April 24, 2024 - Pittsburgh City Paper

Pittsburgh’s street trees are free upon request. So why do they often go to the city’s wealthiest residents?

BY JAMES PAUL

Pittsburgh’s street trees are free upon request. So why do they often go to the city’s wealthiest residents?

BY JAMES PAUL

14 POLITICS

Sophie Maslo seldom talked about her childhood. Were seedy family ties the reason?

BY DAVID S. ROTENSTEIN

These eco-friendly Pittsburgh restaurants are putting in the work to be sustainable

Mrs. So el, who helped spring the infamous Biddle brothers, might still be haunting the Shiloh Gastro and pining for her young lover

BY RACHEL WILKINSON

SLIDESHOW Steel City Duck Derby 2024

PHOTO: COURTESY OF CITY OF PITTSBURGH ARCHIVES

THROWING SHADE

Pittsburgh’s street trees are free upon request.

So why do they often go to the city’s wealthiest residents?

BY JAMES PAUL // INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

It’s one in a slew of spring’s first hot days, and K. Chase Patterson is wearing thick black sunglasses. His students at the Urban Academy of Greater Pittsburgh in Larimer are playing in a mostly unshaded grass lot owned by the school.

Just over a mile away, leaves are sprouting on the sycamores, oaks and Japanese cherry trees that stand at orderly intervals in front of ranch houses and bungalows. The secondwealthiest neighborhood in the city, Squirrel Hill North, boasts 1,587 street trees, and the contrast with Larimer,

which has 280, is striking.

“If you live in a neighborhood that doesn’t have trees, you can’t climb a tree,” says Patterson, the CEO of the academy.

Pittsburgh City Paper mapped every street tree planted and managed by the City of Pittsburgh as of 2014 and overlaid them on a map of neighborhoods and their median household incomes recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2022. The results show that 37% of all 33,071 city-planted street trees line the streets of Pittsburgh’s top 15 wealthiest neighborhoods. Meanwhile,

TREE OVER INCOME IN THE CITY OF PITTSBURGH

several lower-income neighborhoods have fewer than 10.

While the city plants street trees for free upon request, residents and advocates say many people who live in lower-income neighborhoods such as Larimer, which has a median household income of $21,087, can’t take the time to file a request when they have to worry about how they’re going to get themselves to work or clothes for their kids.

“The case is that, if you’re struggling in a struggling community, you’ve got to figure out how to make time to un-struggle yourself,”

TREE OVER INCOME IN HIGHLY OCCUPIED AFFORDABLE HOUSING NEIGHBORHOODS

Bedford Dwellings

Median

Terrace Village

Northview Heights

Median

Arlington Heights

Patterson says. “And that’s just not cool when we could do so much more.”

City Paper found that, for every $10,000 increase in median household income, a given neighborhood’s tree count increases by an average of 56. Urban trees can lower local temperature, reduce air pollutants and increase residents’ immune system functioning, according to a report by The Nature Conservancy.

Pittsburgh is not alone. According to the 2021 Tree Equity Score, 522

million trees need to be planted and grown across urbanized America to combat inequalities in forestry distribution, with a focus on low-income, historically neglected neighborhoods.

According to City Forester Lisa Ceoffe, the city routes street-tree requests to the Department of Public Works Forestry Division, which will then perform a site analysis to determine whether they can plant a tree in one of its two planting periods in the spring or fall.

Ceoffe says the department is aware of the disparities in street tree planting and partly attributes them to limited staff and a stretched budget, which have caused past requests to go unfulfilled and may have discouraged people from filing again.

“Our job is to listen now and to find out what we can do about changing their mindset,” Ceoffe says. “Or, if they don’t want a tree, then we don’t plant it. We’re certainly not going to do something that somebody doesn’t

want when we have so many people that want a tree.”

According to the current street tree inventory, Squirrel Hill South, a residential neighborhood colloquially grouped in with Squirrel Hill North, has the most street trees in Pittsburgh, at 2,396, while Glen Hazel, a neighborhood encompassed by an affordable housing community of the same name, has some of the fewest, at only five. Both share a border in Pittsburgh’s fifth district.

District 5 City Councilmember Barbara Warwick says that city resource distribution often follows income lines among the nine neighborhoods she oversees. Squirrel Hill South has a median income of $67,726, while Glen Hazel has a median household income of $25,792.

upon a resident’s request, according to the City of Pittsburgh website.

“[Trees] are like every resource, whether it’s traffic calming or rec centers, you name it,” Warwick says. “Unfortunately, that’s just kind of been the trajectory of the city.”

