A Night Life For All Ages

The trees in full bloom provide shade for the over heated. Store fronts are open to the vibrant city's hustle and bustle. Restaurants and bars slide their garage styled doors to the ceiling, welcoming the outside world and unleashing the scent of freshly grilled chicken and sound of chattering friends deep in conversation. Pittsburgh in the summer. There truly is nothing like it. And when the sun goes down, when the waves of heat silently undulate from the burning pavement and the sounds of crickets resonate through the cooling air; when it's night time in Pittsburgh and you’re looking for a way to just relax - to watch a movie and yet still enjoy the crisp cooling heat of the Pittsburgh setting sun, look to Cinema in the Parks.

Cinema in the Parks is an amazing Pittsburgh community event. The series runs from June 10th to August 30th and is featured in the many beautiful parks all around the city of Pittsburgh. It’s a time for all Pittsburghers to take a break from work and the constricting walls of their homes. To take off their shoes, hear the crunch of the green grass beneath their feet and feel its tickle between their toes. To be with family, friends and community while sitting back and enjoying movies fit for all ages. And the best part is it’s a time to do all of this for free.

Having featured in the past such movies as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 2, The Muppets, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Cinema in the Parks is a real Pittsburgh gem and a great way to feel the thriving Pittsburgh community.

So, don’t miss out on Cinema in the Parks this summer! Keep yourself updated by checking in at this website here: http://bit.ly/11NA0rj

Black and Yellow: The New Green

In today’s day and age it’s important to go “green” and live somewhere that is clean and eco-friendly.  Now, we admit that Pittsburgh is not the first place to come to mind when one think clean and eco-friendly, but then maybe it should be. Once you free your mind of any preconceived notions of Pittsburgh’s long-gone industrious past, it’s clear that Pittsburgh has made some serious strides in going green for a sustainable future - more than your average city, too.

Pittsburgh is a city for cyclist. Part of what keeps Pittsburgh air cleaner than other cities is its bike friendly attitude. In 2010 Pittsburgh was awarded bronze-level recognition for its “bike friendly” status by the League of American Bicyclists, and rightfully so. It was around this same time that Pittsburgh had completed its mission to lay grounds for over 13 miles of painted bike lanes and shared lane markings!

Pittsburgh has green buildings. In fact, in 1993 the city of Pittsburgh formed the Green Building Alliance, which was the first U.S. Green Building Council affiliate in the U.S. And where has it led us? Well, besides for already being an innovator in LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) with the world’s first LEED convention center (David L. Lawrence Convention Center) and the world’s first LEED dormitory (Stever House at Carnegie Mellon University), in 2012 PNC started it’s plans for building the world’s greenest skyscraper right here in downtown Pittsburgh!

Finally, in 2008 Pittsburgh’s Mayor Ravenstahl hired Pittsburgh’s first ever Sustainability Coordinator and created the Office of Sustainability and Energy Efficiency in effort to provide guidance to all Pittsburghers on how to go green. Since then the office has led campaigns in reducing City-owned building energy use, utilizing solar energy and involving Pittsburghers in recycling programs, tree planting initiatives and other green activities!

So, let go of the preconceived notions of the industrial city Pittsburgh once was, and open your mind to the sustainable city Pittsburgh now is. Pittsburgh is going green and we want you to be a part of it! To find out more about how you can help click here: http://bit.ly/ZhydYX

The Art Culture of Pittsburgh

Rumor has it that economically Pittsburgh is one of the greatest cities to live in in America. With such leading companies as UPMC, Google, PNC Banking and Highmark nesting right here in our beloved city, Pittsburgh has managed to flip its industrial depression into an economic sprout! Relying heavily on the development of groundbreaking medicine and technology, Pittsburgh is a city of innovation, and its economy in reflects just that. But the question that arises, is how is Pittsburgh culturally?

If you’ve never been to Pittsburgh, besides for August Wilson, Andy Warhol and Billy Strayhorn, you might not know too much about the local artisans and cultural phenomenons that happened and are happening here today. One local cultural phenom is an event we Pittsburghers like to call “Unblurred”.

Unblurred is an event that is part of the Penn Avenue Arts Initiative; a project focused on revitalizing the Penn Avenue corridor and instilling pride in a Pittsburgh neighborhood. It’s an event that happens on the first Friday of every month in which local galleries along Penn Avenue open their doors for gallery showcasing and performances. The event is free and consistently filled with Pittsburghers of all backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses that have come together to enjoy the local presence of artists old and young right here in their city. It’s a beautiful cultural happening that exhibits not just art, but also the flourishing community, friendliness and equality that is modern day Pittsburgh.

In fact, this monthly gallery crawl has been so successful that it is recognized as having reduced vacancy on Penn Avenue from “78% to 21.37%” and was “sited as 1 of 10 case studies nationwide in Tom Borrup’s, “The Creative Community Builder’s Handbook.”

To learn more about Unblurred and the Penn Avenue Arts Initiative, visit the website here: http://bit.ly/XhduJo

Pittsburgh's Promise

It can be tough to leave behind a home, and even more difficult to leave behind an education. One of the most important parts of relocating a family is knowing that your child will receive as good of, or better, an education as he or she is currently receiving. Pittsburgh is a city that can assure that. Here in Pittsburgh, we have a variety of different public schools, as well as private schools, to choose from. And when your child is finally ready to graduate high school and move onto a secondary education, we here in Pittsburgh have a little thing called the Pittsburgh Promise.

In 2008 students in the Pittsburgh public school system were introduced to an amazing opportunity. Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, along side of then superintendent, Mark Roosevelt, had developed a program in which any Pittsburgh public school student, with a GPA of at least 2.5, an attendance rate of at least 90% and who has gained admissions to any accredited Pennsylvania public or private college/university, can be rewarded with Pittsburgh city scholarship money from up $40,000. It’s called the Pittsburgh Promise and it’s been rewarding local youth for five years now.

To find out how you or your child can make the most of this opportunity, visit www.pittsburghpromise.org.