For the most part – IheartPGH has been a non partisan blog about Pittsburgh.  But the truth is that this entire blog started with a couple of conversations between Natalia Rudiak and I, when we met 8 years ago volunteering on Bill Peduto’s first campaign for mayor in 2005.

After seeing that some of the voters who follow IheartPGH on Twitter are still undecided about who would be the best mayor for the city of Pittsburgh – I wanted to share some thoughts on why this mayoral election is important why I think Pittsburgh needs Bill Peduto.

A few weeks ago the Post-Gazette published this article by columnist Sally Kalson “Pittsburgh Doing All Right: At least we’re not the most corrupt city, and we have topped some cool lists.”  The title of this article really struck me – why is “all right” okay with this city.  Why are we ok with some corruptuion.  And why can’t Pittsburgh be the best city for everyone.  Why are we okay with Pittsburgh being just okay.

Today – you have a chance to help Pittsburgh do a whole lot better by voting for Bill Peduto.  There are probably hundreds of reasons why I think Bill Peduto is the best choice for Pittsburgh today which I have tried to simplify to 2 main points – people and sharing ideas.

People First  - So the thing that makes Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh – you know this place that people are so in love with that they ready a blog like IheartPGH, it is more than the steelers and more than pierogis, it is people.

This tweet is a perfect example of Pittsburgh:

Met my amazing neighbors @ the polling place this morning-1 man has lived in the same house for 87 yrs.#community #bloomfield @iheartpgh

— Amanda McAlpine (@anmcalpine) May 21, 2013

One of the conversations that led to Natalia and I starting this blog was the need to share stories of the small businesses in Pittsburgh,  the places that are owned by Pittsburgh people.  In 2005, there was a lot of talk about what Pittsburgh needs to attract young people.  Many of the leaders were talking about more big development, more Starbucks, and places like Dave and Busters.  P But no one was talking about the folks that were moving to Pittsburgh for the local places.  Many Pittsburgh leaders have been rolling out the red carpet to attract outside business.  No one was talking about the Pretzel Shop or Grocery Italiana in Pittsburgh.  Since I first met Bill Peduto – he has focused on the people.  Not only is Peduto passionate about supporting local businesses but he understands how important it is that we create government policies that are just as friendly to the Pittsburgh businesses as they are to the big businesses.

Bringing Ideas to the table – While Pittsburgh may be unique in terms of the love that residents have for this city, Pittsburgh is not unique in some of the challenges we face trying to figure out how to adjust to a changing economy.  I have been fortunate to attend some of the GLUE (Great Lakes Urban Exchange) Conferences.  GLUE is an organization that was founded by a Pittsburgher and a Detroit resident with the idea that rustbelt cities need to do a better job of sharing best practices.  There is a huge opportunity to learn from, collaborate and improve on ideas that have been tried in other cities. One of the reasons I love blogging is that it is an incredible way to share ideas.  Every week on this blog and on the IheartPGH Facebook page and Twitter accounts – the IheartPGH community shares ideas.

Bill Peduto has gone out of his way to spend time studying Pittsburgh and other cities and to find new ideas and more importantly new solutions for some of the problems facing Pittsburgh. Not only has Peduto gone out of his way to seek out ideas – but he is always happy to learn about other ideas.  A few years ago I read this article in Fast Company – The Starbucks Cup Dilemma.  Which details how Starbucks is trying to reduce cups thrown into the trash. The article also talks about how Seattle’s mandatory composting program has reduced the amount of waste going into a landfill and saved the city of Seattle a significant amount of money.  After reading the article  I ran into Bill Peduto and I immediately started asking what it would take to set up something similar in Pittsburgh.  Peduto was more than happy to stop to talk about composting (or any of the other ideas I have stopped him to talk about) and knew about similar programs in other cities.

Everyone go vote for @billpeduto tomorrow. Please do something good for Pittsburgh. — deeplocal (@deeplocal) May 21, 2013

Why Franktuary Mgmt is Voting @billpeduto: ow.ly/lds6a Here’s Bill’s low-entry-barrier food truck policy: ow.ly/ldsvK

— Franktuary (@Franktuary) May 21, 2013

Election Day Information

Polls are open from 7am to 8pm.

Use the Allegheny County Polling Place Locator to find your polling place.

More details and Election Day Resources are available here 

Voter Guides

Looking for information on the candidates?  Check out the following voter guides:

• Voting Guide for the May 2013 Primary Election in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County  - this is an extensive guide to candidates that was put together by a CMU grad student
• Bike Pittsburgh – We Bike. We Walk. We Vote. Bike Pittsburgh has posted questionnaires from all of the mayoral candidates and city council candidate.

Voter Specials – Election Day Discounts

Click here to check out the list of local businesses that are offering discounts (and free beer) if you bring in your voting stub.

Click here to find the answer on the votePGH website.

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

We are making great progress in getting folks to pledge to vote over at votePGH.org.  I have two goals for votePGH to achieve before election day:

1. 1000 – Get 1000 Pittsburghers to pledge to vote – we have just passed the 250 mark and we need your help to get more folks pledging!
2. Every Neighborhood – At least 1 pledge from each of Pittsburgh’s 90 Neighborhoods.  You don’t have to live in Pittsburgh to take the pledge!  All voters in PA are invited to sign the pledge.

This is a list of neighborhoods that we don’t have any pledges from yet – do you know anyone that lives in one of these neighborhoods?  Can you tell them about votePGH?

