Pittsburgh Police To Step Up Walking Patrols To Help Combat Wave Of Violence

A map of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with its neighborhoods labeled. For use primarily in the list of Pittsburgh neighborhoods. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pittsburgh police will step up patrols in the city’s eastern neighborhoods to combat an uptick in homicides, many of which appear to be drug-related, officials said on Monday.

Homicide detectives were closing in on a suspect in one of several recent shootings in a North Side public housing complex, officials said.

Police Lt. Daniel Herrmann said police know “key actors” in a shooting on Wednesday that killed one man and injured another in the Northview Heights housing complex.

“We need more information to pull people off the street,” Herrmann said. “We know some of the key actors, but we don’t have enough to get a warrant yet.”

Read more: http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/6556787-74/police-homicides-mcdonald#ixzz39X5C8vda
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1 Killed, 4 Wounded In Homewood Bar Shooting

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One person was shot to death and four others wounded inside a Homewood bar early Saturday, city police said.

When police and medics arrived at the Rendezvous Phase III bar, in the 7200 block of Hamilton Ave., about 1:20 a.m., bar patrons were fleeing the scene, according to a statement from police.

Police found Vincent Edward Holt Jr., 27, of Homewood dead inside the bar.

Read more: http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/5685313-74/bar-shooting-examiner#ixzz2ulk0I0G5
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Peduto Makes Pitch For New Housing In Pittsburgh

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Whether it’s Oxford or Ralph Falbo, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto has a message for developers — give me housing and lots of it.

And that applies to the North Shore, too, where you will find lots of offices and bars and even a hotel, but not a single place to call home.

In meetings with developers, Mr. Peduto is making it clear that there is a new administration with a new agenda in town — one that places a premium on housing and neighborhood business districts.

“Retail follows rooftop. That’s what [the late mayor] Bob O’Connor used to say. We don’t need to TIF retail centers. We don’t need to put public dollars behind big box. They’ll come. What we need to do is to build up the population that will shop there and then the retail would never need public subsidy,” he said.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2014/02/06/Peduto-makes-pitch-for-new-housing/stories/201402060184#ixzz2saXXgnKv

Brian O’Neill: Blight-Ridding Bill In Pittsburgh Shows Plenty Of Potential

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Drive down Hamilton Avenue or its side streets in Homewood and you’ll see a whole lot of not there anymore.

City Council is trying to hash out a plan to “land bank” the acres of vacant and boarded-up properties the city controls so they can be cleared for sale. That would take in about half of Homewood and almost half the Hill District.

When I asked Councilman Ricky Burgess, who represents Homewood, if he could give me a quick tour of the problem sites, he said, “You don’t need me. I’m dead serious. Drive down Hamilton Avenue and drive around at your leisure. It’s so bad … it’s breathtaking.”

He was right. It came as advertised.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/brian-oneill/2014/01/26/Brian-O-Neill-Blight-ridding-bill-in-Pittsburgh-shows-plenty-of-potential/stories/201401260059#ixzz2reCwstxI

Pittsburgh Police Arrest Teenager In East Busway Killing, Search For Others

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Pittsburgh police said today they have arrested one teenager and are looking for leads on two other people in connection with the killing and robbery last week of a man in Homewood along the East Busway.

Police said Jordan Bey, 16, of Homewood shot Omar Islam, 21, once in the leg, five times in the back and once in the head while Mr. Islam waited for a bus.

Detectives arrested Jordan at relative’s home in Duquesne on Monday night.

Detectives are also looking for Desmond Young, 20, of Homewood, who has not been charged but who is listed in court documents as conspiring with Jordan and for leads on a Homewood man known to police only as “Blue.”

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/pittsburgh-police-arrest-boy-16-in-east-busway-killing-707666/#ixzz2hpRCKjD7

Residents Of Homewood Search For Alternative To Demolishing Houses

Locator map with the Homewood North neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania highlighted. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Homewood‘s sense of place is eroding so fast that 184 homes have been razed since 2011 and another 232 are condemned. Residents are torn. They value the building stock that attests to better days, but blight is outpacing opportunities to save what’s viable.

Just in time for the neighborhood’s biggest investment in decades, Operation Better Block staff began a door-to-door campaign to motivate hundreds of residents to face this crisis by helping to plan housing strategies.

“Demolition was the only recourse people thought we had,” said Jerome Jackson, executive director of Operation Better Block. Even if it is, he added, people need information to be comfortable with that.

A neighborhood advocacy nonprofit since 1971, Operation Better Block initiated a resident-driven plan for the use of vacant land and buildings two years ago in a test area of 46 parcels near Pittsburgh Faison K-5. The school was a crucial reason to strengthen that area, which is also near the East Busway and the ripest area for investment.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/residents-of-homewood-search-for-alternative-to-demolishing-houses-706527/#ixzz2h3n9teMY

Man Arrested In Shooting Death In Hill District

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Pittsburgh police arrested a man late Thursday in connection with the shooting death of a man with gang ties last week in the Hill District.