Ceoffe says that the 31 affordable housing communities managed by the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh (HACP) have historically received fewer street tree plantings, even compared to the underresourced neighborhoods under the city’s direct purview.

“Historically speaking, [The HACP] were responsible for managing their own properties,” Ceoffe says. “Under Mayor [Ed Gainey], we’ve been connecting closer with them, doing these types of plantings, getting more

“NORTHVIEW HEIGHTS, A 455-UNIT PUBLIC HOUSING COMMUNITY TUCKED INTO PITTSBURGH’S NORTH SIDE, HAS ONLY SIX STREET TREES.”

“In more affluent neighborhoods, people have more time to understand the processes [within] the city,” Warwick says. “They have more time to call their council person and complain.”

The difference isn’t only felt in a lack of trees. Warwick notes there are 20 speed humps in Squirrel Hill South and none in Greenfield and Hazelwood — neighborhoods again separated by a few miles but by greater than $20,000 in median household income.

According to Patterson, cars often screech down Larimer Ave. without a speed hump in sight. As an educator, father, and Larimer community member, he says, “I’m always worried, always. It’s the nature of my business.”

Speed humps, speed cushions, speed tables, raised crosswalks, and more fall under the city’s traffic calming program — each available

involved with the leadership there to see what we can do to bring the trees to the neighborhoods.”

CP identified five neighborhoods encompassed by or majorly occupied by affordable housing communities with substantially lower tree counts relative to their median household incomes.

Arlington Heights, Glen Hazel, Northview Heights, Bedford Dwellings and Terrace Village are all housing communities with tree counts below the 44th percentile relative to their median household income, with half below the 10th percentile.

Northview Heights, a 455-unit public housing community tucked into Pittsburgh’s North Side, has only six street trees, while its median household income of $48,500 suggests it should have 310.

“People don’t ever look at public housing as supposed to be home,

a community,” Olivia Bennett, a resident of Northview Heights, says. “When people think of [public housing communities], they don’t think we should make it beautiful.”

Bennett, who served on the county council from 2020 to 2023, says many people who live in Northview Heights cope with the mental health conditions that disproportionately affect people with low incomes. She says, “[Post-traumatic stress disorder] is most definitely a thing up here,” and without trees, it’s harder for those struggling to find a sense of calm.

When she’s stressed, Bennett says she’ll often sit by her bathroom window to watch the large Eastern white pine in her backyard move with the wind.

St. and Mt. Pleasant Rd. in Northview Heights, where a public safety center now sits, used to be “one of the most dangerous corners in America.”

While the neighborhood’s crime rate has improved, Bennett says beautification efforts would help Northview Heights shrug off its reputation as a “violent and scary place.”

“Planting trees and beautifying: that also gives that message that there’s life up here, that there’s people up here that matter,” Bennett says. “They also will feel like they matter, and so we can also reduce some of the negative things that we see in the community today.”

The Forestry Division is currently pursuing the Equitable Street Tree Investment Strategy, officially

“BEING AROUND TREES INCREASES MOOD AND LOWERS STRESS LEVELS AND BLOOD PRESSURE.”

“To just watch the leaves go back and forth does reduce stress; in mental health, that would be called grounding,” Bennett says. “That’s definitely a way to reduce stress and be more present and mindful in the moment.”

Michelle Kondo, a research social scientist with the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, says being around trees increases mood and lowers stress levels and blood pressure. In her research, Kondo found that being around green spaces significantly reduces feelings of depression and “worthlessness.”

In a recent study where Kondo measured gun violence rates at vacant sites in Philadelphia before and after a team planted greenery and cleaned up the area, she says she found a decrease in shootings.

“Changes in the social atmosphere of the community can be the pathway or the mechanism by which we might see changes in or reductions in crime or violence,” Kondo says.

Bennett says the corner of Chicago

adopted by a proposal from the Shade Tree Commission, a quasi-governmental entity, in 2020 to increase the urban canopy in neighborhoods federally described as “marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution,” Ceoffe says.

Under the Equitable St. Tree Investment Strategy, the department and a coalition of partner organizations reach out to community groups in cohorts of underserved neighborhoods to patch shade cover inequalities without first requiring a resident to file a direct request. The initiative considers the effects of heat island, air quality, and other factors.

The initiative went into effect in 2021, but its impact remains to be seen. The Forestry Division is currently refreshing its inventory, and Ceoffe predicts the total number of street trees will have gone up from 33,071 in 2014 to roughly 60,000 today.

