Brookliners Work to Create Identity for Community

About 50 Brookliners met at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church last week to discuss something near and dear to each of them—the identity of their own community.

The group of newcomers and familiar faces moved between three stations during the meeting, discussing mapping and streetscape designs, and sharing stories about Brookline. 

“On a practical level, we want to know what people value here,” said Christine Mondor of EvolveEA. “We want to get them to have these conversations among themselves. Then we can capture that and make a plan.”

The June 19 meeting was the first in a series of three, and was for Brookliners to talk about what they value in their community, what they’d like to improve, and what they’d like the rest of Pittsburgh to know about the neighborhood.

“What do you want to be known for?” Mondor asked those in attendance. “What is important here? What do you value?”

Residents identified Brookline as a place with culinary and cultural diversity, great small businesses, and a walk-able community with good schools and plenty of youth activities. Those things, Mondor said, will be the bases for “branding Brookline.” 

The branding project is being led by EvolveEA, in collaboration with Brookline’s South Pittsburgh Development Corporation.

It is funded by a $25,000 grant from the Pittsburgh Neighborhood Renaissance Fund with support from the Mayor’s Office, the Urban Redevelopment Authority, and the Department of City Planning. The grant was administered by the Design Center.

The meetings were organized locally by the Neighborhood Renaissance Committee, a committee of SPDC. Committee members include Jennifer Grab, Jennifer Askey, Stephanie Miller, and Lois McCafferty.

Marketing studies on Brookline Boulevard have been done in the past, but unlike previous studies, the committee intends this one to produce real, tangible results over the next several years.

“When we entered into this project, we made it very clear to Evolve that we didn’t just want a report,” Grab said. “We want to generate something we can look at in terms of phases, so that we have real goals to meet to better the community.”

Grab said once Evolve produces a finished report detailing possible improvement projects, the Renaissance Committee intends to starts applying for grants to fund and complete as many of those projects as possible.

The next two meetings—tentatively scheduled for July 25 and Sept. 12— are open to residents and those who work in Brookline. They will focus on recommending specific projects or action plans for the community and detailing how to make them happen.

Evolve has assisted other communities with similar plans—most recently, Upper Lawrenceville. Click here to read about that project.

More solid plans will be formed over the next few months, but for now, Grab said, there seem to be endless possibilities for Brookline.

“So far, the feedback for this has been good,” she said. “There are a lot of people here tonight who have never been to community meetings before. It’s what we want to see. This is not just an SPDC thing. It’s a Brookline thing.”