🪦 PA’s first green cemetery

Innamorato Proposes 2026 County Budget

County Executive Sara Innamorato pitched a $1.2 billion operating plan with no tax increase or layoffs in 2026. This year, Allegheny County raised taxes for the first time in more than a decade. See what’s in the budget. [WESA]

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For a second time, Pittsburgh’s Planning Commission pushed back a vote for rezoning property on Hazelwood’s riverfront after threats of legal action from Allegheny Valley Railroad, CSX, and other businesses. [Public Source]

• Hear why City Councilor Barb Warwick wants to rezone the railyard to allow for schools, homes, retail, and more. [🎧 City Cast Pittsburgh]

Original Oyster House Celebrates 155 Years

Pittsburgh’s oldest continuously operating bar and restaurant, located in Market Square, is commemorating its anniversary with specials and giveaways throughout the week. Learn about all of the films that were shot there — and the late owner’s Hollywood-ready story. [Pittsburgh Magazine]

Downtown Hotel Named in Top 15 List

Condé Nast Traveler readers voted on hotels in the Mid-Atlantic, and Pittsburgh’s Kimpton Hotel Monaco was ranked #8. The historic building, which opened as a hotel in 2015, is described as a "Beaux-Arts belle.” [Condé Nast Traveler / Business Times]

• Looking for staycation ideas? Here are our tips for where to take visitors (and yourself!), nearby fall excursions, and how to get free arts and culture tickets. [🎧📝 City Cast Pittsburgh]

Just northeast of Pittsburgh in Verona, you can find Pennsylvania’s first and only exclusively natural burial ground — 31 acres of sprawling woodland and hiking trails, complete with a wildflower garden and even a small animal farm.

The grounds at Penn Forest Natural Burial Park are as much for the living as the dead. Burials here allow bodies to return to the soil, and mourners can connect to the land.

City Cast Pittsburgh joined the Penn Forest team to learn about this eco-friendly cemetery and how the space serves the community.

What Is Green Burial?

Green burial is a way of caring for the dead with minimal environmental impact. Everything that goes into the ground is biodegradable, including what a person is wearing and the container they’re buried in. Bodies are also prepared for burial without toxic embalming fluid.

Caskets must be made of natural material such as pine, willow, bamboo, and seagrass casket; cardboard is also an accessible and affordable option.

Penn Forest offers whole body burial in its Meadow and Wooded Groves, where a body is wrapped in a shroud and lowered into a soft bed of straw to naturally decompose. Cremated remains can also be buried on these grounds in biodegradable urns.

Even the headstones are intentional. At Penn Forest, markers must be flat to the ground and made of wood or stone that’s indigenous to southwestern Pennsylvania.

Do You Still Need To Use a Funeral Home?

Penn Forest doesn’t prepare bodies after death, so mourners still need to work with a funeral home. There are about a dozen certified green funeral homes in the Pittsburgh area, but manager Laura Faessel says Penn Forest will also work with funeral homes that aren’t certified and guide them through the process.

Funeral homes aren't the only option. In PA, it’s legal to hold a home funeral where family and friends care for the body after death and then bring their loved one to Penn Forest for burial.