East Liberty becoming a mixed-income success story (Highland Park, Penn: section 8, crime rates)

[squarian]

Originally Posted by chielgirl

I think you're dreaming.

Hippies used to do that too.

[Uptown kid]

Has anyone else seen this article
http://eastlibertypost.com/sitedocs/community-plan-screen.pdf (broken link)
Shoot, I'll give EL maybe a few more months (I'm guessing 6-8) & it'll be OFF the list of bad neighborhoods

[chielgirl]

Originally Posted by squarian

Hippies used to do that too.

And your point?

I think someone who has lived in an area most of their life would have an understanding of the area and it's issues.
Brochures are brochures; they're written for sales.

Originally Posted by Uptown kid

Has anyone else seen this article
http://eastlibertypost.com/sitedocs/community-plan-screen.pdf (broken link)
Shoot, I'll give EL maybe a few more months (I'm guessing 6-8) & it'll be OFF the list of bad neighborhoods

Not from the listings of petty crimes and recent shootings in the area that I receive.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by chielgirl

And your point?

I think someone who has lived in an area most of their life would have an understanding of the area and it's issues.
Brochures are brochures; they're written for sales.



Not from the listings of petty crimes and recent shootings in the area that I receive.

When's the last time you spent any appreciable time in East Liberty? For me it's been 6 years. And it was already well on its way back then.

[BrianTH]

If your only predictor was petty crime statistics, you would have ended up missing an extraordinary number of gentrification stories in U.S. cities over recent decades.

Incidentally, it is absolutely true that brochure--which, again, is for an $18 million project--was "written for sales". That was precisely my point in citing it. I originally wrote:

I think the time is soon approaching, if it hasn't already arrived, in which proximity to East Liberty will be considered a selling point and not a drawback.

In this case they are unabashedly trying to sell leases for this project by featuring its location, specifically highlighting the fact it is "IN THE CENTER OF EAST LIBERTY'S DOWNTOWN." The fact that a very serious development project would attempt to sell itself in that way is a powerful indicator of how much East Liberty's brand image has changed, and directly supports my original claim.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Drover

When's the last time you spent any appreciable time in East Liberty? For me it's been 6 years. And it was already well on its way back then.

Some of the same posters sort of hashed this out before:

ELDI taking over YMCA conversion in East Liberty

As I noted back then, I thought the recent progress of East Liberty was undeniable, and cited a long list of projects. On the other hand, if you were in fact denying East Liberty was making progress, despite the long list of recent projects, then I suppose one more project won't persuade you otherwise.

[gg]

Been in and around E. Liberty all my life. If anyone feels it hasn't made progress over the years, they are full of it. There is a very long way to go, with the TONS of litter and the piles of the "I don't care", "people owe me" types and those people always bring areas down, but the numbers of them are less now than before. Still they are a blight that litters and make areas a mess. Just typical small brain stuff to try and show all they just don't care and they do their best to bring as many people down around themselves and promote the, "I don't care" attitude. They sure are a simple study and probably are the ones studied in the first week of a psychology class at a community college.

East Liberty has had some setbacks and some pullbacks, but as the super low class slowly migrates out, it is starting to show signs of repair. There are some very bad pockets in and around the area, but I think it is in better shape overall than Lawrenceville for example.

[Blackbeauty212]

Give EL 5 years, that all it will take for the now gentrifying neighborhood to be in full swing and able to feed off its own success.....

I read somewhere that the plan for EL gentrification was to start on the perimeter of the CBD and work inward and that seems to be exactly whats happening...

[BrianTH]

Once the corridor along Penn Avenue is well-established, I think the floodgates will be completely open. And this proposed project would be a major advancement toward that point.

[AaronPGH]

I'd give EL even less than 5 years honestly. There is some serious stuff in the works there. Landmark establishments.