Happenings in Pittsburgh!! (Washington, Butler, Indiana: mortgage, environment, real estate)

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Hey boylocke, do you feel lonely here? Just figured I'd stop by and tell you I've read your posts...

Actually I really really appreciate that. I'm not lonely, per say, lol, but it is nice to know people read them. It's nice to know because people should read them, it's not about me taking time to post it all, I don't care about that.

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I love this thread! Thanks, boylocke!

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New sitcom anchors Pittsburgh in favorable new spotlight - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Pittsburgh's no stranger to finding itself on the business end of a punchline.

Moderator cut: do not repost copyrighted material

[boardmanite]

"""There’s really only one downside to choosing Pittsburgh for a getaway, and that’s the tedium that sets in somewhere around the 11th time you hear “Why?!?”

But the once-gritty steel town that was formerly an easy punch line for lazy comics’ riffs has reinvented itself, stoking its hip quotient to the point of serving as home to the sex-addled, appearance-conscious, partying denizens of ***** as Folk. After all, the Places Rated Almanac named it America’s most livable city—just this year. Sometimes publications do get it right.

With major carriers running round-trip fares under $100, most anyone with a passing interest in modernist aesthetics will find a visit worth the trip. On the 20-mile drive from the airport, verdant, hillside neighborhoods give way to vistas opening to the city’s renowned three rivers: Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio. The landscape evokes Paris, Seattle maybe, or even Stockholm."""

I love the end of that quote. I keep saying Pittsburgh almost makes me feel like I'm in Europe, but nobody believes me!!!

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I got this in my e-mail from my dad this morning. I will try to find out where he actually got this stuff, I would like to read the previous installments.

Q: Dejan, unrelated to the Pirates, but related to your "Thing No. XX that makes Pittsburgh great" bits: I can't understand what the deal is with Pittsburghers' inferiority complex about the city ...
I grew up in Irvine, Calif., and moved to Pittsburgh in 2002 as I followed my now-wife to Pitt for medical school. I've been living here five years. Everyone says "Oooh, California, why the heck did you leave? And when are you going back?" They are doubly stunned when my reply includes, "I don't want to go back. I love Pittsburgh."
I love Pittsburgh for everything California is not. The people are real, the city is accessible, the medical care here is second to none (even my father, a die-hard UCLA-everything fan has conceded that UPMC is the best), the cost of living is incredibly amazing, the seasons are real (California seasons are warm, hot, hotter, and barbecue), and I'm having a very hard time with the potential of having to leave Pittsburgh and head back to California in a year or two.
Hear me, Pittsburghers? Even Californians prefer living here! Stop dogging your city.
David Elster of Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh
KOVACEVIC: On that note, here is the final entry of the season, written by another newcomer to our city ...
________________________________________

Thing No. 60 that makes Pittsburgh (last one of the year) great comes, as promised, from new team president Frank Coonelly, who kindly accepted an invitation to share his initial impressions:
I have not been able to read all of the previous installments of this feature, but there is one quality of Pittsburgh that should not be overlooked in this forum. One thing that truly sets Pittsburgh apart from the many places I have been. One thing has been a constant every time I have visited Pittsburgh or talked to someone that was from Pittsburgh and moved away.
That one thing: The people.
Pittsburgh is a great city, and its people are proud of it. That was made clear to me over and over again by my college teammate on the hockey team who was a Pittsburgh native. After spending so much time with him, I felt like I knew everything about the city.
Following my formal introduction last week, everywhere I went, I was stopped by someone who recognized me from the media coverage. Each person could not have been friendlier. The one thing I heard over and over again (in addition to ideas on how to improve the ball club, of course) was how much my family and I are going to love it here. The pride is obvious.
Growing up and living in Eastern Pennsylvania, this pride is something I can attest to. In fact, I use to commute two hours each way to the MLB offices in New York just to remain a resident of our state.
The quality of the city and its people were a major factor in my decision to take this position. I could not be more excited to move my family to this region.
Now, am I as excited to learn how to navigate the streets? That might be another story.

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This should come as no surprise. lol.

Pop City - CMU robotics researchers shoot for the moon and $30 million purse

Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute has joined a race to the moon certain to inspire the greatest robotics minds in the world as they vie for a $30 million purse.

