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Pittsburgh City Council will be holding a public hearing on Wednesday for community members and activists to address their concerns on what they’re calling a “mass displacement” of the city’s Black population.
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“We know first of all 7,000 African-Americans leaving in a four-year period is close to 9% of the [Black] population,” said Randall Taylor, a member of the Penn Plaza Support and Action Coalition. “We think these people have left, most likely because they could no longer afford to live in the city.”
That figure is for the period 2014-2018. I can't imagine that things improved in 2019 or 2020.
Things like this are why I simply can't respect the limousine liberals of the East End.. local leaders decided to go full-steam ahead on the gentrification express by their blind embrace of the tech industry. Pittsburgh chose to prioritize luring tech bros to move here from the coasts instead of trying to build opportunity for the native population.. once BLM became trendy, the same limousine liberals embraced it (until the movement showed up on their doorstep in Point Breeze) - while being blind or amnesiac about their own hypocrisy... the percentage of the population that was displaced in such a short period of time is absolutely shocking for me.
That figure is for the period 2014-2018. I can't imagine that things improved in 2019 or 2020.
Things like this are why I simply can't respect the limousine liberals of the East End.. local leaders decided to go full-steam ahead on the gentrification express by their blind embrace of the tech industry. Pittsburgh chose to prioritize luring tech bros to move here from the coasts instead of trying to build opportunity for the native population.. once BLM became trendy, the same limousine liberals embraced it (until the movement showed up on their doorstep in Point Breeze) - while being blind or amnesiac about their own hypocrisy... the percentage of the population that was displaced in such a short period of time is absolutely shocking for me.
These people contradict themselves at every turn. It's what they do. Nevertheless, I don't see the point of this hearing. Probably 90% of the people I grew up with in the old Lawrenceville and Bloomfield have been displaced. So what?
That figure is for the period 2014-2018. I can't imagine that things improved in 2019 or 2020.
Things like this are why I simply can't respect the limousine liberals of the East End.. local leaders decided to go full-steam ahead on the gentrification express by their blind embrace of the tech industry. Pittsburgh chose to prioritize luring tech bros to move here from the coasts instead of trying to build opportunity for the native population.. once BLM became trendy, the same limousine liberals embraced it (until the movement showed up on their doorstep in Point Breeze) - while being blind or amnesiac about their own hypocrisy... the percentage of the population that was displaced in such a short period of time is absolutely shocking for me.
Bingo. I know PA outperformed it’s census estimates by 200K or so, but it is hard to imagine those numbers being better than terrible for the city and this part of the state. I expect the growth from Philly, Harrisburg region and poconos to offset the steep declines everywhere else.
I was reading and posting on the PA general forum where they were talking about population. Pennsylvania had a net outmigration of residents to Delaware, West Virginia and Ohio. I’m willing to bet the outmigration from Residents to WV and Ohio were from this side of the state. Likely to Columbus for opportunities. And I’m still curious about WV maybe the northern panhandle? Or Morgantown? Got the PA residents.
It was posted by the stats guru crazykowboi. Although they didn’t provide exact links.
Regardless Pittsburgh has and always will have a problem with this. I don’t think they are serious about making this a place for everyone. They care about one small group of people that is important but really insignificant in the big picture. If they worked to make it a great place for everyone we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Until they start to talk about jobs this is just all talk and they aren’t serious.
Btw, I wanted to share a quick story about a friend of mine that also lived in Lawrenceville. She sold her place and moved to canonsburg area. She landed a higher paying job in the health insurance industry with a company hq in downtown wheeling. She didn’t want to move to WV but is making the commute from canonsburg and to downtown wheeling, leaving her job that paid lower wages in Pittsburgh. That’s the problem right there. If a company is paying higher wages for the same work in Wheeling as opposed to Pittsburgh that is a huge problem.
These people contradict themselves at every turn. It's what they do. Nevertheless, I don't see the point of this hearing. Probably 90% of the people I grew up with in the old Lawrenceville and Bloomfield have been displaced. So what?
I’m sure this is calculated. We have heard how great Pittsburgh was the last decade. Census numbers are probably pretty bad and the powers that be were given a heads up that it won’t be pretty when they are released. Because why wait till now? It doesn’t make sense. It’s almost show time for the new census numbers and Pittsburgh is probably going to be number 1 in the country for losing black residents. It will likely be national news. This is to get out ahead of it. Watch and see.
I’m sure this is calculated. We have heard how great Pittsburgh was the last decade. Census numbers are probably pretty bad and the powers that be were given a heads up that it won’t be pretty when they are released. Because why wait till now? It doesn’t make sense. It’s almost show time for the new census numbers and Pittsburgh is probably going to be number 1 in the country for losing black residents. It will likely be national news. This is to get out ahead of it. Watch and see.
