Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianTH
We still have tons of brownfield and other underutilized land available near Downtown, particularly on the river flats (which is no coincidence). We could still be building up more or less as much as we could possibly want even if the Lower Hill and other elevated areas were still historic low-rise districts.
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I wasn't referring to just the Lower Hill. I was also referring to the destruction of a host of other neighborhoods, including The Ward (where the North Shore is today), Schweitzer Lock, Old Allegheny City, and much of the residential fabric of the Strip District and Uptown. Hell, even the destruction of the old Irish neighborhood at the Point to make Gateway Center and Point State Park would qualify.
If we had it to do over again, I would *not* suggest demolishing any of them. But that these neighborhoods are to a significant extent now a blank canvas on which we can build any number of things is in a way an asset. As we've talked about before, even if we have bad new development here which isn't the proper density, as long as it's not condos or townhouses, it can always be increased in density at a later time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianTH
Gentrification has occurred in similarly-located neighborhoods with a similar ethnic composition in other eastern cities (this is very common in DC, for example).
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DC isn't a great example, because it is (or was, rather) such a heavily black city that gentrification pressures meant some neighborhoods had to change. In contrast, Pittsburgh had plenty of working-class white neighborhoods for gentrifiers to turn to instead.
By way of a local example, consider the North Side. Portions of it, like the Mexican War Streets and Allegheny West, have been gentrifying since the 1970s when they were colonized by hippies looking to restore the old houses. The process is still not done - if you travel a few blocks from any of the gentrified areas, you find areas which are still mostly black and poor. In contrast, South Side and Lawrenceville have both transitioned to a similar price point (with arguably worse housing stock) over a period of less than 20 years.
Of course, you could then throw back East Liberty as a counter example. But East Liberty really isn't classic gentrification. There was nothing organic about the process - it was a top down redevelopment push.
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