Jay Morrison, 37, is scheduled to be arraigned today on charges of criminal homicide and a firearms violation in the killing of Harold Cabbagestalk, 40.

Morrison was arrested about 11:35 p.m. at Lady Di’s bar in Homewood based on a lead from the U.S. Marshal’s Fugitive Task Force, Pittsburgh police major crimes unit Lt. Daniel Hermann said in a press release.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/man-arrested-in-shooting-death-in-hill-district-705143/#ixzz2g718m2HT

Man With Gang Ties Is Shot To Death In Hill District

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Pittsburgh police knew Harold Cabbagestalk because they had charged him with two killings, although he was never convicted. Now, they are looking for the person who killed him.

Cabbagestalk, 40, once a member of the notorious Hazelwood Mob street gang, died at UPMC Mercy at 9:22 a.m. today, according to the Allegheny County medical examiner’s office. Pittsburgh police said he was shot the night before at the Flamingo Bar on Wylie Avenue in the Hill District.

A woman called 911 about 11:35 p.m. Monday and asked the call-taker to send medics to the bar.  When police arrived, they found Cabbagestalk lying on the floor with eight gunshot wounds, including one to the center of his chest, Major Crimes Lt. Daniel Herrmann said.

It was the second serious shooting that night.  Pittsburgh police were on the scene of a fatal shooting in Homewood when they learned that Cabbagestalk had been seriously injured.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/man-with-gang-ties-is-shot-to-death-in-hill-district-703721/#ixzz2fBzJkwqo

Wheel Mill: One Man’s Vision Turns Pittsburgh Warehouse Into Indoor Bike Park

This place is so new, you can smell it. Walk into the low-slung warehouse on Hamilton Avenue in Homewood, and the effect is immediate: Fresh-cut lumber, a little bit of sweat, a flash of motion — hey, did that kid just pop a wheelie?

Locator map with the Homewood West neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania highlighted. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A year ago, this building was stuffed with city equipment and impounded cars, 80,000 square feet of space that officials never quite knew how to handle.

Where Harry Geyer is standing?  That’s where the Pittsburgh Public Works Department used to dump their junk, something the 40-year-old has to laugh about now, surrounded by the loops and whorls of his creation.

This is the Wheel Mill, a massive indoor bike park the Lawrenceville entrepreneur has built almost single-handedly, a testament to his twin loves of mountain biking and sustainable construction that he hopes will resonate with the city’s cyclists.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/life/lifestyle/wheel-mill-one-mans-vision-turns-homewood-warehouse-into-indoor-bike-park-688207/#ixzz2TqmN5KRG

Pittsburgh Officials Hope Gunshot Detection System Will Aid Police

Locator map with the Homewood South neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania highlighted. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Shirley Wheaton, 73, says gunshots are regular background noise on Rosedale Street in Homewood, where she shares a home with her son, who is disabled.

But when she calls 911 to report it, emergency center operators often ask a question she can’t answer: Where is it coming from?

“Frankly, do you think I’m going outside to see where it’s coming from?” she said. “No one’s going to go outside to see where it’s coming from.”

Ms. Wheaton’s neighborhood will soon become the site of a $1.15 million pilot project to install a surveillance camera and gunshot detection system in a 3 square-mile area centered on Homewood.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/pittsburgh-officials-hope-gunshot-detection-system-will-aid-police-687074/#ixzz2Sv8Buz6K

Pittsburgh City Council Approves Security Cameras For Homewood

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After heated discussion, Pittsburgh City Council passed two bills to install surveillance cameras and a gunshot detection system in a three square mile area in Homewood at a cost of $1.15 million.

The bills were sponsored by Councilman Ricky Burgess, who said recent violence in the East End underscores the need for the surveillance cameras and the gunshot detection system, which has the ability to pinpoint the location of gunshots and notify authorities.

Councilman Patrick Dowd and Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak opposed the package of bills.  Ms. Rudiak said she was concerned about how the project was proposed and funded.  The money for the project will come from the 2014 capital budget, banking on the fact the city will likely run a surplus this year.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/pittsburgh-city-council-approves-security-cameras-for-homewood-685652/#ixzz2Rz6U5M4S

Pennsylvania’s First Indoor Biking Park To Open In Pittsburgh’s Homewood Section

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Local mountain bikers are celebrating early, and their excitement is aimed at Homewood.

There, in a former metal fabricating plant on an entire block, biking aficionado Harry Geyer is creating The Wheel Mill, the state’s first indoor park for bicyclists — mountain bikers, BMX racers and free-stylists and even cyclists who like to keep their wheels on the ground.

Mr. Geyer is leasing the building at 6815 Hamilton Ave., to which he also moved the office of his construction and remodeling business. He has access to 57,000 square feet; Global Links has 23,000 square feet of warehouse space on the eastern end.

Possibly as soon as late summer, Mr. Geyer will open the bike park, rolling it out in stages from one immense room to another so that eventually, people won’t have to drive to Ray’s MTB Indoor Park in Cleveland.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/pennsylvanias-first-indoor-biking-park-to-open-in-homewood-636804/