Mayor Barr and Irma D’Ascenzo, chairman of the City Council Committee on Parks, Recreation, and Libraries dedicated South Side Park, a 65-acre wooded hillside, in September 1965. The park had originally opened about a decade earlier but became a site of frequent vandalism. Citizens, along with Boy Scout Troop 267 of St. Henry’s Church came together to begin cleaning up the park. Impressed by the local initiative, the city contributed $85,000 to help improve the park.

The South Side Park Master Plan is an outcome of the City’s comprehensive Open Space Plan which identified South Side Park as a potential Signature Community Park in need of a master plan that includes neighboring Arlington Park and harnesses the City’s energy for creating an inclusive space that offers recreation, programming, connectivity and ecologic systems within its urban context.

Learn more from the Department of City Planning: https://pittsburghpa.gov/dcp/south-side-park

Located on the former Bandi Schaum baseball field, the Bandi Schaum Community Garden is a series of small land plots maintained by the City of Pittsburgh, South Side Neighborhood Slopes Association, South Side Community Council, and GROW Pittsburgh within South Side Park.

This set of plots serves as a communal space that allows neighboring residents to come together and cultivate a beautiful green space full of food, plants, and flowers. To learn more and register for your own plot in the Bandi Schaum Community Garden, visit here.