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The City of Pittsburgh, through the Department of City Planning, is beginning the process of creating an Open Space, Parks, and Recreation Plan. The Open Space, Parks, and Recreation Plan (OPENSPACEPGH) is one of the initial components of PLANPGH, the City’s Comprehensive Plan.
There are two surveys that have been posted on Open Space, Parks, and Recreation on the PLANPGH Exchange feature on the PLANPGH Website : one for adults, and one for youth. Share your opinion by filling out the survey by clicking here.
The survey will collect info on how Pittsburghers use and want to use Pittsburgh’s open space, park, and recreation resources (including what types of programs, facilities, and opportunities are important, where they should be located and how they should be maintained). You will help the City make informed decisions about future vacant land, open space, parks, and recreation efforts.
To be notified of development updates register, with the site. Registration is not necessary to fill out the survey, however. The survey is currently open, and will be open until August 31st.
A little off topic from local food, but still interesting from the living lightly standpoint.
Hugh Pickens writes “The LA Times reports that Orange County officials are locked in a legal battle with a couple accused of
violating city ordinances for replacing the grass on their lawn with wood chips and drought-tolerant plants, reducing their water usage from 299,221 gallons in 2007 to 58,348 gallons in 2009. The dispute began two years ago, when Quan and Angelina Ha tore out the grass in their front yard. In drought-plagued Southern California, the couple said, the
lush grass had been soaking up tens of thousands of gallons of water — and hundreds of dollars — each year. ‘We’ve got a newborn, so we want to start worrying about her future,’ said Quan Ha, an information technology manager for Kelley Blue Book. But city officials told the Has they were violating several city laws that require that 40% of residential yards to be landscaped predominantly with live plants. Last summer, the couple tried to appease the city by building a fence around the yard and planting drought-tolerant greenery — lavender, rosemary, horsetail, and pittosporum, among others. But according to the city, their landscaping still did not comply with city standards. At the end of January, the Has received a letter saying they had been charged with a misdemeanor violation and must appear in court. The couple could face a
maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine for their grass-free, eco-friendly landscaping scheme. ‘It’s just funny that we pay our taxes to the city and the city is now prosecuting us with our own money,’ says Quan Ha.
“
Here is the link to the slashdot article.
The room was packed with residents who lined up to voice their opinions about the proposed agriculture zoning ordinances. Members of many organizations including Penn State Extension, Grow Pittsburgh, East End Food Coop, Burgh Bees, The Kingsley Association, PASA, Landslide Farm, GTECH and others applauded the City’s efforts and interest in helping to guide the evolution of urban agriculture in Pittsburgh. Concerns regarding permitting fees, and regulations surrounding bee keeping and chicken keeping are at the heart of the changes the urban agriculture community would like the city to consider rewriting. The request was put forth by Grow Pittsburgh, and supported by others in the room, for 4 weeks time to craft ordinances that reflect the needs of the community.
Pop City wrote a good summary you can find here.
Posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago. Add a comment
Yum is sitting in a packed room awaiting the start of this meeting. The ag community is out in full force. It is easy to tell who is here on the side of bee and chicken keeping. Yum will report back on how things go.
Posted 6 months, 3 weeks ago. Add a comment
Public Hearing Regarding Proposed City of Pittsburgh Agriculture Zoning Ordinance
The City of Pittsburgh, in an effort to help guide and support the development of urban agriculture, community gardens and greening projects, has drafted a set of ordinances. These ordinances are related to production of produce as well as bee and chicken keeping. Penn State Extension, Allegheny County welcomes the Planning Commission’s work and the City of Pittsburgh as a valuable partner in shaping the evolution of urban agriculture.
The benefits of urban agriculture extend past the value of the calories grown and harvested. Creating and sustaining gardens can beautify neighborhoods, create a sense of community and neighborhood pride, positively affect property values and increase food security. Having guidelines in place is a valuable tool to help guide development of urban agriculture activities.
There will be an opportunity for public comment on the proposed ordinances. While the proposed ordinances are mainly positive, some members of the urban agriculture community would like to request that the Planning Commission clarify some areas related to permitting fees, and bee and chicken keeping.
The public hearing will be held Tuesday, Feb 16, 2010 at 2pm, at 200 Ross Street.
Penn State Extension, Allegheny County, is requesting that the ordinance be tabled for a period of four weeks at the February 16th meeting as it pertains to bees, chickens and other non-domestic farm animals, but passed for vegetable production with the exception of permit fees. The request for an additional four weeks of time would be used for the urban agriculture community to come together and propose changes related to the aforementioned areas.
Posted 6 months, 3 weeks ago. Add a comment
Well, the blizzard may not be so great for all the folks who had plans to travel home today, but the PASA conference was interesting, educational, fun and at times touching. In addition to tons of hard core ag topics there were a lot of topics for the do it your-selfers. This is just a brief mind dump, I have lots of fun stuff to write about in the coming week or two. But for now, the thing that struck me most was how much learning happened for folks from non-farming families on really practical food production and preservation. And the sense of self reliance and community that comes out of it.
There are a lot of folks who work with farmers, our food system, policy, cooking, nutrition; food really touches to many disciplines to list here. A lot of people have in interest in what they eat and where it comes from but are not from farming families. An interesting feature of the schedule this year was that there were a lot of skill-based sessions geared towards folks with interests in urban farming, suburban lawn transformation, permaculture, food preservation, composting and nutrition.
The food preservation topic was a great example of the cross pollination between disciplines and generations. There was a time where canning how-to was handed down informally every season during the harvest. This transfer from grandma to mom to granddaughter installed confidence in food security and the final product. Yum admits having canned and then not eating it for fear of having done it wrong and dying of botulism! So lame.
