Garfield 2030 Plan (Penn Hills, Monroe, Penn: apartments, renting, lofts)

[ferraris]

It looks like this came out in April, but I didn't see a thread about it here when I did a search.

http://www.bloomfield-garfield.org/pages/documents/GarfieldNeighborhoodPlan.pdf (broken link)

It's quite detailed at 109 pages, but I actually found it quite interesting. My one pet peeve was that it wasn't always clear whether a picture was of Garfield, or of a place Garfield is aspiring to become similar to. Either way, I think that the focus on land use is a more realistic and better way to go about revitalization than large scale investments such as shopping centers or high rise apartments/condos. The part I like best is the green spaces they are planning. The town squares and the park that loops around the neighborhood (small picture of this on page 71) are a great idea.

The goals are lofty, but I think acheivable. For instance, with the deadline 20 years away, they only need to add 15 homeowners a year to reach their homeowner density goal.

[nuwaver88]

This is great news for Garfield, where my dad was born during the Depression. It was predominantly Irish working class at the time. The key to revitalization of inner city neighborhoods like Garfield and Homewood and others that have seen better days is the revitalization, or should I say, revamping of society itself. Until minorities are given better oppurtunities for eduaction and employment, there will always be an element that a neighborhood is not safe. I can hang out at the Quiet Storm on Penn Avenue and sing "Peace, Love, and Understanding" all night. However, I should not be surprised when my Beemer parked on the side street is stolen. That is still an area of many have nots. With better education and oppurtunity, along with better role models, Garfield, along with society itself, will be much better for it. That is reality. Hopefully programs put forth by President Obama can put areas like this in the right direction. That is one of the reasons why I voted for him.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by nuwaver88

This is great news for Garfield, where my dad was born during the Depression. It was predominantly Irish working class at the time. The key to revitalization of inner city neighborhoods like Garfield and Homewood and others that have seen better days is the revitalization, or should I say, revamping of society itself. Until minorities are given better oppurtunities for eduaction and employment, there will always be an element that a neighborhood is not safe. I can hang out at the Quiet Storm on Penn Avenue and sing "Peace, Love, and Understanding" all night. However, I should not be surprised when my Beemer parked on the side street is stolen. That is still an area of many have nots. With better education and oppurtunity, along with better role models, Garfield, along with society itself, will be much better for it. That is reality. Hopefully programs put forth by President Obama can put areas like this in the right direction. That is one of the reasons why I voted for him.

Not to be a nay sayer or anything, but there will always be a have not element in society no matter what anyone ties to do. There will also be trashy people, a criminal element, and those that don't care about aspiring to something great.

[nuwaver88]

Originally Posted by bradjl2009

. There will also be trashy people, a criminal element, and those that don't care about aspiring to something great.

I agree. But we can cut down on the so called "ghetto" areas and improve. Improving the enviroment in which one lives, which Garfield 2030 does, may instill a sense of pride to it's residents. Hopefully, they in turn will take a more pro-active stance towards crime in their neighborhood when they may now be apathetic or even part of the problem either directly or indirectly. I am not suggesting everybody in Garfield is a criminal. I am suggesting that there is skepticism towards the law and authority and society in these neighborhoods because society has let them down. Creating a better quality of life will hopefully lead to people not flying off the handle so easily and ending someone's life early over something stupid.

[Pitts10yrs]

You're maybe improving garfield but you are just pushing the "minorities" east to Penn Hills. Be serious, there is no improvement without a decline some where else. It has nothing to do with opportunities, it has to do with a sub-culture within the minority that is self destructive.

[Pitts10yrs]

Oh yes, I wonder what the plan is for Penn Hills? What is that going to look like in 20 years? Ask the people in Monroeville, the east side.

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by Pitts10yrs

You're maybe improving garfield but you are just pushing the "minorities" east to Penn Hills. Be serious, there is no improvement without a decline some where else. It has nothing to do with opportunities, it has to do with a sub-culture within the minority that is self destructive.

See, I do think that the Garfield 2030 plan does try to address this a little. Making incremental micro-improvements allows the current residents to stay without being forced out or bought out. I think this is a better option than destroying the neighborhood and building high priced condos or apartments (the ridiculously priced Glass Lofts aside), or shopping centers, or even an arena (like what was done with Mellon Arena).

Though it is certainly possible that if a turn-around does start to kick into high gear in Garfield that rents would also increase, forcing some residents to move. But the Garfield 2030 plan also wants to encourage current residents who are renting to become homeowners.

[BrianTH]

As an aside, I am confident we can do a better job educating, employing, enabling entrepreneurship, and generally integrating various "minorities" into our economy. In that sense, I don't believe this has to be a zero-sum game where we just push around the same level of economic distress to different places.

Anyway, I like this vision, particularly the way it incorporates green spaces. I also think this is representative of why we could experience an extended period of significant population growth in the inner portion of the urbanized area without necessarily making housing unaffordable: we still have a lot of excess capacity in neighborhoods like Garfield.

[mckeesport_alum]

Originally Posted by ferrarisnowday

See, I do think that the Garfield 2030 plan does try to address this a little. Making incremental micro-improvements allows the current residents to stay without being forced out or bought out. I think this is a better option than destroying the neighborhood and building high priced condos or apartments (the ridiculously priced Glass Lofts aside), or shopping centers, or even an arena (like what was done with Mellon Arena).

Though it is certainly possible that if a turn-around does start to kick into high gear in Garfield that rents would also increase, forcing some residents to move. But the Garfield 2030 plan also wants to encourage current residents who are renting to become homeowners.

The Glass Lofts pricing does seem crazy until you realize that you can save $10,000 or more per year in taxes (property, city wage, state income). Still, I couldn't justify the asking prices and instead decided to pay through the nose in the SS Flats. If they were priced 20% lower I would have purchased.

[ferraris]

Could you expand on the tax savings? I've heard of the property tax abatement, but never anything involving city or state income taxes.