Councilman Bill Peduto will be one of the sponsors the Three Rivers Bioneers conference that will be held in Pittsburgh this weekend. The mission of the conference is to foster a local movement of citizens and organizations who strive to cultivate sustainable communities in the Three Rivers bioregion through social justice, ecological health and innovative solutions.  The conference will take place from Friday, October 16 to Sunday, October 18 at the Pittsburgh Project.

The keynote speakers of the conference are Greg Boulos, the Western Director of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, and Khari Mosley, the Director of Green Economic Initiatives for G-TECH strategies.  Other speakers broadcast via satellite from the National Bioneers Conference include Andrew Weil and Michael Pollan.

For more information, or to register for the conference, visit the website.

Last Saturday, Councilman Bill Peduto served as a judge for The Waffle Shop’s Visionary Ideas for this World or Another Event.

The event asked for submissions of visionary ideas for the future, and asked participants for extravagant proposals such as “visionary schemes for things like: how to survive the end of the planet, a way for animals to run governments, a cloning system that reinvents history, or an entire alternate universe of your own design.”

Ten participants were selected from the submissions to pitch their idea in a short presentation to the judges and the audience.  Participants could be local, national or even international, and could pitch their ideas to the judges in person, or using a “body double” that connected with the participants via Skype and spoke on their behalf.

The winning submission came from Vanessa German, with her presentation on “The Power of Imagination.”  Follow the links to read more about the event in The Tartan, and learn more about The Waffle Shop.

On Sunday, Pittsburgh Police Officers and Pittsburgh teenagers met at Mellon Park for the third annual Battle of the Badge basketball tournament.

Neighborhood teams from around the city came together for a day of basketball, live music and food.  Local businesses donated prizes food and raffle prizes, and The Marilyn G. Rabb (MGR) Foundation ran an art station.

The winning team came from Career Connections Charter High School.  Read more about the event here.

Today, Councilman Bill Peduto will speak at the 2009 Mahatma Gandhi Birthday Celebration,
presented by the Alliance for Humanitarian Initiatives, Nonviolence and Spiritual Advancement.

The goal of the Alliance is to  celebrate Mahatma Gandhi as a global humanitarian figure, promote his legacy of nonviolence, and engage youth in appreciating Gandhi’s powerful message.  The event will include dance performances, cultural activities, and inter-faith religious practices to celebrate the birth of Gandhi and his message.  Topics of discussion will include “Gandhi on a New Generation” and “Gandhi and Martin Luther King,” and the keynote speaker will be Professor Varadaraja Raman, Emeritus Professor of Physics and Humanities at Rochester Institute of Technology.

Councilman Peduto also issued a City Council Proclamation in honor of this event.

Yesterday, City Councilman Bill Peduto gave a presentation at the CEOs for Cities National Urban Leaders Summit in Washington D.C.

Councilman Peduto joined other Pittsburgh leaders Scott Bricker from Bike Pittsburgh, Mariann Geyer from Point Park University, Erik Lingren from Venture Outdoors, and Eve Picker from no wall productions in a presentation entitled City Update: Pittsburgh’s Transformation.

The group discussed the urban renewal of Pittsburgh that has begun to receive national attention, and ultimately led to Pittsburgh’s selection as the site for last week’s G-20 summit.  They addressed how the changes have been made possible, and what is in store for Pittsburgh in the future.  They also discussed how the community has been enabled to take action, and what role new social media technology will play in this transformation.

Learn more about CEOs for Cities.

The last session of Pedal, Paddle, Peduto took place on Sunday, as participants were led through Schenley Park for a City Parks Walkabout.
Nineteen people, and one dog, came out to walk 4 miles around the park, while learning about the ecosystem and plants around them, and the history and future plans for the park.  The weather held out long enough for the group to enjoy their walk.
This was the last session of this summer’s Pedal, Paddle, Peduto program.  Councilman Peduto hopes to partner with Venture Outdoors again next year to continue and expand the program.

The second session of Venture Outdoors Pedal, Paddle, Peduto took place on Sunday July 5, as Councilman Bill Peduto and participants went on a bike ride through downtown Pittsburgh.

Louise Sturgess from Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, Don Carter from Urban Design Associates, and Eve Picker from no walls productions joined Councilman Peduto to speak about the history and design of our downtown buildings.  

The 32 participants, both children and adults, simultaneously learned about the downtown area of their city, and enjoyed a relaxing bike ride past the buildings they were learning so much about.

Missed out on the last two Pedal, Paddle, Peduto trips?  Don’t worry - there is still one session of Pedal, Paddle, Peduto left this summer!
Sign up here for the City Parks Walkabout.

On June 14th, outdoor activity and policy discussion were united in the first session of Venture Outdoor’s Pedal, Paddle, Peduto summer program.  

For the first session, 42 people joined Councilman Bill Peduto for a kayaking trip with an informative twist.  As the group kayaked on Pittsburgh’s rivers, they also learned about the Pittsburgh’s riverfront environment and riverfront development.

Lisa Schroeder from Riverlife, Tom Baxter from Friends of the Riverfront, and Rob Pfaffmann from Pfaffmann and Associates spoke to the participants about our city’s rivers.

For more photos, visit the Pedal, Paddle, Peduto page, or our Flickr!

At 1pm today, Councilman Bill Peduto will be holding a press conference before a special session of City Council on the use of technology to advance democracy.  Technology and new media, such as a government iPhone application, live streaming of government meetings online, and deliberative polling and instant feedback by constituents during government meetings, can be used to bring the residents of Pittsburgh into the democratic process in more ways than ever before.

Today’s special session, beginning at 1:30pm, will focus on discussions by leading experts in the new media and technology fields on these topics and more, including:

• Dr. Priya Narasimhan- Carnegie Mellon University, creator of YinzCam technology
• Paul Fireman - Vivo
• Brad Winney - Panopto, Inc.
• Jay Resio - MyGov365

To watch a live streaming of this meeting online, beginning at 1:30pm today - click here - and then select “View Live” underneath the section E Democracy.