Braddock: A Pennsylvania town on the brink (Pittsburgh, New Kensington: house, neighborhood)

[grimacista]

The good news is that you don't have to bulldoze Braddock to re-develop it since most of it has been bulldozed already anyway.

I am no expert on housing stock in Braddock but how much of the housing stock is brick? The only real thing that is absolutely worth preserving in Braddock is the library.

[gg]

Originally Posted by alleghenyangel

Tell that to people paying $200k+ for little row-houses in the South Side Flats, Central North Side, and Lawrenceville (yes, Lawrenceville). I realize the neighborhoods these houses are in are hip and happening, but that wasn't always the case.

$200? You can't rent in the flats for that, can you? I assumed people were paying $650++ for a one bedroom.

[PreservationPioneer]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

$200? You can't rent in the flats for that, can you? I assumed people were paying $650++ for a one bedroom.

$200k = $200,000. I'm talking about purchasing, not renting.

[PreservationPioneer]

Originally Posted by grimacista

I am no expert on housing stock in Braddock but how much of the housing stock is brick? The only real thing that is absolutely worth preserving in Braddock is the library.

There is a lot of brick in Braddock.

The Library is awesome, but it's not the only building worth preserving.

There are still some nice commercial buildings left, a few gorgeous churches, and some amazing Victorian mansions scattered about. Some of the smaller homes are nice, too. Also, it doesn't have to be brick to be good architecture.

I may have to do a Braddock photo tour soon to prove my point. It's definitely not all low-grade mill housing (although even some of the existing mill homes have some great architectural details)!

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by alleghenyangel

I may have to do a Braddock photo tour soon to prove my point. It's definitely not all low-grade mill housing (although even some of the existing mill homes have some great architectural details)!

Yes, please! I love your photo tours.

[squarian]

Originally Posted by Love2Golf09

not just the blacks in these mill towns that are disgustingly dependent on the govt to even wipe their butt for them

Nice to see a difficult issue discussed in temperate, rational and mature terms.

[squarian]

Of course some eccentric white knight (or prince?) might turn up to "save" Braddock etc - but I wouldn't bank on it.

In the meantime, the pressing issue in Braddock and neighboring towns is social. Easy enough to say the inhabitants should "stop living off the government", but the people of Braddock (Fetterman possibly excepted) are not going to turn into capital-accumulating entrepreneurs and solid, reliable employees with the wave of a fairy wand. One solution, apparently popular in certain quarters here, would be to surround the area with a high wall, throw over some arms and ammunition and wait for silence. Or should we resort to forced sterilization? But Fascist remedies apart, any response will involve long-term state involvement, even if only to provide some basic organizational assistance to allow the population to regulate their own affairs and find their own solutions. Braddock and neighboring towns are social conflagrations - only a wild-eyed fanatic would refuse to send in a fire engine.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by alleghenyangel

I am sort of disgusted by the amount of people who think it is a good idea to bulldoze towns and start over. People like this should take a ride around towns like Braddock and Homestead and see how much history there is that is worth preserving. There is a lot. Even the tract homes are cool in their way.

The river towns are part of Pittsburgh's history. You can't and shouldn't bulldoze them away. If they bother you that much, move to Atlanta. Natrona, McKees Rocks, Duquesne, etc. are all beautiful even in their deteriorated condition. But perhaps you have to be from somewhere else to find the little unique things about Pittsburgh beautiful.

The trend seems to be that people love urban environments, and are moving back into them. All of these little towns are very, very urban, and are so affordable and close to the amenities of the city that they provide an excellent opportunity for young urban pioneers like me to afford real estate in an urban-like setting (alleys, old houses, business districts, etc.).

But people seem to think that only rich people should be able to afford to live in the "cool" urban areas, like the Strip or Downtown, where lofts rent for $1500 a month (about my monthly income after taxes).

So let's bulldoze all the old urban areas that are not fixed up yet. What an idea. Someday we will all be priced out of urban areas and wish we could find places like Braddock. But they will be prairies -- or worse -- vinyl villages.

It depends on the condition of the homes for one. They were probably built cheaply just to house workers and not meant to last. There was a steel mill built in Atlanta with "shotgun" houses built nearby. They function now as cheap student housing for nearby Georgia Tech, but they are slowly being replaced as they can't last. That steel mill has been redeveloped as Atlantic Station.

Atlantic Station - Get Here, Get Happy

Atlantic Station has been largely successful although, naturally, problems have arisen too. I think when it comes to city planning/development, we just have to take more of an engineering attitude about the results. There is no perfect solution, just an optimal one. And by now, we have a large body of real-world cases including in Pittsburgh upon which to draw on. Communities can be rebuilt with a sensitivity to the previous architecture but I'm not sure housing of Braddock's type would fit the 21st century.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by Love2Golf09

You have to understand the region to fully understand the politics and corruption that keeps towns like braddock, mckeesport, duquesne, donora, aliquippa, homestead, and monaca in the shape that they're in.

The waterfront was a Hailmary pass that worked because of its location on rt837 and the fact that no homes were destroyed to complete it. Something lime that is unlikely to happen often. Are YOU going to be the politician...the white democrat politician...that says the govt is going into black duquesne and leveling 80% of the town to make way for condos and a giant pottery barn? Good luck, buddy. There will be protests, lawsuits, charges of racism, etc. It's much easier politically to ignore the poor black folks that live in these areas and allow the towns to rot to dust. King Fetterman himself already declared that if the Mon-Fayette expressly is completed he wont allow it to connect to the parkway through braddock and destroy HIS "ancient ruins". It was tough enough to get Console Arena built in the Hill without giving in to the "one hill" group's demand of the govt somehow opening a giant eagle there. That's how these people think. They really, truly believe that the govt can wave a magic wand and force a private company to open a grocery store in their neighborhood. It would be laughable if it was so pathetic.

And it's not just the blacks in these mill towns that are disgustingly dependent on the govt to even wipe their butt for them...Fayette county is well over 90% white and just as bad. Take a trip to brownsville and then you'll forget all about braddock's troubles. Brownsville is like something out of a Stephen King book. There is an epidemic within certain communities of expecting govt handouts. I know people in uniontown where 3 generations of women all dropped out of high school, all had illegitimate kids to several different fathers by the time they were 18, and all ended up on welfare and living in the projects or a tailor. As long as these people continue to be dependent on the govt, refuse to do any serious self-reflection regarding their problems, and live in a one-party town where the corrupt democrat that offers the most handouts rules with an iron fist they will continue to live the life of human trash.

In a word "gentrification". It's happening in Atlanta as people are buying up cheap housing stock in the city and redeveloping it. And yes, it is causing some tension as land values start to rise (although the recent downturn in the economy has dampened that). But it is transforming areas of Atlanta. I guess architecture can be preserved and mandated in areas but demographic makeup is in flux. We can't dictate what race can live in what areas. Even areas that were black for years probably at one time were not.

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by SuburbanPioneer

It's interesting that he mentioned that almost all of those who currently work at the steel mill are not from Braddock. The same was true about the hospital, but was not mentioned in the video creating a bit of a confusion.

He specifically mentioned that about 80 of the jobs at Braddock Hospital were held by local members of the community. Also, a hospital provides a service to the entire local community, while a steel mill does not.