imply a decision has been made either way.”
Roosevelt said the district is studying whether it would be more cost-effective to fix Schenley because of its sturdy construction compared to a more recent building that might not last as long.
The Oakland school has 1,086 students and was built in 1916. Roosevelt last year recommended closing Schenley because of the $64.3 million cost of renovating it and removing its asbestos.
The board yesterday discussed his proposal to make a couple of moves he believes necessary whether Schenley is permanently closed or temporarily shut down for repairs.
Those actions, to be voted on Feb. 27, involve moving Schenley students in grades 10 through 12 to Reizenstein in East Liberty in the fall. At the same time, the 174 students in the robotics technology program at Schenley would be relocated to Peabody High School in East Liberty.
Ninth-graders from Schenley’s feeder pattern would go to a University Prep School at Milliones in the Hill District. Eventually Milliones would expand to a grade 6-12 school.
Ninth-graders in the International Baccalaureate and international studies programs, both of which are at Schenley, would go to Frick School in Oakland.
Board member Sherry Hazuda questioned whether it would make more sense to keep Schenley open while fixing it as opposed to shutting it down.
Richard Fellers, chief operations officer, warned that fixing Schenley while leaving part of the school open could endanger students from falling plaster.
“We think it would be cost-effective, faster and removes the health risk” to close the building, he said.
At one point, Roosevelt and board member Mark Brentley became involved in a heated exchange when Brentley criticized the move of black students from the Hill District to Milliones.
“We take very seriously our obligation to better serve kids that the data tell us are not doing well off,” Roosevelt said.
Bill Zlatos can be reached at bzlatos@tribweb.com or 412-320-7828.
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Stanwix Street closure hurts, businesses say
By Adam Brandolph
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, February 19, 2008The tunnel-boring machine for the North Shore Connector project is more than 50 feet underground, but businesses on the other side of the river at Stanwix Street are feeling the shock waves.
Some business owners say they have lost customers since July, when the road closed to motorists between Fort Duquesne Boulevard and Penn Avenue, Downtown. The street is open to pedestrians.
Howard Kernats, owner of Hair Fashions by Howard, estimated business is down 60 percent. “It’s been tough,” said Kernats, 66, of Robinson. “Everybody on this block is hurting bad.”
Others aren’t so sure.
Bob Zilch, owner of Metro News newsstand, said foot traffic usually slows down this time of year. He might have lost some business, but construction workers who buy cigarettes, soda and lottery tickets have made up the difference, he said.
Merrill Stabile, president of Alco Parking, said his nearby garage at Sixth Street and Penn Avenue still fills daily. “There might be some inconvenience to customers, and we want to see the congestion cleared up as soon as possible, but it’s not hurting us,” Stabile said.
Stanwix Street is serving as a receiving ground for the boring machine, which is digging a tunnel under the Allegheny River from the North Shore as part of the $435 million project of the Port Authority of Allegheny County’s light-rail system.
The machine is moving about 25 feet a day toward Stanwix, where it will turn around and dig a parallel tunnel.
Port Authority planned to plate over Stanwix and reopen the street in December, but delays with securing retaining walls pushed the opening to April 1, spokesman Dave Whipkey said.
Construction is scheduled to be completed in 2011. About 14,300 daily riders are expected to use the connector, Whipkey said.
Port Authority has posted signs to let people know the stores still are open, he said.
“It’s one of those things,” Whipkey said. “(Construction) could be taking place anywhere else, and another set of shops could be taking a hit. We hate the fact they’re losing business.”
More than 30,000 motorists a day are detoured around the construction, Whipkey said.
Kristen Trohat, general manager of Max & Erma’s restaurant, said the closure hasn’t affected the lunch crowd.
“But it’s hurting us at dinner time and on the weekends,” she said.
To help alleviate a 15 percent to 20 percent loss in business since construction began, Trohat said, the restaurant brought back its happy hour and is working on a marketing campaign with nearby parking garages.
Sol Gross, 86, owner of a mixed commercial and residential building in the heart of the closure, said the construction has hurt his ability to lure renters.
Fifteen percent of his apartments are vacant, the same as before construction began, he said.
When finished, the North Shore Connector will help his sales pitch, giving him “an added amenity” to offer prospective tenants, Gross said.
