Photo: Water saturates the ground at Bicycle Heaven. Contributed photo

Bicycle Heaven flooded, GoFundMe launched
Bicycle Heaven Museum & Bike Shop, the Northside’s free antique bike museum, was flooded on Christmas Eve, leading to widespread damage and many antique items lost.
Craig Morrow, owner of Bicycle Heaven, told The Chronicle that he believes the main pipe for the building’s sprinkler system broke under the floor of the museum.
“The whole first floor got flooded, and that’s probably seven rooms and a basement,” Morrow said.
The flood damaged the museum’s carpet and display cases, as well as several antique bike items which were kept in boxes, among other damages.
As a result of the flood the museum is currently closed and Morrow is not sure when it will be able to reopen. He said depending on the extent of needed repairs, it could take “months.”
“It was just devastating,” Morrow said of discovering the flood. “I mean the water was just pouring out the door.”
While Morrow said he has insurance for the museum, he anticipates many of the damaged antique items will not be covered. He said many of the pieces were bought several years ago and he does not have receipts for many of them.
The museum has launched a GoFundMe page to help pay for the damages. As of Dec. 28, 2022, the page raised more than $4,000 of a $100,000 goal.Morrow said the money raised will go toward cleaning materials, dehumidifiers and replacing damaged items.
The GoFundMe page can be reached online at gofundme.com/f/bicycle-heaven-museum-flooded-devastating-damaged.

Subba Asian Restaurant moves to new location
Subba Asian Restaurant, which was previously located at the corner of Cedar Avenue and East Ohio Street, has moved spaces to a new locale, though one not very far from where it used to be.

The redesigned front of Subba Asian Restaurant is shown alongside the upcoming EYV restaurant. Photo by Sean P. Ray

Subba is now located at 422 E. Ohio St., having reopened there on Dec. 5, 2022.
According to Matt Hicks, who owns the property alongside his wife Julie through their company East Ohio Capital LLC, he had worked out a deal with the owner of the restaurant, the titular Subba, to change locales.
“Subba was an existing tenant on the second floor of 400-402 E. Ohio St. when we bought the property,” Matt told The Chronicle in an email. “It was in bad shape, too large for him and his rent was under market rate.”
Matt said the deal would see the restaurant pay a “moderate increase in rent” in exchange for a smaller space, but one on the first floor and with some accompanying renovations done. Matt said Julie did the interior design for the new space.
The renovations ended up costing more than anticipated due to supply chain disruptions, but Matt said the restaurant’s rent was not increased as a result.
In addition to the new Subba Asian Restaurant, another restaurant is moving in to East Ohio Street. In fact, it’s located just next door.
EYV, which stands for “Eat Your Veggies,” is opening at 424 East Ohio St. According to the restaurant’s Facebook page, they would start taking reservations for dinner starting Dec. 30, 2022, which was before the press deadline for The Chronicle’s January issue. Matt said a grand opening planned for later in January when EYV closed on its liquor license.
EYV is a “veggie forward” eatery, according to its website. That means it mainly focuses on vegetables for its meals, though meat and seafood are also on the menu.

Moon rock added to Science Center Mars exhibit

The Science Center’s moon rock sits on a pedestal inside of a display case. Photo by Sean P. Ray

Just a little under a month since it was first unveiled to the public, the Carnegie Science Center has made a big alteration to its “Mars: The Next Giant Leap” exhibit with the addition of a genuine Moon rock.
Lunar Sample 15499, as the outer space rock is called, was loaned to the Science Center from the NASA Johnson Space Center for a five-year, renewable term. The rock, which is held in a secure case, debuted at the Science Center on Dec. 14.
The rock weighs 74.224 grams. It was collected by members of the Apollo 15 mission, which was the fourth human landing on the Moon, from the top of a meter-sized boulder on the rim of Dune Crater in 1971.

Notably this gave the rock a connection to Pittsburgh before it even got here.
“One of the astronauts on that mission was actually born right here in PIttsburgh,” Marcus Hershaw, senior director of museum experiences, told reporters. “So that makes it a really special piece to have here at the Carnegie Science Center.”
That Pittsburgh-born astronaut specifically was James Irwin, who served as the lunar module pilot for the mission.
Hershaw said it was a “very competitive process” for the Science Center to get the loan of the Moon rock, and called it “tremendous” that they were approved for it. Hershaw said he was unaware of any other museums outside of Houston Space Center and Kennedy Space Center to have both a Moon rock and a Mars rock, putting the Carnegie Science Center among a rare few.

The Masonic Temple Building is located at 40 W. North Ave. Photo by Sean P. Ray

City of Asylum becomes sole owner of Masonic Temple Building
City of Asylum, the Northside organization which shelters endangered writers and artists, has become the sole owner of the Masonic Temple Building.
According to a Dec. 1 press release from the organization, City of Asylum first began rehabilitating the building in September 2015 as part of a program to revitalize abandoned Northside buildings for City of Asylum programs.
The building re-opened as Alphabet City in December 2016, and houses the group’s offices, public programs and bookstore, as well as 40 North Bar & Restaurant.
In the release, City of Asylum said its development of the building led to more than $20 million of additional redevelopment, including to the adjacent Garden Theater tract and the former Knights of Malta building.
One of the ways the group funded the renovations was by creating a “parallel support organization to own and manage the building for a period of” seven years, according to the release, in order to qualify for New Markets and Historic Tax Credits. This was done with PNC Bank and the Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).
With the partnership having reached its seventh year, it was dissolved and City of Asylum became the sole owner on Nov. 28, according to the release.
City of Asylum Board Chair Anne Lackner said in the release that “The City of Asylum Board and staff are really proud of the outcome” in regards to the revitalization of the building.

Northsider overseeing free pain relief program
Dr. Leah Flaherty, a Northside resident, is overseeing a grant-funded program by Allegheny Health Network (AHN) to reduce pain in patients at West Penn Institute for Pain Medicine.
The Empowered Relief Program is an “evidence-based intervention that has been found to effectively reduce” various kinds of pain, according to an August press release from AHN.
The program received funding through an anonymous sponsor. It is offered at no cost to patients.
“The short-term and long-term impact of this expansion of Empowered Relief will be significant for patients at West Penn Hospital as well as the broader Allegheny Health Network,” Flaherty is quoted as saying in the release. “As the Psychiatry and Behavioral Health Institute at AHN continues to advance, we can deliver evidence-based mental health services that are accessible, affordable and offer behavioral health pain medicine equivalent to pharmaceutical-based treatments.”