URA & redevelopment in Hill (Pittsburgh, Aliquippa: low income, apartment, renting)

[PghYinzer]

Is building on empty lots really gentrification or just development?

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by PghYinzer

Is building on empty lots really gentrification or just development?

You need people to be displaced for it to be gentrification. I'm not seeing the displacement here.

I mean, looking back at 2010 figures, there were 967 occupied units of housing in the Middle Hill. Out of that total 428 were homeowner occupied, and thus not really eligible for gentrification. 539 were renter-occupied. However, a fair number of these were likely in "protected housing" units - dedicated mixed-income developments and the like. The proportion has likely grown since 2010 as infill construction spread northward from Crawford Roberts. I wouldn't be surprised if there are less than than 300 units of either Section 8 or plain old market rate rental housing in the entire Middle Hill.

If the URA found developers willing to build out all of the vacant lots in their RFP, there would be way, way more than 300 units of new housing. The developments would likely include some market-rate units as well, but there would be more than enough space to actually increase the number of low-income rental units - even if you presume that every single vacated former home is somehow converted into an expensive home that white folks move into.

[szug-bot]

This will probably be a slight improvement to the City overall, but will not cause a gentrification of that area.

I lived in Uptown and the Hill for 1/3 or my life, and can remember developments proposed, either coming to fruition or not. Those places are hampered by the traffic - there is too much of it for most people's liking. Those places are too inner city. It has nothing to do with blackness, but more with the perception of personal safety, drug activity, and the like.

So as a Pittsburgher, this is, like it would be anywhere, an improvement to the City we love. Any use of commerically zoned space for actual commerce is better than it being idle. But I wouldn't be worried about a tsunami of assessment and housing cost appreciation. Rather, I'd be worried tax money will not be used effectively for sub-par performing businesses.

[bradjl2009]

The Middle Hill really isn't that close to the Strip IMO considering there's the huge hill blocking a straight shoot to it from the neighborhood. If you don't have a car like many in the neighborhood, your options are a 35 minute bus ride involving a transfer, or a 40 minute to an hour long walk.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by bradjl2009

The Middle Hill really isn't that close to the Strip IMO considering there's the huge hill blocking a straight shoot to it from the neighborhood. If you don't have a car like many in the neighborhood, your options are a 35 minute bus ride involving a transfer, or a 40 minute to an hour long walk.

There was an incline which connected 17th Street in the Strip with Ledlie Street in the Hill District which lasted until 1953. It's interesting to consider how the Lower Hill would have been different if the incline had survived.

[Goodjules]

Originally Posted by tyovan4

I think that the Middle Hill is going to take off like a rocket in terms of gentrification.
Awesome access to the Strip, right next door to the soon to be gentrified Uptown, easy access to Downtown, direct access to the South Side, fairly easy access to Lawrenceville...

I agree. It's an excellent location. It's less than a mile from PPG Arena, super close to downtown and an easy trip to the east end. I belong to the YMCA on Centre so I'm there a few times a week and I'm amazed it hasn't happened yet. I can't help but think it's too good a location to stay run down for long. Time will tell, but my money's on a comeback. Maybe not a Lawrenceville level comeback, but I wouldn't rule it out.

[tyovan4]

Originally Posted by bradjl2009

The Middle Hill really isn't that close to the Strip IMO considering there's the huge hill blocking a straight shoot to it from the neighborhood. If you don't have a car like many in the neighborhood, your options are a 35 minute bus ride involving a transfer, or a 40 minute to an hour long walk.

The current population of the Hill isn't qualified to work at the tech jobs that are causing the Strip to boom.
But if the Hill is redeveloped - it'll be quite attractive for the brogrammers working in the Strip.

"isn't that close" - you realize its a 10 minute drive down Webster to Herron, through Polish Hill, and then you're literally in the Strip??

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by tyovan4

The current population of the Hill isn't qualified to work at the tech jobs that are causing the Strip to boom.
But if the Hill is redeveloped - it'll be quite attractive for the brogrammers working in the Strip.

"isn't that close" - you realize its a 10 minute drive down Webster to Herron, through Polish Hill, and then you're literally in the Strip??

He said that most in the Middle Hill don't drive, so, yes, getting to the Strip via two buses would take a while from the Middle Hill.

If the incline was rebuilt down to 17th Street the Middle Hill would boom again instantly.

[norcider]

I don't see the Hill gentrifying ever. It took an art gallery, an Indian restaurant and a coffee shop and proximity to Friendship/Bloomfield to begin the gentrification of Garfield and the Hill is too isolated despite being the keystone of Pittsburgh.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by tyovan4

The current population of the Hill isn't qualified to work at the tech jobs that are causing the Strip to boom.
But if the Hill is redeveloped - it'll be quite attractive for the brogrammers working in the Strip.

"isn't that close" - you realize its a 10 minute drive down Webster to Herron, through Polish Hill, and then you're literally in the Strip??

Considering how much tech employees make, there's plenty of other places within a ten minute drive of the Strip that those people will go to first before they'd ever consider Middle Hill....

Sure it should hopefully start seeing more investment soon, but it's a long way being a place a lot of tech workers would consider living in unless they grew up there....