PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[BrianTH]

So the actual Transit Center part of the East Liberty Transit Center is not going to be as nice because the original bids came in too high:

http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/5071469-74/east-transit-liberty#axzz2kkAg7fxL

This is a bit of a bummer because a really nice facility there could have been a calling card for the East Busway in general. But that said, the main thing is to improve accessibility to the Busway and then do a nice job with the new planned residential buildings, and so far none of that seems to be in jeopardy.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

So the actual Transit Center part of the East Liberty Transit Center is not going to be as nice because the original bids came in too high:

http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/5071469-74/east-transit-liberty#axzz2kkAg7fxL

This is a bit of a bummer because a really nice facility there could have been a calling card for the East Busway in general. But that said, the main thing is to improve accessibility to the Busway and then do a nice job with the new planned residential buildings, and so far none of that seems to be in jeopardy.

Spend the money. Do it right.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

http://www.post-gazette.com/business/201...cation-s-reputation/stories/201311130059

Here's the study itself:

http://www.clevelandfed.org/research/trends/2013/1113/01regeco.cfm

There are some interesting aspects to his study, but also some potential problems. Perhaps the largest problem is he is only able to track people back to 1999, so many of the residents as of 2000 could have moved there relatively recently as the neighborhood was already gentrifying. I personally suspect that does not really undermine his findings with respect to homeowners, but I am more skeptical about his findings with respect to renters--not that none of them would benefit, but the magnitude of the observed benefit could easily be thrown off by recent arrivals, and he simply has no way to isolate longer-term renters from recent arrivals.

Again, though, in general I agree the main problem of gentrification is often misframed. Hartley is looking at the common framing, which is whether it is hurting pre-existing long-time residents. As previously noted, I think the bigger problem is how gentrification can lead to fewer and fewer options for future would-be residents (absent better public policies).

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

Spend the money. Do it right.

Spend whose money?

This part of the project got the vast majority of its funding from a Federal TIGER grant. It is a bit of a bummer that money won't go as far as they originally hoped, but I think it would be far worse to throw the whole project into limbo looking for alternative sources of funding.

[Private Dick]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

Some Older Lawrenceville Residents Not Happy With Re-Urbanization

"At the senior center, the ladies say the Lawrenceville they’ve known all of their lives is disappearing."

Such 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵. I'm sure they would be much happier if Lawrenceville continued down the path of being one of Pittsburgh's most dangerous drug and prostitution-infested ghettoes that it was well on its way to becoming in the 1990s.

Interesting how these very same people were saying "the Lawrenceville they’ve known all of their lives was disappearing" when they spoke out about how scared they were to even sit on their front steps or walk a few blocks to get their 99 cent breakfasts because of the rampant assaults, drug dealing, prostitution, and aggressive "panhandlers" that had taken over their neighborhood in the '90s.

[BrianTH]

Incidentally, it is probably worth looking at what they are changing about the Transit Center and what they are not:

Among the scaled-back designs, according to Saladna: replacing stone walkways with plain concrete, replacing stone benches with conventional benches, replacing laminated glass shields along the pedestrian bridge with chain-link fencing, replacing landscaping with plain grass, eliminating lighted handrails in favor of regular handrails, and replacing the designed bus canopies along Penn Avenue with standard bus shelters.

The basic design remains, Saladna said, including a redesigned busway station, a new pedestrian bridge connecting Ellsworth Avenue with the improved bus stops along Penn Avenue near the Target store, and a wide pedestrian walkway from the bus station to a park area at the intersection of Ellsworth, Shady and Penn avenues.

None of the stuff they are removing from the plan couldn't be changed again later as funding allowed.

[deja vu]

Value engineering at its finest.

[BrianTH]

Did we discuss that the core of the Strip District is being nominated for the National Register?

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2...nal-historic-status/stories/201311140209



As the article repeatedly explains, this does not limit what property owners can do with their own money. However, it does make contributing properties eligible for historic tax credits, which can be an important funding source for certain projects (e.g., the Ace Hotel in East Liberty). But if you use those, then there are in fact strings attached.

[Jonboy1983]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Incidentally, it is probably worth looking at what they are changing about the Transit Center and what they are not:



None of the stuff they are removing from the plan couldn't be changed again later as funding allowed.

Right. They always could add that extra stuff at a later date. Those are my thoughts as well.

It is a bummer that aesthetic stuff is being left out, but I do believe that is something that could be added in later. I would love to see it added in at a later date.

