All Hail The City Chief- Luke Ravenstahl-Best of the best ! Kennedy Organization say's so ! (Pittsburgh: section 8, apartment)
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I've witnessed nothing but rapid recovery and revitalization since moving here a year ago. The city is much more pro-active with snow-plowing and pothole-patching than any other community in which I've resided. The police department has proven itself to be top-notch during all of the times I've had to be in contact with them. Trash and recycling are picked up promptly.
This has not been the case with Carrick (one of the city's largest communities) at all. Potholes all over Brownsville (don't get me started on the back streets), streets that NEVER ever see a plow, police that don't care and are ignorant of laws (didn't you say you had a bad experience with them in another thread?), and trash all over the road. If anyone doesn't believe me all they have to do is spend some time here.
If anything I've seen the South Hills slip farther into post-Soviet bloc infrastructure levels (within the city limits that is).
This has not been the case with Carrick (one of the city's largest communities) at all. Potholes all over Brownsville (don't get me started on the back streets), streets that NEVER ever see a plow, police that don't care and are ignorant of laws (didn't you say you had a bad experience with them in another thread?), and trash all over the road. If anyone doesn't believe me all they have to do is spend some time here.
If anything I've seen the South Hills slip farther into post-Soviet bloc infrastructure levels (within the city limits that is).
I suppose the East End might just get preferential treatment because it's the most populated part of the city. I've never really had a "bad" experience with the police. Yes, they frisked me down when I resigned from my one job and followed me as I drove off the premises, but I was then told that was standard procedure. They were professional when I had to call 911 to help my landlady as she dealt with an abusive ex-boyfriend. They were professional when they were dispatched to the accident on 09/29 that totaled my car in Squirrel Hill. They were professional when they were dispatched to the accident earlier this month in which some delusional idiot took out a nun's parked car and pushed it into my own new car here in Polish Hill. It's a shame I have to utilize the police so much, but with as much bad luck as I tend to have I'm sure I'll be using them again quite frequently through 2012 as well.
Every time I complain about a bad stretch of road the city seems to respond rather quickly. For example, the intersection of Beechwood/Browns Hill/Hazelwood used to be a disaster area. Within weeks of me experiencing that mess I noticed that the intersection was repaved. They repaved the alley, Phelan Way, behind my current home, even though I never thought it was in terrible condition. They repaved Beechwood from 5th to Wilkins. They repaved 5th from Neville a few blocks into Oakland.
I'm very happy overall with city services. I wish we had recycling pick-up weekly instead of bi-weekly since I accumulate recyclable materials so quickly, but otherwise I'm thrilled.
Every time I complain about a bad stretch of road the city seems to respond rather quickly. For example, the intersection of Beechwood/Browns Hill/Hazelwood used to be a disaster area. Within weeks of me experiencing that mess I noticed that the intersection was repaved. They repaved the alley, Phelan Way, behind my current home, even though I never thought it was in terrible condition. They repaved Beechwood from 5th to Wilkins. They repaved 5th from Neville a few blocks into Oakland.
The street in front of my house has gotten a plow three times in the four years I have lived here.
This has not been the case with Carrick (one of the city's largest communities) at all. Potholes all over Brownsville (don't get me started on the back streets), streets that NEVER ever see a plow, police that don't care and are ignorant of laws (didn't you say you had a bad experience with them in another thread?), and trash all over the road. If anyone doesn't believe me all they have to do is spend some time here.
If anything I've seen the South Hills slip farther into post-Soviet bloc infrastructure levels (within the city limits that is).
Those are good points and I think you're right to point out that the southern hill-top neighborhoods often don't receive the attention that they deserve. I think Ms. Rudiak has spoken at length about this one she is one of my favorite voices on the Counsel.
The problems that you cite, at first blush seem to me to be two-fold. First and foremost, the City's capital budget has been frozen and restricted under the Act 47 oversight, leading to a round of delayed maintenance and more-selective infrastructure spending. I think this explains the Mayor's recent announcement of a desire to borrow $80 million to address some of these infrastructure demands. Ravenstahl to pledge $80M in spending for projects
Also, on a greater scale, Carrick may be deteriorating due to the anticipated demographic shifts. As the center core of the City redevelops, urban poverty is forced to the peripheries of the City and even the first-ring suburbs. Many of our most troubled neighborhoods are on the edges of the City.