1. Arlington
2. Arlington Heights
3. Banksville
4. Bedford Dwellings
5. Beltzhoover
6. Bon Air
7. California-Kirkbride
8. Central Oakland
9. Chartiers
10. Chateau
11. Crafton Heights
12. Crawford-Roberts
13. Duquesne Heights
14. East Carnegie
15. East Hills
16. Esplen
17. Fairywood
18. Fineview
19. Glen Hazel
20. Hays
21. Homewood North
22. Homewood South
23. Homewood West
24. Lincoln–Lemington–Belmar
25. Lincoln Place
26. Marshall-Shadeland (also known as Brightwood)
27. Middle Hill
28. Mount Oliver (not to be confused with the neighboring borough ofMount Oliver)
29. New Homestead
30. North Oakland
31. North Point Breeze
32. North Shore
33. Northview Heights
34. Oakwood
35. Panther Hollow (officially part of South Oakland)
36. Perry South (also known as Perry Hilltop)
37. Ridgemont
38. Saint Clair
39. Southshore
40. Spring Garden
41. Strip District
42. Terrace Village
43. Troy Hill
44. Upper Hill
45. Upper Lawrenceville
46. Washington’s Landing (A sub-neighborhood of Troy Hill)
47. West Oakland
48. Westwood
49. Windgap

Get all of the details on applying for an absentee ballot  at votePGH here.

If you have not yet signed the votePGH pledge please take a moment to visit votePGH.org and sign the pledge.  We are working to make sure we have at least 1 pledge from each neighborhood.  Take a look at the neighborhood’s list here.  We’ve got 50+ more neighborhoods that need to pledge.

SurfSUP Adventures, a paddle board tour company located here Western PA, is bringing the Reel Paddling Film Festival to town this Saturday.

SurfSUP Adventures is hosting the 2013 Reel Paddling Film Festival for the Pittsburgh area on Saturday, May 11.

• 3pm SUP Instruction and paddling activities
• 5pm Film Screenings begin -
• Time is subject to change due to weather so please stay posted for updates the SurfSUP facebook page  prior to the show.
• Vegan Food Truck An amazing array of organic and vegan friendly food options will be offered by Randitas Grill!
• Tickets are $12.00 in advance or $15.00 at the door.  You can purchase tickets at: Ticket Sales
• Where:  229 Howes Run Road, Sarver PA 16055
• Facebook event - https://www.facebook.com/events/320731168044100/

Here is the trailer for the Film Festival:

Here is a video from the folks at SurfSUP Adventure with some paddling scenes from Western PA:

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Looking for something to do this eve?  Head over to Braddock to check out some extreme pogo stick work.

Xpogo LLC, a NYC sports marketing firm, is filming some video in Braddock this week and they have set up a public event this eve.  From today’s PopCity Media:

As part of the celebration, the film company is throwing Braddock a free-to-the-public community event tonight, May 8^th, from 5 to 9 p.m., with exhibitions by seven of the word’s best extreme pogo athletes. There will also be pogo stick raffles, clinics, BBQ from Kevin Sousa’s Union Pig and Chicken, drink, and music.

Related articles

• Pogo sticks takes an extreme leap into the future (triblive.com)

In an effort to increase voter participation in the upcoming election we have created votePGH. Please take a moment to visit votePGH.org and pledge to vote on Tuesday, May 21, 2013.  This is a non-partisan effort to increase awareness about the upcoming election.

We have set a goal of collecting 1000 pledges by May 21 – we need you to take the pledge and invite your friends to do the same.

• Follow @votePGH on Twitter
• Like votePGH on Facebook
• Get your own votePGH link to track how many of your friends and followers have signed the pledge

Keep reading below for more information on voting in Pittsburgh and why a voter pledge.

A huge thanks to Emile Goss and Kate Holloway who volunteered their time and skill to make votePGH look awesome.

Some Pittsburgh Voter History

Take a look at the voter turnout from the past mayoral elections in Pittsburgh

• 2001 Primary Election 67, 657 votes cast (wikipedia page)
• 2005 Primary Election 57,442 votes cast (wikipedia page)
• 2007 Special Election 68,193 votes cast (wikipedia page)
• 2009 Primary Election 45,416 votes cast
• 2009 General Election 51,659 votes cast (wikipedia page)

So if we take the highest number here – 68,000 in 2007 when the population of the city of Pittsburgh was about 312,000 people – only about 20% of the people who live in the city of Pittsburgh are participating in the decision of who will lead this city.

So how do we get more Pittsburgher’s to vote?  

Voter Contact = More Voter Participation

The organization Nonprofit Vote, which works with nonprofit organizations to help them engage their members in the election process, has started doing some research on how to increase participation.  Studies have shown, and more research is underway, that people who are contacted about voting before an election are more likely to vote and more likely to encourage friends and colleagues to vote on election day.  You can read more about Nonprofit Vote’s research here. 

The forum is called “2013 Mayoral Forum for Young Professionals” but I am sure it will be open to anyone that wants to attend (and in Pittsburgh young is a relative term).   The forum is free to attend but you must register online here.

Facebook Event Link - https://www.facebook.com/events/512067268859507/

PUMP, the Urban League Young Professionals of Greater Pittsburgh, the New Pittsburgh Collaborative, Leadership Pittsburgh, and the Greater Pittsburgh Nonprofit Partnership are co-hosting a Mayoral Candidate Forum on the evening of May 1st at the August Wilson Center in downtown Pittsburgh. Confirmed candidates include Councilman Peduto, City Controller Lamb, Former City Council President and Auditor General Jack Wagner and Rep. Jake Wheatley. All other candidates have been invited. The Forum will be followed by a networking reception and opportunities to learn more about the event hosts and participating candidates.

Registration is FREE and required for admittance.

Wednesday May 1, 2013
6pm
August Wilson Center