Background:  CityLab 'brings local business, professional, and community leaders together with Carey Business School students, alumni, and faculty to explore ideas and strategies to build more livable cities for a livable future. It combines those who have a passion for city life -- people who see urban challenges as opportunities wrapped in problems that can be solved with imagination, skill, and collaboration.' This is an exploration into the Dormont neighborhood of Pittsburgh.

Interested in bringing your business to Dormont?

Check out more about the project below

Themes & Insights

There is something especially powerful about learning about the community in which you live in a way that engages past the day-to-day of life in a place. This exploration has been just that, a spark started. A journey that felt similar to self-awareness on a personal level but with the ability to bring academic expertise and creative potential to that journey. Click to learn more about some of the insights that came out of this exploration especially relative to the below.

• Health Habitat
• Health People
• Cohesive Communities
• Engaged Citizens
• Shared Prosperity

Data Mapping

Tools like PolicyMap and diversitydatakids.org allow for a deeper understanding of place relative to critical aspects of livability like health, demographics, economic opportunity, transit, environmental factors, and access to education. Click the button to learn more about some key aspects of the data story in Dormont.

Moving Forward

I have the bug. I can't stop thinking about the possibilities, what the future will look like on these paths we're headed on, and how I can offer myself in service. The more I learned about Dormont, the more a few things came into focus for me:

1. The deepest need at this point in time is designing the future of the business district with intention. To do this, three challenges need addressing - 1) gathering community input into the design of the future identity, 2) being scrappy in recruiting the businesses that the community wants, and 3) helping to facilitate deals with the building owners with vacant properties.

2. I can help with all three of those challenges. 

3. There is a group of really engaged residents that I can partner with. 

Here we go!