🥀 Why’s Allentown so goth?

💰 What’s In Pittsburgh’s 2025 Budget?

Mayor Ed Gainey proposed a $657 million spending plan. Priorities include more police officers and social workers, road paving, bridge maintenance, and traffic calming. Budgets are due at the end of the year. [TribLive]

• 💸 It doesn’t include tax increases, but that’s been the norm for years. [City of Pittsburgh]
• 📉 Allegheny County’s 2025 budget proposal will be presented to County Council Oct. 8. [90.5 WESA]

⚾ Pirates Let Go of Coaches, Players

Hitting coach Andy Haines and bullpen coach Justin Meccage were fired from the Pirates; Meccage had been with the team for over a decade. The Buccos haven’t had a winning season since 2018. [Sports Illustrated]

• 🙄 Pirates fans are side-eyeing owner Bob Nutting after he cut two players from the team, saving himself at least $200k. [Defector]

🔬 Collect Spotted Lanternflies for Science!

Researchers are looking for participants in Allegheny, Butler, Washington, and Westmoreland counties to collect spotted lanternflies so their DNA changes can be studied over time. [Allegheny Front]

• 📦 Sign up to get a kit in the mail with instructions.

If you wish you could experience the mythical, mystical aesthetic of Halloween year-round, Allentown is your spot. The south Pittsburgh neighborhood has found its niche as a goth or metal meeting place with oddity shops, a themed cafe, and more curiosities along its business district.

1 Thing To Know

The neighborhood once operated five inclines, and in 1888, it was the first site west of the Allegheny Mountains to run an electric streetcar. This accessibility to transportation led to Allentown’s early development, and it was a popular spot for laborers to settle. You can still see the trolley lines on E. Warrington Avenue, but there aren’t any regular stops there anymore. It’s now an emergency route for when the South Hills Transit Tunnel is closed.

Go, See, Do

🌙 Find over 100 “unusual and offbeat” artisans, crafters, live performers, and food and drink vendors at the Allentown Night Market on Oct. 5, a bi-annual event hosted by The Weeping Glass and Hilltop Alliance.

🪴 Take home a new plant baby from Soil Sisters Plant Nursery, and chat with IRL sisters Raynise and TaRay Kelly about how to care for them.

😂 Go to a stand-up show, movie screening, book launch, or even take a comedy class at Bottlerocket Social Hall — an indie arts venue and bar that's basically a time capsule for 1970s Pittsburgh.

🌙 Exercise among the misfits at Death Comes Lifting, featuring strength training, yoga, Muay Thai, bootcamp classes, and more.

🍾 Crack open a sober seltzer or cocktail from The Open Road’s nonalcoholic bottle shop before they move to Garfield!