Articles Archive - Page 66 of 155 - Pittsburgh Quarterly

Workers in southwestern Pennsylvania continue to find jobs as the region notched another month of unemployment below 4 percent in May. The region’s 3.8 percent unemployment rate held over from April, but still hovers above the national average. May continued the year-to-date trend of unemployment diving to depths the region hasn’t seen since the early …

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Creative Capital

The Hopi’s Last Hope

by Greg Curtis

My new friend, Abbott Sekaquaptewa, had walked me through the history of the Hopi tribe, beginning with their birth as children of the Earth Mother up to about AD 500, when the Hopi had hired a fierce Apache tribe to protect them. As I noted last week, although the Hopi owed their entire continued existence …

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American Spirit

Their Patients Are Animals

by Kate Benz

It’s cold. Damp. Overcast and gray outside. Early on a Tuesday morning and the lions are roaring. “Communicating,” says Kathy, the lead mammal keeper. “That’s how lions communicate.” It’s barely 9:30 a.m. and people are already walking through the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium, despite the clouds and the rain. Moms pushing strollers and dads …

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Opinion

Famous Last Words…

by PQ Staff

Editor’s note: Oil and gas man Michael L. Benedum and his wife Sarah created the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation in memory of their only child who died in 1918 at the age of 20. On the anniversary of the Foundation, which has distributed more than $500 million in philanthropy to Pittsburgh and West Virginia, we …

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Nonprofits

The Torch Is Passed

by PQ Staff

The next generation of the Mellon family has taken the reins of the largest grant-making organization in western Pennsylvania. Richard A. Mellon, 56, has been named chairman and chief executive officer of the Richard King Mellon Foundation and the R. K. Mellon Family Foundation, the boards of both foundations announced. He succeeds Seward Prosser Mellon, …

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Food & Wine

New & Noteworthy: Alta Via

by Tatiana

Alta Via, named for a footpath through the Dolomite Mountains in northern Italy, is big Burrito’s first new concept in 15 years. The food is a unique fusion of the fresh, clean vegetable plates and wood-fired entrees one might experience in the California wine country with classic Italian cooking such as homemade pasta and gelato. …

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Creative Capital

Abbott Sekaquaptewa: The Man Who Asked for Help

by Greg Curtis

One day, innocently sitting at my desk and annoying no one, I opened a long letter from a guy named Abbott Sekaquaptewa, who seemed to be the Chairman of the Hopi Indian Tribe (as they were known in those days). As I read through Abbott’s letter I became more and more befuddled. He seemed to …

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Regional News

Local Job Growth Ticks Upward

by Julia Fraser

Employers in southwestern Pennsylvania continued to boost their payrolls in May at a slow but steady pace that has characterized the regional job market over the past few years. The seven-county Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area added 9,100 jobs from May 2018 and May 2019 – a 0.9 percent year-over-year increase, according to new data from …

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American Spirit

Nick Has Bikes and Jennie

by Kate Benz

The sidecar finally arrived from Canada. It was supposed to be here yesterday, then at 9 a.m. this morning. Then, there was something about it being stuck in customs in Cleveland, but the customer service rep up in Quebec promised that wasn’t true, although no one was sure because the French accent was thick. But …

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Food & Wine

An All-American Tradition

by Cody McDevitt

Everyone has their favorite hot dog shop, the ones they swear by because they spent their youth eating there. Western Pennsylvania has a number of them. In a culinary landscape dominated by high-profile chefs, these nostalgic hot dog counters remind people of the type of food their ancestors ate while leaving the mills or mines. …

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Opinion

The Seeming Vastness of Summer

by Douglas Heuck

During a 15-minute break from a recent Friday night poker game, a friend and I were discussing medical things when the question arose: What would you do if you found out you had two years to live and would be in basically good health until the end? The conversation soon attracted a wider group, and …

