►
Description
On this episode of CityTalk, John interviews Dodi Byrne from the Office of Special Events, Rebecca Kiernan from the Department of City Planning, and Tara Matthews from the Department of Innovation & Performance.
A
Welcome
to
city
talk
where
we
try
to
find
out
what
are
these
people
who
work
for
the
city?
What
do
they
do
all
day?
This
person
hasn't
just
been
doing
some
work
all
day,
she's
been
doing
work
for
the
city
of
Pittsburgh
for
more
than
two
decades,
serving
in
the
Department
of
special
events
and
she's
about
to
walk
away
because
she
can
Dodie
Bern
is
here,
Dodie
welcome,.
A
B
Is
it
is
we
program
most
of
the
city
events
that
we
do
our
foot
races,
our
concerts,
community
festivals
movies
in
the
park
and
there's
other
coordinators
in
the
office,
and
each
of
these
events
kind
of
get
divided
up
over
the
course
of
the
year
for
each
coordinator
to
be
the
lead
coordinator
on
that
particular
event.
But.
B
A
B
B
Unfair,
it's,
but
it's
part
of
the
job.
It's
part
of
what
I've
loved
doing
for
all
these
years.
You
know
putting
those
things
together
and
scheduling
things.
It's
like
a
jigsaw
puzzle,
putting
it
together
and
then,
when
you
go
to
the
event,
you
see
everything
and
how
the
public
you
know
enjoys
it,
and
you
know
that
it
was
all
worth
all
the
work
that
it
took
well.
A
B
A
B
A
B
Was
yeah
and
it
was,
it
was
very
inspiring
in
spite
of
the
horrible
weather,
but
it
so
many
people
showed
up
and
we
were
like
quarter
till
twelve
when
it
was
supposed
to
start
we're.
Looking
than
we
didn't
see
anybody
within
that
15
minute
window,
everybody
showed
up
and
it
was
just
really
was
an
awesome
experience.
I
really
was
glad
to
be
part.
B
Have
things
that
come
up
that
are
one
times
like
when
the
mayor
does
press
conferences
or
groundbreakings
and
those
are
always
nice
ribbon?
Cuttings
are
really
nice,
especially
when
they're
like
on
playgrounds
and
the
kids
participate
in
cutting
the
ribbon
and,
and
my
favorite
event
has
always
been
Junior.
Great
Race
I've,
always
loved
the
junior,
great
race
and
court.
B
It's
just
just
run
around
the
park
in
a
circle
and
everybody
gets
all
the
kids
get
a
ribbon
and
all
the
kids
get
a
little
backpack
goodie
bag
with
stuff
in
it,
and
it's
just
so
good
to
watch
these
kids
all
over
the
park
and
when
they
take
all
the
toys
out
that
we
get
them
and
put
in
their
bag.
So
just
I've
always
enjoyed
that
that
event.
So.
A
B
Couldn't
it
doesn't,
let
you
get
bored,
it
doesn't
let
you
get
bored
because
even
if
you're
doing
the
same
event
every
year
each
year,
it's
a
little
different
something
may
change.
Something
may
be
done
to
improve
it.
New
people
come
on
board.
You
meet
new
people
from
the
community
that
you
know,
because
I
also
do
the
community
festival
grant.
So
those
groups
that
people
that
oversee
them
some
will
leave.
Some
will
cut.
New
ones
will
come
in
so
you're
meeting
a
whole
lot
of
new
people.
B
B
B
This
this
past
couple
years,
it
has
really
changed
with
Mayor
Peduto
he's
brought
in
different
levels
and
positions
and
and
new
people
in
fresh
blood
in
and
is
revamping
the
way
some
of
the
programs
were
set
up
and
some
of
the
accounting
and
stuff
like
that.
So
it
was
it
was.
You
know
it
was
a
change
the
last
couple
years,
but
it
was
a
change.
I
think
that
what
needed
to
happen
and.
B
B
A
E
A
E
E
E
Right
so
it's
hard
to
say
no
to
projects
because
everything
kind
of
gets
thrown
at
our
division.
So
we
started
out
with
a
preliminary
resilience
assessment,
which
is
a
document,
and
you
can
read
all
this
online
on
our
website.
But
we
analyzed
what
the
pittsburgh
shocks
and
stresses
profile
is
and
then
from
that
we
developed
a
resilience
strategy
which
is
a
you
know,
12
year
plan
for
us
to
address
those
issues,
and
you
can
read
all
of
that
on
our
website.
So
we
have
a
list
of
projects
that
we
have
outlines
that
give.
E
Yeah,
so
the
first
implementation
project
that
came
out
of
it
is
something
called
the
equity
indicators
report
and
that
came
out.
We
had
a
second
update
to
that
document,
which
came
out
last
week,
so
it
looks
at
80
different
indicators,
citywide
that
measure
us
on
equity,
so
how
two
groups
compare
against
each
other.
Oddly.
A
E
E
A
A
E
E
That's
right,
so
one
of
the
projects
that
we
have
is
we
run
the
Western
PA
energy
consortium,
so
we
purchased
the
city's
energy
load
along
with
PWSA
and
some
universities
and
some
other
municipalities.
So
we
try
to
group
things
together
so
that
we
can
have
a
larger
impact
so,
for
example,
in
the
Western
PA
energy
consortium,
we're
now
looking
to
transition
or
purchase
local
renewable
energy,
so
that
you
know
we're
not
purchasing
from
the
dirty
grid.
E
A
E
E
Background
is
I'm,
actually,
my
undergrad
is
in
education
and
then
I
transitioned
to
a
master's
in
public
policy
focused
on
environmental
policy
and
then
I
was
a
sustainability
coordinator
for
another
local
municipality
and
then
kind
of
fell
into
resilience.