But to see a roomful of folks of all ages re-learning and sharing this old knowledge (which included the latest USDA tested recipes!) was remarkable. Seeing focused attention from so many people relearning how to use the sun to dry food for later use felt really, really right.
Here are some other things that were especially inspiring:
- Learning about a farmer coop in North Dakota who grow and distribute an open-pollinated wheat variety bred specifically for that climate. The seed is distributed on the honor system to fellow farmers, with no contracts to revive traditional crop production.
- Seeing how people have changed their suburban yards into beautiful producers of habitat and edible calories, and being inspired to keep removing the sod.
- All of the young families striving to learn and be part of making a better world for the young kids they were jugging.
- Lisa Hamilton’s photos and stories of farmers, farm protests and landscapes.
Enough for now, more later. Everyone have a safe trip home!!
The Pittsburgh Food Policy Council has been meeting for about a year, working to craft a Statement of Purpose and Charter. In structure, the council serves as an advisory group. It consists of volunteers from many area organizations whose focus is on food related issues and includes Penn State Extension, Grow Pittsburgh, The East End Food Coop, PASA, The Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank and many others. The charter content represents areas in our local food infrastructure that need attention and is bench-marked against cities with successful food policies such as Portland and San Francisco.
An exciting recent development of the Council’s work is the formation of a positive relationship with City of Pittsburgh officials. The immediate work of the council will be to prioritize charter items and begin the necessary work . Penn Extension State is proud to be a part of the current collective work happening to strengthen our region’s food system . The Council’s Statement of Purpose follows:
PITTSBURGH FOOD POLICY COUNCIL STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
The Pittsburgh Food Policy Council envisions a food system that benefits our community, our economy and our environment in ways that are equitable and sustainable. The group is a coalition of organizations and individuals that welcome participation from the public. The Council serves as a collaborative advisory organization, bringing together people from diverse food-related sectors to examine, develop and improve Pittsburgh’s food system. The council is committed to working with City officials and residents of Pittsburgh to develop food and urban agriculture policy. The council will provide the City with technical assistance, education, momentum and support on issues related to food production, food access, food distribution, health/nutrition and urban planning. Our vision is that a sustainable food and urban agriculture system will:
• Enable Pittsburgh to develop and improve the regional food
system.
• Make positive contributions to our region’s economy, health and
sustainability goals
• Encourage personal, commercial and government food practices
that foster local food production, access and distribution
• Promote food security through the elimination of hunger
• Protect our natural and human resources
• Create infrastructure support for the growth of community
gardens and urban farming
• Create economic and job growth opportunities for neighborhood
residents
• Promote food equity for all neighborhoods through conscientious
city planning and development
• Create opportunities for collaboration throughout the community.
• Celebrate our region’s multicultural food traditions and recognize
the importance of diverse cultures.
Posted 7 months, 2 weeks ago. Add a comment
Penn State Cooperative Extension is pleased to offer “Exploring the Small Farm Dream”
Have you ever considered launching a small farm enterprise, but were not sure where to start? This is the course for you!
Designed to help guide you through an initial exploratory decision making process, “Exploring the Small Farm Dream” bridges the gap between ideas and action.
What to Expect :
· Creative exercise, research and class discussions that will help you assess your skills and resources.
· Interviews with local farm business owners that will assist you in deciding how to carry your dream forward.
· The opportunity to connect with others interested in new farm enterprises.
Who should attend:
· Career changers and farm newbies breaking into agricultural pursuits.
· Farm apprentices interested in launching their own start-ups.
Small Farm Possibilities:
- A market farm operation specializing in heirloom vegetables.
- A pick-your-own orchard.
- A grass-fed beef CSA enterprise.
- A goat dairy selling cheese and yogurt.
- A garden supplying cut flowers.
- Add your own small farm dream to the list!
Where: Penn State Extension Allegheny County, North Point Breeze
When: March 9,16,23,30 from 6-8:30pm
For More Information Contact: Heather Mikulas, Program Associate 412-473-2540 or hem12@psu.edu
Posted 7 months, 3 weeks ago. Add a comment
My neighbor just harvested these huge sweet potatoes! Beautiful!
Posted 10 months, 3 weeks ago. Add a comment
Yum cannot deny the real heartache over losing so many beautiful, heirloom tomatoes to the late blight. Though I, as many folks before me have lamented the dread spores of Phytopthora infestans, it is with gratitude that my life does not depend on the calories from this food. However, it is true that the economic impact of losing this cash crop is a hardship for many of our local growers.
Where is the silver lining in this? For the backyard gardener, there are three bright spots. One, unless potatoes are also in the garden, winter will kill these spores. Two, there is still time to plant some cold tolerant plants in the space opened up by the death of the tomatoes.
The cooler temperatures can signal some vegetables to store sugars, making fall harvested food crisp and sweet. It is true that some veggies taste better long after we start getting frosts. So what can you plant, on this, the hottest day of the year?
First, determine your fall frost date. This is a variable date that one settles on by determining how much gambling is in your gardening style. Yum takes a 50/50 chance and settles on October 5 for the Greater Pittsburgh area, giving about 7-8 weeks left. Lettuce, radishes, spinach, mache, kale and some brassicas like Tat soi and other Asian greens come come to mind.
What to do if the frost comes early? Creating or buying a floating row cover helps moderate temperatures to keep plants alive from a killing frost.
And here is the third bright spot, it can be reused next spring to start your tomatoes a bit earlier. And that is a yummy thought!
Posted 1 year ago. 1 comment