The Google Lunar X Prize, touted as the richest international competition in history, goes to the team that reaches the moon first, drives a robot for at least 500 meters and transmits a “Mooncast” of its activity successfully back to Earth. It’s the kind of daunting challenge that CMU’s spirited Fredkin Research professor at the Robotics Institute, Red Whittaker, has dreamed of.

“You only live once,” says Whittaker, who believes the race will usher in the next robotics generation. It won’t be the first time Pittsburgh has been on the on the cusp of a new era, he adds.

“All the great prizes change markets and products in a big way,” Whittaker reflects. The Orteig prize pushed Charles Lindburgh across the Atlantic. In 1987, CMU researchers built a computer named Deep Thought that beat a human chess opponent, winning a contest that forever changed the way we see computers.

“No one thought that a computer could defeat a good chess player,” says Whittaker. “And a gaming industry developed. Think about what it did for belief in artificial intelligence.”

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Fine Foundation gives $5M to Carnegie Museums - Pittsburgh Business Times:

The Fine Foundation of Pittsburgh announced a $5 million gift to Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh's $150 million capital campaign in support of the Carnegie International.

It is the largest gift ever to support the event, one of the art world's longest established international exhibitions of contemporary work, and will provide for the creation of The Fine Prize, which will be awarded to an emerging artist from each Carnegie International, starting in May.

Milton Fine, Fine Foundation president and chairman who joined the museum's board of trustees in 1983, said in a statement: "The Carnegie International continues to be, in my opinion, the hallmark of the Carnegie...It is my hope that with this gift...we will help to augment the commitment of Pitsburgh to the pivotal role of this exhibition, and thereby promote its future viability and durability.

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PNC, one of the "greenest" companies in the world, is doing quite well. :P I'm very happy for them and their growing presence in Pittsburgh.

Change over -- baltimoresun.com

Lucille Ingalls remembers going to work as a teller at an affiliate of Mercantile Bankshares Corp. in Virginia during World War II. She stayed even after the soldiers returned from abroad, rising to the post of senior vice president and watching the banking industry evolve through the dawning of the automated teller machine.

J. Donald Henyon, head of Mercantile's affiliate in Laurel for more than a decade, remembers life as a community pillar, firing up the popcorn machine for customers on Saturdays and making it a point to never be seen gambling at the nearby horse tracks. He is, after all, a banker. He doesn't like to lose money.

The stories of Ingalls and Henyon - normally not considered ones for the history books - are being captured by historians as Mercantile's name is disappearing, not only from bank statements but from Baltimore's skyline and from 240 branches. It will be replaced by PNC Financial Services Group, a Pittsburgh-based bank that acquired Mercantile in its expansion southward and that launched a "legacy project" to preserve its history.

PNC is trying to ingratiate itself with the customers and employees in Mercantile's Mid-Atlantic footprint, and has spent nearly a year working on a smooth integration of the two institutions. The process culminates tomorrow when Mercantile's operational systems will be converted to PNC's platform and the blue-and-orange PNC logos will be unveiled on the branches.

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Target stays focused on East Liberty store - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

East Liberty may soon have a major national retailer -- possibly a Target discount store -- at the site now housing the Penn Circle Apartments.

Before any retail development begins, residents must be relocated from the Penn Circle complex, which is scheduled for demolition.

"We are generally interested in the East Liberty area," said Joshua Thomas, a Target spokesman. Normally, Target does not announce new stores until about one year prior to its opening, he said.

The Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority recently approved $550,000 for operation of the apartment facility until its 36 residents relocate, many of them to Fairfield Apartments, a complex under construction at the site of the previously-demolished Liberty Park apartments.

Authority board members were advised that the first phase of Fairfield should be complete within several months and it, along with other East Liberty apartment projects such as Penn Manor and Negley Neighbors, will become the new home for the tenants by March 2008.

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These look cute! Not a bad place to live if I were a senior in need! (we'll all get there someday ) Rendering included.

Pop City - 59-unit senior housing development underway in Moon Township

Woodcrest Retirement Residence, a new green residential development for seniors, is under construction at 1502 Woodcrest Ave. in Coraopolis.

The $9.7 million project will feature 59 rental apartments for residents 55 years of age and over. A special “wall busting” groundbreaking event took place at the 1.5-acre site on September 18th.

The four-story property will feature 49 one-bedroom and eight two bedroom apartments, as well as two efficiency units. Apartments will range in size from 495 to 855 square feet. Rental rates will range from $190 to $705 per month.