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If you are out and about and see the Pittsburgh Business Times, buy one.

Why?

There is a great article about Mt. Washington, the CDC, VuPlus and Greg Panza on the cover of the real estate section. You can read the first part of the article here. This is the kind of positive press all of Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods want and need.

Here is the experpt from The Pittsburgh Business Times:

There’s more to Pittsburgh neighborhoods than meets the eye. Beyond Mount Washington’s picturesque view of Downtown is a community striving to showcase its restaurants and businesses. Beyond McKeesport’s shuttered buildings is a mall that a local developer is working to revitalize. And beyond the hustle and bustle of South Side’s Station Square is a little-known diamond-in-the-rough called the West End that’s seeing a revival spurred by the widening of a once flood-prone creek. The following pages highlight just a few of Pittsburgh’s unique community business districts and the transformations that they are undergoing, from new developments to county-wide changes in the way these communities are funded.

For years, Mount Washington has sought a lighting bolt of inspiration to spark an identity for the neighborhood beyond the dramatic vista that can be seen from its cliffside pinnacle above the city.

“We wanted to say that Mount Washington offers more than the view,” said Greg Panza, project manger for the Mount Washington Community Development Corp. “We struggled with this 800-pound gorilla of the view.”

Now, Mount Washington’s CDC, working with a campaign developed by local firm Open Door Creative, has taken its iconic view, recomposed it into the fictional periodic element VU, and plugged a plus sign into it. VU+ can now be seen throughout the neighborhood on street banners, T-shirts and, hopefully, the hearts and minds of both customers and new businesses. Panza and his community are rallying around the VU+ campaign (www.vuplus.org) to recruit new businesses and grow the customer base there.

(you have to subscribe or buy the print version to read the rest of the article.)