The Lower Hill (Pittsburgh, Reading, Lancaster: apartments, house, living in)

[pman]

so it appears that three rivers displaced a scarp metal yard which is also something else entirely from demolishing an occupied neighborhood. looks like the highways did more damage on the north side than anything...Brian, do you have a pic with more of the north side in it?

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by pman

Brian, do you have a pic with more of the north side in it?

I haven't found a good aerial yet that includes both the Central North Side and the North Shore, but I'll post it if I find it.

[Herodotus]

Originally Posted by pman

so it appears that three rivers displaced a scarp metal yard which is also something else entirely from demolishing an occupied neighborhood. looks like the highways did more damage on the north side than anything...Brian, do you have a pic with more of the north side in it?

Three Rivers itself didn't displace much. Allegheny Center, CCAC, I279, and Rt. 65 did the bulk of the damage on the North Side. In addition, the areas around the 16th St., and West End Bridges was allowed to deteriorate, and then be razed. Many lessons have been learned since then, but it's too late for those areas.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by pman

I don't think you appreciate the difference between displacing 8000 people and putting them into projects and destabilizing other areas and PNC Park, which displaced 11 people, 9 of whom were offered free tickets instead of stuck in public housing

]


It was more than just the Alcor Way row that was razed for PNC. There was an apartment building about 7-8 stories high at 15 Federal Street as well that bit the dust as well. Not only that, as part of the whole PNC project, several boarding houses on East General Robinson between Federal and Sandusky for a hundred or more residents were razed for parking and retail development.

Sure, it wasn't on the same scale as the Arena project as far as the numbers of people, but it was significant for the people who were displaced.

[pman]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

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It was more than just the Alcor Way row that was razed for PNC. There was an apartment building about 7-8 stories high at 15 Federal Street as well that bit the dust as well. Not only that, as part of the whole PNC project, several boarding houses on East General Robinson between Federal and Sandusky for a hundred or more residents were razed for parking and retail development.

Sure, it wasn't on the same scale as the Arena project as far as the numbers of people, but it was significant for the people who were displaced.

scale is everything. sometimes buildings will need to be demolished to build other ones. generally speaking, knocking down neighborhoods for parking or for some future development that may or may not happen is a bad idea. they razed an entire neighborhood. I can't comment on the "boarding houses" which I'd assume were buildings that were being used as boarding houses but the idea that buildings need to be razed for surface parking is dubious. I'd love to see an 8 story apartment building over there

[pman]

In 1949, President Harry Truman signed the Housing Act, which gave federal, state, and local governments unprecedented power to shape residential life. One of the Housing Act's main initiatives - "urban renewal" - destroyed about 2,000 communities in the 1950s and '60s and forced more than 300,000 families from their homes. Overall, about half of urban renewal's victims were black, a reality that led to James Baldwin's famous quip that "urban renewal means Negro removal."

The Tragedy of Urban Renewal: The destruction and survival of a New York City neighborhood - YouTube
funny to hear him talk about a bustling city as a nightmare but there it is, set to destroy what so many cities are trying to recapture...all so there are wide open roads to get in and out of the city
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrXr3...eature=related

[BrianTH]

North Side to the river in 1972--so this is after Allegheny Center, but before I-279:



Circa 1980 I believe:





Going back in time now to circa 1953, so before Allegheny Center (I kinda want to cry seeing what Allegheny Center did):



Circa 1930:

[BrianTH]

Just to give my two cents, it looks to me like from the 1930s on, there was never all that much in the part of the "North Shore" west of the 6th Street Bridge where first Three Rivers and eventually PNC Park went. I'm not really thrilled with stadiums in locations like this, but it looks to me like if they do in fact fill in the whole area between the stadiums, that may easily be the most intense overall use that land has seen (again since at least the 1930s--not surprisingly, aerial shots of earlier phases are in short supply).

[Evergrey]

I've always wanted to see street level photos of the neighborhood that was destroyed by the Allegheny Center monstrosity.

[BrianTH]

Market House (Federal and Ohio):





Boggs & Buhl Department Store:



Looking north on Federal from Allegheny Center:



Looking south on Federal (Boggs & Buhl on the right):



Similar view looking south on Federal with the Sixth Street Bridge and Downtown in the background:



Looking north (Market House in background):



W Ohio Street looking east:



Looking west (note laundry in both photos):