Downtown Pittsburgh, Oakland Rapid Bus Route Urged

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Allegheny County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Backers of a proposed Bus Rapid Transit corridor connecting Downtown Pittsburgh and Oakland have adopted an ambitious timetable to advance the project.

Wendy Stern, Port Authority assistant general manager for planning and development, told a board committee recently that project supporters hope to apply for federal funding next fall. That would require completion of preliminary engineering and environmental review before then, and securing all of the non-federal funding needed for construction.

That would keep the project on track for a start of service in 2017.

A preliminary estimate of the overall cost is $200 million and the project would have to prevail in a highly competitive federal grant program to move ahead, Ms. Stern said. A federal grant likely would cover only 50 percent of the cost.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2013/12/02/Port-Authority-pushes-Downtown-Oakland-rapid-yyy-Downtown-to-Oakland-rapid-bus-route-urged/stories/201312020059#ixzz2mL8hxINw

Tech Boom In Pittsburgh Gives Rise To Co-Work Spaces

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

When Revv Oakland founder Mark Mussolino approached Nathan Schwartz of Oakland Real Estate five years ago with a plan to make their community the city’s next startup hub, he happened to water a seed planted years earlier during visits to the West Coast.

During Mr. Schwartz’s time in Palo Alto, Calif., during the early 2000s, he was impressed by the buzzing small business district found on University Avenue, a boulevard running through Stanford University’s campus. Hiding among the businesses — mostly tech-driven startups run by Stanford students — was one tiny office with a small blue and white sign advertising a company called “The Facebook.”

Between the university brain trust in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood and the booming demand from the region’s tech startups for innovative work spaces, Mr. Mussolino said it was easy for Mr. Schwartz to see the potential of discovering the next Facebook atop a Forbes Avenue storefront.

After the Schwartz family decided to use the Meyran Avenue space that formerly housed new-age smoke shop Tela Ropa in 2011, Revv Oakland — a 5,000-square-foot co-working community perched above a beauty supply store and Peace, Love & Little Donuts — was born.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/business/2013/11/10/Pittsburghs-tech-boom-gives-rise-to-co-work-spaces/stories/201311100084#ixzz2kIxGfOn3

Man Fatally Shot Outside Original Hot Dog Shop In Oakland

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

A Brookline man was shot and killed early this morning outside a popular Oakland hot dog shop.

Zachary Sheridan, 24, was shot in the throat at Forbes Avenue and South Bouquet Street after an argument with someone inside the Original Hot Dog Shop spilled outside, according to Pittsburgh police Sgt. James Vogel of the Squirrel Hill station.

Homicide detectives are investigating.

“We’re looking for a couple of people,” Detective Harold Bolin said this morning.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/ae/art-architecture/man-fatally-shot-outside-original-hot-dog-shop-in-oakland-697942/#ixzz2avLCQAjC