But what many people may not know, and far beyond the world of robotics and artificial intelligence, is that Jonathan, like many other Pittsburgh natives, has embraced the numerous bike trails and terrains that make up the geography of this city. In his case, you could go a little further. Or a lot. He claims “cycling is the only thing that lets my mind unwind and get the endorphins flowing; it is intertwined across pretty much everything that I do.” And so it seems, at about 100 to 400 bike miles per week, his love of biking certainly qualifies as what he calls “a lifelong obsession.”

Pittsburgh is best known as the Steel City or the Three Rivers City. But throughout town, you’ll find a multitude of bike trails that cover just about every imaginable terrain. Whether you’re cruising around the Point downtown, going long distance on the South Side or mountain biking on Frick Park, there’s a ride for every flavor. Asked which of these is his favorite, Jonathan can only respond “that’s like picking a favorite child!”

Jonathan started biking at age six, and except for his four years in college has hardly gone a day without riding. We had a chance to connect with Jonathan and change roles, this time putting him for one on the interviewee seat…

Question: What are your favorite bike trails in town?

Jonathan: I’m partial to Frick Park for mountain biking because it’s right in my backyard. Right now my favorite trail there is Refractory; it runs along the base of Summerset at Frick and is just a blast to hoon without sliding off the edge! One of my favorite road bike or gravel bike loops is to take the Great Allegheny Passage to the Montour Trail to South Park. Hit some trails (if you’re on the gravel bike) or ride loops in the countryside (if you’re on a road bike) and loop back to Pittsburgh for 60 miles of smiles.

Q: Do you bike to work? 

J: I’ve been an off-and-on commuter for 20 years. The last few years I’ve been consistent at averaging 2-3 days per week throughout the year. I commuted almost 3,000 miles last year. Since we are working from home now, my commute got a lot shorter!

Q:  How many bikes do you have? 

J: I’ve had as many as 12 bikes hanging in my basement. But I’ve switched to a less-is-more mantra for now. Currently I have four bikes, just one mountain bike, one gravel bike, one touring/commuting bike and a road bike.

Q: We heard you helped restore bike trails on Frick Park or elsewhere in town. Can you tell us more?

J: Over the years I’ve participated in a number organized and unorganized trail building and maintenance sessions mostly in Frick Park. Some unsanctioned work in Frick and its surrounding terrain has resulted in some stunning trails that are world-class. Just google “Crater Trail or Humpular Trail in Frick Park.”

Q: Have you ever done the full bike trip from Pittsburgh to DC?

J: I’ve done that ride about 10 times in both directions. The first time I rode it, it changed my whole philosophy on riding. I was 100 percent Type-A about my riding until doing that ride the first time. Riding the GAP/C&O allows you to slow down and enjoy the ride. Stop for cookies in Rockwood or grab a beer at Lucky Dog. It’s just you and the bike and hopefully a friend or two. 

Q: What is the longest distance you’ve ever biked?

J: I rode the entire C&O Trail from DC to Cumberland in 1 day, approximately 180 miles. It was amazing in so many ways. I’ll be honest, the last 20 miles were not mentally pleasant, but I woke up the next day ready to ride and rode 50 miles to unwind my legs!

Q: Do you find Pittsburgh a bike-friendly town? What else would you recommend doing?

J: It’s definitely improving. Twenty years ago commuting to work was almost a monkey knife fight. People are more accepting of cyclists and the infrastructure is so much better. Thanks Bike PGH! We still have a way to go, but so much progress has been made.

Q: What impact can more people biking have in Pittsburgh? 

J: I love seeing more people on bikes as it’s just a better way to live. You don’t have to take your car everywhere. Just go for a ride to unwind, burn some calories and get the juices flowing. You rarely see anyone angry while riding a bike. 

Neysha is an engineer with a longstanding career in corporate America, where she cut her teeth working for the likes of Johnson & Johnson, Alcoa and PNC. But just over four years ago, she became a coach and a transformation executive at the helm of her business firm – Precixa, an operations boutique consultancy that helps companies maneuver through their transformational strategies with everything from organizational structure, to policies and procedures, processes, systems, reporting or new technologies. 

Precixa, she explains, stands for precision. “I was looking back on my background in operations engineering, that’s what we’re trying to do, it’s problem solving to reduce variability in the way you operate your business. The company works mostly with clients between 200 to 1,000 employees from all over the East coast, though 80% of their clients are Pittsburgh based. “Above that size range there are too many decision making layers and bureaucracy and below it the process becomes less cost-effective for a boutique consultancy. Our niche is that middle ground, mostly privately held organizations. I have many startups reach out to me and if your personal mission and your purpose and the ‘why’ behind your business are aligned with my personal values I will work with you just to see you thrive.”

