It’s 9 AM; do you know where your city’s creative thinkers are?
On a bright summery Saturday in September, hundreds of young Pittsburghers flocked downtown, clutching coffee and cartoon-like postcards, to fill classrooms at the Creative and Performing Arts High School (CAPA).
As sounds of the Dishwater Cocktail Trio floated down Ninth Street, volunteers wearing T-shirts that read, “Wanted: Ideas,” greeted those spilling out of buses and parking garages to attend the Sprout Fund’s Idea Round Up. Artists, writers, real estate folk, and many who never get to participate in such a forum joined nonprofit professionals and Coro Center Fellows for the day-long civic engagement event. The purpose? To give voice to the young and generate new ideas to continue the revitalization of Pittsburgh.
The upshot? Sprout will disperse $100,000 in seed money to jump-start ideas that are selected through Requests for Proposals (RFPs). And with Idea Roundup as the launching pad, the foundation will form a community initiative called Engage Pittsburgh.
“Any city would drool and stumble over itself to have this kind of event,” says Peter Durand, creative director of AlphaChimp, who was impressed by the fact that “300 people of this caliber paid money on a Saturday to participate so fully.”
The Halls are Alive with Ideation
The 9:30 bell rang. Principal Cathy Lewis Long, aka executive director of Sprout, laid out the day’s agenda via CAPA’s public address system. First assignment: “Create a Wish List.”
Groups of 20 dove into creating category-bending “Wish Lists,” charting dreams for Pittsburgh’s future. Working at a furious pace, some groups generated up to ninety wishes for the city, later refining them during small group projects for presentation in 
culminating ceremonies in CAPA’s theater.
Suddenly, Pittsburgh was home to a Graffiti Museum, Tour de Burgh, New Business Co-op, interactive bus kiosks, Tailgate Art Exhibitions, Talking Trash Cans, and a community gardens food bank.
To name a few.
Ideas spread like hallway gossip. A debate-team- meets-study-hall atmosphere took hold, as the open-ended process fostered creative thinking and unexpected connections. “Every room had a different emotional temperature,” says Durand. Alphachimp’s “You talk. We draw. The pictures tell the story” approach shaped the event. “The best thing was that illustrators took abstract ideas and made them tangible,” says participant Sid Weisner, 26.
“I liked the accommodating atmosphere--City Council meetings should be this fun!” says Ron Gaydos, a Squirrel Hill resident. A graduate of CMU’s Heinz School of Public Policy, Gaydos developed the Pittsburgh Bridge Festival to “make use of bridges as platforms for celebrating all kinds of things about the region, with round robin neighborhood dinners and roaming performances.” His wish? “To turn the Birmingham Bridge into a circus for a week.”
While some ideas addressed ambitious issues such as the distribution of wealth and air quality, others smacked of overnight success. “Manchester Climbing Wall,” developed by Bloomfield resident Sid Wiesner, would transform an obsolete North Shore bridge pier into a unique outdoor amenity. It’s the type of fresh thinking, both creative yet practical, that could become a reality .
Wiesner, who tested the pier’s climbing potential firsthand, plans to approach local businesses and organizations such as REI, Venture Outdoors and the Explorers Club of Pittsburgh. He has talked with civil engineers and feels the project requires minimal funding. “It would be a great new attraction in the city that is not indoors.”
A for Audience
“I was talking about biodiesel and the facilitator started drawing corn. That set the process in motion--we even suggested serving popcorn in cabs,” says Lindsay Patross, 26, who co-created “Corn on the Cab” to inject green transport into the city’s cab-scarce streets.
For Patross, the project has a deeper purpose, which is to get more cabs on the streets to keep drunk drivers off of them. “If we can have defibrilators in public buildings, we can solve the city’s drunk driving problem,” she says. In a gratifying moment, Patross connected with Steel City BioFuels founder Nathaniel Doyno. “It took Engage Pittsburgh to get us together. I am so glad someone else stood up to say this issue is important.”
As a single female uncomfortable waiting at bus stops at 2 AM, Patross also suggested the creative incentive of celebrity cabbies: “Imagine Bill Peduto driving you to a bar!” Art also figure into her scheme: “We can engage the arts community to decorate cabs and highlight Pittsburgh’s use of alternative fuel.”
Cultivating Leadership
When he saw the flyer, California native Ryan Oliver knew the Round Up was perfect for his students at the City High Charter School downtown. “We want to cultivate leadership in youth who aren’t traditional leaders, who lack access and mentoring,” says Oliver, 30.
"As a city, artistically and politically, we are really growing--I want to be involved as much as possible,” offers Lawrenceville resident Cecilia Stolarski, 17. “Teenagers feel things could be happening, but it’s hard to get our ideas out. This is a great way to do that. I would attend another one in a heartbeat.”
Stolarski is determined to develop the idea behind “Tools for Our Town,” a resource center that would offer house repair workshops and a lending library of tools and home improvement books to inspire people to fix up the area’s beautiful old houses.
New Voices
"Everyone I talked to was impressed with the relaxed back and forth process--having an open meeting where they had a voice was refreshing," says Councilman Bill Peduto, who is issuing an official "Engage Pittsburgh" proclamation on October 10.
“We could hold a symposium to tell people what civic engagement is, or do something that is civic engagement,” offers Matt Hannigan, manager of programs and business operations with Sprout. What started as a wish session ended with dozens of viable and focused ideas by day’s end, he says.
From Classroom to Chat Room
To build on the momentum, Sprout launched The Big Idea Book, an online iteration of the event which invites users to expand on discussions and distill ideas. Browsing by title or theme, users can post new comments, vote on ideas, and respond to conversation threads. “Every comment and idea is on display--it reinforces the community mentality,” notes Hanigan who says the point is to get more people to participate.
So what’s next? As ideas are more closely examined and more are generated online, the intent is to “support some smaller, concrete projects,” says Lewis Long.
Sprout will present a Round Up action plan to city council in the near future, says Peduto. He cites the foundation's exceptional citywide mural program as model of successful civic engagement. "The point,” he says, “is to empower this innovative idea through city action."
Jennifer Baron is development news editor for Pop City and the co-founder of the Pittsburgh Signs Project and the Polka Dot Life.
Photos:Idea Roundup posterIn a team sessionSketch of Manchester climbing wallSketch of idea sessionIn a team sessionAll photographs copyright © Peter Durand, Alphachimp Studio Inc.