The Homewood-Brushton Family Support Center, 7143 Fleury Way, 412-243-6088. The support center offers programming designed to increase the strength and stability of families, to increase parents' confidence and competence in their parenting abilities, to afford children a stable and supportive family environment.
E-mail: Community Empowerment Association, Inc., 500 N.
Lexington St., 412-371-3689 or . CEA offers job, education, housing, economic development, violence reduction and prevention services.
E-mail: Alma Illery Medical Center, 7227 Hamilton Ave., 412-244-4700.
The medical center offers health services, including ob-gyn, pediatrics, family health, dentistry, pharmacist, psychiatrist; social services; and outreach staff. It serves patients with Medicaid or Medicare as well as those with no insurance. 
The organization operates a Head Start program, a day-care center, landscaping and snow removal, a GED preparation course in conjunction with Community College of Allegheny County and after-school programs. Black Contractors Association, 7249 Frankstown Ave.
, 412-247-4822 or e-mail: . BCA is a trade association for contractors. It offers programs for contractor, work force and housing development.
Homewood-Brushton Community Coalition Organization, 7249 Frankstown Ave. HBCCO is a collaborative with 10 member organizations.
It recently developed a community plan for Homewood and fosters revitalization efforts through housing, economic, educational and social services. Afro-American Music Institute, 7131 Hamilton Ave.
, 412-241-6775. The nonprofit music institute teaches most traditional African-American music styles, such as jazz, blues and gospel, along with classical music. It offers training on electric keyboard, piano, saxophone and other woodwinds, bass, guitar, drums and voice, and courses in directing, songwriting and arrangement.
All ages and skill levels are welcome. Homewood-Brushton YMCA, 7140 Bennett St.
, 412-243-2900. The YMCA provides a fully equipped gym and health center. In addition to traditional programs, the Homewood Y offers special state-licensed programs that include outpatient drug-alcohol prevention and intervention treatment, a child-care center, an independent living skills program for youth in group and foster homes, tutorial assistance and career development programs.
E-mail: Operation Better Block, 801 N. Homewood Ave.
, 412-731-1908. OBB specializes in community organizing, educational and youth programs. The Better Block Development Corp.
is a separate entity that focuses on housing development. E-mail: K. Chase Patterson has withdrawn from the 9th District race for City Council.
In a press release that described the 11-way race as "a circus," Mr. Patterson said: "I am not withdrawing because of my age, my energy, my experience or my desire to serve. I am withdrawing because I don't believe any of those things will matter in this race.
This race has become less about policy and public service and more about popularity and personal interest. I will not take part in allowing this incumbent to return safely to her seat, and that will happen if this race continues in this fashion with 11 candidates." Mr.
Patterson now supports the Rev. Ricky Burgess in his run for council. There was another in Homewood yesterday morning.
Antwon Williams was a dealer, a man who sold death, and therefore his own death could be viewed as a gain for the community. But the way that he died, I would not wish upon anyone. When I was in high school, driver's education included gory slideshows of motor vehicle accidents, meant to help us realize the dangers of driving foolishly.
Maybe someone should do "dealer's education," and show our young people pictures of Mr. Williams' severed body -- "You want to deal drugs? This is what you can look forward to.
" This afternoon, at 3:30, an organization called One Vision One Life will hold what it calls a "violence response" -- a public gathering to speak out against violence -- at the corner of Oakwood and Frankstown Avenue in Homewood. The PG has written about One Vision One Life, which abbreviates its name as 1V1L, several times since its founding two years ago, most recently in November (www.post-gazette.
com/pg/06318/738172-85.stm). This afternoon's event is a standard operating procedure for the group, which makes "community vocalization" the first of five pieces that make up its overall program.
The other four are public education, outreach to people likely to commit crimes, working with law enforcement and involvement by clergy. Perhaps what distinguishes 1V1L most clearly from other outreach programs is that it is staffed by people who used to do the things they're trying to help others avoid: gangbanging, drug dealing, etc. After starting out in other neighborhoods, including the Hill District and the North Side, 1V1L just added Homewood and Garfield to its service area last month.
The organization's area coordinator for Homewood and Garfield, Samantha Swartz, is a native of central Pennsylvania, but says that friends and co-workers have told her about how Homewood used to be and that she "would like to see the glory restored" to the neighborhood. For those who remember the glory that was, a request for help: For our Feb 26 feature on Homewood, we would like to include photos from those days of prosperity. If you have photos you would like to share, now you can, through the magic of e-mail and the Web.
The file format should be JPEG (that is, with the .JPG filename extension); the mode should be RGB or grayscale; the dpi should be at least 170 for RGB and 144 for grayscale files. Save the photo at the highest quality possible; a color photo file should be around 1 megabyte when closed and 8 megabytes when opened, a b/w file 350 kilobytes closed and 3 MB open.