Even with 60,000 street trees potentially planted throughout the city, Patterson says he still sees the disparity whenever he passe s

through Squirrel Hill and when he comes to work in Larimer.

Patterson says the way his K-5 students at the Urban Academy view themselves is impacted by how Larimer presents itself. Surrounded by front yards filled with rubber tires baking in the sun and scattered vacant lots, trees could go a long way.

“When these trees are filled with leaves, what you don’t see is the decay; you see the potential,” Patterson says, motioning to the unfurled trees sparsely lined down Larimer Avenue. “Trees are indicative of what is possible. And when you don’t have a tree highlighting your possibilities, all you have are the bad stories to tell.”

While the Shade Tree Commission selects 10 underserved neighborhoods every year to fill gaps in planting and maintenance, Patterson says that, as far as he knows, work hasn’t yet been done to increase street trees in Larimer — so he’s taking it on himself.

Patterson says in the coming months, the Urban Academy, which owns 20 parcels of land in Larimer, will begin lining all its properties with trees.

“I wish I didn’t have to do this work, absolutely,” Patterson says, scratching his chin. “But you know, it’s what I’m doing. It’s what I’ve got to do.” •

CP PHOTO: MARS JOHNSON

Chase Patterson of Urban Academy gives a tour of Larimer.

A HAUNTING AFFAIR

Mrs. Soffel, who helped spring the infamous Biddle brothers, might still be haunting the Shiloh Gastro and pining for her young lover

BY: RACHEL WILKINSON // RWILKINSON@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

When guests at Shiloh Gastro ask about rs. Soffel, owner Gene Mangrum has his spiel down pat.

“I know as much as just about anybody, and I’ve told the story a thousand times,” angrum says.

The restaurant in Mt. Washington has a connection to the Biddle brothers’ infamous escape from Allegheny County ail, in which the pair of convicted murderers sprung themselves, aided by a love struck ate Soffel. Today, her ghost is rumored to haunt the building, once owned by the Soffel family, inviting a steady stream of curious visitors and ghost

tour stops. A gold framed portrait of Soffel hangs in the upstairs dining room which has an adjoining space known as the hog’s head room for the wild boar mounted on the wall where her apparition has been said to appear wearing a white, owing gown. Near the women’s bathroom another hotspot is a movie poster for the Pittsburgh shot Mrs. Soffel , which turns 40 this year, starring Diane eaton as ate.

Mangrum suggested that I stop by on a day with bad weather so that the restaurant, which on sunny days packs out its porch on Shiloh St., would be less busy. But with the e tended closure of the onongahela

Incline (which reopened after Pittsburgh City Paper' s visit and sits steps away from the building) and record-breaking rain, it was also perfect weather for a haunting, eerily quiet with a gray pall cast over Downtown. Noticing my audio recorder, Shiloh staff asked me if I was carrying ghost hunting equipment.

For those unfamiliar with one of Pittsburgh’s most lurid love-turnedghost stories, Kate Soffel, born Anna Katharina Dietrich, was the wife of Allegheny County prison warden Peter Soffel at the turn of the 20th century. Mrs. Soffel would often minister to prisoners, and encountered Jack and Ed Biddle in Dec. 1901 while they were on death row. The Biddle brothers were part of the fearsome “Chloroform Gang,” bandits that committed a string of robberies by knocking their victims unconscious with chloroform.

was 24. Over the course of a few days, she smuggled in a file to saw through jail bars, a gun, and oil to cover the filing marks. The trio broke out the night of Jan. 29, 1902.

“She may have chloroformed her husband in the residence down there,” Mangrum says, referring to the couple’s home on Ross St. near the jail.

They rode a streetcar to the end of the line, stopping at the White House Tavern in present-day Ross Township, spent the night in a barn — where Ed and Kate “may or may not have consummated their affair,” says Mangrum — stole a one-horse open sleigh, and made for Butler. They were caught by detectives, and another gunfight broke out in the snow. Both Biddles were mortally wounded and died hours later in jail, while Soffel tried to shoot herself but survived.

“SO THE LEGEND IS THAT SHE’S WANDERING AROUND UP THERE WAITING FOR HER DEAD, SHOT-UP LOVER TO COME BACK.”

“They were involved, allegedly involved, in a robbery on Mt. Washington in which the grocer was killed,” Mangrum tells City Paper. When police tracked them down to a boarding house in the Manchester neighborhood, a gunfight ensued, and Ed Biddle mortally wounded one detective.

“Back then, when they had enough people to have a hanging, they’d have a hanging,” Mangrum says. The Biddles became celebrities, attracting female fans who’d wait outside the jail pleading the brothers’ innocence.

