News Archive of October 2008

Hill District leaders say a new development pact may transform their neighborhood -- and the city itself

A momentary silence descends inside Exclusive Cutz as barber Master PeeWee kills the razor's power. But the quiet doesn't last long: Loretta Harris, who has just been getting her eyebrows trimmed in the second-floor Centre Avenue barbershop, has some sharp words for the new Pittsburgh Penguins arena being built a few blocks away.

The Bank of New York Mellon today committed $3 million over six years to the Hill District through the state's Neighborhood Partnership Program.

The money -- $500,000 each year -- will go toward community development, job training, affordable housing, family-building programs and the arts -- projects identified by an application committee. It is part of the Community Benefits Agreement that was worked out among the One Hill Coalition, the city, the county, the Penguins and the Sports & Exhibition Authority.