Send only one photo per e-mail message and include caption information for the photo in the body of your e-mail, including the name of the photographer. Address the e-mail to , and state that it is for me, Elwin Green. In the "Just thought you should know" category: School board member for the 9th District seat in City Council.
Unless someone has dropped out, that makes 11 candidates, including the incumbent Twanda Carlisle.
If Mayor Luke Ravenstahl has his way, Homewood will soon be among 21 city neighborhoods, including Downtown, that will be targeted for a tax abatement designed to stimulate new housing development. The mayor announced his " " at this morning's annual meeting of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership.
It came a little more than 24 hours before Councilman William Peduto was scheduled to present his own tax abatement plan for housing development to a special session of city council. Other than Downtown, Mr. Peduto's plan limits itself to five neighborhoods adjoining the Golden Triangle -- the Strip District, Uptown, the North Shore, the South Shore and the Lower Hill District.
Both plans claim as their inspiration a tax abatement created by the city of Philadelphia in 1997. That abatement covered the entire city, and has been credited with a residential building and buying boom that halted Philadelphia's 40-year population decline. Each candidate -- and we must keep in mind that both men are mayoral candidates -- gave reasons for his plan not to include more neighborhoods; but can either plan be implemented without generating a backlash among neighborhoods left out?
A possible tax abatement for building/buying homes in Homewood is the good news; the bad news is that people are far too often in Homewood. The hopeful news, is that some people, and institutions, still stand against the insanity -- such as the Rev. Eugene Blackwell and the Bethesda Presbyterian Church, in a piece by Erv Dyer.
It's the first in a short series; next Monday will feature the Westinghouse High School "Wall of Fame." On the Feb. 26, a piece about Homewood's history and hopes is scheduled to run.
OK, now it's official. The pool of candidates running for the 9th District council seat is CROWDED. I missed this when it ran Saturday, announcing that three more aspirants have announced: Leah Kirkland, a manager at a cellular wireless company; Shawn Carter, a delivery driver and former aide to Twanda Carlisle; and Eric S.
Smith, a placement officer for a vocational school. It also named Ora Lee Carroll as having already declared, making for a total of eight challengers to the incumbent. And today, there's news of a -- Gerald Brown, a city Parks Department employee.
This type of slate presents a real challenge to the media. How do you report intelligently on a race with 10 candidates? Does every interview with one candidate -- or every quote from a candidate -- require giving equal time to the nine others?
Should someone put together a 10-way debate? How do you folks think the media (not just the Post-Gazette) should cover this race? What would help you the most to make an intelligent decision in May?
After much thoughtful consideration -- and consultation with my family, friends and advisers -- I have decided to seek my party's nomination to represent the 9th District on Pittsburgh's City Council. Just kidding -- but anyone else who would seek the seat now occupied by Twanda Carlisle had better speak up quickly or there won't be any room left on the ballot. This has been the first week in 2007 in which no one declared an interest in taking Ms.
Carlisle's job. On Jan. 5, the pastor of Nazarene Baptist Church declared; three days later, who administers truancy prevention programs for the Helping Hands Community Development Corporation joined the race.
Then, on Jan. 12, , education programs manager for the Urban League of Pittsburgh, announced his candidacy. And last week, former executive director of the Lincoln Larimer Lemington Belmar Citizens Revitalization and Development Corporation threw her hat into the ring.
No other council district so far has more than two candidates challenging the incumbent, meaning that the 9th District race could be the most interesting in the city. At the very least, the age and gender mix should make for a diversity of viewpoints. But they're all Democrats, so that kind of limits the diversity.
It's like a broccoli buffet -- one item served different ways. Could we not have even have a taste of a different flavor?
-- The greening of Homewood -- a possibility
--> The current issue of Black Enterprise magazine has a brief item about , a Harlem-based development company. The news is that Full Spectrum, which until now has done projects only in New York, has landed a major contract in Jackson, Miss. I met Carlton Brown, the chief operating officer of Full Spectrum, about two years ago when he sponsored by the Green Building Alliance of Pittsburgh.
His presentation largely focused on , a $40 million project that Full Spectrum describes as the city's first "green" multifamily residential condominium. "Green" refers to a building that is designed to be energy-efficient and environmentally friendly. In the case of 1400 on 5th, that means, among other things, having 100 percent of its heating provided by geothermal energy -- energy that taps heat from underground bedrock and water.
Green building is a major trend in real estate development, and Pittsburgh is right at the heart of it, thanks largely to the . Within the green building movement, a new idea is gaining traction: green neighborhood development. The U.
S. Green Building Council is formulating a set of guidelines for building/rebuilding entire neighborhoods . What does all of this have to do with Homewood?
Just this: The amount of vacant space in Homewood means that the neighborhood's full revitalization absolutely will require a lot of new construction. If that new construction is green, it could not only revitalize Homewood, it could make Homewood a model for green neighborhood development -- a demonstration project for some of the freshest and most creative thinking in the world of real estate development.
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