Highlights on PGHretail’s Influence in City’s Progress

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PGHretail delivered a portfolio of projects and analysis for Pittsburgh’s quality of life in a retail and transportation perspective, as well as, the impacts of the creative class on the economics of the city and its’ residents in early October 2013 to the Port Authority Of Allegheny County, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, and then Mayor-elect Bill Peduto. Focusing on the creative sector was super important to us and they heard us! We’re glad to see it moving in some direction!

Read the Article Here ====> NEXT Pittsburgh: Connecting Pittsburgh Creative Conference

Read the full PGHretail Report here.

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NEXT Pittsburgh: California Markets

I was delighted to talk to Traci Cierto earlier in August about the the California Markets and it’s future in the California Ave. Business District in Brighton Heights. 

You can read more about ourBiz Buzz project and others here ===>> nextpittsburgh.com/

Connect Card Rewards

ConnectCard

The Port Authority of Pittsburgh has made leaps and bounds by activating the Connect Card program to make bus fare more efficient and data collection to adjust routes.

PGHretail was able to sit down with Port Authority directors to discuss retail marketing initiatives, primarily, the rebranding of their Riders Rewards.

The Port Authority is moving as quickly as they can to meet demands of public transit riders and partner with local businesses to add value to users of the Connect Card.

You can see a list of current participants of Connect Rewards here.

What deals would you like to see on there? Any local businesses you frequent often on your bus routes you’d enjoy additional rewards at? Go ahead and let us know right here in the comments or by email at pghretail [@] gmail dot com.

The Case for Water Taxis

After our sit down with the Port Authority back in October 2013, PGHretail began investigating water taxi’s more heavily.  We made a call in to Wandella Boats, Chicago’s premier commuter water taxi service.  The Director of Operations was very excited to talk to us and share information about the water taxi business.

Their business has been picking up to expand their boat fleet. Largest users were suburban residents coming to downtown through park-n-rides. They run their commuter business from March until November with competitive rates against bus fares.  Just by glancing at our river system, it was expressed that Pittsburgh has the ability to be successful in the water taxi business with optimal travel time to destinations within the three rivers.

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How exciting! So, PGHretail began researching past water taxi initiatives and the current status.  It was mentioned by the County’s Economic Director, Bob Hurley, that in the past there was a water taxi service that didn’t quite catch on.  Read more about the previous project in the BizJournal article from Sept 2003BizJournal article from May 2005, Post Gazette article from June 2008, and Post Gazette article from May 2009

We found that despite the lack of success then, Federal Funding had been given yet again to the Port of Pittsburgh in 2011 to develop a water taxi dock system and earmarked funding for commuter taxi boats.  Read more in the Post Gazette article from August 2011 and  Trib-Live article from October 2012.

PGHretail contacted Mark Schiller, owner of Pittsburgh Water Limo, who is the only ferry boat company who has publicly announced interest in pursuing the water taxi service.  He was adamant that water taxi service would thrive in Pittsburgh under a free-enterprise business. Ongoing discussions with the Port of Pittsburgh, URA, and other key players have been going on over the past three years.

Mr. Schiller directed PGHretail to contact another interested individual to partner in the investigation and lobbying of the water taxi project to the Allegheny County and City of Pittsburgh. This highly active and insightful guy is Dave Mansueto.  We can’t even begin to tell you all the awesome start-up projects Mr. Mansueto is in. His current project is a mobile Podcast app called bossjockstudio.com/.  You can follow him on Twitter @tacomancini.

 

 

Raising Awareness in Local Offices

Back in October 2013, PGHretail sat down with County Executive, Rich Fitzgerald, and proposed a wide array of alternative transportation ideas.  We’ve been able to sit down with key players from the county, city, and Port Authority of Pittsburgh.

In addition to public transportation projects, which directly impact our local retail economy, we addressed the lack of information and support for the Creative Class and Creative Economy.  Entrepreneurs, innovators, grassroots organizations, artisans, and skilled craftsman have a huge impact on development in micro-economies within communities. The City of Philadelphia is a great example of how local government can gather information for that demographic, businesses that serve those folks, and non-profit organizations looking to cater funding initiatives.  Check out their site: http://creativephl.org/ and particularly, the CultureBlock site that maps resources: http://www.cultureblocks.com/wordpress/

Now, Pittsburgh organizations are trying.  Our professional critique is that passively crowd-sourcing, with little marketing efforts, to gather data is a very slow process to obtain information from very busy, focused individuals working hard to build their businesses and projects.  We hope that the URA is able to provide funding for a position that actively obtains and updates their latest project: http://launchpgh.com/

If you or someone you know, needs the resources from LAUNCHpgh, suggest their involvement to help establish the important information our growing economic developments need.

Introducing PGHshare!

Introducing PGHretail’s sister site, PGHshare!

PGHshare is dedicated to sharing ideas about sustainable transportation for Pittsburgh. Now in Phase 2 with Ideas & Movement, we’re ready to open our site for your feedback and support.

We’ve put together a package of ideas from other cities and updates on how some are already in development. Our transportation climate has been rough to weather more recently than ever.

Though things are looking brighter with various initiatives underway, like GoBurgh, the BRT from gettherepgh.org/, there is still much to be done about making Pittsburgh a more livable city with adequate public transportation options.

Check out PGHshare’s website and find us on Facebook for updates specifically about transportation projects happening in the city!

Take the Survey!

We want to know what you thought about the new California Markets that happened in Brighton Heights this summer.  We know many of you liked it so much we organized an additional event for October.

Your feedback is important and we’d like if you could take the survey and let us know your thoughts!

CLICK HERE to take the survey.

Thanks so much for supporting PGHretail’s efforts.

 

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