“[Meanwhile,] Kate would take the incline down, because it was running back then,” Mangrum quips. In reading Bible passages to the brothers, she became infatuated with the youngest, Ed. Soffel was then a 35-year-old mother of four; Ed Biddle

Ultimately, Soffel’s husband was granted a divorce (a rarity at the time), she served two years in the prison where she’d previously ministered, and “tried to parlay her notoriety into a theatrical career, which was widely panned,” Mangrum says. She died of typhus only seven years later at age 42.

“So the legend is that she’s wandering around up there waiting for her dead, shot-up lover to come back,” Mangrum tells CP. (Details of this whole saga are fuzzy, especially where the Soffels lived at a given time. Most disappointing is that, according to both Kate Soffel’s death certificate and a New York Times obituary, she died at West Penn Hospital, not the house at 123 Shiloh St.)

Mrs. Soffel’s legacy seems to

be as multifaceted as the building itself, which has gone through many phases since her time. According to Mangrum, it transitioned from a residence to a medical office then to a restaurant in 1974, when owners expanded it, giving it the “basic footprint” that it maintains today. Pittsburghers might remember it as Billye’s from the ‘70s, or the Shiloh Inn, an iteration that touted a baby grand piano, live music, and fine dining. Mangrum came aboard when the restaurant became the Shiloh Grill in 2010 — a sister restaurant of the Harris Grill and styled similarly — eventually saving it from closure in 2020 and “re-concepting” it as Shiloh Gastro. Still, the building maintains four original fireplaces (the Soffels had a fireplace in every room), looks like a Victorian house, and the haunting rumor persists.

“Do I believe it?” Mangrum reflects. “The only phenomenon I’ve been exposed to is that I have a visceral

reaction to someone who smokes a lot of cigarettes. It’s an unpleasant smell and my body reacts negatively to it. And I’ve had that [same sensation] a couple of times when I know I’m the only person in the building.”

Other staff have experienced the smell. “It’ll smell like cigarette smoke randomly,” says manager Brittany Bogard. “[When] there’s nobody else here, it’s always weird.” One theory holds that the cigarette smoke comes from the Soffels’ former bedroom (now the second-floor dining room).

Bogard began working at Shiloh Gastro last November and almost immediately spotted floating orbs in a video taken in the hog’s head room, still decorated for Halloween.

“There’s something up there,” Manuel Banuelos, also a manager, tells CP , agreeing it’s a “different vibe” when working alone. “I was in the [hog’s head room] and [heard] the unmistakable sound of someone moving chairs in the other room four

times. And it’s carpet, so it’s not just creaks that the house is making. I quickly closed up and ran out, because it was freaky.”

Because of supposed sightings in the women’s bathroom, I had to go in by myself. After calling for Mrs. Soffel for a minute, the lights flickered and my phone froze up. This was during a torrential downpour, and my outdated phone freezes often, but, of course, I choose to believe.

For the Soffel skeptics, even if a ghost doesn’t come for you, Shiloh staff pranks might. During a walkthrough of the basement, I recoiled at a clown puppet, dangling off a shelf.

“Oh, don’t pay any attention to the clown,” Mangrum says casually. “Isn’t that thing awful? It’s really good. We move it around so it keeps the staff on their toes.”

“There was one time when I opened when Gene [Mangrum] put the clown right in the front door,” Banuelos recalls. “So I punched it.

And he’s like, ‘You could have broken it!’ I was like … This is an actual reaction to someone getting scared.”

Bogard admits to planting the clown in the basement.

Scares aside, overall Shiloh Gastro is “a fun place,” Banuelos says. He enjoys serving the regulars from Mt. Washington, who have frequented the pub since it was the Shiloh Inn, and even advises them to borrow Mrs. Soffel from the library.

“It’s cool to see the history keep up with the people in the neighboring houses,” Banuelos tells CP

The alleged Soffel haunting, Biddle connection, and the historical arc of the building makes for “a good story,” Mangrum says. “In the early 1900s, this was pretty close to the frontier … It had all the rough and tumble characteristics of that time. It’s a reminder that there are real people that lived here … And humans are just as flawed then as they are now.” .

SOPHIE MASLOFF'S CORRUPT KIN.

Pittsburgh’s first woman mayor projected a maternal image, but like others at the time, her family had close connections with the Steel City’s seedy underbelly.

