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| - Altar Bar is a a big old church re-purposed into a bar and live music venue. It's a fun, versatile space, it's sacrilicious, and it's a good model for revitalization.
There are two options for revitalizing a rundown part of town. One is to tear it all down and start from scratch. This can work well, but you're sacrificing the accumulated history and shared character that (hopefully) makes the place unique. The other option is to find fresh and creative ways to re-purpose what's already there, and let the existing vibe guide the course of the future.
Either way can work, but the latter is a lot more fun. It's more challenging, more diverse, more holistic, and ultimately more rewarding. It forces a community to build, invest in, and take long-term responsibility of their neighborhood, which is the more sustainable situation by a wide margin. So if you can get over the whole money-changing-in-the-house-of-worship issue, you can be a part of some encouraging steps towards an updated Pittsburgh.
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