PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[anotherpghdave]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I have two major issues with this plan...

1. A large proportion of the economic benefit will probably eventually go to those who are not on Section 8. I presume that if people's incomes rise, they will not be kicked out of their home after all. And there will probably be no way to ensure that the homeowner, once they sell a home, only sells to a Section 8 buyer.

In the past, HACP has capitalized future Section 8 payments to a recipient and packaged them into a subordinate position deferred mortgage, payable upon sale or refinance. Additionally, if the home appreciates in value, the buyer will stand to gain; if there is a loss, there are provisions for loan forgiveness. Some of the loans I've seen are even forgiven proportionately as time goes on. There are usually windfall provisions to stop speculation as well.

To my knowledge, there's no recertification in the program; once you qualify for the Section 8 mortgage, you're in and, barring something egregious like fraud, you're not going to be at risk of losing the mortgage.

2. Owning a home requires some level of stability and financial resources. I think it's more likely than not that homeowner-occupied houses in poor neighborhoods will begin to deteriorate and lose value within a few years of being fixed up by said process.

HACP has required participants in the program to attend homeowner training classes at Dollar Bank, NeighborWorks of Western Pennsylvania, Garfield Jubilee Association, or any other HUD approved organizations that do that kind of work.

Still, your point is well taken: a large chunk of people that are in the Section 8 program have been generational renters who don't have the experience of living in a homeownership situation. If you're in a rental position and there's a problem, you call the landlord; if you're a homeowner and there's a problem, you have to figure it out yourself. (This can be as simple as knowing not to leave your windows open during the winter if it's too hot in your house.) There's a steep learning curve that new homebuyers experience, and if you as an individual have never experienced your parents work through these kinds of problems, you're going to have an even harder time adapting.

The big problem, however, is finding Section 8 buyers who are not only income qualified but have the credit wherewithal to qualify for a private first mortgage loan. Since 2009, banks have ratcheted up credit score, mortgage insurance, downpayment and all kinds of other requirements, under the guise of risk management, but all of which are prohibitive to low income homebuyers. So, while there may be a backlog of Section 8 buyers, under the current conditions, you're only seeing maybe 10-15 eligible buyers coming through per year.

[eschaton]

I figured the finance portions of the Section 8 idea were solvable. I'm still deeply skeptical about the ability of low-income people to properly maintain their houses. Hopefully the City would pick reputable contractors, and there wouldn't be issues with things like leaky roofs. Still, I could easily see first-time homeowners forgetting to change the air filter on their furnace, resulting in it dying after a few years, then being totally financially unable to buy a replacement.

BrianTH is correct that even if the value of these restored houses does fall over time, it's better than having a blighted, abandoned house in a declining neighborhood. That said, the real comparison is actually to a Section 8 rental, which actually have fairly high standards in terms of maintenance. Which is why, as I said, to me the key question is if the plan allows an equal or greater number of low-income people to remain in affordable units somewhere, which is the stated goal of Section 8 vouchers.

Note that I do think, more broadly, it would be great if we could find some way to steer HUD money away from new construction and into rehabs. It's stupendously wasteful the way the setup works currently, where historic housing is left to rot and fall down, and periodically new infill construction is built in the exact same neighborhood. Even taking into account that scattered-site housing is more expensive, I would think if you could start with the existing shells (which often have solid foundations and utility hookups, even if everything else is beyond hope) you'd tend to come out ahead.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by anotherpghdave

To my knowledge, there's no recertification in the program; once you qualify for the Section 8 mortgage, you're in and, barring something egregious like fraud, you're not going to be at risk of losing the mortgage.

Obviously that is not what I expected, and it strikes me as odd. But it might make sense if there were not enough real-world income increases to worry about.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Note that I do think, more broadly, it would be great if we could find some way to steer HUD money away from new construction and into rehabs. It's stupendously wasteful the way the setup works currently, where historic housing is left to rot and fall down, and periodically new infill construction is built in the exact same neighborhood. Even taking into account that scattered-site housing is more expensive, I would think if you could start with the existing shells (which often have solid foundations and utility hookups, even if everything else is beyond hope) you'd tend to come out ahead.

That does seem to be the main goal here. I don't want to sound like I don't take your other concerns seriously, but there is such a possible advantage here that I think it makes sense to look at how some (certainly not all) Section 8 funds could be used in the proposed way. But I do think it would have to result in more units at the end of the day, or otherwise it would be unfair to use the funds that way.

