This afternoon, the professors tasked us with the interesting challenge of analyzing a Pittsburgh neighborhood through the following four lenses: businesses, civic assets, community organizations, and public resources. My group (Business Development) chose Shadyside, an affluent neighborhood about ten minutes east of Oakland. The bus dropped us off at Walnut St, Shadyside’s main street. We immediately spotted businesses galore; Walnut Street houses many popular and high end shops, namely Lululemon, Sephora, Brandy Melville, Rolex, and Kendra Scott. We had no trouble finding a bustling business ecosystem, which I imagine maintains its momentum due to the variety of shops that trap customers in the area for hours on end. Walking further, we came across plenty of parks (namely Highland Park), public schools, and libraries. However, we struggled to find community organizations. Initially, we planned to visit Shadyside’s Chamber of Commerce but came to find that they do not operate in their brick and mortar building. However, we ended up in a very productive conversation with Abby, an operator at CoHatch, a popular coworking space on Walnut St. As an operator of CoHatch, she said that the Chamber of Commerce is incredibly responsive, that she often communicates with them and receives the business advice or help she requires to run the space. Indirectly, that showed us the vitality and necessity of that specific community organization within the neighborhood.

We also had an amazing conversation with Sherree Goldstein, owner of the Square Cafe. Sherree has owned and operated the Cafe for twenty-three years (!), and six years in Shadyside. It is a wildly popular breakfast/lunch destination, to the point where it typically does not experience any off-season droops. The Square Cafe is deeply ingrained in the Shadyside/East Liberty community by collaborating with and sponsoring non-profits, small local businesses, and community boards. It is more or less the heart and soul of the restaurant industry in that area, and we were able to learn a lot from Sherree’s experiences. These two conversations gave me valuable training for Ireland in that they forced me to create a flowing, respectful, and inquisitive conversation while providing enough context and letting others share. I needed that experience to trial the sequencing of the interaction. Introduction, gratitude, question, gratitude, close. That is the formula I will use going into the abroad experience. My only fear is the accent barrier; it may cause miscommunication or awkwardness, but that is easily fixed. This experience was very useful and I look forward to exerting these skills in Fayette County tomorrow.