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A Turning Point

by Douglas Heuck

It’s rare to be able to witness first-hand the alchemy of change that launches a city onto a new trajectory. Yet in Pittsburgh that change — a series of man-made lightning strikes — is underway. Since May 20, not even three months from this writing, events have turned in favor of those working to create a …

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After Years of Torment in Venezuela, Novelist Finds Refuge in Pittsburgh’s City of Asylum

by Tracy Certo
Israel Centeno is haunted by nightmares of his final years in Venezuela, waking in a lurch of panic as he relives the torment he long endured. The burn of a cigarette jammed against his neck. A baseball bat smashing his car. The beating that broke his fingers. Once he was stabbed with a knife as …

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Immigrants are More Likely to Start Businesses — What that Means to Pittsburgh

by Bill Zlatos
In 2000, Johnny Diaz fled the Dominican Republic and the rampant corruption that hampered his business career. If you needed to get something done, he says, you had to bribe someone. He moved to Norwalk, Conn., where he got a job managing a Walmart. In the same town the following year, Grecia Vasquez was studying …

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Dear Readers: What has Pittsburgh Contributed to the World?

by Douglas Heuck
In our upcoming Spring issue, we’re going to examine the Pittsburgh region’s contributions to the world, and we need your help. We want to know what noteworthy contributions Pittsburgh and Pittsburghers have made – whether here or across the globe – to make the world a better and more interesting place.  It could be (and …

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A Pilot Program Flies

by Douglas Heuck
Early this year, we wrote letters to the principals of all 88 high schools in Allegheny County asking them to nominate one sophomore and one junior (one boy, one girl) to the initial congress for the Allegheny Conservation Corps, an initiative for high school students to create community projects. The idea was threefold: physically improve …

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Novo Asian Food Hall

by Aakanksha Agarwal
This story is part of “The New Americans” series, a project of Pittsburgh Tomorrow. While food halls were having a moment in Pittsburgh, Asian food halls were having a moment elsewhere. “In bigger cities like New York, they have food halls just focused on Asian food,” says Alex Tang, who started Mola restaurant in East …

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How Literacy Pittsburgh is Helping to Grow Population and a More Vibrant Economy

by Beth Marcello
This story is part of “The New Americans” series, a project of Pittsburgh Tomorrow. When Mhra Moe arrived in Pittsburgh with her husband and baby daughter as refugees from Myanmar in 2014, she was fluent in Mon and Burmese, but the volunteer teacher knew little English. Despite the trauma of having to flee the only …

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Casa San Jose

by Beth Marcello
Monica Ruiz, a half-Guatemalan American citizen fluent in Spanish, was born and raised in Cleveland. But when Pittsburghers tell her to “go back where you came from” — an insult she hears weekly — they’re not talking about her returning to Cleveland. Ruiz has a theory about why so many Pittsburghers are antagonistic towards her …

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What Do I Know?  Khara Timsina 

by Jeff Sewald
I was born in a small village in southern Bhutan, the second of nine children — five boys and four girls. Luckily, my siblings and I, and our parents, were able to emigrate to the West in 2009. My father died here in Pittsburgh in 2021, and my mother still lives locally, in Brentwood. But …

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Tuomas Sandholm: AI’s Benefits Far Outweigh its Dangers- Here’s Why

by Tracy Certo
For Tuomas Sandholm, it’s no contest. The co-director of Carnegie Mellon University Artificial Intelligence (CMU AI) firmly believes the benefits of artificial intelligence far outweigh the downsides. “AI can make better decisions than humans, which will make the world a better place,” he says. To better understand his perspective, look at his track record. In …

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What Do I Know? Guillermo Velazquez

by Jeff Sewald
My story begins in Mexico City. I am the youngest of eight children, and my father passed away from liver disease when I was 11. When someone in your life dies while you are still young, you don’t really understand what’s happening. All I knew was that I saw my father working, and then he …