The company has established a strong customer base with an impressive near 100% customer retention rate, but getting things off the ground wasn’t easy. “After 20 years in corporate America, I decided to launch my own company. I knew it was going to be challenging, I just didn’t realize it was going to be ‘this’ challenging! Yesterday was our 4th year anniversary. Over the last four years it has not been like a rollercoaster, it’s been more like the image plotted by a seismograph during an earthquake,” she recalls with a chuckle. “The ups and downs are very pronounced. I had to invest myself into the networking scene, meeting new people and raising awareness for my brand. The good news is the Pittsburgh entrepreneurship community is incredibly helpful. There’s no other city I would recommend to start your entrepreneurial journey because there are a lot of resources and within the community everyone is actually willing to help.”

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Neysha eventually moved to New Jersey in the late 90’s to join Johnson & Johnson as a Process Redesign Engineer. After a couple of decades in the corporate grind, the excessive travel started getting to her and she and her husband decided to move to Pittsburgh. “My last year at J&J I was traveling 85% of the time handling five manufacturing plants in the US and Europe and to say that I was burned out is an understatement,” she comments. “When I came to Pittsburgh, my expectation was to breathe and to not live out of a suitcase. I was not necessarily looking to move to a new city, I didn’t have big expectations, I couldn’t even spell Pittsburgh,” she laughs. “I just wanted to build a home. Initially I made it my purpose to immerse myself in discovery mode, so whenever I left work, I’d go to discover a new neighborhood, or a new restaurant, or a new place in the city, and soon enough started finding everything I needed. As a Hispanic, I could find my Hispanic restaurants, my supermarkets, my products. Being from Puerto Rico, for me it’s all about the food. One day walking through the Strip District I came across a very specific ingredient that’s not easy to find, of all places at a Vietnamese supermarket and I was like ‘wow.’ The store owner found a client for life!”

But her assimilation into Pittsburgh was not immediate, it took some time set roots, however solid these ended up becoming. “What I found challenging about this city is that most of the people in Pittsburgh are born and raised in Pittsburgh so it can be difficult to get into them. But what I love about it is once you break in those circles, you get absorbed and they won’t let you go. The relationships and the connections that you make in more cosmopolitan cities are broader but more shallow, in Pittsburgh they are narrower but they run deep. When we moved here, the idea was to stay for five years, and now we have tripled that. A few years ago my husband and I were re-evaluating, but I realized there is no better city where we’re going to get the holistic value proposition that we get in Pittsburgh. For raising your family, the community, the access and the opportunities, everyone is two degrees of separation from each other, so the opportunity you get here is unparalleled to any other city. And still, it’s big enough to get everything you need, but small enough that you can feel more in control.”

While Neysha has found a better balance in Pittsburgh, she keeps plenty busy with her other passions, which involve giving back to the community – mentoring and coaching. “I have always had a deep passion to see rising talent and professional development is very close to my heart, mostly because I received great support from amazing mentors. I wanted to pay it back because I also experienced the absence of it, which actually made me more keen to deliver it. This also led me to create the book (The Little Blue Book: A Girl’s Guide to Owning Your Professional Development) because I didn’t have the time to mentor everyone that crossed my path, but at least I could leave them with the framework of what I typically teach.” Neysha takes these matters at heart and is involved in a variety of inclusion initiatives and mentorship organizations, like the Robert Morris University Women Leadership Organization and RedChairPGH among others.

When not working on a new strategy, Neysha is coaching. When not coaching, she’s volunteering. When not volunteering, perhaps she’ll find a little shut-eye time. And while still awake, you may find her pleasing her food passion at Musa “they have the most outstanding Caribbean food I’ve ever had.”

Draim’s world of the mischievous carnival transcends us to the bygone era and his sculptures exude a sense of amazement, sound and movement while capturing the wondrous vision of steam-engine technology, combining 19th-century machine aesthetics with creative expression and engineering. If you throw into the pot Jules Verne’s novels, Wes Anderson films, Andy Warhol’s fashion illustrations, and Alex Calder’s “Circus” sculptures, the result is Ken Draim’s storybook that delights us to glee.

We asked Ken Draim a few questions about his final voyage to Pittsburgh to call it home and how he navigates the city as a mid-career artist.

Question: What brought you to Pittsburgh?

Ken: My wife and I moved to Pittsburgh three years ago from Taos, N.M. We had a small art gallery in Taos, where I sold my automatons. Taos is a well established art community, focusing more on traditional Southwestern art. We were looking for a change and more opportunities. We searched all over the country before settling on Pittsburgh. We were drawn to Pittsburgh, although we had never visited before, because of its affordability, walkability, and character. 

Q: What do you think this city has to offer in terms of art?

K: Being an automaton artist, the industrial heritage of Pittsburgh that permeates the city is a great inspiration for my work. The old brick row houses, bridges, and factories are an endless wellspring of inspiration. It is a city of potential – a city re-invented, not yet defined, and not fully realized. I see that as a great strength. 

Q: What needs to happen to bring more visibility in the arts and attract artists to Pittsburgh?  

K: I think the city has made strides to encourage the art scene. Pre-Covid, I was involved with many local organizations that unite and promote artists and was scheduled to display my work in a number of exhibitions, markets and galleries. Of course, much more could be done to liven things up. Why not take advantage of all those beautiful old factory buildings, and create a space where many artists can create and exhibit? This could be done along the lines of the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, VA and have sliding scales for rent, to entice the more struggling artists. Art Centers can be popular attractions for visitors to the city.

