PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by photoLith

^
The only gym I know about downtown that anyone can join is Golds Gym where I go. All the other gyms I believe are in hotels and office buildings for workers. Also, instead of building all of these sprawl inducing highways, I wish this city could build a decent rail network. Its only of the only major cities that has a complete garbage light rail system. Most cities are building new ones or expanding on old ones. The bus system is crap as well.

There's the Downtown YMCA right on Market Square.

[JVC]

Originally Posted by chucka

Upscale steakhouse leases space in U.S. Steel Tower



This is disappointing news. Just what downtown needs, another (6th!) steakhouse.

Additionally, LA Fitness in the Macy's building is a missed opportunity. How many gyms are needed downtown?

there have always been restaurants and gym facilities downtown - top of the triangle, the common plea, ymca, duquesne club, etc.

the difference now is our economy is increasingly based on restaurants and recreation and being entertained at home
so you wind up with a development situation where options are limited and everyone is essentially doing the same thing

in the 70's there were seven movie theaters downtown - now there is one

http://www.post-gazette.com/business/201...ntown-movie-theater/stories/201505160063

[chucka]

Originally Posted by GeneW

There's the Downtown YMCA right on Market Square.

There is also a YMCA in the US Steel Tower (although it is smaller than the PNC YMCA and has less programs).

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by chucka

This is disappointing news. Just what downtown needs, another (6th!) steakhouse. Additionally, LA Fitness in the Macy's building is a missed opportunity. How many gyms are needed downtown?

Assuming there is adequate demand, both of these uses seem fine to me. I've never been a huge steakhouse fan myself, but they are still a big thing in the business world. And gyms are something that come along with a growing local population, and increasingly commuters like using them before, after, or even during work hours.

[photoLith]

Originally Posted by JVC

there have always been restaurants and gym facilities downtown - top of the triangle, the common plea, ymca, duquesne club, etc.

the difference now is our economy is increasing based on retail and recreation so you wind up with a situation where everyone is essentially doing the same thing

High paying jobs being replaced by min wage and low wage jobs...

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by photoLith

The bus system is crap as well.

I actually think the Busways in particular are great, and a natural fit for our topographic challenges and resulting development patterns. They are just underutilized, and that system is not yet complete.

Extending the East Busway to Monroeville would be a good start, and then you could at least incorporate things like rapid bus measures into upgraded arterial roads from the Mon Valley. So, for example, if you upgraded 837 into a boulevard with rapid bus measures, those buses could then cross the Rankin Bridge and hop on the Busway. And thanks to the Busway being a busway, there would be no need for a transfer at that point.

Meanwhile, eventually the West Busway should be extended all the way into Downtown (perhaps with a fancy new Mon bridge that would actually be useful!), and linked to the East Busway through Downtown with rapid bus measures.

That's a vision of an improved East-West transit link that could actually work for a lot of people and uses--and we have already built large chunks of it, including the most difficult parts in the East.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by photoLith

High paying jobs being replaced by min wage and low wage jobs...

Of course manufacturing jobs used to be low-wage too, and also extremely dangerous and unhealthy.

Then the government intervened with various regulations, and unions were provided with protection, and so forth, and manufacturing jobs became good jobs.

So we need to do the same sort of thing with service jobs. There is no inherent reason they can't be good jobs too, but in recent decades we have been undermining, or sometimes just abandoning, the project of making ordinary non-management/non-professional jobs into good jobs.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by photoLith

High paying jobs being replaced by min wage and low wage jobs...

Exactly. Jobs reports don't seem to highlight the fact that trading a $60,000 manufacturing job with benefits for a new restaurant job as a server making $2.13 + tips and no benefits is a shit deal.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Of course manufacturing jobs used to be low-wage too, and also extremely dangerous and unhealthy.

Then the government intervened with various regulations, and unions were provided with protection, and so forth, and manufacturing jobs became good jobs.

So we need to do the same sort of thing with service jobs. There is no inherent reason they can't be good jobs too, but in recent decades we have been undermining, or sometimes just abandoning, the project of making ordinary non-management/non-professional jobs into good jobs.

Excellent point.

