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The encampments that have sprung up in Pittsburgh since the pandemic have prompted much feuding between Downtown business interests and homeless advocates.

Emails show a Downtown booster group, armed with local foundation funds, coordinated with city officials to coat former encampments with boulders last year. Their purpose was to elevate Downtown aesthetics “while addressing critical safety concerns,” though critics say these "hostile landscaping" methods send a clear message that certain kinds of people are not welcome.

Read more below. ⬇️

Our top story

Replacing tents with boulders, Downtown boosters argue safety while advocates for homeless see exclusion

Several Pittsburgh sites that formerly attracted tent encampments are now strewn with large rocks. Mayor Ed Gainey’s administration has cooperated with a partnership and a foundation, but seeks a softer approach
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Pittsburgh’s real estate market is a hyperlocal one, offering tremendous variety in terms of neighborhoods and types of housing at nearly every price point. I’m equally at home working with anxious first-time buyers and million-dollar listings — in city and suburbs — and I treat each client relationship with the utmost care and discretion. We’ll move at your speed, together. Let’s connect.

NOT TO MISS

Pittsburgh embraced me as a literary exile. Now I’m giving back through ‘radical charity.’ 

A developmental disability diagnosis can hit hard — but it isn’t a knockout
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Everyone has a story to tell, and you can be the person to tell it. In this free workshop, get tips for composing powerful, personal narratives, pitching a story for media attention and working with editors (or peers) to incorporate feedback.

Presented by editors Halle Stockton and Jamie Wiggan of PublicSource.

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  • More than 60 unidentified businesses were closed Monday, advocates said, to draw attention to the fear Pittsburgh’s immigrant community has faced since Trump took office.
  • An emerging plan would aim to weave many neighborhood plans and fill gaps for a first-ever comprehensive plan for Pittsburgh’s future. To make it work, planners “need to hear from everybody.”

GREAT READ

The oligarchs who came to regret supporting Hitler
The Atlantic

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Dear voter: Here’s how to get your congressperson to actually hear you
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