Adam Brandolph can be reached at abrandolph@tribweb.com or 412-320-7936.
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Millions could go to revamp landmark Union Trust Building
By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, February 19, 2008An investment group that paid $24.1 million to buy the ornate Union Trust Building plans to spend “several million dollars” more to bring the landmark structure back to life.
The group, led by executives of the Mika Realty Group in Los Angeles, promises to refurbish the nearly empty, block-long structure at 501 Grant St., Downtown, and restock its 595,000-plus square feet of rentable space with new office and retail tenants.
“We really want to bring something wonderful to the city. This is a once-in-a-lifetime location. The building is irreplaceable, so we want to get it right,” said Rick Barreca, CEO of Mika Realty.
“I’d like to see a retail bank come into the ground floor, and I’d like to see a nice restaurant,” said Barreca. “We want to have a mix that everybody in the building will be able to take advantage of, and that people in the surrounding area will be happy to come to.”
Hopes are that Larrimor’s, the upscale clothing retailer that occupies a prominent corner at Grant Street and Fifth Avenue, will continue its long relationship with the building, he said.
Barreca is one of the investors in the group headed Michael Kamen, founder of privately held Mika, and a business associate, Gerson Fox of Los Angeles.They’ve hired the Pittsburgh-area architectural firm of Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann Associates to design the upgrade.
Plans are to clean the building’s facade and install new exterior lighting, signage and new windows on the ground level retail area that rings the building, topping them with decorative glass awnings. The building would get its first on-site parking with 60 new spaces planned on one of its two sub-basement levels accessible from William Penn Place.
Planned lobby improvements include a new security desk, benches and a new lighting package to brighten space underneath the colorful rotunda. Lighting will highlight ceiling mosaic tiles and stained glass above several building entry points.
“We’re working with a historic consultant on the exterior to be careful not to disturb any of the historic features,” Kosar said.
“We’re also looking at adding new artwork and possibly some displays that could be changed seasonally, Barreca said.
The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation is happy with Mika’s plans for the building, said Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., president of the South Side preservationist organization. The foundation has offered to work with the developers to help them secure historic tax credits for some of the renovation work, if the group decides to pursue them, he said.
Designed in Flemish Gothic style by noted Pittsburgh architect F.J. Osterling and built in 1916 for industrialist Henry Clay Frick, the building opened in 1917 as the Union Arcade, an upscale, indoor mall with 238 shops and more than 700 office tenants.
In 1922, it came to be owned by Union Trust Co., and after a 1946 merger, by Mellon National Bank and Trust Co., predecessor to Mellon Financial Corp., now Bank of New York Mellon.
Mellon decided to vacate its substantial presence in the building in May 2006 and DeBartolo Property Group LLC, the owner since 1984, stopped aggressive efforts to keep other tenants, leaving it in its present state.
It eventually defaulted on its mortgage, and ownership passed to Philadelphia-based insurance firm Cigna Corp., holder of the loan.
Chances to fill the building’s office space have likely improved thanks to a recent tightening of the Downtown office market. And interest in both the office and retail space has been high, said Jeffrey Ackerman, a commercial real estate broker with CB Richard Ellis/Pittsburgh.
Ackerman represented Cigna in a nationwide marketing effort to find a buyer for the building and brokered the deal with the purchasing group.
Ron DaParma can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907.
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Stanwix Street closure hurts, businesses say
By Adam Brandolph
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, February 19, 2008The tunnel-boring machine for the North Shore Connector project is more than 50 feet underground, but businesses on the other side of the river at Stanwix Street are feeling the shock waves.
Some business owners say they have lost customers since July, when the road closed to motorists between Fort Duquesne Boulevard and Penn Avenue, Downtown. The street is open to pedestrians.
Howard Kernats, owner of Hair Fashions by Howard, estimated business is down 60 percent. “It’s been tough,” said Kernats, 66, of Robinson. “Everybody on this block is hurting bad.”
Others aren’t so sure.
Bob Zilch, owner of Metro News newsstand, said foot traffic usually slows down this time of year. He might have lost some business, but construction workers who buy cigarettes, soda and lottery tickets have made up the difference, he said.
Merrill Stabile, president of Alco Parking, said his nearby garage at Sixth Street and Penn Avenue still fills daily. “There might be some inconvenience to customers, and we want to see the congestion cleared up as soon as possible, but it’s not hurting us,” Stabile said.
