Developers build in East Liberty while Pittsburgh employment stagnates (Beaver: sale, mortgage)

[CFP]

Originally Posted by jay5835

What is that, a fake wall? Or did they tear Peabody down?

they covered it up

how it was built:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HxULcreCGl...igh+School.jpg

how it looks now:
http://www.freewebs.com/geneius/jsw_pbpeabody.jpg

[WhoIsStanwix?]

Originally Posted by CFP

they covered it up

how it was built:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HxULcreCGl...igh+School.jpg

how it looks now:
http://www.freewebs.com/geneius/jsw_pbpeabody.jpg

Wow, they definitely need to get rid of those bricks and restore the facade. I wonder how much money that would take.

[WhoIsStanwix?]

Originally Posted by CFP

change the zoning rules and force big-box stores like target and home depot to close
so that small family owned hardware, clothing, stationary stores, etc. can reemerge
where the profits don't instantly flow back to wall street but are kept within the neighborhood

The problem is, small business don't have the capital to make structural improvements on the scale that larger retailers do. The triangle created by Whole Foods, Home Depot, and Target have brought more people to the neighborhood than any number of small, local retailers could. The infill is what needs to be made of local shops, redeveloped housing, and retailers.

Originally Posted by CFP

bring the shadow lounge back and make restitution by providing free rental space for 10 years

I'm all for a comeback of the Shadow Lounge, but free rent for 10 years? The owners of the building aren't running a charity. I get that there is controversy over their "eviction" or however you want to classify it, but this is a bit ridiculous.

Originally Posted by CFP

make the newly renamed station and euclid streets two way like they were originally intended

This definitely needs to happen. I also think bike lanes are needed here, given the width of the streets. It is a bit of a cycling dead zone within the former Penn Circle, depending on where you are trying to go.

I will add that the corner of Euclid and Station, that barren wasteland of a parking lot that houses the Farmers Market weekly, would be a good area for some local retail and/or specialty shops at some point. Heck, a mini-version of what they're trying to do with the produce terminal would be cool. A building that is erected to house mini/modular spaces for locally focused retail to compete with the big box developments all around.

Originally Posted by CFP

order the ace hotel developers to either start construction now or remove the fence blocking the sidewalk

instruct the ace hotel developers that they will be fined $1000 per day starting now
if the historic ymca building is not adequately protected from the elements

I'm not sure you can order a private company to do something like this, although removing the fencing, if they are on indefinite delay, would make sense. I don't know if it is all the negativity surrounding your posts on ACE, or the fact that the founder died, but I am beginning to become a bit skeptical about this specific development.

[selltheburgh]

Originally Posted by Moby Hick

Those "yuppies apartments*" as you call them are very under-supplied in town. It will take an income of something like $40,000 to afford them. I'm sure some of them are going to rented by out of town parents of students, but some will be rented by people making more. If there are 1,000 of them, that's probably close to $1,000,000 in wage taxes for the city, plus wage taxes for the school, plus several pieces of property that were paying no property taxes are now (or will be in a few years if there was an abatement) kicking in a great deal of tax dollars.

* I think really those apartments are the middle class, junior division. They are younger so they have disposable income instead of families.

I agree they are important, but I also think that a push of new construction needs to happen.

[theta_sigma]

The city can't even seem to be able to order the guy who owns the vacant house next door to me to shut the windows that have been open for literally the entire 7 years we've lived here, so I have my doubts about their ability to tell Ace to speed up re-hanging their windows.

[selltheburgh]

Originally Posted by WhoIsStanwix?

What do you see as the roadblocks that the city and URA need to remove to make this happen? Is it just zoning? Do they need to offer tax abatement? Do they actually own the land and aren't willing to sell/asking too much?

URA, city of Pgh, Parking Authority, ELDI etc owns most of the vacant property in 15206 zip code. Some is used as long term parking, some is just vacant and others are vacant buildings.

URA has liens on a lot of these properties that exceed the value.