As an aside, the Tiny House experiment was quite illuminating on this point, even if it was a failure on its own terms. By the time you get to a vacant lot, getting back to a new home is an incredibly expensive project, even if you try to minimize the structural costs. So it really does seem like you want to try to catch properties before they degrade to the point they can't be saved, if at all possible.

[Evergrey]

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/ne...tsburgh-flight-will-be-daily-during.html

Paris-Pittsburgh flight will be daily during longer 2016 season

Jan 11, 2016, 12:07pm EST

Delta Air Lines will start its Pittsburgh-to-Paris flight earlier and it will be daily from May 1 through Oct. 29 instead of only during the summer, the Allegheny County Airport Authority announced Monday.

It's the eighth year for the flight, which is Pittsburgh International Airport's only nonstop scheduled service to Europe. It will begin nine days earlier than it did in 2015 and will have daily departures to Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport and arrivals throughout the end of October. Last year, it was only daily from June through September. It was six days a week during the peak summer months as late as 2014.

...

[Evergrey]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-ace-hotels-latest-outpost-opens-in-pittsburgh-1452523807

The Ace Hotel’s Latest Outpost Opens in Pittsburgh

The Ace Hotel brand is known for tapping into the local culture of each of its locations. Its latest outpost in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood is at the cutting edge of the city’s revival

By BETH KRACKLAUER
Jan. 11, 2016 9:50 a.m. ET

...

The recently opened hotel inhabits a restored century-old YMCA building. On a recent afternoon, sunlight streams through a stained-glass installation by local artist Glenn Greene into the lobby, flanked by Whitfield on one side and a bar on the other. Past the wrought-iron and marble staircase leading up to the 63 guest rooms, double doors open onto a soaring three-story gymnasium, used as an event space, circled by two levels of balcony. Up on the hotel’s second floor, in a ballroom tiled in a checkerboard of red and black, lofty windows frame majestic views of the city.

...

[Minivan Werner]

Southern Beltway news...

http://www.post-gazette.com/news/transpo...eltway-construction/stories/201601110005




Is there a city in the country that has a more redundant highway system than Pittsburgh? The beltway will run parallel to, and be only a handful of miles north of, i70. At the very least they should decommission that stretch of i70 (which is all below highway standards anyway) and move it to merge with the beltway.

[BrianTH]

Great news about the Paris flight. I would love to see it get some competition at some point, even if just obliquely via direct service to a different gateway (London or Frankfurt, for example). Still, I was surprised to learn that at least when we flew it, the price premium over an indirect flight wasn't that bad.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Minivan Werner

Is there a city in the country that has a more redundant highway system than Pittsburgh? The beltway will run parallel to, and be only a handful of miles north of, i70.

Yep, it is a multi-billion-dollar solution, still looking for a problem.

Of course a bunch of well-connected construction companies and land developers stand to profit, so on it goes.

[themaguffin]

...and here we go again.

Redundant indeed.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by themaguffin

...and here we go again.

Redundant indeed.

I agree with themaguffin that the Southern Beltway is redundant and a massively wasteful boondoggle.

[Don't Be That Guy]

Originally Posted by Minivan Werner

Southern Beltway news...

http://www.post-gazette.com/news/transpo...eltway-construction/stories/201601110005




Is there a city in the country that has a more redundant highway system than Pittsburgh? The beltway will run parallel to, and be only a handful of miles north of, i70. At the very least they should decommission that stretch of i70 (which is all below highway standards anyway) and move it to merge with the beltway.

While there is some logic to the 1st and second phases of connecting I-79 and the SouthPoint area to the airport, the 13 mile mirror of I-70 makes no financial and logistical sense except in the minds of the Washington County Commissioners, and the politicians and financial interest that influence the Turnpike Commission. The Turnpike Commission has stated that they need to raise tolls every year in the foreseeable future just to maintain and improve the current system , and yet they want to add new miles of road to connect the airport to the $1 billion boondoggle that is the MFX? The arguments for both the southern beltway and the MFX are nothing more than sunk cost fallacy.