BY DAVID S. ROTENSTEIN // INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

Sophie asloff was Pittsburgh’s first woman mayor. She entered politics at a time when racketeers had unfettered access to the highest city and county offices. When an aging associate of eyer Sigal a mobster with a criminal record that included gambling, bribery, and smut claimed that asloff had helped to fi gambling cases while she worked as a court clerk, Pittsburgh City Paper had to ask, “did Sophie asloff have criminal ties ”

PHOTO: COURTESY OF CITY OF PITTSBURGH ARCHIVES Sophie (center right) greeting Pope John Paul II in 1989.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF CITY OF PITTSBURGH ARCHIVES Sophie with Luciano Pavarotti in 1989.

The allegations that asloff was doing favors for mob friends from inside the Allegheny County Courthouse didn’t pan out. Yet, while digging into previously unexplored corners of the former mayor’s life story, some surprises did emerge. These include a more nuanced childhood than the rags-to-riches story recounted in asloff’s biography.

asloff’s mother was an alleged bootlegger and her cousins were wealthy racketeers and labled slumlords. There was much more to the grandmotherly asloff than the appealing story about pulling herself up by her garters to become one of the most powerful and pioneering women in Pittsburgh history.

and watchman. His half-brother Jacob built homes and invested in Hill District real estate.

For a time, the brothers worked in the real estate business together until they had a falling out. “They were on such bad terms that Jacob Friedman did not visit his half-brother during the eighteen months that [he] was dying from cancer,” wrote Louis Friedman’s attorney in court papers.

Many Romanian Jews went into real estate after settling in Pittsburgh, said Eric Lidji, Director of the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives at the Heinz History Center.

Jennie Friedman became a bootlegger before her husband died. Her alleged crimes were described in

“WHEN A CLOSE ASSOCIATE OF SIGAL’S CLAIMED THAT MASLOFF, A SIGAL FAMILY FRIEND, HAD DONE FAVORS FOR THE MOBSTER, IT WAS NOT SUCH AN OUTLANDISH ALLEGATION CONSIDERING THE CITY’S HISTORY.”

asloff grew up in a single parent Hill District home. Her mother, twice married and twice widowed, was a Romanian Jewish immigrant who settled in a close-knit ethnic community. ennie riedman, asloff’s mother, arrived in the United States in 1902 with her first husband, Samuel Nieberg. They were part of a large migration of mostly impoverished Romanian Jews called fusgeyers in Yiddish, which means walkers or wayfarers.

ennie’s first husband died in 1915, and she remarried a widower neighbor, Louis Friedman, in 1917. Sophie was born three months later.

Friedman worked in a variety of jobs after emigrating in 1892. Between 1910 and 1923, the year he died, Friedman worked as an insurance salesman, courthouse clerk,

newspaper articles published in 1921 and 1931. Police seized moonshine, beer, and wine in a March 1931 raid on the Friedman home. One month before the raid, Jennie and her son Morris were arrested and convicted of aggravated assault and battery.

These episodes and the Friedman family’s wealth are absent in all published accounts documenting the former mayor’s life. Friedman’s 1923 estate included $55 in “household goods,” $137 in cash, and real estate worth more than $4,000 ($72,000 in 2024).

“Sophie never talked much about her childhood. It was just too painful. It wasn’t as if she was ashamed of her past,” wrote historian Barbara Burstin in her self-published 2019 book, “ Sophie: The Incomparable M or M sloff.”

Burstin was unaware of the bootlegging and assault conviction. “Absolutely not,” Burstin told City Paper when asked if she knew about Jennie Friedman’s exploits. “I never knew that.”

The historian confessed that she hadn’t been interested in asloff’s early life and that the period wasn’t part of her book research. “I didn’t think it was relevant to Sophie,” Burstin said. “I didn’t go into her family background. I’m just going into Sophie.”

She also didn’t know that asloff had an uncle. “Who is he?” Burstin replied when asked about Jacob Friedman.

Burstin also didn’t know about Jacob Friedman’s daughter Hilda, and Meyer Talenfeld, the man she married in 1927. The Talenfelds, also Romanian

Jews, had been in real estate and the bail bonds business since the 1930s.

Meyer and his brothers Sam and Edward used their real estate holdings to secure bail bonds that they wrote for numbers racketeers. They were among a small pool of bail bonds entrepreneurs who repeatedly found themselves on the wrong side of the law. The charges mainly involved using the same property to simultaneously secure multiple bonds.

The FBI once described Meyer Talenfeld as “an associate of leading Pittsburgh hoodlums,” but he was much more than an associate.

Between 1933 and 1977, Meyer Talenfeld was arrested multiple times. The charges included disorderly conduct for calling a police officer a

coward) in 1933; attempting to bribe an assistant district attorney (1940); receiving stolen goods (1951); and, burglary (1976).

