WEST END BRIDGE PEDESTRIAN WALKWAY

Almost Three years ago, the Riverlife Taskforce announced a competition to design a pedestrian walkway for the West End Bridge. A little over 2 years ago, the winner was announced. Endres Ware, an architecture and engineering firm based in Berkeley, California won first prize with the design pictured below.

Since the winner was announced, there hasn’t been any progress made into actually building the structure. A few of us were recently talking about this and were speculating on what was going on. Maybe they are waiting to have the West End Circle project finished. Maybe they are waiting for the casino to be finished. Maybe the funding was pulled due to the economic status of the city and county. Maybe it was held up in City or County council waiting for approval. They all sounded like good explanations to me, but I decided to ask the Riverlife Task Force directly.

After asking if this project was still in the works, I received the Following response via email from Chuck Alcorn at Riverlife. “We are currently raising money for the project and it certainly continues to be part of our overall plan.”

This response was certainly short and to the point, but it tells us all we need to know. It’s a simple funding issue. Let’s hope they get the funding needed for this project because it would be very beneficial to the West End region. According to a 2006 Post-Gazette Article, Lisa Schroeder, executive director of the Riverlife Taskforce said this about funding:

"All of the teams who submitted [designs] gave cost estimates," Ms. Schroeder said. "We have some work to do to finalize those estimates and make them public. We will be working diligently and immediately to put together a strategy for advancing design and engineering and also fund-raising."

It would be nice if included in this project will be a bike lane or access lane to safely cross from Main Street to this walkway on either a bike or shoe leather express.

Someday this will be a nice way to bicycle to a ballgame or play slots or for students to get to class at CCAC. It'll be the best view for fireworks. If we know anything, a good view for fireworks in Pittsburgh is a must have.

ARTY PARTY

Pittsburgh garden artist Gary Pletsch is going to be hosting his annual "Garden Art Party" on Saturday August 2nd from Noon 'til Dusk at 210 Marlow Ave in Elliott.

This is a small excerpt from 7/29/2008 issue of the Post-Gazette:

'arty party'
Potter and garden artist Gary Pletsch, one of the original participants in the much missed East End Events, is hosting a public "arty party" at 210 Marlow St., West End (Pittsburgh 15220 for you mapquesters), from noon to dusk Saturday. Matthias Bodnar, David Edwards, Will Giannotti, Evan Schmidt, James Shipman and Alison Zapata will also be showing artwork. A $5 donation and a "potent grape or grain" are requested; or purchase a Pletsch tumbler with beverage for $10. Information: 412-920-6578.

You can find more information here on David Edward's (one of the artists listed above) MySpace Blog.

SOCCER SIGNUPS

This coming Saturday, August 2nd, The Elliott West End Athletic Association will be holding youth soccer signups from 10:00 am to 12:00 noon at the Herschel Park little league candy stand. You will also be able to signup the following Wendesday, August 6th, 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm at the candy stand.

Additional signups will be held from August 18th thru August 22nd at the soccer camp which will be held at the Herschel "bottom" field, aka The Big Field, from 6:30 pm to 8:30pm.


The E.W.E.A.A. will be holding their annual year end picnic on Saturday September 13th from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm at the Herschel little league field.

Any questions please contact Bessy Miller 412-889-4509 or Bob Salinetro 412-398-1353.

Local Shop Appears in Post-Gazette Article

In the 07/29/2008 issue of the Post-Gazette, there is a good story on second hand stores. With the economy the way it is today, it's not a bad idea to start taking a look at these places. There is a very nice little store located right in our own backyard on Wabash Street caddy-corner to the Carnegie Library. The store is called the Animal Advocates Thrift Shoppe. Here is what the Gazette had to say about it:

Animal Advocates Thrift Shop
35 Wabash St.West End
412-928-9837

Although not as quaint as Family Heirlooms, the Animal Advocates Thrift Shop is also a two-story house. The space is small, and maneuvering through the piles of toys and clothes is difficult. There are some recognizable brands such as Old Navy and Gap, but they are scarce.
Selection is small but the prices are low. The thrift store offers shoppers a brown bag bargain: They can purchase a bag for $3 and take home what fits in the bag.

You can read the entire article by clicking here.

According to the telephone voice mail , the store hours are listed below.

Tuesday 12:00-3:00
Thursday 1:00-3:30
Friday 12:30-3:30
Saturday 11:00-3:00
(website shows slightly different hours)

Please take a look at this site, http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/PA294.html, to learn more about Animal Advocates and how your purchases from the Thrift Shoppe go towards helping animals. you can also view the organization site HERE.

Cinema in the Park

This is just a reminder that there are only 4 showing left this year at the West End Overlook.

Jul 29
The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A Veggie Tales Movie
rated PG

Aug 05
Surf's Up
rated PG

Aug 12*
August Rush
rated PG

Aug 19
Pride
rated PG

Please check out this LINK, for official showtimes and other venues.

Ice Skating in the West End?

Check out this picture of Wabash park that I came across on the Pitt "Historic Pittsburgh Images" site. This picture was taken in 1917 and most of the area looks the same. At least that area was getting put to good use compared to the vast wasteland that it is now. When was the last time you saw anyone actually using that field?

First Post

I'd like to use this first post a means to tell you what we are going to be writing about and why we are doing it.

We are starting off with about 4 different authors to the site and more will be added as we go. Each of us will have a different expertise, whether it's neighborhood sports, politics, history, etc. We'd like to have authors of all age ranges eventually to give different perspective on neighborhood issues.

We are hoping to reach out to all West End / Elliott residents, former residents, and business owners and bring everyone together to one place for information on events, news, issues, etc.
We are going to try to keep this site about West End / Elliott only, but we'll occasionally scamper into the neighborhoods of Sheraden and Crafton Heights as sometimes the lines blur and issues are to hard to ignore as they usually affect all of us.

You will see links to news stories from the Post-Gazette, Tribune Review, KDKA, WTAE, WPXI, and many others. You will also read about road projects (West End Circle work anyone), street paving, local sports from the Elliott West Athletic Association, road closings, and many many other items. We are hoping to hear from you and tell us how to make the site better. What do the residents want to read about? Someday we'd like to have a weekly Q&A posting and possibly a police blotter.

Please make all of your friends and family aware of this new site and make it a favorite. We'd like this to be one of the sites you visit everyday!