\u201cIt’s some of the best, Pulitzer-worthy local independent journalism in the States right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 Public Source member Laura H.<\/p>\n
Join thousands of Pittsburghers by signing up for Public Source’s newsletter today.<\/p>\n
Available information on anything pertinent to the Ohio Valley community, from politics to community events to business, usually ends up on Facebook, where anything useful often gets buried in argument and bias \u2013 \u201cdrama,\u201d as the group put it. Sometimes, that drama can even get personal, referencing specific individuals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nearly midway through its \u201cYou Have the Floor\u201d town hall series, Pittsburgh\u2019s Public Source facilitated conversation at Bellevue\u2019s Tavern Pizza. In a party room in the back of the restaurant, attendees enjoyed pizza, pretzel bites and salad as they dug into the issues through small and big group discussion, aided by sticky note responses to prompts on white boards.\u00a0<\/p>\n
School board and mayoral elections pass by with not only sparse media coverage but not much information at all, many said. One person told the group that the website of a recent municipal mayoral candidate barely functioned and didn\u2019t have a lot on it, leaving little to go off of before voting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/04-Bayne-library.jpg\")
The Andrew Bayne Memorial Library in Bellevue is housed in an old Victorian mansion and includes a public park. (Photo by Kimberly Rowen\/Pittsburgh\u2019s Public Source)<\/p>\n
Another mentioned that in schools, modern standardized testing requirements have made it harder and harder for some students to keep up in a way that didn\u2019t seem as bad in years past.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The group also resoundingly voiced interest in transportation. One person used a sticky note to point to the \u201cdestruction of walkable communities,\u201d which comes with concerns about speedy drivers and unreliable public transit. Affordable housing, and affordability in general, also came up multiple times in the town hall.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Topics that got the group smiling included gardening, raising and supporting kids, chess, and new Asian restaurants. In a better world, they could work on how best to enjoy these things without all the drama.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Matt Petras is a visiting lecturer of English at the University of Pittsburgh and a freelance reporter and can be reached at matt456p@gmail.com<\/a> and on Bluesky @mattapetras.bsky.social<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tRELATED STORIES\n<\/p>\n This story was made possible by donations to our independent, nonprofit newsroom. <\/p>\n Can you help us keep going with a gift?<\/p>\n We\u2019re Pittsburgh\u2019s Public Source. Since 2011, we\u2019ve taken pride in serving our community by delivering accurate, timely, and impactful journalism \u2014 without paywalls. We believe that everyone deserves access to information about local decisions and events that affect them.<\/p>\n But it takes a lot of resources to produce this reporting, from compensating our staff, to the technology that brings it to you, to fact-checking every line, and much more. Reader support is crucial to our ability to keep doing this work.<\/p>\n If you learned something new from this story, consider supporting us with a donation today. Your donation helps ensure that everyone in Allegheny County can stay informed about issues that impact their lives. Thank you for your support!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Local government and schools were much on the minds of the roughly two dozen people at Sunday afternoon\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5466,73,75,74,64098],"class_list":["post-139738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-leadstorynoshow","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-youhavethefloor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}