Quote:
Originally Posted by dfiler
Note how most east busway stops are surrounded by parking lots or barely used buildings. They aren't adjacent high density retail, job centers or housing.
Certainly an opportunity for more optimal land-use in the future but i'm not holding my breath. Hopefully the east liberty TOD is successful and spurs the same thing to happen further east along the busway. A relatively cheap pedestrian bridge over the busway at the Thomas Blvd development would make transit viable for all that new office space.
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I did find it comforting to learn a lot of those areas were previously occupied by relatively low-density railroad-related uses, including railyards, stock yards, warehouses, and so on. In addition to the Brushton railyard where the Wilkinsburg Station park and ride is now located, and of course the Strip, most of the area between Fifth, Penn, and the Busway used to be railyards and stock yards, except for a few buildings along Penn, eventually including the Nabisco factory. Even the area next to Hamnett Station, my local Busway station, used to have a rail spur (it curved down what is now Railway Alley), and there were things like an ice warehouse and such in that area.
But anyway, the land is now suitable for higher uses than park and rides and strip malls and such, but it of course took a long time for Pittsburgh to get back to the point there was any sort of real market for things like Bakery Square and Eastside Bond and now Rockwell Park, and so on.
And actually, I am kinda OK with it being a moderate, steady pace. Could be a bit faster, maybe, but I also don't want there to be some big boom and bust cycle where projects end up half-completed or mostly vacant and such.