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Homes

A Pittsburgh Treasure

by Marylynn Uricchio

At 90, Francis Nowalk has a sparkle that rivals the magnificent crystal chandeliers hanging over his head in room after room. And that’s just downstairs. Upstairs in his Bloomfield showroom are the “bigger” things, including a Sicilian donkey cart. “I don’t know why I have that,” he says with a shrug. One suspects there are …

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Health

Why Am I Gaining Weight?

by Joseph A. Luxbacher

Question: “I am a middle-aged man who has never had a weight problem until recently. Over the past two years I have gained about 10 pounds even though my diet has not really changed. I try to eat healthy and low-fat when I can and have been doing so for years. I do not understand …

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Food & Wine

Steak Night at the Firehouse

by Kate Benz

Sunday dinner at Station 17 in Homewood was supposed to be around 5:30. Maybe 6 at the latest. Because this is Steak Night. They almost never get to do Steak Night. Which is why John and Bill started peeling onions, slicing mushrooms, getting the meat and the baked potatoes and the green beans ready almost …

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Food & Wine

New & Noteworthy: Siempre Algo

by Tatiana

Siempre Algo is the main attraction on a developing block on the North Side’s East Ohio Street. In a historic building with a pressed tin ceiling and sporting an open kitchen underscored with an accenting geometric pattern, this funky establishment exudes warmth. At Siempre Algo (Spanish for “Always Something”) there is “always something” sublime and …

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Sports

Best Stadium in Baseball

by Scott Goldsmith

It was a bone chilling January afternoon when Kevin McClatchy climbed to the top of Three Rivers Stadium in 1996. McClatchy, the new owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates, posed for some magazine photographs with the cavernous soup-bowl-shaped stadium that within two years would become rubble. He smiled frequently, shivering in the cold wind as he …

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Creative Capital

Responsible Investing Without the Hype: The Conclusion

by Greg Curtis

We’ll finish up our examination of some of the challenges associated with responsible investing by looking at a few random issues. Good intentions don’t count in RI There are lots of areas of human endeavor where good intentions matter a lot, but RI isn’t one of them. In RI, good intentions, if not married to …

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PQ Poem

[15] Phosphorus

by Tricia Dearborn

At school I volunteered to set the lab stockroom in order. Sealed in a navy lab coat I took inventory. Gathered for disposal crumbling samples, mystery solutions. Rewrote acid-rotted labels. Re-pickled a funnel-web. Marvelled at copper’s rosy gleam. Dusted the jar of white phosphorus, a sullen chunk stored underwater. Like it, I felt my power …

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Events

Gala Celebrates Museum Lab Opening

by PQ Staff

Inspired by the creation of Museum Lab, Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh’s annual fundraising event entertained a sold-out crowd of over 400 guests on Friday, June 7. Museumlab gala kicked off with cocktails in Museum Lab with music by The Funky Fly Project followed by dinner under a luxurious party tent in front of the Childen’s …

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Spotlight

Broken Glass: Recycling Bottles Becomes a Challenge

by Francesca Dabecco

Kathy Hrabovsky recalls a time in her childhood when she would take glass bottles back to the drug store in exchange for a nickel. She remembers the refund was just enough to buy a piece of candy. At 59, Hrabovsky is again lugging glass far beyond her curbside in Mt. Lebanon to be recycled. The …

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Creative Capital

Philosophical Issues Bedeviling Responsible Investing

by Greg Curtis

We’ve reviewed many potential pitfalls that bedevil responsible investing, but now let’s turn to some of the more philosophical issues in the space. Try to ignore self-interested research in the RI sector. Almost every day, a financial or consulting firm publishes “research” purporting to show that this or that type of RI produces terrific outcomes. …

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Books

Poetic Mission

by Fred Shaw

With its deep pool of talented writers, Pittsburgh punches well above small-city status, especially among poetry circles. Reasons for this embarrassment of riches include the exposure many local poets receive for work that wins them awards, ample workshops, university writing programs with strong reputations and a vibrant scene that features readings nearly every night of …

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