Pittsburgh's 'Sociable City Plan' Balances Nightlife Impacts

Following a pilot project tested on the city's South Side, Pittsburgh is working toward expanding its "Sociable City Plan" to four additional neighborhoods in need of balancing unruly behavior with the benefits of an active nightlife scene.

1 minute read

September 22, 2014, 10:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Diana Nelson Jones reports on the Sociable City Plan, which Pittsburgh developed along with the Responsible Hospitality Institute. Described by Nelson Jones as a "blueprint for protecting quality of life without squelching the economic and social benefits of nightlife," the goal of the plan "is a focused response by teams of building and health inspectors, police, business and neighborhood organizations to help restaurant and bar owners minimize liability, damage and the need for enforcement."

The program was tested in the last year on the South Side, which has been "notorious for more than a decade as numbers of young drinkers and abusive behaviors have escalated."

"Many of those ideas used on the South Side will be rolled out as a pilot in Lawrenceville, Oakland and Market Square, Downtown, but the lessons learned can be tweaked or replicated across the city," according to the article's sources.

Monday, September 22, 2014 in Pittsburg Post-Gazette

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