Contest Ideas Archives - Pittsburgh Quarterly

John Stolz believes Pittsburgh is flushing a critical source of renewable energy down the toilet. Literally. He proposes the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County join the growing ranks of urban areas upgrading their wastewater treatment plants to renewable power plants that use the process of biodigestion to create energy. Stolz, who is the director …

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Contest Ideas

Light the Bridges for a Gleaming Downtown

by Jeffery Fraser

Dressing the Rachel Carson Bridge with 27,000 color-changing LED lights got the public’s attention in 2016. And the popularity of the temporary installation, done as part of the City of Pittsburgh’s bicentennial celebration, bought it an extended 18-month run. If that’s the case, says former Allegheny County Chief Executive Jim Roddey, why not artistically illuminate …

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Contest Ideas

Venting off Steam… and Turning It Into a Musical Downtown Clock

by Jeffery Fraser

Lynn Dunbar is well acquainted with the vertical steam pipe that juts from the pavement at Penn Avenue and Seventh Street in Downtown Pittsburgh for patrons of the Benedum Center for the Performing Arts and the rest of the Cultural District to see. Her husband is in the Pittsburgh Symphony, she once worked for the …

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Contest Ideas

Adding Amenities to Bike Trails: What Riders Experience Matters

by Bill O'Toole

The City of Pittsburgh is poised to gain dozens of miles of new bike lanes in the next decade. While avid cyclist Tom Vesch welcomes the expansion, he suggests thinking beyond the trails themselves to consider the broader experience of riders. “Our burgeoning trail system in the city could be enhanced to include amenities along …

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Contest Ideas

Dancing on Pittsburgh Streets: Bring Gene Kelly Alive Again

by Julia Fraser

A shirtless Tupac Shakur stalked the stage at California’s Coachella music festival in 2012. He raised his arms to the roar of the stunned crowd and launched into his posthumous hit single, “Hail Mary.” The performance took place more than 15 years after Shakur was murdered in a drive-by shooting. But on that night at …

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Contest Ideas

Ideas for a Better Pittsburgh: Semifinalists, Part VIII

by PQ Staff

Pittsburgh Quarterly invited readers and neighbors to offer up their best ideas for improving the region through the Spring 2019 Pittsburgh Tomorrow Contest. The 13 finalists chosen by the Pittsburgh Today advisory board were published online and in the Fall 2019 issue of the magazine. But the ideas of another nearly three dozen thinkers made …

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Contest Ideas

In the Spring issue, we launched a competition among our readers and residents to send in ideas to make Pittsburgh a better place to live. Ideas could range from something that wouldn’t cost a dime to a multi-million dollar infrastructure project. Part of the reason I wanted launch this contest was that it didn’t seem …

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Contest Ideas

2019 Pittsburgh Tomorrow Contest: Have an Idea to Improve Pittsburgh?

by PQ Staff

The submission period for the Pittsburgh Tomorrow contest is now closed. We will notify the finalists once chosen. Thank you to all who participated! How would you like to have a private audience with the Mayor, County Executive and a group of potential funders to explain your idea to make Pittsburgh a better place? That’s …

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