URA has funds to finance building. City of Pgh has the ability to offer tax breaks. ELDI has a lot of land but minimal capital or manpower to get things done as fast as they'd like to. Parking Authority cares mostly about profits.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by CFP

they covered it up

how it was built:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HxULcreCGl...igh+School.jpg

how it looks now:
http://www.freewebs.com/geneius/jsw_pbpeabody.jpg

Brutally ugly. It was such a beautiful school--or is such a beautiful school underneath that layer of horribility.

[selltheburgh]

Originally Posted by WhoIsStanwix?

The problem is, small business don't have the capital to make structural improvements on the scale that larger retailers do. The triangle created by Whole Foods, Home Depot, and Target have brought more people to the neighborhood than any number of small, local retailers could. The infill is what needs to be made of local shops, redeveloped housing, and retailers.

That was the whole plan. Big retailers on the perimeter and smaller businesses on the inner core.

Whole foods competes with Giant Eagle. Home Depot competes with Lowes. Target competes with Walmart. Hard to get past all of that. I remember a year before Target opened, I would see people getting off of the bus in East Liberty carrying Target bags - likely coming from the waterfront.

Originally Posted by WhoIsStanwix?

I'm all for a comeback of the Shadow Lounge, but free rent for 10 years? The owners of the building aren't running a charity. I get that there is controversy over their "eviction" or however you want to classify it, but this is a bit ridiculous.

Totally ridiculous.

Plus this:
smikileaks.tumblr.com/ - from the other partner at Shadow.

Originally Posted by WhoIsStanwix?

This definitely needs to happen. I also think bike lanes are needed here, given the width of the streets. It is a bit of a cycling dead zone within the former Penn Circle, depending on where you are trying to go.

This will happen from what I've heard. N Euclid is also the connector across East Liberty Blvd into Northern East Liberty and Highland Park for bikes. 5-6 pm on a non blizzard day there are tons of bikes that go up and down N Euclid.

Originally Posted by WhoIsStanwix?

I will add that the corner of Euclid and Station, that barren wasteland of a parking lot that houses the Farmers Market weekly, would be a good area for some local retail and/or specialty shops at some point. Heck, a mini-version of what they're trying to do with the produce terminal would be cool. A building that is erected to house mini/modular spaces for locally focused retail to compete with the big box developments all around.

This is the worst part of the entire neighborhood. Good Year, Advanced Auto Parts, Midas, plus a bunch of lots and the vacant Detective Building. That area - or closer to Home Depot is basically dead center of the neighborhood. The 1960s-1990s surely set that area back.

Your idea is very similar to what I thought of. A public market type thing or a weekly flea market like they have in Brooklyn. I'm pretty sure that there will be something that is multi stories and significant there in the next decade. I'm hoping I can be a part of it in some way or another.

Originally Posted by WhoIsStanwix?

I'm not sure you can order a private company to do something like this, although removing the fencing, if they are on indefinite delay, would make sense. I don't know if it is all the negativity surrounding your posts on ACE, or the fact that the founder died, but I am beginning to become a bit skeptical about this specific development.

Daily fines would never happen unless the city funded the whole project. I know inside info on why they are delayed. It isn't canceled or put off indefinitely. They still think late Spring 2015 will be opening day.



Regarding Obama - they added windows last month but it'll never be the same building as it was. People who are now in their 60's-80's really made terrible decisions that are hard to reverse.

[CFP]

Originally Posted by WhoIsStanwix?

The problem is, small business don't have the capital to make structural improvements on the scale that larger retailers do. The triangle created by Whole Foods, Home Depot, and Target have brought more people to the neighborhood than any number of small, local retailers could. The infill is what needs to be made of local shops, redeveloped housing, and retailers.

all those store did was develop the lots they bought - they're not repaving streets or installing new street lights

obviously the big boxes are there to stay, but the business district was originally developed and built by local family owned businesses like mansmann's, may-stern, hahn's, and many, many others

the sears was the first big box in east liberty and in a way that was sort of the beginning of the end

[CFP]

Originally Posted by selltheburgh

They still think late Spring 2015 will be opening day.

will the rates be higher for a room with glass windows?