Also, on a greater scale, Carrick may be deteriorating due to the anticipated demographic shifts. As the center core of the City redevelops, urban poverty is forced to the peripheries of the City and even the first-ring suburbs. Many of our most troubled neighborhoods are on the edges of the City.
^ This. There's a reason why you can buy a nice mid-century brick ranch home in Penn Hills for around $50,000. As with many improving major U.S. cities the interior neighborhoods will gentrify rapidly and push poverty to places on the fringe.
Also, on a greater scale, Carrick may be deteriorating due to the anticipated demographic shifts. As the center core of the City redevelops, urban poverty is forced to the peripheries of the City and even the first-ring suburbs. Many of our most troubled neighborhoods are on the edges of the City.
What I don't understand is why you would allow a stable, intact community like Carrick to deteriorate, while you pump excessive funds into blighted, decimated communities. Why not put the funds into the neighborhoods that have the most potential, and are the most intact/ salvageable, like Carrick? Should we just allow Carrick to decline until it looks like East Liberty or the Hill District before we give it any attention? Carrick (and other communities like Sheraden) could be beautiful with just a little bit of love. They don't need much now, but in ten or twenty years that may change.
Also, East Liberty isn't exactly "the core" of the city.
I think the effect will be that poverty is dispersed throughout the city, because certainly the "core" neighborhoods are not without it, and probably won't be without poverty for a long time.
Last edited by alleghenyangel; 11-22-2011 at 10:08 AM..
What I don't understand is why you would allow a stable, intact community like Carrick to deteriorate, while you pump excessive funds into blighted, decimated communities. Why not put the funds into the neighborhoods that have the most potential, and are the most intact/ salvageable, like Carrick? Should we just allow Carrick to decline until it looks like East Liberty or the Hill District before we give it any attention? Carrick (and other communities like Sheraden) could be beautiful with just a little bit of love. They don't need much now, but in ten or twenty years that may change.
Also, East Liberty isn't exactly "the core" of the city.
It's a good question, but I think you're probably overvaluing the ability of direct City spending to halt any decline and discounting market-driven realities in neighborhood preservation or revitalization. If East Liberty, with all of it's pre-existing infrastructure was located where Carrick is, I doubt you'd be seeing the transformation.
Personally, I do see East Liberty as part of the city's "core", or a the very least the center of it's East End moon, but that just may be me.
I always viewed East Liberty as being Pittsburgh's "Third Downtown" behind the Golden Triangle and Oakland. I don't know what the fourth Downtown might be. Brookline, perhaps?
As with many improving major U.S. cities the interior neighborhoods will gentrify rapidly and push poverty to places on the fringe.
How do you explain Cleveland (Lakewood, Shaker Heights) and Detroit (Ferndale, Palmer Woods), then, where the healthiest neighborhoods are the first-ring suburbs and neighborhoods on the periphery of the city? There may be more examples. Also, our own Squirrel Hill and Regent Square neighborhoods come to mind, which are on the edge of the city. I guess the East End is regarded as its own city, and not the East End of a city. In my opinion, the East End in general should be an example of revitalization outside of the core, because these neighborhoods may be the core of the East End, but they are not the core of the city. The core of the city is technically downtown and the neighborhoods surrounding it.
McKees Rocks is actually two miles closer to downtown than Regent Square is.
Last edited by alleghenyangel; 11-22-2011 at 10:32 AM..
I always viewed East Liberty as being Pittsburgh's "Third Downtown" behind the Golden Triangle and Oakland. I don't know what the fourth Downtown might be. Brookline, perhaps?
I would say the South Side, with Butler St. in Lawrenceville coming after that. Also, the center of old Allegheny City should have been our city's second downtown, but it was razed in the 1960s for the mall.
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