[speagles84]

Originally Posted by JVC

there have always been restaurants and gym facilities downtown - top of the triangle, the common plea, ymca, duquesne club, etc.

the difference now is our economy is increasingly based on restaurants and recreation and being entertained at home
so you wind up with a development situation where options are limited and everyone is essentially doing the same thing

in the 70's there were seven movie theaters downtown - now there is one

http://www.post-gazette.com/business/201...ntown-movie-theater/stories/201505160063

The manufacturing jobs are being replaced with more than service jobs. Ex tech, meds, etc.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I actually think the Busways in particular are great, and a natural fit for our topographic challenges and resulting development patterns. They are just underutilized, and that system is not yet complete.

Extending the East Busway to Monroeville would be a good start, and then you could at least incorporate things like rapid bus measures into upgraded arterial roads from the Mon Valley. So, for example, if you upgraded 837 into a boulevard with rapid bus measures, those buses could then cross the Rankin Bridge and hop on the Busway. And thanks to the Busway being a busway, there would be no need for a transfer at that point.

Meanwhile, eventually the West Busway should be extended all the way into Downtown (perhaps with a fancy new Mon bridge that would actually be useful!), and linked to the East Busway through Downtown with rapid bus measures.

That's a vision of an improved East-West transit link that could actually work for a lot of people and uses--and we have already built large chunks of it, including the most difficult parts in the East.

I love this idea. I've had an idea that those large blackened-from-soot bridge supports on the Mon river between downtown & station square would make for a great pedestrial bridge someday or perhaps that could be the East-West busway bridge link that you mentioned.

Pedestrian bridge ideas:

[Evergrey]

I have JVC (CFP on City-Data) on my ignore list... yet I see every one of his miserable posts anyway. Kudos to JVC for brilliant trolling... just enough substance and subtlety (as opposed to Dr. Avis's lame attempts) to elicit responses to every one of your posts yet remain unmolested by moderation as this thread descends into the toilet.

[JVC]

east liberty's most high-profile new development seems to have a noise issue
maybe operating a hotel that doubles as a nightclub only works in cities that never sleep like NYC

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

I have JVC (CFP on City-Data) on my ignore list... yet I see every one of his miserable posts anyway. Kudos to JVC for brilliant trolling... just enough substance and subtlety (as opposed to Dr. Avis's lame attempts) to elicit responses to every one of your posts yet remain unmolested by moderation as this thread descends into the toilet.

Originally Posted by JVC

east liberty's most high-profile new development seems to have a noise issue
maybe operating a hotel that doubles as a nightclub only works in cities that never sleep like NYC

Case in point.

[Private Dick]

You guys are circumventing the ignore function for this JVC character...

[JVC]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

I have JVC (CFP on City-Data) on my ignore list... yet I see every one of his miserable posts anyway. Kudos to JVC for brilliant trolling... just enough substance and subtlety (as opposed to Dr. Avis's lame attempts) to elicit responses to every one of your posts yet remain unmolested by moderation as this thread descends into the toilet.

the hypersensitivity of this generation is mind-blowing
any comment that is not obvious cheerleading is instantly attacked as trolling

people criticize new developments all the time here for appearing cheap and dull - it's called having an opinion, not trolling

the ace hotel did an amazing job restoring the building
the ace hotel has helped bring hip culture back to east liberty
the ace hotel serves great food and drinks and hosts cool events
and it's a fact that many people on yelp are saying that the hotel is too noisy

it's obvious very few people on this forum attended architecture school because architecture professors get paid to viciously criticize student projects
and graduates enter the world able to handle criticism and not run to the safe-space ignore function

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by Private Dick

You guys are circumventing the ignore function for this JVC character...

Yes please. Stop quoting trolls. Just ignore.

[DKNewYork]

A friend told me this morning that there is some kind of tarp on part of the south-facing facade of the old F&S department store building that Oxford wants to tear down. Anyone know what's going on?

[PITairport]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

It is completely unjustified to continue to spend billions more on the Southern Beltway/MFE, a project whose possible incremental benefits are far too low to justify its costs.

Based on that, you must really be up in arms when the topic of cross-state high speed rail comes up.

Originally Posted by JVC

that bridge is AWESOME

Agreed; it is a much nicer design than what I would have expected.

[Nitwit]

Originally Posted by DKNewYork

A friend told me this morning that there is some kind of tarp on part of the south-facing facade of the old F&S department store building that Oxford wants to tear down. Anyone know what's going on?

Parts of the facade/cornice are falling onto the street below, so they're trying to put something temporary in place to catch all of it.