Stanwix Street is serving as a receiving ground for the boring machine, which is digging a tunnel under the Allegheny River from the North Shore as part of the $435 million project of the Port Authority of Allegheny County’s light-rail system.
The machine is moving about 25 feet a day toward Stanwix, where it will turn around and dig a parallel tunnel.
Port Authority planned to plate over Stanwix and reopen the street in December, but delays with securing retaining walls pushed the opening to April 1, spokesman Dave Whipkey said.
Construction is scheduled to be completed in 2011. About 14,300 daily riders are expected to use the connector, Whipkey said.
Port Authority has posted signs to let people know the stores still are open, he said.
“It’s one of those things,” Whipkey said. “(Construction) could be taking place anywhere else, and another set of shops could be taking a hit. We hate the fact they’re losing business.”
More than 30,000 motorists a day are detoured around the construction, Whipkey said.
Kristen Trohat, general manager of Max & Erma’s restaurant, said the closure hasn’t affected the lunch crowd.
“But it’s hurting us at dinner time and on the weekends,” she said.
To help alleviate a 15 percent to 20 percent loss in business since construction began, Trohat said, the restaurant brought back its happy hour and is working on a marketing campaign with nearby parking garages.
Sol Gross, 86, owner of a mixed commercial and residential building in the heart of the closure, said the construction has hurt his ability to lure renters.
Fifteen percent of his apartments are vacant, the same as before construction began, he said.
When finished, the North Shore Connector will help his sales pitch, giving him “an added amenity” to offer prospective tenants, Gross said.
Adam Brandolph can be reached at abrandolph@tribweb.com or 412-320-7936.
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Vandergrift’s Grant Avenue dusts off charm
By Francine Garrone
VALLEY NEWS DISPATCH
Saturday, February 16, 2008Once dotted with awnings and marquee store signs, Grant Avenue in Vandergrift proved to be the place to spend a Saturday afternoon.
Today, it’s turn-of-the-20th-century charm and historic facades have fallen victim to perhaps-misguided modernization. Vacant storefronts leave many buildings vulnerable to water damage or even cave-ins.
But through the efforts of the Vandergrift Improvement Program and state grants, Grant Avenue is beginning to return to the look it had during the time of soda fountains and 75 cent movies.
VIP has applied to the state Department of Community and Economic Development for a third year of funding for its Main Street Program.
If the non-profit, grassroots organization is seeking a $45,000 state grant.
“The Main Street Program is a tremendous help and enabled the VIP to begin,” said VIP Main Street manager Shaun Yurcaba. “It has given us the foundation to start down the road to rebirth.”
In 2006, VIP received its first $5,000 from the Main Street Program.
Yurcaba said the money was used to set up an office on Grant Avenue.
Last year, VIP received another $50,000. That paid for operational expenses such as rent, insurance, utilities, and Yurcaba’s hiring. The rest went to programs such as meetings and the real estate breakfast.
“There was not much left over,” Yurcaba said.
If VIP continues to apply for funding beyond this year, it will be eligible to receive $40,000 in 2009 and $35,000 in 2010.
However, there are annual requirements that the organization has to meet in order to receive the state grants, including raising some of its own money.
In order to get the $45,000 from the state this year, VIP had to raise $15,000, she said, which it has done.
In fact, VIP has raised more than $17,000. The remaining $2,000 will go toward next year.
“We did a pledge drive initially and had commitments from the community in various pledge amounts,” she said. “The community has been really supportive in following up with pledges.”
The Main Street Program grant has pushed VIP to reach out further for additional funding in bettering the community.
VIP received a $120,000 Facade Improvement Grant that allows $30,000 in state funding over a four-year period. The grant enables business owners to make improvements to their facades by being awarded half of the cost of the improvement up to $10,000. Anything above that cost would come out of pocket.
“We want to work with them in the projects they are doing,” Yurcaba said. “The money can be used for anything dealing with preserving history to enhancing and restoring the downtown business district, which is also a historic district.”
Vandergrift is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, the architect of New York’s Central Park and the grounds of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Vandergrift was a planned community founded by George G. McMurtry, president of the Apollo Iron and Steel Co., Apollo. It was named after Capt. J.J. Vandergrift, a director of the steel mill.
