Expansion plans upset West Oakland residents (Pittsburgh, Allentown: top neighborhoods, condos, lawyers)

[stburr91]

Originally Posted by pman

everyone is entitled to an opinion, just not the right to force it on others.

I completely agree, but this would also include developers, and the anti-NIMBYS whiners.

[airwave09]

Originally Posted by pman

everyone is entitled to an opinion, just not the right to force it on others. per the article they sound like a bunch of whiners. wah, there will be people. umm, it is in the city, not waterford.

Exactly, if you don't like the traffic situation on your street then petition the city to address that, but don't try and kill or neuter a very important development in Oakland just because you want the neighborhood to be something it is not (a quiet little residential hamlet).

An 8 story building is not tall for Oakland at all, it will not look out of place and the height will not have an effect on the traffic on robinson street. Why would anyone ever drive down Robinson to get to these buildings when they can use I-376, the Blvd, fifth/forbes, ect?

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by airwave09

Why would anyone ever drive down Robinson to get to these buildings when they can use I-376, the Blvd, fifth/forbes, ect?

I think that people would drive down Robinson to get to I-376 via Boulevard of the Allies if it were not illegal to do so and apparently the idea of a new signal that would allow such a turn is being floated in connection with the new building. The alternative paths from the top of the hill are much slower.

[avm316]

To those who don't want to deal with traffic problems in their neighborhood, either petition the city to resolve it or move someplace else.

[pman]

Originally Posted by stburr91

I completely agree, but this would also include developers, and the anti-NIMBYS whiners.

not really, it's their property. the nimby whiners are trying to dictate what can and can't be built on someone else's property so the onus needs tobe no them to have legitimate complaints, which they do not. although common, height is a fairly poor complaint with little real impact. if there really is a traffic problem, bring it up with the city. parking problems are usually addressed via permits but these people don't have some fundamental right to live in an underpopulated part of the city. it's not like they're building a methadone clinic

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by avm316

To those who don't want to deal with traffic problems in their neighborhood, either petition the city to resolve it or move someplace else.

That seems to be exactly what they are doing. Or rather, they have organized to prevent changes that would increase traffic. The status quo is you can get from Robinson to the parkway, but it is illegal. The consultants (are they hired by the developer?) want to make it legal. The residents apparently want a physical barrier. What they are asking for is the status quo, but made enforceable. The only other possibles ways the city could resolve the traffic problem that I can think of would be to make it a one way street going up hill or by forbidding parking on at least one side of the street.

In the long term, I think the neighborhood will flip to student rentals. I suspect owners will find they can make more money renting a house to four or five students than they can by selling to a single family.

[EveKendall]

Originally Posted by jay5835

Right. Just Oakland. Not the four Oaklands you divided the neighborhood into (as well as the two Squirrel Hills, the two Point Breezes, and so forth) in your poll. I think if you'd structured your poll this way, more people would have voted for neighborhoods they recognize, that they've actually lived in and visited, and Fairytown wouldn't have gotten the most votes.

I have lived in what you and the Pittsburgh Blue Sign Squad (AKA the Pgh. BS Squad) call North Oakland, South Oakland and Central Oakland, Squirrel Hill North and Squirrel Hill South, and I just think of those places as -- and call those places -- Oakland and Squirrel Hill.

Hey--I proudly live in South Squirrel Hill and am starting a movement to refer to it as 'SouSq'.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by EveKendall

Hey--I proudly live in South Squirrel Hill and am starting a movement to refer to it as 'SouSq'.

You actually say "South Squirrel Hill" when someone asks where you live?

[LIRefugee]

Originally Posted by jay5835

Oh, that's not what I meant. I was talking about the artificial neighborhood, "West Oakland," the likes of which you used to create your "favorite neighborhood" poll the other day.

Why are you blaming SCR for how the city of Pittsburgh defines its own neighborhoods?

I am constantly amazed at how negatively people react to the mere thought of defining neighborhoods differently than how they themselves would define them. There are far more important things to get indignant about.

It will be interesting to see how the Oakland Portal project plays out given its location.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by LIRefugee

Why are you blaming SCR for how the city of Pittsburgh defines its own neighborhoods?

Nobody else really uses these names, just SCR and the Blue Sign Squad. They sound funny. Artificial. Imposed-upon-us.

But hey, if you want to have four or five different Oaklands, you go right ahead. You and SCR can redesign the entire city map. But good luck getting anyone to go along with your nouvelle nomenclature.

It's as if you rechristened the Upper East Side of New York as "the Upper East 60s," "the Upper East 70s," and "the Upper East 80s," instead of just saying what people have been saying for a hundred-plus years, the Upper East Side.

Sure, you might be technically correct because some city planner says you're right, but if you use those names, a city planner is what you're going to sound like. Or someone who just moved here from Virginia by way of Wilkes-Barre, who, if have read him correctly in the past, would like to sound as if he fits in here.

Now, what is it you think is so much more important for me to get indignant about?