Meyer Talenfeld assaulted a Hill District Catholic priest in 1967. Donald McIlvaine was one of several civil rights leaders protesting against the Talenfelds. According to newspaper accounts, during one of the protests Talenfeld shoved the priest and used “abusive language.” The protestors claimed that the Talenfelds were charging high rents and not maintaining their properties.

In one episode, protestors took boxes of trash to the Talenfelds’ Uptown office. They carried signs that read, “Talenfeld Lives” and “Slumlords are not dead,” the Pittsburgh Press reported.

Pittsburgh Courier photographer Charles

PHOTO: DAVID S. ROTENSTEIN.

Jacob Friedman’s Hill District home. He built this row of three attached houses in 1921. Friedman lived in one of the houses and Sam Talenfeld lived in another.

PHOTO: ALLEGHENY COUNTY COURTHOUSE.

Doctor’s note written for Meyer “Sickman” Sigal during Sigal’s 1947 criminal prosecution for numbers gambling.

PHOTO: ALLEGHENY COUNTY COURTHOUSE.

Jennie Friedman’s 1931 aggravated assault and battery indictment.

“Teenie” Harris photographed picketers outside Talenfeld offices and their ast nd home. The large inventory of properties that the Talenfields acquired to support their bail bonds business had become some of the city’s most disinvested slums.

The Talenfelds and riedmans lived in a close knit community that spawned some of the city’s best known racketeers, like Sigal. He was born in Pittsburgh to omanian parents who owned a Hill District grocery store and who sold bootleg li uor and numbers tickets on the side.

Sigal’s arrests included numbers gambling, bribery, and possessing obscene literature. A regular fi ture in Allegheny County criminal courts, local newspapers dubbed him “Sickman”

Sigal for getting doctors to write notes e cusing him from court.

In 1961, he and another convicted racketeer, rank Parrotto, founded the Daily uice Company. our years later, Sigal and other mobsters testi fied in federal court about their protection payoffs to Pittsburgh Police Assistant Superintendent Lawrence aloney. By then, Sigal was one of the city’s most recognizable criminals.

When a close associate of Sigal’s claimed that asloff, a Sigal family friend, had done favors for the mobster, it was not such an outlandish alle gation considering the city’s history. The associ ate, who re uested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of his story, said that Sigal had told him

that asloff, who had worked in the Allegheny Courthouse “assignment room,” could steer gam bling cases to particular judges who would either dismiss the cases or hand out lenient sentences. n its face, the story seemed plausible. But it had some holes. The biggest one is assignment room clerks like asloff only picked juries, not judges. There simply wasn’t any proof, other than the second hand account originating from eyer Sigal, a well documented liar who died in 2000. No, Sophie asloff wasn’t mobbed up. But her family, however, was. About the only thing the late former mayor may be guilty of is poor choices in the people whom she befriended and keeping secrets about her family. •

PHOTO: ALLEGHENY COUNTY COURTHOUSE. Meyer Talenfeld’s 1967 assault and battery indictment.

PHOTO: DAVID S. ROTENSTEIN. 1715 Bedford Ave. (right). This was one of the houses that Meyer and Hilda Talenfeld were accused of neglecting in 1968.

SEVEN DAYS IN PITTSBURGH

THU., APRIL 25

MUSIC • NEW KENSINGTON

Pentagram with Restless Spirit, All Hell, and Unreal City. 6-10 p.m. Preserving Underground. 1101 Fifth Ave., New Kensington. $35-40. preservingconcerts.com

MUSIC • STATION SQUARE

Coco Montoya with Lone Crow Rebellion and Tim Vitullo 7:30 p.m. Doors at 6:30 p.m. 230 W. Station Square Dr., Station Square. $20 in advance, $25 at the door. druskyentertainment.com

FRI., APRIL 26

PARTY • NORTH SIDE

Youth Invasion 2024: This is Not Youth Invasion. 5-10 p.m. The Andy Warhol Museum. 117 Sandusky St., North Side. Included with regular admission. For teens 13-18. warhol.org

MARKET • DOWNTOWN

Go green after dark when Pittsburgh Earth Day and the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership present a special edition of the Downtown Night Market. The outdoor market in Market Square will feature live music by Byron Nash, Jacquea Mae, and other acts,

educational booths, and interactive activities hosted by what an event description calls “some of Pittsburgh’s most sustainable brands.” 5-10 p.m. Market Square, Downtown. Free. pittsburghearthday.org/events

