Joby Fox, the bassist for the Northern Irish band Energy Orchard, on the filming of the music video for their single “Sailor Town” in Braddock, PA, 20 years ago.
Category: Radio
Helen Skullduggery: Tattoos + Women in Belfast
Belfast Pub Quiz
The Cemetary Pie Tree
Pawel Is A Comic Artist
Pawel Piechnik came to Belfast a few years ago to work as an architect, now he’s back in Poland, in Poznan, and (officially) traded in architecture for comics. See his work here.
Pittsburgh’s Israel-Palestine Roadblock
Israel-Palestine Checkpoint Action in Oakland
Last Thursday, at 5:30 in the afternoon, about 15 people took to the streets of Oakland. Their goal: to make Pittsburghers aware of the regular hassles and dangers that Palestinian people face in their daily lives.
Produced for Rustbelt Radio
Mayor Candidates in Braddock
Dowd + Fetterman Campaign in Braddock
Primary election day is fast approaching — on May 19th Pittsburgh will choose between three Democratic candidates for mayor — Luke Ravenstahl, Carmen Robinson, and Patrick Dowd. Braddock is also having a mayor’s race this year, and its current mayor John Fetterman hosted a party a few days ago, to promote his own campaign and lend his support to Patrick Dowd.
Produced for Rustbelt Radio.
Ed Robbins: Shooting the Iraq War
Ed Robbins – Shooting the Iraq War
Ed Robbins has made several films about the Iraq war — including one from the perspective of American soldiers, and one about Iraqi refugees. He recently visited Pittsburgh to discuss the complications of documenting war.
Produced for Rustbelt Radio.
Before Class Starts, Part 3
Pittsburgh’s Energy Upheaval
Penn Future – Pittsburghs Energy Upheaval
Over 200 Pittsburghers gathered at Phipps Conservatory Sunday March 29th to discuss the future of climate change action in the region. The group Citizens for Pennsylvania Future (Penn Future) organized the event – bringing together activists, government workers and scientists together – to talk about recent major developments in energy and the environment.
Pennsylvania’s a coal state – responsible for 1 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions – but now the state’s on the precipice of a new era for energy use and production. After decades of talking about climate change and the need for dramatic action, 2009 looks to be a watershed year.
Suddenly there’s lots of money for solar & wind energy production and for improving the energy efficiency of our buildings and infrastructure. But the big question remains: will people change their lifestyles in response?
Produced for Rustbelt Radio.
Your Environmental Road Trip
Mark Dixon overhauled his life a few years ago. He left his job in Silicon Valley, and with two friends — Ben Evans and Julie Evans, spent a year in an SUV hybrid traveling around the US, talking to all kinds of Americans about climate change.
Thus was born YERT – Your Environmental Road Trip. Mark, Ben and Julie filmed over 500 hours of footage, talking to environmental activists, scientists, and innovators. They met with a scientist converting annual crops to perennial ones, a 92 year old man who’s been living for six decades in an Idaho cave, and an engineer who wants to convert our highway system into a giant solar energy collection + distribution network.
And the YERT team lived by strict sustainability rules — the three of them together used only one shoebox of waste per month. It wasn’t easy, with every restaurant presenting a new tableful of challenges. They survived the voyage, and you can see YERT films here, and read more about the project too.
Produced for Rustbelt Radio.
Toilet Redux
Pittsburgh’s sewage system is more than 100 years old, and it cannot handle the amount of waste the city generates. Since the sewage system is combined with the city’s rainwater system, when it rains, the system overflows and raw sewage ends up in the rivers. Carnegie Mellon art student Joey Hays has been studying the city’s waste problems — and for his Masters thesis this month, he’s built a special toilet– the Gardez L’Eau — that could be a first step towards a better way of dealing with our waste.
Read more at Joey’s site for the Gardez L’Eau, or see it in action at CMU’s Miller Gallery through April 18.
Produced for Rustbelt Radio.
Pittsburgh Polka All Stars: Jumping Joe Stanek
The Future of Rust Belt Transit
Abby Wilson – Transportation Future
If Barack Obama can make discussions of weatherization popular, why not debates about transportation too? The issue of transit may seem one that only a policy-wonk could love, but Abby Wilson — a native Pittsburgher and a leader of GLUE (the Great Lakes Urban Exchange) — wants to change that.
Within the year, Congress will begin to debate the transportation reauthorization bill, which will shape national transit policy in the coming years. Abby and GLUE want to see less funding for highways, and more for mass transit, cycle paths, and innovative road policies that will encourage urban development and social justice — as well as saving people money.
In the run up to this debate, GLUE is looking to collect people’s stories about transportation in the region. Around Pittsburgh, Abby sees a major rise in people cycling, walking, and using mass transit — and she reasons that if legislators see this human face of transportation issues, more sustainable + equitable policy can be pushed through.
For more about GLUE, visit their website here, where you can also contact Abby directly.
Green Jobs in Steel Country
- Rob Rogers in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The promise of green jobs proliferated on the presidential campaign trail and in the stimulus package. Now it’s come to Braddock, the quintessential Rust Belt town on the outskirts of Pittsburgh. Braddock’s been in the news lately, with its young tattooed mayor John Fetterman appearing on The Colbert Report & a long profile in The New York Times last month.
This burst of national attention comes after a rough past two decades. Since the steel industry petered out in the mid-1980s, no other industry has come into the town – and unemployment, drug use, and violent crime all remain high. A new program has started up in Braddock – the Mon Valley Environmental Innovative Training program (or MOVE IT) – to train area residents to be environmental technicians. The Pittsburgh area has plenty of post-industrial pollution problems, and MOVE IT aims to supply a new crop of ‘green workers’ to remediate brownfield sites.
The first group of MOVE IT trainees just graduated from the 9 week course – and what do they think now? Do they believe in the promise of green jobs? Do they care more about the environment? And are they optimistic about finding work in this economy?
Another World 