Why is Suburban Pittsburgh stuck in the '80s? (Wilkinsburg: homes, neighborhoods)

[JD984]

Originally Posted by Kippy

Fairfax, VA is booming with suburban growth, but it still has old and busted strip malls; just take a drive down Route 50, Leesburg Pike, or Columbia Pike.

Some of the strip malls on these roads are old and ugly, but they typically aren't "busted" in the sense of being half-vacant or worse for very long. And, if you look past the aging exteriors, you'd find that some of them house some of the area's best ethnic shops and restaurants.

[user_id]

Just the suburbs? The first thing I thought when I moved to Pittsburgh was...huh? Did just enter some sort of time warp?!

Pittsburgh as a whole seems to be stuck in the past, its both strange and a bit comfortable.

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by JEB77

Some of the strip malls on these roads are old and ugly, but they typically aren't "busted" in the sense of being half-vacant or worse for very long. And, if you look past the aging exteriors, you'd find that some of them house some of the area's best ethnic shops and restaurants.

LOL yeah I was kind of wondering what "busted" strip mall meant. I thought maybe he meant broken windows, graffiti, and other signs of disrepair. Which is also not something you find very often in Fairfax. We still have lots of new stores and other businesses opening up on a regular basis, so that tends to keep buildings repaired and repainted.

[Craziaskowboi]

Originally Posted by Caladium

LOL yeah I was kind of wondering what "busted" strip mall meant.

In Pittsburgh, "busted" means it was built between 1960 and 1990 and hasn't been given a facelift.

[lifepgh2op]

Originally Posted by jimmyev

Did Pittsburgh's suburbs skip the 1990s and 2000s or what?

I kinda know what you mean. I think a lot of Pittsburgh's "suburbs" were starting to get an influx in population during these times and that's when a lot of these shopping plazas and things were built. Some of these areas don't have the extra land to just build new things, so they stick with what they have. As others stated, some of the areas you mentioned are continuing to grow and newness is being built all over their municipalities.

The other day I was driving on Steubenville Pike in Robinson Township and noticed the difference quickly. When you're on 60 and traveling toward 79, as you go past the fast food restaurants, you'll notice that all the little shopping plazas around there look older and have an 80's feel to them. Not all of Robinson is like that, obviously. Pittsburgh and the metro area, is just an old area in general...life started long ago here. There is plenty of new construction to go along with it.

[Kippy]

Originally Posted by JEB77

Some of the strip malls on these roads are old and ugly, but they typically aren't "busted" in the sense of being half-vacant or worse for very long. And, if you look past the aging exteriors, you'd find that some of them house some of the area's best ethnic shops and restaurants.

I apologize for my choice of words, I simply meant less pleasing to the eye than the newer shopping centers. I never had a problem with it there, nor do I have a problem with it here. Unlike the OP, I don't have a problem with a building from the '80s looking like it was built in the '80s, as long as it is well maintained. Are buildings supposed to have a thirty year life span? Does every old shopping center need to be torn down and replaced to meet the current fashion? I think that suggestion is silly.

[nuwaver88]

I could drive down any token older highway surrounding any token older city and ask the same thing. This is selective assuming and genaralizing at it's best. Remember, when these post World War II suburbs were being built, Sun Belt cities like Phoenix and Atlanta were still pretty much cow towns. Their boom came later. To assume that Pittsburgh has no subdivisions from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and today is ..not correct.
We just a can't raze a subdivision once it meets the fifty year mark.

[mike02]

Originally Posted by jimmyev

I've been driving US 30 a lot, between the Parkway and out past Ligonier. Last month it was US 22 from the Parkway to out past New Alexandria. Suburb after suburb - North Versailles, North Huntingdon, Irwin, Hempfield, Unity, Monroeville, Murrysville - look like ghetto suburbs built before the 1990s elsewhere in the country. No sidewalks, ugly half-vacant strip centers, cratered weed-strewn asphalt parking lots, overhead power lines, and broken signs. A few of the houses look like they were built 1990-2010, even a few of the strip centers do, but the vast majority of the commercial area is a nasty, ugly flashback. Did Pittsburgh's suburbs skip the 1990s and 2000s or what?

How do you define a suburb that is 1990s-2000s? I believe the trend of the 80s is still going on today -- bigger houses in upscale developments, big shopping centers, strip malls, and everything else that goes with suburban sprawl. Hempfield Township along Rt. 30 has many aspects of suburban sprawl, but if you actually drive into downtown Greensburg you'll see sidewalks, tree-lined streets, and older buildings that have been restored. It's the type of community that has that 1950's character but ACTUALLY has been restored to today's standards without changing the style or "character." Many communities outside of here are either a.) taken-over by those "ugly strip malls" aka suburban sprawl or b.) literally stuck in the 1950s (potholes, terrible infrastructure, homes and buildings falling apart, etc. BUT, there are also many places like Greensburg that have avoided both extremes.

[jimmyev]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

So you drove one road and want to ask, "Did Pittsburgh's suburbs skip the...?"

As much as I wouldn't like to respond to such a question since you obviously like to generalize with a tiny amount of information, the answer to your question is, no. You just happened to be in an area that isn't a very good commute to Pittsburgh and it probably won't ever do all that well. Take a ride down towards the airport or up 279N area, then you will be at least a little more armed with SOME knowledge, instead of posting something as ignorant as you did.

Two roads, US 30 and US 22. And yesterday I did something I haven't done in a long time because of the existence of I-79; I drove US 19 back from Harlansburg through Cranberry. I stand corrected. Cranberry at least looks like it's from this decade. But then you hit Wexford and then Ross Township.

Originally Posted by Kippy

I apologize for my choice of words, I simply meant less pleasing to the eye than the newer shopping centers. I never had a problem with it there, nor do I have a problem with it here. Unlike the OP, I don't have a problem with a building from the '80s looking like it was built in the '80s, as long as it is well maintained. Are buildings supposed to have a thirty year life span? Does every old shopping center need to be torn down and replaced to meet the current fashion? I think that suggestion is silly.

Of course not. But having some tenants, maybe paving the parking lot, adding some landscaping, cutting the grass, a little remodeling, burying the power lines, and putting in sidewalks could be done. Maintenance does wonders for attracting new residents.

The central business districts of Jeanette and Greensburg are much much nicer than the horridly ugly, ghetto sprawl of US 30. But in that strange Pittsburgh way, the architecturally beautiful, walkable CBDs - especially of Jeanette - are empty.

[raubre]

Aside from strip malls, we are stuck in a time warp. Pittsburgh still has mullets and for the most part don't have a clue of what's hip in music or the arts. Politics are so dated as well. (Except for the East End and South Side pockets of the city)