THEATER/KIDS • DOWNTOWN

Sesame Street Live, Say Hello! 6 p.m. Continues through Sat., April 27. Benedum Center Seventh St. and Penn Ave., Downtown. $33.75-53.75. trustarts.org

COMEDY • LAWRENCEVILLE

Glitterbox Queer Stand-Up Comedy with Nichole Faina. 8 p.m. Doors at 7 p.m. Cattivo. 146 44th St., Lawrenceville. $10-20. 21 and over. instagram.com/theglitterboxtheater

MUSIC • DOWNTOWN

Soul Sessions: Mýa. 8 p.m. August Wilson

African American Cultural Center. 980 Liberty Ave., Downtown. $65. awaacc.org

SAT., APRIL 27

LIT

• OAKMONT

Independent Bookstore Day. 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Mystery Lovers Bookshop. 514 Allegheny River Blvd., Oakmont. Free. mysterylovers.com

CONVENTION • EAST LIBERTY

Pittsburgh Adaptive Recreation Expo

12-4 p.m. Kingsley Association. 6435 Frankstown Ave., East Liberty. Free. facebook.com/TheKingsleyAssociation

FESTIVAL • BEECHVIEW

Earth Day Community Resources Fair.

12:30-3:30 p.m. St. Catherine of Siena Church Hall. 1909 Broadway Ave., Beechview. Free. stteresakolkatapgh.org/laudato-si

MUSIC • NORTH SHORE

Korean-American musician and internet sensation, BoyWithUke, drops by Stage AE during a tour to promote his latest album Lucid Dreams. Fans can hear songs like “Trauma,” a newly released track in which, according to Universal Music, BoyWithUke “opens like never before, painting a painful portrait of his upbringing over his signature ukulele.” See why this singer-songwriter has amassed millions of subscribers across TikTok, YouTube, and Spotify. Also includes a performance by hey, nothing. 7 p.m. 400 N. Shore Dr., North Shore. $29.50-65. promowestlive.com

MUSIC • UPTOWN

Tim McGraw with Carly Pearce 7 p.m. PPG Paints Arena. 1001 Fifth Ave., Uptown. Tickets start at $37. ppgpaintsarena.com

MUSIC • MILLVALE

Guided By Voices with Gotobeds. 8 p.m. Doors at 7 p.m. Mr. Smalls Theatre. 400 Lincoln Ave., Millvale. $39.50. ticketweb.com

PHOTO: SEAN CARROLL

Youth Invasion 2024: This is Not Youth Invasion at The Andy Warhol Museum

SUN., APRIL 28

OUTDOORS • SOUTH SIDE

Friends of the Riverfront presents

Identifying Birds of the Three Rivers Heritage Trail 8:30-11 a.m. Southside Riverfront Park, South Side. Free. Registration required. friendsoftheriverfront.org

MARKET • OAKDALE

Spring Artisan Market 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Pittsburgh Botanic Garden. 799 Pinkerton Run Rd., Oakdale. Included with regular admission. instagram.com/pghbotanicgarden

PARTY • MILLVALE

Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka presents the Vanka Block Party. 12-4 p.m. 24 Maryland Ave., Millvale. Free. Registration required. vankamurals.org

DANCE • LAWRENCEVILLE

FireWALL Dance Theater presents Mistress Of The House 7 p.m. Doors at 6 p.m. Thunderbird Cafe & Music Hall. 4053 Butler St., Lawrenceville. $35-45. thunderbirdmusichall.com

FILM • DOWNTOWN

Harris Theater kicks off Steel City Spookshow, a new monthly screening series highlighting horror movies through the ages. Co-hosts Sean Collier and “the mysterious Dr. Gielgud” will present a secret late-night movie filled with thrills and chills. An event description also promises “a live introduction, surprise guests, and a few in-theater scares.” 7 p.m. 809 Liberty Ave., Downtown. $15. trustarts.org

MON., APRIL 29

LIT • OAKLAND

Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures presents Ed Yong 7:30 p.m. Carnegie Music Hall. 4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland. $30-43, $18 for online access. pittsburghlectures.org

MUSIC • MCKEES ROCKS

Todd Rundgren 8 p.m. Doors at 7 p.m. Roxian Theatre. 425 Chartiers Ave., McKees Rocks. Tickets start at $64. roxiantheatre.com

TUE., APRIL 30

THEATER • DOWNTOWN

Give praise when Jesus Christ Superstar graces the Benedum Center stage. The hit rock opera by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber takes audiences on a musical journey through the last few weeks of Christ’s life. Work Light Productions delivers a show based on the award-winning revival that premiered in 2017 at London’s Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. 7 p.m. Continues through Wed., May 1. Seventh St. and Penn Ave., Downtown. $41.25-111.25. trustarts.org

