What needs to change in the city and region (Pittsburgh: apartment complexes, power lines)

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Goodjules

We need some excellent restaurants here on the West side. I'm in Crafton and don't get me wrong, there are some good restaurants here, but I've yet to find anything that I would rave about. You know the kind of place you tell people that they absolutely have to try.

I think the close proximity to the chain restaurant mecca that is Robinson really hurts the ability for places like Crafton, Ingram, or Carnegie to lure decent restaurants. The population in this region is extremely dense from Downtown through the East End, South Side, and North Side. The North Hills vary in density between Ross/Reserve/Shaler all the way out to Cranberry while the South Hills tend to be denser closer to the city and more sparsely-populated the further out you go. The West End, overall, doesn't have a strong population base to begin with, so it may not seem appealing to prospective restaurateurs to consider competing with the zillions of lower-quality and/or chain restaurants already established there.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by speagles84

I couldn't agree more. The difference on Route 8 when you enter Hampton is night and day. Even more so once you hit Richland Township, although I think since Richland is booming in population, I think that's the main reason for its commercial growth vs good business practices. Penndot is soon to be improving Route 8 to a more suited arterial highway in the coming years, much like they did to McKnight. That could spark health in Shaler, but Shaler also needs to fix its own problems.

Even though the northern part of Route 8 is booming, there's still a greater concentration of population in the southern end and that population has money to spend. The Route 8 portion of Shaler is challenged with having railroad tracks on one side, a creek on the other, and many steep cliffs coming down right next to the highway, but quite a few small strip malls have been built in these small spaces and they are 100% occupied. Shaler needs to step up its game. Hampton is starting to focus on its lower end via tearing down old buildings, but there's still a lot more to be done.

Another thing that would help the economy is if laws required property owners to rent properties to appropriate tenants and within a reasonable time period.

All too often I see great storefront properties that are being inappropriately used as warehouse space or light manufacturing. It causes the storefronts to appear vacant. Business happening almost everywhere, even in the corridors considered dying, but the appearance of vacancy is dragging down and not attracting small independent retail to these areas. Retail businesses need to be grouped together to thrive and not being near neighboring storefronts appearing vacant because the properties are being used inappropriately.

There's also a great percentage of property owners who will leave properties vacant for decades because they have a crazy expectation for rent. We can group in the investors who buy in areas they think are going to boom and leave the property vacant for decades waiting to sell it. There should be laws requiring both types of property owners to occupy those buildings within a realistic time period. If they can't get their dream rent, they will be forced to lower the rent until the property is occupied instead of leaving the property vacant for decades deteriorating.

Both of these problems occur everywhere--in the city neighborhoods and all business districts and corridors in the suburbs.

[SuburbanPioneer]

Originally Posted by Hopes

There should be laws requiring both types of property owners to occupy those buildings within a realistic time period. If they can't get their dream rent, they will be forced to lower the rent until the property is occupied instead of leaving the property vacant for decades deteriorating.

This could be just as damaging to a good neighborhood as Section 8 and lowering home sale prices so that houses get sold quicker.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Hopes

There's also a great percentage of property owners who will leave properties vacant for decades because they have a crazy expectation for rent. We can group in the investors who buy in areas they think are going to boom and leave the property vacant for decades waiting to sell it. There should be laws requiring both types of property owners to occupy those buildings within a realistic time period. If they can't get their dream rent, they will be forced to lower the rent until the property is occupied instead of leaving the property vacant for decades deteriorating.

More broadly speaking, I think we need the following.

1. A method for municipalities to declare properties blighted (unoccupied, externally not to code, etc). If they are declared blighted, property taxes can double or triple until remedial action is taken. This is widely used in some southern states, and cuts down dramatically on blighted properties, since it forces absentee owners to demolish, sell, or restore.

2. Implementation of some version of Baltimore's dollar homes program. That is to say, find some way to have the city take blighted and delinquent properties by imminent domain before they need to be demolished, offer them to homeowners at a very low price, and offer home improvement loans at very low interest rates to the potential occupants. This was a stunning success for Baltimore, and could help keep much of our still deteriorating historic housing intact.

[Sealtite]

Originally Posted by _Buster

I'm sure this has been done before , but please give your ideas about specific changes in government policies, the business community, etc, that would improve the city/region, and promote growth and a healthier economy and local political system. Some who post here think that Pittsburgh as a region is behind its peer cities in many ways - this is the perfect place for them to offer their ideas for improvement.

