As a 9-1-1 Officer who sees daily the ills this city is suffering from, and as a community leader who still attempts to make the neighborhood(s) he lives in a better place for his children, I often volunteer a lot of time & effort to grassroots causes that will directly impact the fate of both. And when times look real dire, sometimes I offer to take the lead, such as when I ran against our current incumbent council member (funny how many people have since approached me to say they regret their choice)! Will i run again? Quite possibly, but that is not the point of this post.

Every so often, a spark for change is lit in this city. Every so often people say they have had enough, and “organize”. Yet no matter how “organized” they may be (and some have been very organized/powerful/impacting), they just can’t make it into the end zone. And in this city that is because of the strangle hold our supposed elected “leaders” have over “process”.

The solution? To change the players! Get people in power who will return power to the people! And if they flip, then replace them as well. This city has seen many up & (mostly) downs in the past 30-40 years. And yet, every so often a beam of light shines through. Bob O’Connor was one of those, and actually one of the reasons I still gave this city a chance when the Murphy “Tech Bubble” pre-maturely burst. And sadfully, Bob was taken away from us so very quickly.

Well another “beam” has just broke through the dark clouds of this city. It seems that other young professionals like myself who have also decided to stay & give this city a chance have taken their organizing to the next level, creating a group to promote progressive change for this city, and now offering to put their money where their mouths are by supporting candidates who will promote progressive policies as well. As I said, at the point where we are at in this city, the only way we will bring about change is from the inside, and we have to start getting some people in.

As such, I feel it is my duty to promote this campaign, and I fully endorse it. Please feel free to visit it, along with their webpage at http://progresspittsburgh.net for more information on the group & to join Pittsburgh’s strongest movement for change!

> The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
> The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
> WTAE Channel 4
> WPXI Channel 11
> KDKA Channel 2
> The Columbus Dispatch

All puns aside, Cathy suffers from multiple sclerosis, and I applaude her efforts in trying to raise awareness & research money for this debilitating & life threatening disease. My step mother died of Muscular Dystrophy, a similar neurological disease, back in the late 90’s, and it is with deep sympathy that I am willing to contribute to her cause.

In an email she she sent out, she suggested donating on behalf of the neighbors around us, so true to my word, my contribution of $62 to her bail is representative of the 620 households in Summer Hill, which is covered by her Zone station. Should you like to make a donation, just click on her picture, and it will take you directly to her page on Jerry Lewis’ site. Of course, should she fall short of her goal, she will have to do a “stint behind bars”, so stay tuned!

Well, as many have been aware, our Princess, Katie, has joined the walking world. Actually she has been walking since right before Thanksgiving! This video was taken on my PDA Phone, and has since been sent to many of you. So as to save space on your computers, I have since posted it here so all can enjoy. Stay tuned for future videos to appear as well. Enjoy!

To the many of you who may have visited and either found broken links or a dead page, we apologize for the inconvience & thank you for your patience.

If you have visited our site recently prior to December 7th, you may already be aware we had made efforts to update the page by switching to a blog format. This decision was made for multiple reasons, including being more estetically appealing and requiring less back end coding, which is what usually consumes the most time when web editing. But the most important reason we chose to go with a blog format is because it would allow each of us to update the page much quicker, including to be able to post updates via email, a very unique & time saving feature!

Suffice to say, just as we were getting used to the new format & features,our efforts were temporarily in vain as we encountered a severe problem with our previous hosting company. I do not want to go into much detail as to what those problems were as I am still hammering our some issues with them; but I can say we have since found a more reputable & stable hosting company, and have since started over. As such, we ask for a little more patience as we restore our website, including pictures & such, as we believe you will enjoy the end product.

Thanks again,
Dave & the family!