WED., MAY 1

MUSIC • DOWNTOWN

Joanne Shaw Taylor 8 p.m. Byham Theater. 101 Sixth St., Downtown. $29-79. trustarts.org

PHOTO: COURTESY OF ROUND ROOM LIVE Sesame Street Live, Say Hello! at the Benedum Center

PHOTO: STACIE HUCKEBA

Joanne Shaw Taylor at the Byham Theater

HELP

Resume: al@ellsworthequities.com, Ellsworth Management Services LLC dba Ellsworth Equities, 5428 Walnut Street, Pittsburgh, PA

NAME CHANGE

IN The Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania:

No. GD-24-3340

In re petition of Marie-Claire Genevieve Sauret for change of name to Marie-Claire MermaidSauret Coyne.

To all persons interested: Notice is hereby given that an order of said Court authorized the filing of said petition and fixed the 22nd day of May, 2024, at 9:30 a.m., as the time and the Motions Room, City-County Building, Pittsburgh, PA, as the place for a hearing, when and where all persons may show cause, if any they have, why said name should not be changed as prayed for.

HELP WANTED RESEARCH SCIENTIST

Research Scientist: MS + 2 yrs. exp. Use Los Gatos UGGA, 3D UA, Matlab, Python, dispersion modeling to ID and analyze undocumented orphaned/marginal wells, natural gas infrastructure. F/T. Leidos Inc. Pittsburgh, PA. CV to Nathan.Diemler@ netl.doe.gov & ref. #6740. Principals only. No calls/visa sponsorship

PUBLIC NOTICE

A petition for Involuntary Transfer of Ownership of a Vehicle has been filed by Wagner, Steven, Case No. GD-24-00086 for a 12/2002 Production Ford-Lincoln Aviator, Vin# 5LMEU78H837J13927.

A hearing is scheduled on the 16th day of May, 2024, at 11:15 a.m. before the Civil Division Motions Judge of Allegheny County.

Need Help with Family Law?

Can’t Afford a $5000 Retainer?

Low Cost Legal Services- Pay As You Go- As low as $750-$1500Get Legal Help Now!

Call 1-844-821-8249 Mon-Fri 7am to 4pm PCT (AAN CAN) https://www.familycourtdirect. com/?network=1

ESTATE NOTICE ESTATE OF DEVERSE, ROBERT L. DECEASED OF GLASSPORT, PA

Robert L. DeVerse, deceased, of Glassport, PA. No. 2282465 of 2024.

Shawn DeVerse, Adm. 410 N. Monongahela Ave., Glassport, PA 15045. Or to D. Scott Lautner, Attorney. 68 Old Clairton Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15236.

ESTATE NOTICE ESTATE OF SMUTNY, BEVERLY J. DECEASED OF PITTSBURGH, PA

Beverly Joan Smutny, deceased, of Pittsburgh, PA. No. 022402189 of 2024.

Marcia L. Schweitzer, Ext. 5575 Beverly Court, Bethel Park, PA 15102.

the personal property.

ESTATE NOTICE ESTATE OF MANSO, BEATRICE C. DECEASED OF WEST MIFFLIN, PA

Beatrice

ESTATE NOTICE ESTATE OF JACKSON, DIAN P. DECEASED OF PITTSBURGH, PA

Dian P Jackson a/k/a

Dian Pearl Jackson, deceased, of Pittsburgh, PA. No. 022306582 of 2023. Danielle Durham, Ext. 14112 Rectory Lane, Upper Marlboro, MD 20772.

Joseph M. DeBoth, Ext. 16501 Lucky Bell Lane, Chagrin Falls, OH 44023. Or to John A. Coming, Esq., Steadman Law O ice, P.C. 24 Main St. East, P.O. Box 87, Girard, PA 16417.

SWALLOWING THE TRUTH

BY BRENDAN EMMETT QUIGLEY // BRENDANEMMETTQUIGLEY.COM

ACROSS

42. Nabe

48. Racing vehicle

50. Paid male companion

51. Like thin toilet tissue

53. ___ Shabazz

(Malcolm X’s wife)

54. Islamic festival

55. Holland export

56. Fuse units

57. YA author Shusterman

58. Houston rockets org.

62. Slight giggle

63. Montenegro’s loc.

64. Shooting aim

65. Pork purveyor, briefly

66. Crumb carrier

67. Former Turkish title

LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS

named after 41. Do some character assassination?