At the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, Vandergrift won two gold medals for best town design.
Yurcaba said the Vandergrift Improvement Program has established a name that they hope will continue to provide revitalization efforts to the community.
“The goal is, through the years, to become more and more self-sustaining as an organization,” she said. “But that will only happen through public and private funding and volunteer assistance.”
Francine Garrone can be reached at fgarrone@tribweb.com or 724-226-4701.
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After 50 years, bookstore closes chapter of history
By Regis Behe
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, February 15, 2008When Jay Dantry started selling books in September 1955, hardback novels were less than half their current price.
But he wants to clear up one misperception:
“I don’t go back so far as to have sold 35-cent copies of ‘Lost Horizon,'” says Dantry, the proprietor of Jay’s Book Stall in Oakland.
After more than 50 years, Jay’s Book Stall will close in a few months. Books will be packed, shelves taken down. There will be no fanfare, no signs heralding the shop’s closure. Like the last page of a long, riveting novel, Jay’s Book Stall will simply end.
“We came in quietly, we’ll go out quietly,” says Dantry, 79, who was unwilling to commit to an extended lease on his Fifth Avenue store.
Situated between the hospitals that rise on Oakland’s infamous Cardiac Hill and the dormitories, fast-food restaurants and bars frequented by University of Pittsburgh students, Jay’s Book Stall has been a haven for bookworms of all stripes. Drama students from Carnegie Mellon University, budding writers from the University of Pittsburgh, and doctors and nurses and interns all found their way to the cozy shop unlike any other in the area.
Dr. Thomas Starzl, the transplant pioneer at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, walked into the store shortly after he came to Pittsburgh.
“I realized right away it was an unusual bookstore, and better, in many respects, than anything I’d seen elsewhere,” Starzl says.
Starzl and the late Fred Rogers were among those who slipped in by way of the back door on Sundays, when the store was closed but Dantry was working on ledgers and accounts. Starzl specifically sought Dantry’s advice when he was writing “The Puzzle People: Memoirs of a Transplant Surgeon.”
“I talked to Jay about it and asked if he could look at it,” Starzl says. “He took it upon himself to help get it published. …. That was how I got to know him. I have a great debt to him.”
Others who came by the store were not quite as famous — at least when they first visited the store. Dantry recalls the drama students from Carnegie Mellon who browsed through the store’s selection of dramatic works. Patrick Wilson, nominated for Tony awards for his roles in “Oklahoma!” and “The Full Monty,” was one of them.
“Jay’s Book Stall saved a lot of us ‘dramats’ when we needed a play in a pinch,” Wilson says.
Another regular visitor was a Pitt student named Michael Chabon, who came in begging for a job. At first there were no openings, but Dantry eventually found work for Chabon, who went on to become a best-selling novelist.
“The thing Jay did for me as a writer was to appear to take my literary aspirations entirely seriously,” Chabon says. “He used to tease me about a lot of things — my clothes, my hair, my friends, the circles under my eyes, but he never teased me about my crappy short stories and poems. He really seemed to think I was going to be a writer when I grew up.”
Chabon, whose first novel, “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh,” is scheduled to be released as a movie later this year, won a Pulitzer Prize for literature in 2001 for “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.” He became part of a panoply of accomplished writers who are memorialized in snapshots displayed throughout the store:
Here, a beaming Dantry with Stephen King. Over there, Dantry with a snowy-haired John Updike. Erica Jong, Richard Ford, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Mary Higgins Clark, James Lee Burke, David Sedaris, E.L. Doctorow, Garrison Keillor and Doris Lessing are among the writers who have visited the store.
Writers would come by because “they’ve heard (Jay’s) is like a little club for Nobel laureates,” says Harry Schwalb, art critic and artist, who in 2005 put together “Book People,” an exhibit of the photographs for The Mattress Factory.
Dantry calls that exhibit his crowning achievement as a bookseller, but there were many other cherished memories. He fondly speaks of meeting Vonnegut, who admired the tie the bookseller was wearing.
“So I gave him the tie,” Dantry says, pointing to a picture of them together. “But he would not sign books because he said they’d turn up on the Internet.”
“Edward Albee used to come here a lot,” Dantry says. “He was always going through the science books. People from the (Pittsburgh) Playhouse would find out and they would come down, and he’d always entertain them.”
