I’ve tried several times to contact Bethlehem Haven asking if they accept donations of clothing. You can’t even leave a message. I know these places are understaffed but, geez, I’m talking calls over a span of 4-5 months. Somebody should have fixed it by now.

It seems like many people are taking the approach that if an idea doesn't totally solve all aspects of a problem it's no good. Like the old saying, "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." Urban food forests aren't going to be perfect, but they could contribute in many ways and are cheaper and more practical than some other solutions.

Exactly! Maybe our hot weather doesn't compare to Tuscon's but it still gets uncomfortable and causes heavy energy use for air conditioning. Look at neighborhoods like Squirrel Hill or Point Breeze for example where almost every residential street has long-established shade trees. Then look at Morningside which is also a generally pleasant neighborhood but has a sparse tree canopy making it feel not as nice.

And what about wasting disease? I'm not really knowledgeable about eating game, but I just get this feeling that it might be polluted and possibly diseased.

And they are almost effortless to grow.

I can imagine how polluted the soil is here, that’s sad.

And, like any carefully thought out planting, plants would be picked with a variety of harvest times, so it wouldn't be a very limited time each year.

You make some valid points, but like most ideas that offer solutions to multiple problems, food forests are more helpful for some problems than others. The amount of edible produce available wouldn't solve a city's hunger problem, but it's better than a barren landscape that does nothing. As the article states "before the pandemic Dunbar Spring held annual community-wide milling events, in which pods harvested from the hundreds of mesquite trees in the neighborhood were ground into flour – giving them a year’s supply of flour."

More importantly, the neighborhood described benefited from a whopping 38 degree difference in temperature which is enough to justify the whole project IMO. And the plantings help absorb and mitigate storm run-off.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/21/urban-food-forest-dunbar-spring-tucson-arizona-climate-crisis-drought?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

It doesn't have to be downtown. Read the article, it refers to residential neighborhoods, and it's not all large trees. The concept includes bushes and understory plantings.

Maybe at Citygrows. One in Lawrenceville and another in the produce terminal building in the strip.

Wanna bet he'll be one of those politicians who accepts a job with a company he should have been helping to regulate? Maybe media consultant for the ET Works or the cracker plant?

No, it's not a diversion. I was simply using the diesel bus issue as an example of how GASP actually accomplished a change. People tend to dismiss these organizations as ineffectual, and they aren't.

Go to the Breathe Project website, learn about their current campaigns and help them.

These people are not a bunch of impotent talkers. One of their affiliated groups, GASP, took on the issue of diesel buses idling outside of schools, spewing dangerous pollution. That's now illegal and most schools have "no idling" signs posted.

As long as we have politicians like Fitzgerald who never saw a polluting industry he didn't back, it remains frustrating and difficult. Need I repeat the importance of voting?

https://breatheproject.org/

The storm was viciously cold but, really, not much snow. Maybe 2”, you won’t have to dig out. And like typical Pittsburgh weather it’s supposed to change quickly when the storm is gone. Depending upon what day you return it’s going to be in the 40-50s by Tuesday or Wednesday.

One of the few instances of NextDoor being useful: lots of discussion recently about drugstores, especially RiteAid closing with no notice at various times because of no pharmacist being available. People go to get their script and find the pharmacy closed. This is a crappy development no matter what drug you need, so be aware. Rite Aid has a reputation for paying terrible wages and setting demanding schedules. Never mind not being able to get your prescription late at night, some people are having problems in the middle of a weekday.

That's still how it works, you have to call early the previous morning to book a trip, except on Friday you can book for Sat.-Sun.-Mon. Sometimes they are short on drivers so you are turned down. If you have a long awaited appointment with a specialist or a medical procedure you don't know if you can show up until the previous day. And forget spending bucks on a theater, concert, or sports event ticket, cause you might get a nope! I've waited as long as 2 1/2 hours for them to show up to pick me up going home. I see them pick up people who have been on dialysis all day, and feel awful for how they have to wait.

That's inexcusable, seems like a violation of your civil rights.

I believe Uber and Lyft have wheelchair vans in other cities but in Pittsburgh we have to rely on the spotty Access system if you need to go somewhere not easily accessible by bus. And how many times have you been blocked from entering a business by the one step at the entrance to so many in the East End? Sometimes I find that single step more frustrating than a big staircase.

We like to brag about our buses falling into holes and ravines but we don’t give enough attention to another huge Pittsburgh tradition, cars and trucks into houses. If I wasn’t so lazy I’d research the ten year car into house total. Cars into bars count too.

Haha, sorry for leading with the scary part.

A few months ago someone commented here that their friend is a health department inspector who said it’s the cleanest restaurant they’ve ever been in.