Q: Pittsburgh has a strong industrial, manufacturing and engineering heritage. How does machine technology inspire or affect your work? 

K: Although Pittsburgh is now known for its cutting edge engineering and robotics, I draw my influence from the ghosts of the machine technology of the industrial revolution that is still felt throughout the city. I do feel like modern engineering technology can draw inspiration from the past. I was exhibiting my automatons on Market Square, when a professor from Carnegie Mellon happened to walk by and saw my machines. She asked me to consult with her students who were building automatons. It is so important for the students to see the bridge between art and science. Both disciplines benefit when they work together. 

Q: What do you like about living in Pittsburgh and what would you like to see change?

K: Overall, my wife and I enjoy living here. It’s a mid-sized city with plenty of green spaces and a lot of cultural things to do. It’s a dynamic city on the cusp of becoming something great. In addition to brick and mortar galleries, and art festivals, local businesses could have catered art openings and art talks, and feature exhibits from a local artists “clearinghouse”.  That would get exposure for new artists and integrate the arts into the community.  I have found that many Pittsburghers are interested in the arts, just underexposed.

Q: What is one simple advice you would give to young artists thinking about moving to Pittsburgh?

K: The one piece of advice or encouragement I could give a young artist thinking of moving to Pittsburgh is that you have the potential of creating your own art scene here, and don’t have to fit into established rigid molds. This city is in the midst of a new beginning and anything is possible. Use your imagination. 

Visit Ken’s Website >>

Some time in early 2020, right before the Covid-19 Pandemic hit, I was in need to repair my tube amplifier, a hi-fi device that sounds like heaven and looks like it came out of a Carnegie Mellon lab. This is no job for Geek Squad and something I had only once had serviced in New York by a sound engineer. In my long quest to find the Pittsburgh equivalent, I ended up connecting with Squirrel Hill’s quintessential vinyl shop Jerry’s Records. I spoke to the manager  and explained my issue, and without a moment’s hesitation, he said “you need to talk to Don.” 

Don, it turns out, owns a repair shop called Phil’s. So I called Don at Phil’s and told him about my needs. He seemed busy and asked me to call back in two weeks. Two weeks later I called for an appointment and Don said “why don’t you come by now and let me look at your amp?” So I put the 80 lb electronic treasure into my trunk and headed to Phil’s in Bellevue.

Upon arriving, I see an old residential home on a residential street with a small sign: “Phil’s Radio and Television Services.” Suffice it to say I did not feel very comfortable leaving my hi-fi gem in this place, but I had little choice. Upon entering the home, I find Don, a man in his early 70’s in a pair of jeans and flannel shirt surrounded by what to the uneducated eye might have looked like a NASA control center.

I’ve been an electronics buff since I was a kid, and this was like entering Willy Wonka’s Electronics Factory! Frequency analyzers, oscilloscopes, tube testers, old amps, turntables, capacitors, vacuum tubes and all sorts of paraphernalia. “So this is your amp?” Don asked, “it’s a beauty! Let’s open it up.” At this point I began to realize I wasn’t dropping anything off, but was about to begin an experience. As Don opened the amp, he started pulling cables from his artillery of apparatus and testing the amp left and right, and yes, all apparatus worked and each had a specific purpose. 

He spent a good 90 minutes analyzing my amp like a doctor who puts you through a full physical, explaining what he’s checking along the way. And then some time for Don to tell me his story. And this, friendly readers, is what made my Saturday afternoon!

Don is the son of Phil, who opened the shop in the 1950’s. He’s both a musician and a technician. He worked at RCA as an electronics engineer for many years and eventually took over his father’s shop upon his “retiring,” a word he uses very loosely. On the side, Don played the organ on his own and with a local band, the Velvetones. He has the photos to prove it up on the walls, standing proudly in his burgundy velvet jacket next to his Hammond. 

Organs, it turns out, are Don’s big passion. He’ll repair anything from an old 8-track boombox, to a tube amp, a TV, a guitar amp, a CD player and anything in between. But there’s something Don loves to  fix, and that’s organs. And not just any organ, but Hammonds, the quintessentially popular instrument created in the 1930’s and used in jazz clubs, blues joints, velvet lounges and rock arenas across the globe. And guess how many people can fix a Hammond in Pittsburgh? One, and his name is Don Politto.

But with the digitization of music, the Hammond lost popularity and the last one produced in its original analogue form was in 1985. Much to my surprise, I learned from Don there are hundreds of Hammonds in the Pittsburgh area, all of them 35 years and older, many in need of repair. So exactly where are these hundreds of Hammonds hidden in this town? Among Hammond’s most popular clients: churches.

Don has been trying to retire for years, but the churches won’t let him. He knows a bit too much about organs and feels a bit of a responsibility to the city churches. He doesn’t want any business, but can’t turn organs down. So if you stop by Phil’s, give Don a break and don’t hand him a CD player or an old TV. And don’t give him any referrals, he does not want the work. Just let him tell you his story and give him time to rest, and help the local churches.