By Sean P. Ray | Managing Editor

OBSERVATORY HILL — Residents once again gathered at the Valley Refuge Shelter to help shape the future of Riverview Park’s Grand Avenue entrance and Kilbuck Valley area, the meeting this time taking place on July 24.

This was the third re-envisioning meeting organized by Friends of Riverview Park, which is seeking to renovate and beautify the park area around Grand Avenue. That section of the park currently faces numerous issues, including the presence of Pittsburgh Department of Public Works facilities, a garbage and asphalt dump, lack of adequate drainage, damage from landslides and more.

The re-envisioning process began with unfortunate timing. The first meeting was held on March 3, 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the second meeting wasn’t held until May 22. At that meeting, members of the public made suggestions of what kinds of features they want to see incorporated into the park area’s renovations.

The third meeting saw organizers collect the suggestions from the last meeting and present a map with early plans on what kind of renovations might be done. Audience members were given a series of green and red stickers to apply to the map around the conceptual renovations, green stickers signifying that they really liked the idea while red stickers meant the opposite.

Check out the September issue of The Northside Chronicle for the full story.