Council Interviews Police Chief Nominee

At a nearly four-hour hearing with City Council last week, acting chief Larry Scirotto discussed his priorities for the bureau: recruiting more officers, decreasing the number of low-threat situations that police respond to, launching an online platform for residents to fill out reports on low-level crimes, and reinstating the ban on minor traffic stops to address racial disparities. He also has zero tolerance for use of excessive force. Council is expected to schedule a public hearing where residents can ask Scirotto questions. [TribLIVE / 90.5 WESA]

Local Union Updates

More than 500 members of the United Museum Workers union ratified their first contract with the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh last week. The four-year agreement raises base pay at the museums from $12 an hour to $16; it also includes raises for union employees, the establishment of a health and safety committee, anti-discrimination and seniority language, and more sick time for part-time workers.

Meanwhile, SEIU Pennsylvania, the state's largest union for health care workers, submitted a federal antitrust complaint claiming that nearly every worker within UPMC is subject to unfair labor practices. [90.5 WESA]

• 🎧 Is UPMC’s nonprofit status on the chopping block? [City Cast Pittsburgh]

Local Libraries Get a Boost

The Allegheny Regional Asset District, RAD, is awarding $3.8 million in grant money to libraries in Braddock, Homestead, McKeesport, and Swissvale, as well as funds to help relocate Clairton’s library. The Transformative Community Library Fund is meant to serve the county’s most impoverished areas. [PublicSource]

🌱 Soil Sisters

For sisters Raynise and TaRay Kelly, gardening is more than a seasonal hobby — it's a means of self-sufficiency, opportunity, and food access far beyond their bursting home nursery in Mount Oliver. You can search their catalog of crops online.

• 🎧 City Cast Pittsburgh stopped by the Soil Sisters’ home base and took away a few pointers for any novice planters out there looking to cultivate their own green thumbs.

🌱 City Grows

This organic garden and gift shop has a home base in Lawrenceville, but recently expanded to a large space at The Terminal in the Strip District. Browse seeds, potted plants, soils, pots, tools, and more. More of an indoor plant person? They also have decorative plants like succulents, cacti, bonsai, and air plants.

🌱 Grow Pittsburgh Resource Center

Want to start a garden but don’t have all of the tools? Grow Pittsburgh’s Garden Resource Center in Larimer is a tool-lending library and garden materials depot focused on reducing barriers to growing food. For a sliding scale annual membership fee, you can access free garden tool rentals and bulk materials like organic compost, mulch, and soil amendments.

• 🎧 Claire Matway from Grow Pittsburgh gave us all the tips and tricks to starting a backyard garden on the City Cast Pittsburgh podcast.

🌱 Shadyside Nursery

Find plants, flowers, gardening supplies, and landscaping services at the Shadyside Nursery. Their multi-use green space also hosts workshops, community events, and BeeBoy hives and honey.

Mary Cassatt was an outspoken suffragist and painter known for her endearing portraits of everyday women and mothers tending to their children — a radical display of familial moments for the time. She spent her adult life in France, but her roots were laid right here.

She was born 179 years ago today in Allegheny City, which eventually annexed into the North Side of Pittsburgh. She grew up in an upper-middle-class family; her father was a stockbroker, and her brother Alexander later became president of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Cassatt began studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts at just 15, but in 1866, she was so piqued by the attitude of male students and teachers (women weren’t even allowed to use live models!) that she decided to study on her own. Her mother and family friends accompanied her to Paris where she studied privately with artists and attained a permit to be a “copyist” at the Louvre. By 1877, she was invited by Edgar Degas to show her work with the Impressionists, or “Independents,” whose work was “revolutionary conceptual” and the genesis of modern art.

You can see a historical marker honoring her near Allegheny and Ridge avenues on the North Side, but it's unfortunately not easy to get to. I hope it will get relocated to a more accessible location.

♻️ E-Waste Recycling | Wednesday | 12:30 - 2:30 p.m.

Safely dispose of your electronic waste with the Pennsylvania Resources Council. There are varying fees depending on the materials you’re recycling. [free entrance, South Park]

💉 Naloxone / Narcan Training | Wednesday | 6:15 - 7 p.m.

Register to learn a life-saving overdose response at Dormont Public Library. [free, Dormont]

🚲 Pittsburgh Underwear Ride | Thursday | 8 p.m.

Ride your bike and spread body positivity, starting at World War I Memorial Park and ending with an afterparty at a North Side taproom. [free, Lawrenceville]

🍪 Leona’s Flight Night | Thursday | 8 - 9:30 p.m.

Sample four Leona’s homemade ice cream sandwiches alongside 5 oz. pours at Bierport. [$21, Lawrenceville]

Summer is just around the corner, which means parents, aunties and uncles, grandparents and fun neighbors will soon be looking for ways to stave off boredom for the kids in their lives. City Cast contributor Meg St-Esprit has tested many kid-friendly adventures with our own family and tells us the best places to go in Pittsburgh and how to make any outing with kids a little easier.

Have some cake for me today! 🎂

— Francesca Dabecco