So
it
seemed
like
an
easy
transition
to
go
from.
You
know:
climate
change,
mitigation
and
sustainability
and
to
thinking
about
adaptation,
and
how
will
we
be
impacted
by
this
large
global
issues
like
climate
change?
Do.
E
E
E
E
I
think
you
know
we're
at
a
point
where
we've
done
a
lot
of
strategies
and
analyses
and
I.
Think
now
is
the
time
for
implementation.
So
I'm,
hoping
you
know
with
the
next
couple
of
budget
cycles
and
some
grant
funding
opportunities,
we
can
start
to
get.
You
know
solar
panel
installations
in
the
ground
or
electric
vehicle
charging,
or
you
can
start
to
physically
see
some
of
those
changes,
but.
E
E
F
Patriotism
inspires
passionate
debate,
it's
worn
like
a
badge
of
honor,
with
good
reason,
because
it
means
love
and
devotion
for
one's
country.
But
what
really
makes
up
this
country
of
ours?
It's
the
people
to
love
America
is
to
love
all
Americans
this
year.
Patriotism
shouldn't
just
be
about
pride
of
country.
It
should
be
about
love,
love
beyond
age,
sexuality,
disability,
race,
religion
and
other
labels,
because
love
has
no
lady's.
G
My
job
really
does
not
get
summed
up
by
my
title,
so
digital
services
doesn't
really
mean
much
when
you,
let's
look
at
it.
My
main
position
and
my
main
job
is
to
run
the
open
data
program,
so
I
work
with
different
departments.
I
work
with
the
law
department
and
I
also
work
with
members
of
the
WP
RDC,
the
western
Pennsylvania
regional
data
center,
which
is
a
big
mouthful
to
actually
get
data
that
we
collect
in
our
day
to
day
lives
in
the
city
and
put
it
online
in
a
way
that
people
can
actually
use.
What's.
G
One
thing
we
developed
what's
called
bird's-eye
view,
so
my
colleague
Jeffrey
Arnold,
put
together
an
interactive
map
that
shows
things
like
3-1-1
requests
permits,
violations,
police
incidents
on
a
map.
We
can
click
on
it,
see
what's
going
on,
go
to
the
3-1-1
website,
submit
complaints,
things
of
that
nature
and
that
way,
if
you're,
not
a
statistician
or
expert,
you
can't
really
make
much
magic
out
of
a
spreadsheet.
You
can
still
see
what's
going
on
in
your
neighborhood,
so.
G
Yes,
like
my
way
of
thinking
about
it,
is
democratizing
data,
because
data
is
not
really
something.
That's
really
intuitive
to
everybody.
I
went
to
school
to
study
data,
and
it's
still
not
the
easiest
thing
in
the
world
for
me
to
work
with,
but
I
want
to
make
sure
that
everyone
can
use
it,
whether
you're,
a
researcher,
a
council
person
a
member
of
the
community,
it
has
to
be
useful
to
you,
otherwise,
there's
no
reason
to
really
put
it
online.
That's.
A
B
G
A
G
A
B
G
G
B
A
G
G
G
Think
they're
very
similar
I
think
Baltimore
and
Pittsburgh
are
both
smaller
city
they're,
not
Baltimore's,
not
Midwest,
obviously,
but
I
think
they
both
have
that
reputation
that
they're
coming
back
from
they're
both
becoming
hubs
of
technology.
They
both
have
a
strong
educational
and
medicinal,
like
the
industry,
influence
and.
G
G
G
Well,
you,
what
do
you
do?
Is
you
take
the
the
material
you
throw
it
on
there,
you
roll
it
down
with
a
roller.
You
tamp
it
down
back
over
it
with
the
truck
and
you're
done
mm-hmm,
it's
pretty
quick!
It's
just
that
it
takes
a
while
to
get
from
request
to
someone's
desk
to
the
truck
and
that's
what
we
were
trying
to
figure
out
is
where.
G
G
I,
like
being
a
public
servant,
I
like
local
government,
specifically
because
you're
really
close
to
the
residents
I
think
the
further
up
you
get
in
the
larger.
The
bureaucracy
gets
the
further
away
you
get
from
actual
people,
and
so
I
like
that.
I
can
go
out
to
meetings
and
I
like
that.
I
can
be
a
member
of
the
community
and
how
advocate
for
the
type
of
work
that
I'm
doing
are.
G
When
we
first
started,
we
had
doesn't
mean
called
the
open
data
like
forum,
and
so
that
was
we
pulled
everybody.
We
had
a
vote
in
contests
like
what
types
of
data
that
we
keep.
Would
you
like
to
see
published?
We
got
a
lot
of
great
ideas
and
that
kind
of
focused
where
we
want
to
start
with
open
data
from
then
we
started
thinking
about
what
should
our
priorities
be?
G
G
G
One
of
the
things
with
open
data
is
that
there's
a
balance,
so
we
want
to
protect
the
identity
of
the
people
who
live
here,
but
we
also
want
the
data
to
be
specific
enough
that
somebody
can
actually
do
useful
analysis
with
it.
So
if
it's
a
big
aggregate
say,
for
example,
these
are
how
many
assault
crimes
took
place
in
the
city
in
one
month.
We
don't
tell
you
the
neighborhood,
we
don't
tell
you
the
time
or
the
date.
A
Like
it
can
be
really
complicated,
but
as
we
already
covered,
you
live
to
make
the
complicated
yeah
simple
enough
for
people
to
understand
I
mean
that's
the
that's
the
best
part
of
my
job,
Tara
Matthews,
thanks
so
much
for
doing
the
show.
Thank
you
so
much
for
having
me
nice
to
meet
somebody
who
really
loves
their
job.
That
much!
Thank
you!
That's
City,
Talk,
we'll
see
you
next
time.