{"id":454029,"date":"2026-09-05T02:50:35","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T02:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/454029\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T02:50:35","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T02:50:35","slug":"oakland-pittsburgh-the-place-to-be-a-good-neighbor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/454029\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakland, Pittsburgh: The place to \u2018Be a Good Neighbor\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pitt\u2019s Be a Good Neighbor Block Parties<\/a> are back in Oakland for the fifteenth year.<\/p>\n

Hosted by the University of Pittsburgh\u2019s Office of Engagement and Community Affairs<\/a>, residents of Oakland, Pitt students, staff and alumni can enjoy free food, live music, lawn game activities, conversations with the community and prizes at each event in the series.<\/p>\n

The parties are thrown in a different Oakland neighborhood every Tuesday in September. The first party took place in North Oakland at Kathy Gallagher\u2019s home \u2014 where each of the last 15 North Oakland parties have been held.<\/p>\n

\u201cI worked for many years with the community engagement department at Pitt, so the very first Be a Good Neighbor block party was hosted right here,\u201d Gallagher, a Pitt alumna, said. \u201cWe started under a tent at the end of the driveway and handed out pizza. It has grown over the years, and it\u2019s always a great opportunity for both students and residents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gallagher shares her passion for the growth of both Pitt and Oakland communities.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a lifelong resident of Oakland, born and raised,\u201d Gallagher said. \u201cWhatever you need or want is right here and most of the time I can walk to it. There is no better place to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Wilds, former assistant vice chancellor for community relations at Pitt, founded the Be a Good Neighbor Block Parties in Oakland.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout 50 years ago, we were having lots of issues with the students living in the community, so we felt one of the things we had to do was to have the students get to know the neighbors in the community,\u201d Wilds said.<\/p>\n

Samantha Varela is a Pitt graduate student in the public policy and management program and staff member of community and engagement affairs. She assisted in coordinating Tuesday\u2019s event.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all staff hands on deck. I enjoy helping out at the sign-in desk since we get to meet all the residents and introduce people to the fun block party,\u201d Varela said. \u201cWe encourage students to meet and hang out with our long term residents and make Oakland more of a community.\u201d<\/p>\n

As attendees entered the party, they were met with tables for conversations with other community members, a catered buffet and prizes for the attendees like water bottles, plushies, hats and tote bags. A live band performed while neighbors connected.<\/p>\n

Roxane Stewart, an Oakland resident and Pitt graduate studies alum, says the area feels like home because of both the place and the people living amongst her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a great idea for the students and residents to interact like this,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cAs residents, we are very happy to see the Pitt students come back. They bring with them life, energy and excitement, and that\u2019s what we need. We enjoy the summer time alone, because we own the sidewalks, but once they get back, they bring so much fun. Walking together, talking excitedly and we all remember what it was like to be young, so we just love it.\u201d
Stewart reminisced on her childhood spent going to Schenley Park, Phipps Conservatory and both Pitt and Carnegie Mellon carnivals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a memory that whispers to me at every corner, everywhere I look there are memories, really happy ones,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cIt was a great place to grow up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Be a Good Neighbor Block parties don\u2019t just attract Pitt students, but Carnegie Mellon students like math major Alice Liang.<\/p>\n

\u201cI live in North Oakland, so I\u2019m trying to get more involved in the community as it\u2019s my senior year,\u201d Liang said. \u201cI love Pittsburgh and have always been happy with how we do community outreach, so I\u2019m here to get to know the Pitt community and learn more about what the university does for the students.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next Be a Good Neighbor Block Party is scheduled for 5 p.m. on Sept. 8 at Oakland Square.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pitt\u2019s Be a Good Neighbor Block Parties are back in Oakland for the fifteenth year. Hosted by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-454029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}