Short term Highway/Regional Transportation projects that make some sense, at least to me, include:
- Improve 51 to a multi-lane boulevard from MFX to the city.
- Improve I-70
- Extend the East Busway to Monroeville
- Rail/T/dedicated streetcar/something from downtown to at least as far as the zoo.
- Airport express bus (no stops at Ikea) with some damned luggage racks
- And should extending the busway not alleviate a lot of Parkway East traffic, planning for some capacity expansion or bypass at the Squirrel Hill Tunnels. Perhaps substantial upgrades to Route 30, 837 and Second Ave?

[MattofSloppyVariety]

http://www.post-gazette.com/news/transpo...s-out-of-Pittsburgh/stories/201601120167

The airline will launch nonstop service to five cities from the Findlay airport in June — Denver, Atlanta, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, Las Vegas, and Orlando.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Don't Be That Guy

Short term Highway/Regional Transportation projects that make some sense, at least to me, include:
- Improve 51 to a multi-lane boulevard from MFX to the city.
- Improve I-70
- Extend the East Busway to Monroeville
- Rail/T/dedicated streetcar/something from downtown to at least as far as the zoo.
- Airport express bus (no stops at Ikea) with some damned luggage racks
- And should extending the busway not alleviate a lot of Parkway East traffic, planning for some capacity expansion or bypass at the Squirrel Hill Tunnels. Perhaps substantial upgrades to Route 30, 837 and Second Ave?

That is a very sensible list.

Personally, I might look at 837 right away, along with 51. And in fact I might add 885 to the list, and perhaps more. What I am thinking is an integrated boulevard plan which incorporates things like buslanes on at least some routes. And I am thinking if we do that in parallel with developing the Hazelwood LTV and Carrie Furnace sites, you are giving the existing Mon Valley communities their best chance to turn around before they completely disappear.

[BrianTH]

That airline post is about Frontier (in case it isn't obvious to anyone). Great news, of course--lots of good news about the airport these days, in fact.

[Don't Be That Guy]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

That airline post is about Frontier (in case it isn't obvious to anyone). Great news, of course--lots of good news about the airport these days, in fact.

The Yelp reviews of Frontier make them seem like a Spirit Airlines with friendlier service and more uncomfortable seating. This is also on the heels of Allegiant announcing a new flight from PIT to Savannah/Hilton Head.

I realize that people are voting with their pocket books, and ultra-low cost airlines are the overall direction of the industry, but I don't know if either of these count as great news beyond possibly forcing lower fares on the legacy carriers. It's better than nothing, but I personally wouldn't put up with Frontier's plastic non-reclining seats, Allegiant's propensity for not maintaining their planes, and the nickle-and-diming for anything beyond a seat that you get from both.

Truly great news would be a year-round direct flight to San Francisco and Seattle. And a direct to Frankfort, Amsterdam, and/or Dublin.

[BrianTH]

OK, "great" might be a stretch. However, I do think that this sort of competition is critical to keeping prices low for all carriers.

[BrianTH]

PAT is proposing a pretty sweeping overhaul of its fare system:

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/south/...-fare-for-all-rides/stories/201601130027

Lots of it is designed to start pushing more people to Connect, but eliminating the Zone 2 surcharge (for Connect), the $7 day pass, and a few other things are also about increasing ridership.

And then there is this . . .

The second phase of the fare proposal calls for the T system to go cashless beginning in July 2017. Riders would be under the honor system to pay using their Connectcard at a pay station before getting on and the authority would have 10 of its police officers assigned to make random checks using handheld validation machines to make sure riders have paid.

Honor systems are great--they really speed up boarding. I'd like to see that on the Busway-only routes as well sometime. Ultimately you can also use them even on regular routes, by providing machines mid-bus as well as front-bus.

[themaguffin]

the 13 mile mirror of I-70 makes no financial and logistical sense

It's not a mirror if its part of a true beltway (even a half beltway) that connects the airport and west to the turnpike. That's a lot of area not close to the parkway or 70.

[Captain Crash]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Honor systems are great--they really speed up boarding. I'd like to see that on the Busway-only routes as well sometime. Ultimately you can also use them even on regular routes, by providing machines mid-bus as well as front-bus.

Count me in as an advocate of the honors system. When I first ran into it I was doubtful but I was surprised by everyone's honesty and most of all the speed and convenience. It made my travel around Vienna, Prague, Bratislava, Kosice, etc. so much smoother.