[BrianTH]

Call it optimism, call it an article of faith, call it political cynicism, but I don't believe a prominent public work located between Shadyside and a bunch of high-rent apartments developed by one of the larger and best-connected local developers would remain junky looking for long (this is assuming it will look junky in the first place--it could actually look fine).

[Minivan Werner]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Incidentally, it is probably worth looking at what they are changing about the Transit Center and what they are not:



None of the stuff they are removing from the plan couldn't be changed again later as funding allowed.

The main part I don't like the sounds of is the chain link fencing. It never ages well in urban settings.

[Evergrey]

Andy Sheehan takes a look at housing rehabilitation in Allentown.

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/video/953...tunity-in-pittsburgh-real-estate-market/

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Minivan Werner

The main part I don't like the sounds of is the chain link fencing.

I agree, although they made it look pretty cool with the Eastside pedestrian bridge, and the new Highland Avenue bridge isn't bad either. I gather it is some sort of mandated suicide barrier.

[doo dah]

Oh no:
Alex Calderwood, Creator and Face of the Unconventional Ace Hotel Chain, Dies at 47

RIP!

[popstar]

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/region...fering-at-high-rate/stories/201311180136

This is an interesting article to piggy-back on last week's "elderly Lawrenceville residents lament the old days of crime, blight, and the 99 cent breakfast" article. This isn't surprising, though, especially as the city continues to flourish.

[photoLith]

Any sign of the downfall of suburbia is A-OK. I can't wait for the day when historic city cores completely flourish and post ww2 suburbia decays. Although poverty in the burbs creates a huge problem for the people who can't afford a car.

[themaguffin]

I don't think we should be rooting for such failure. As mentioned before, there are a variety of reasons people live in different places and Pittsburgh, unlike most American cities has relatively urban 'burbs... at least much more areas that are walkable etc.

[photoLith]

That is true.

[Jonboy1983]

Originally Posted by photoLith

Any sign of the downfall of suburbia is A-OK. I can't wait for the day when historic city cores completely flourish and post ww2 suburbia decays. Although poverty in the burbs creates a huge problem for the people who can't afford a car.

Originally Posted by themaguffin

I don't think we should be rooting for such failure. As mentioned before, there are a variety of reasons people live in different places and Pittsburgh, unlike most American cities has relatively urban 'burbs... at least much more areas that are walkable etc.

I strongly agree with Themaguffin. I would love to see our urban cores flourish, but not at the expense of our suburbs. Suburbs play a role, too, in the urban/metropolitan fabric. While many are more or less bedroom communities, many of them do function as secondary or tertiary commercial/retail centers. I think the main issue, especially with Pittsburgh, is so many of them are very limited in terms of ample adequate transit access. I think this is one of the main reasons why Pittsburgh is so far above (or below, depending on how you look at it) the curve with suburban decay and/or poverty.

I think it's funny that most of the struggling suburbs are located either east (Penn Hills, Wilkinsburg, Woodland Hills), northeast (Shaler), or southeast (Clairton). There does seem to be some degree of poverty in the South Hills, but they have T access in several of the neighborhoods mentioned there. Baldwin and Whitehall are an exception, however...

I think this should be used as a push for more/better public transportation.

[Private Dick]

The premise of this article by Ms. Kneebone (!) is very difficult to support in the case of Pittsburgh. It's "suburbs" are often nothing like other cities' suburbs (because they simply are not suburbs in many cases); rather they were independent industrial towns that grew up alongside Pittsburgh... and actually developed their own suburbs from the 1950s on.

And, the region as a whole has declined drastically over the past 40 years. Many of the declining places in the region suffering the results of the loss of metals fabrication and manufacturing in general... and have been steadily declining ever since.

Someone who comes in to the southwestern PA region without a deeper understanding of the history and current situation might look at the numbers and say, hey look at this, Pittsburgh's suburbs are really poor... people there must be among the "poor families moving to the suburbs, perhaps to seek more affordable housing or jobs in retail outlets, and the slide down the economic ladder of families who lost jobs in the shaky economy". This just doesn't hold water in Pittsburgh's case.

Also, plain and simply, Wilkinsburg, Clairton, and Millvale (as three places cited by the author) are hardly "suburbs" in the sense of what we understand suburbs to be. While there may be increasing numbers within school districts that seem to point to poverty on the increase in Pittsburgh's "suburbs", I still think it is flawed to group Pittsburgh specifically in with the rest of this nationwide study.