More zoning enforcement. Maybe not in residential communities so much, but definitely in some of the business districts, especially in some of the outlying areas. A lot of commercial property owners / managers around here seem to let their properties and storefronts go to absolute **** because there either are no checks and balances OR they're not enforced.

One particular business strip that comes to mind would be Rodi Road in Penn Hills. There's an eye doctor's office where a tie-wall retaining wall has been crumbling and falling apart into a couple of parking spots....for years. Private parking lots littered with potholes and / or the asphalt is in such disrepair that it's essentially turned into a sea of rubble. Concrete bumper blocks that have broken apart into two or three chunks and now have jagged, rusty steel reinforcement bars jutting out at ankle height. Parking lines that haven't been repainted since the 80's. Roofs that are missing shingles everywhere. I could go on. It's not just locally owned businesses either, but both local and corporate.

Laws really need to be passed and / or enforced to make some of these commercial property owners maintain their grounds better. Maybe then, some of us would be able to enjoy a Vincent's Pizza in Penn Hills without having to bounce through foot-deep potholes in the entrance of their parking lot in order to patronize their establishment. How much would it cost them to have those repaired? Seriously? They're selling pizzas at $50 a pop.

[Goodjules]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

I think the close proximity to the chain restaurant mecca that is Robinson really hurts the ability for places like Crafton, Ingram, or Carnegie to lure decent restaurants. The population in this region is extremely dense from Downtown through the East End, South Side, and North Side. The North Hills vary in density between Ross/Reserve/Shaler all the way out to Cranberry while the South Hills tend to be denser closer to the city and more sparsely-populated the further out you go. The West End, overall, doesn't have a strong population base to begin with, so it may not seem appealing to prospective restaurateurs to consider competing with the zillions of lower-quality and/or chain restaurants already established there.

I've thought the same thing myself. I'd love just a decent hole in the wall ethnic place or pizza place. There's lots of them here already, but nothing truly spectacular. Most range from meh to terrible. I think people would flock to a great pizza place, Thai place, Mexican… I'm not even considering fine dining. Coal Fired pizza in Robinson is a small chain that's actually quite good, but I'd like something actually in Crafton. There are a ton of pizza places here, but nothing above average. A girl can dream...

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by SuburbanPioneer

This could be just as damaging to a good neighborhood as Section 8 and lowering home sale prices so that houses get sold quicker.

Property values are already dropping in areas with many vacant storefronts. And I said within a reasonable amount of time, meaning reasonable enough time for property owners to have a chance to get the prices they want. The neighborhoods where rent would drop low enough to attract substandard businesses will attract those businesses anyway.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by eschaton

More broadly speaking, I think we need the following.

1. A method for municipalities to declare properties blighted (unoccupied, externally not to code, etc). If they are declared blighted, property taxes can double or triple until remedial action is taken. This is widely used in some southern states, and cuts down dramatically on blighted properties, since it forces absentee owners to demolish, sell, or restore.

2. Implementation of some version of Baltimore's dollar homes program. That is to say, find some way to have the city take blighted and delinquent properties by imminent domain before they need to be demolished, offer them to homeowners at a very low price, and offer home improvement loans at very low interest rates to the potential occupants. This was a stunning success for Baltimore, and could help keep much of our still deteriorating historic housing intact.

I was talking about commercial property, but your idea could probably be applied to that too.

[SuburbanPioneer]

Originally Posted by Hopes

The neighborhoods where rent would drop low enough to attract substandard businesses will attract those businesses anyway.

Can't wait to learn which metrics you think should be used by the law to differentiate neighborhoods.

[wanderlust76]

Originally Posted by Goodjules

We need some excellent restaurants here on the West side. I'm in Crafton and don't get me wrong, there are some good restaurants here, but I've yet to find anything that I would rave about. You know the kind of place you tell people that they absolutely have to try.

That's sort of in the eye of the beholder everyone has some place they rave about but then you go there and you say to yourself, "Geez, this place sucks I don't see what all the hype is about". It's best just to experiment on your own when new to an area. There are some non-chain Italian places that I have been to in my time that were absolutely hideous and overpriced on top of that. I would go to Olive Garden instead in a heartbeat.

There are some decent restaurants in the Robinson area near Crafton you just have to know where they are. There's a place called the Loving Hut, The Inn, a number of Asian restaurants such as Thai Foon, a Vietnamese restaurant that the name of is escaping me at the moment (it's in the plaza by Applebee's), Ditka's, Bocktown...many more worth trying you might like them. I know Crafton very well and it's true there is not much to speak of in the town itself restaurant wise unfortunately.