Dantry, courteous and discriminating, treated local writers with respect. Kathleen George, a writer who teaches theater at Pitt and is the author of a new novel, “Afterimage,” says rare is the bookstore where the staff knows literature from Jane Austen to Emile Zola.
“Jay and his store were there when I arrived as a student many years ago,” George says. “He is as much a part of Pitt and Pittsburgh as anybody I can think of. And his shop — which is a reflection of him — is a joy.”
Dantry is a bit unsure of his plans once he closes the store, saying only that he plans to do volunteer work. But for many, the closing of Jay’s Book Stall leaves a chasm in the heart of Oakland.
Starzl wonders where he will go to buy books when Dantry closes shop.
“It’s just a nice, comfortable place to browse,” Starzl says. “It’s Jay’s personality that made it a great place. And also the people he surrounded himself with were so exceptional. They would go out of their way to help you, searching for books, and it’s hard to find that kind of highly personal service.”
“It is Pittsburgh,” Wilson says. “Rich in history, richer in knowledge, eclectic artistic, and accessible, a true Oakland haunt. … Thanks for a business run with heart, and one that always helped.”
“I don’t know if there are three rivers of literary culture flowing through Pittsburgh — I wouldn’t be sure how to count them,” Chabon says. “But I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that Jay is one of those rivers.
“He has been a steady, strong, tireless force for good, championing books and authors he cared about, and because of his hospitality, his store has long served as a nexus for people in all the arts to come together and hang out and get to know each other. He has proved all kinds of points about the power and the value and the endurance of books and writing simply by virtue of staying open all these years in the face of brutal changes in the ways books are marketed and sold.”
FAMOUS VISITORS
Jay Dantry on writers who have visited Jay’s Book Stall.
Richard Ford: “He’s been here a number of times, just a wonderful guy.”
Stephen King: “Very nice, absolutely charming.”
Garrison Keillor: “Onstage he’s wonderful, but dour in person.”
Betty Friedan: “It was either too cold or too hot in here (for her). We gave her the wrong kind of water. When you picked her up at the airport, she would not ride in a green car. Or (if) somebody had been smoking in the car.”
Mary Higgins Clark: “She asked me to accompany her to a dinner (at a book convention in Chicago). I said, ‘Oh my God, how am I going to do this?’ But I forced myself to go. She was the only one who stopped me in my tracks.”
Doris Lessing: “She was fantastic. But when they took our picture, she put her hand on my knee and gave it a squeeze. Quite a surprise.”
Michael Chabon: “When he spoke to you, you would swear there wasn’t another person in the world. It was just you. He had this instant rapport that wasn’t a put-on.”
On the Pittsburgh writing community: “I think everybody takes it for granted, but there’s a wealth of talent here. They are bright people who stick together. Nobody goes New York on you.”
Regis Behe can be reached at rbehe@tribweb.com or 412-320-7990.
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Onorato preps new parks organization
By Justin Vellucci
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, February 14, 2008Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato charged the new county Parks Foundation with repairing and maximizing the potential of 12,014 acres of park land.
“I’m glad that we’re finally here at this point,” Onorato told board members Wednesday at the nonprofit’s first meeting. “We are talking about rethinking the whole park system.”The foundation, formed in September to help clean up county parks while privatizing some operations, includes a dozen members representing regional groups and businesses — from the University of Pittsburgh and the Eat’n Park Hospitality Group to Mascaro Construction Co. and U.S. Steel.
Onorato budgeted $1 million to get the group running and find its executive director. An additional $10 million is available as matching dollars for projects and deferred maintenance the county has neglected for the better part of 30 years.
“It’s a huge number,” Onorato said. “We’ll start picking it off project by project.”
The board’s first projects will address North Park’s boat house, the stables at Hartwood Acres, the South Park fairgrounds and Boyce Park’s activity center, Onorato has said.The idea of forming a park foundation dates back to at least 1998, and was endorsed by then-Chief Executive Jim Roddey and County Council around 2002.
Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, a city entity similar to what Onorato has created for the county, has tended to Schenley, Frick, Highland and Riverview parks for several years.
North Park, at 3,000 acres, is the county’s largest park and nearly seven times larger than Schenley Park.
Justin Vellucci can be reached at jvellucci@tribweb.com or 412-320-7847