Downtown Homestead E-Newsletter

 

ALLEGHENY TOGETHER PROGRAM 

  

 

 

 

 

In This Issue:
Our Featured Downtown Recognition Recipient
Our Featured Downtown Recognition Recipient
Downtown Homestead Calendar of Events
Suspended Coffee
I Wish This Vacant Storefront Was a...

Allegheny Together 

allegheny together 

 

Allegheny Together endeavors to encourage well-planned, well-designed and geographically-focused investment in the established, urban commercial districts of Allegheny County while respecting the unique history, character, and built environment of each. The program aims to help organize and empower each community to fulfill its collective vision.  

 

Allegheny Together is a
program of:   

 

ALLEGHENY COUNTY

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT


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AMITY HARVEST COMMUNITY GARDEN

Our Featured Downtown Recognition Recipient

 

Amity Harvest Community Garden

E. 7th Avenue at Amity Street

https://www.facebook.com/AmityHarvestCommunityGarden

  

Amity Harvest Community Garden, a partnership between Grow Pittsburgh and Homestead was established through the Allegheny Grows program and is now entering its second year in Homestead. Allegheny Grows, which is funded by the Allegheny County Office of Economic Development, was formed through the partnership of Grow Pittsburgh and the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy to assist communities wishing to start community food gardens. The garden brings people together with fresh food, ideas, and information in Homestead and surrounding communities.

 

The garden had a successful first year during which a small flower garden became a productive community farm.  Community events were held on-site including Friday night yoga. This season gardeners will continue harvesting and delivering produce to Rainbow Kitchen Community Services which distributes free hot meals daily.

 

It is an honor to feature the Amity Harvest Community Garden as a Downtown Recognition Recipient. We also wish to recognize and thank Ellie Valentine, Sharon Ford, and Hannah Wolfson. These wonderful community volunteers, all from Homestead, attended 15 hours of gardening training through Grow Pittsburgh last year and continue to volunteer with the garden. Thanks to each of them for their contributions to this wonderful community asset!

BOTTOM DOLLAR FOODS

Our Featured Downtown Recognition Recipient

 

     

 

A new Bottom Dollar Foods opened at 127 E. 7th Avenue in Homestead last August. This North Carolina based grocery chain touts, "Unbelievable prices AND national brands!" This grocer provides Homestead the benefits of having both a discount grocer and a walkable grocery store.

 

At the time of the grand opening, Bottom Dollar Foods donated $1,600 to the Rainbow Kitchen of Homestead to help feed local families in need. The store also assists the greater community by partnering with the Charlie Batch Foundation, which serves financially challenged youth and their families.

 

We are pleased to feature Bottom Dollar Foods as a Downtown Recognition Recipient. Thanks for choosing Homestead as a Bottom Dollar Foods location. Our community loves having a walkable grocery store and is happy to have Bottom Dollar Foods here! 

DOWNTOWN HOMESTEAD CALENDAR OF EVENTS

 

Bloomin Beer and Oyster Fest  

 

Bloomin' Beer and Oyster Fest 2014

Saturday, May 3

2 to 10 PM

Underneath Homestead's High Level Bridge,
between 6th and 7th Avenue

SUSPENDED COFFEE 

A Creative Community Concept for
Downtown Businesses to Consider

 

Shopping and dining DowntownFirst has many positive benefits for our downtown businesses and our entire community. The payback of supporting our downtown businesses extends throughout our community in a multitude of ways, such as helping to retain good quality businesses. Sometimes the benefits are also more subtle and some touch our hearts.

 

Here's an inspirational story of one way that downtown businesses and their customers could spread goodwill throughout our community. Perhaps a business in your downtown might want to bring this idea to life in Allegheny County....

 

"We entered a little coffeehouse with a friend of mine and gave our order. While we were approaching our table two people came in and they go to the counter: 'Five coffees, please. Two of them for us and three suspended.' They pay for their order, take the two and leave.

 

I ask my friend: "What are those 'suspended' coffees?" My friend says, "Wait for it and you will see." Some more people enter. Two girls ask for one coffee each, pay and go. The next order was for seven coffees and it was made by three lawyers - three for them and four 'suspended'.

 

While I still wonder what's the deal with those 'suspended' coffees, I enjoy the sunny weather and the beautiful view towards the square in front of the caf�. Suddenly a man dressed in shabby clothes comes in through the door and kindly asks 'Do you have any suspended coffee?'

 

It's simple - people pay in advance for a coffee meant for someone who cannot afford a warm beverage. The tradition with the suspended coffees started in Naples, but it has spread all over the world and in some places you can order not only a suspended coffee, but also a sandwich or a whole meal.

 

Wouldn't it be wonderful to have such caf�s or even grocery stores in every town where the less fortunate will find hope and support? If you own a business why don't you offer it to your clients? I am sure many of them will like it."


From Scott Sonnon 

DF Homestead

"I WISH THIS VACANT STOREFRONT WAS A....."

A New Idea for Bringing Attention to
Your Available Downtown Properties

 

 

 

As we walk the main street of our downtowns, it is impossible not to sometimes look at a vacant storefront that maybe we pass daily and think, "that would be a great place for a bakery, a coffee shop, an ice cream shop, or an...." In other words, "I Wish This Were...." a business serving my community.

 

"I Wish This Were" is an inspiring project started by artist, Candy Chang. Chang has a background in urban planning and her projects explore quiet ways to reflect and share within a public space. Chang's public art projects began as a way to ask her neighbors questions that she was too shy to ask in person. The "I Wish This Were" project was inspired by vacant storefronts that she observed in her area.

 

Candy Chang created fill-in-the-blank stickers as an experiment to see what would happen if people could state what they'd like to see in these vacant spaces. She placed boxes of free stickers in businesses around the city and posted grids of blank stickers on vacant buildings for anyone to write in responses.

 

To read more and to see photos of many great responses, please visit http://candychang.com/i-wish-this-was

 

Is there an available space in a local Allegheny County downtown you'd like to learn more about? If so, please visit DowntownProperties.Net for more information. 

 
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You are reading the Homestead FOCUS: your downtown e-newsletter. By using e-newsletters instead of print newsletters, we can send the information about our downtown revitalization efforts to a greater number of people and save paper--a win for the community and the environment!    

     

To receive your copy of the e-newsletter via email, simply send an email to [email protected] and indicate your email address, as well as the name of the town or towns for which you'd like to receive the e-newsletters. You can also call Town Center Associates to sign up at 412-577-7447.

                

Please also take a moment to forward this email along to your friends, colleagues, family and neighbors, and encourage them to sign up today! This will help to inform (and involve) more citizens about the revitalization efforts taking place in our downtown.

This e-newsletter was created by Town Center Associates for the Allegheny Together Program of Allegheny County Economic Development. For more information about the Allegheny Together program, please visit www.alleghenytogether.com.