Anatomy of a Neighborhood: Homewood in the 21st Century

The Urban and Regional Analysis program at the University Center for Social and Urban Research (UCSUR) has been engaged in a number of projects involving Pittsburgh neighborhoods, with its Pittsburgh Neighborhood and Community Information System (PNCIS) serving as a valuable resource for these projects. This report summarizes recent collaboration between UCSUR and the Homewood Children’s Village in 2010.

The Homewood Children’s Village is a comprehensive social service, health and education initiative whose mission is to “simultaneously improve the lives of Homewood’s Children and to reweave the fabric of the community in which they live” (Homewood Children's Village, 2011). For over two years, a number of community, nonprofit, educational, foundation, and government leaders have been working to adapt and apply the Harlem Children’s Zone model to Homewood. The board chair and driving force behind the Children’s Village is Professor John Wallace of the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Social Work. Information from this study will also be part of the Homewood Children’s Village State of the Village report (2011).

In the spring and summer 2010, UCSUR worked with Professor Wallace and his students to document and study neighborhood conditions in Homewood using parcel-level neighborhood data from the PNCIS. This information was also used by Professor Wallace’s community-based participatory research class for their direct neighborhood observations, evaluations, and assessments of conditions.

The information in this report focuses largely on property conditions in Homewood under a number of indicators. The report concludes with an application of Gigapan photography to document neighborhood conditions and solicit resident feedback in Homewood.