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photo collage. The Pittsburgh Westinghouse Academy 6-12 marching band pumps out a tune in blue and gold uniforms. A man, his hands clasped in front of his face, talks in the green tent he stays in in Downtown Pittsburgh. Sara Innamorato looks up with her hands on her face as she reacts to results at her primary election night party. A woman sits, her forehead in her hand, in her living room in Marianna, Washington County. A white cloud of emissions, looking like fog, engulf U.S. Steel Edgar Thomson Works in Braddock. Mayor Ed Gainey enters the City Council Chambers to applause, shaking hands as he arrives to give his 2023 budget address at the City-County Building. A woman sits for a photograph, surrounded by many family members of all ages in fancy dress at her Great Gatsby-themed 90th birthday party.
Dear Reader,

If you're like us, you're probably taking a proverbial deep breath right now. We're almost ready for a new year that promises change and challenges. But that can wait for a few days. Let's savor 2023, that marathon of human stories, data, documents and emerging trends ([link removed]) which we've explored together.

Housing and homelessness were ever-present concerns in the Pittsburgh region this year. We went deep with our Shelter Stakes series ([link removed]) , chronicling shelter closures, camp sweeps and policy changes against the surging housing insecurity that’s left around 900 people ([link removed]) without permanent homes in Allegheny County this holiday season.

With COVID-driven funding expiring fast, the long-haul effects of the pandemic may be just beginning, particularly for the Pittsburgh Public Schools, but also the city and other local institutions. Our enterprising PPS series, Uneven Scales ([link removed]) , has examined the stakes for a school system facing mounting costs and dwindling students as stabilizing federal funds dwindle.

Shell’s multibillion dollar cracker plant in Beaver County has drawn the ire of activists for years, but our investigation ([link removed]) into its malfunctions and attempted mitigations validated their concerns by unearthing public records that would otherwise stay buried.

These and other challenges in education, environment, equity, public health and safety have dominated local discourse this year. Perhaps the individual with the most power to affect them – the county executive – will leave office in a few days at the close of a 12-year tenure. We followed the race to fill Rich Fitzgerald’s seat closely ([link removed]) — not as a horse race, but as an invitation to explore the big issues that define our region.

We’ve shared facts, outlined options, amplified voices and made splashes large and small. ([link removed]) It’s your support that will propel us to do even more in 2024.

Read our 2023 retrospective. ([link removed])
If you valued all the PublicSource stories you read this year, please help them coming. Thanks to our generous match pool supporters, one-time gifts to our nonprofit newsroom are now tripled and new monthly gifts are matched x24! Only two days remain to get your gift matched, so please give right now by clicking here. ([link removed])

Yes, match my gift. ([link removed])
With gratitude,
The PublicSource team

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