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Bringing Spice to Pittsburgh

by Aakanksha Agarwal
In the heart of pittsburgh, amidst its rivers and bridges, a culinary revolution is taking place. It is a revolution of flavors and aromas, carried on the shoulders of immigrants who have brought their cherished recipes from distant lands. What do burritos, General Tso’s chicken and pizza have in common? They are all delectable creations …

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Fighting Through Tears

by Tracy Certo
Grisell Espinoza was in limbo in 2014, wondering whether to stay in Pittsburgh or return to her native Venezuela where political turmoil was getting worse. Her only friend in town, a fellow Venezuelan, helped her get work at a restaurant until she could find a job in her profession as a civil engineer. But as …

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Pittsburgh Tomorrow

by Douglas Heuck
When I came to Pittsburgh in 1985, it was a great city — the late David McCullough called it “the essential American city.” But it was a great city in shock. The massive industrial economy had collapsed and 150,000 to 200,000 mainly young people were leaving for greener pastures. I expected to stay for my …

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Hello Neighbor

by Tracy Certo
Basel Knaineh and Maisaa Jamal Eddin fled their native Syria after Basel was imprisoned — for no reason and with no timeline, he says — at the start of the Syrian War in 2011. He spent a month in jail, frantic and bewildered, before being released as suddenly as he was detained. Desperate, he and …

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The Downtown Pittsburgh I Recall

by Joseph Gilkey
I was appalled and then saddened by your recent article, “Wake Up! Time to Save Downtown Pittsburgh.”   I haven’t lived in Pittsburgh since 1970 when I completed my doctoral studies at Pitt, but I did grow up in the Pittsburgh area and it is a beloved city to me.  I grew up in the foundry …

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The Game Plan

by Douglas Heuck
“Anything is possible when imagination and will coincide.” Imagine Pittsburgh in 10 years as a vibrant, multi-cultural hub that has become a beacon for immigrants eager to start a new life in America, work hard, raise a family and get ahead. Imagine if we harness the Pittsburgh diaspora and Pittsburgh becomes the dynamic nexus of …

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100 Pittsburgh Leaders

by PQ Staff
We asked 100 top leaders across Pittsburgh to respond in 100 words or fewerto this question: According to the U.S. Census, in 2021 the Pittsburgh MSA had the inauspicious distinction of having the highest natural population loss — more deaths than births ­— of any metro area in the country. Pittsburgh lost 10,838 people, followed …

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100 Pittsburgh Leaders

by PQ Staff
We asked 100 top leaders across Pittsburgh to respond in 100 words or fewerto this question: According to the U.S. Census, in 2021 the Pittsburgh MSA had the inauspicious distinction of having the highest natural population loss — more deaths than births ­— of any metro area in the country. Pittsburgh lost 10,838 people, followed …

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100 Pittsburgh Leaders

by PQ Staff
We asked 100 top leaders across Pittsburgh to respond in 100 words or fewerto this question: According to the U.S. Census, in 2021 the Pittsburgh MSA had the inauspicious distinction of having the highest natural population loss — more deaths than births ­— of any metro area in the country. Pittsburgh lost 10,838 people, followed …

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100 Pittsburgh Leaders

by PQ Staff
We asked 100 top leaders across Pittsburgh to respond in 100 words or fewerto this question: According to the U.S. Census, in 2021 the Pittsburgh MSA had the inauspicious distinction of having the highest natural population loss — more deaths than births ­— of any metro area in the country. Pittsburgh lost 10,838 people, followed …

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100 Pittsburgh Leaders

by PQ Staff
We asked 100 top leaders across Pittsburgh to respond in 100 words or fewerto this question: According to the U.S. Census, in 2021 the Pittsburgh MSA had the inauspicious distinction of having the highest natural population loss — more deaths than births ­— of any metro area in the country. Pittsburgh lost 10,838 people, followed …

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