Maybe. But who else has room to talk? Even long-time "black cities" like Atlanta and Washington, D.C. have lost a lot of black population. It's an end-product of gentrification.
I’m sure this is calculated. We have heard how great Pittsburgh was the last decade. Census numbers are probably pretty bad and the powers that be were given a heads up that it won’t be pretty when they are released. Because why wait till now? It doesn’t make sense. It’s almost show time for the new census numbers and Pittsburgh is probably going to be number 1 in the country for losing black residents. It will likely be national news. This is to get out ahead of it. Watch and see.
no, not calculated. its just trends. everything tends to go to an equilibrium. if they were PRICED out, wouldnt it be logical there were non-black residents priced out as well?
i have been following home sales - in the near surburbs, there are incredible deals - homes under 170k, many in the 140-160 range. could it be that, unlike the accepted stereotype, there actually ARE black pittsburgh people who have obtained a position of being a home buyer in a perhaps quieter, safer, more family-friendly neighborhood?
the answer to both - is YES.
now why council has to spend time to examine this....THAT is the question. but then its been proven that beyond their job description, they are clueless and even useless, with little understanding of the real world.
do they consider problems specific groups of non-black residents deal with? like drugs in Spring Hill, speeding/drunk driving in Brighton Heights, etc.?
Black flight in Pittsburgh is a real issue, and it absolutely accelerated this decade. If the city ends up losing population in the 2020 census, it will be entirely attributable to the black population decline (the white population will either have grown, or shrunk by such a minor amount that the Asian/Other population growth cancels it out).
I think it's important to note however that there are two different elements here which are contributing to black flight. One of them of course is gentrification, but that's really limited to a handful of neighborhoods with a historically high black population (Central North Side, Manchester, East Liberty, maybe Garfield). It might be felt a bit more broadly because of the appreciation of rental prices across the entire city, but still, it's a more minor component.
The stronger element though by far is just that black Pittsburgh continues to be hollowed out. There's scattered infill happening in places catering to low-income residents (some in the Hill District, some in East Liberty, some in Homewood) but it's not enough to balance out the steady trickle of people looking for safer digs somewhere like Penn Hills or Monroeville - or the old people who die and have their homes condemned due to decades of neglect. And even when new projects are built, they're almost always at lower densities than what was there before.
One way to think about it is that Pittsburgh managed to attract a "new kind of white person" to make up for the native-born whites who just kept on leaving (children of suburbanites and people from outside the region). In contrast, there was no "new sort of black person" who was attracted. Which really isn't that surprising, as the equivalent in the black community move mainly to Atlanta and DC, not rust belt metros.
Maybe. But who else has room to talk? Even long-time "black cities" like Atlanta and Washington, D.C. have lost a lot of black population. It's an end-product of gentrification.
Quote:
Originally Posted by szug-bot
no, not calculated. its just trends. everything tends to go to an equilibrium. if they were PRICED out, wouldnt it be logical there were non-black residents priced out as well?
i have been following home sales - in the near surburbs, there are incredible deals - homes under 170k, many in the 140-160 range. could it be that, unlike the accepted stereotype, there actually ARE black pittsburgh people who have obtained a position of being a home buyer in a perhaps quieter, safer, more family-friendly neighborhood?
the answer to both - is YES.
now why council has to spend time to examine this....THAT is the question. but then its been proven that beyond their job description, they are clueless and even useless, with little understanding of the real world.
do they consider problems specific groups of non-black residents deal with? like drugs in Spring Hill, speeding/drunk driving in Brighton Heights, etc.?
But then why are they being priced out? It’s no big secret this is a bad city for opportunities if you are a black person and has been. Even over the last decade there were articles being written about it. Nobody is disagreeing that there are trends everywhere of people being priced out.
So why wait till now to acknowledge it? Why hold meetings about it now? The census numbers are likely going to show a steep decline and it’s gonna be a huge percentage of black residents. They could’ve tried to right the ship or help out long before. They were given a heads up it’s gonna be bad and this is nothing more than more lip service to try and get ahead of the numbers to save face and make it seem like they are doing something.
Watch and see. If they really cared about this, things would’ve been put in motion long ago. It’s lip service to try and save face. Bad press is on the horizon and it’s likely going to be about black residents leaving Pittsburgh in droves not revitalization of Lawrenceville and east liberty.
This is a really interesting thread (especially as my multiracial family and I are moving to Pittsburgh this summer). I have done a fair amount of research in the past on Black suburbanization trends in cities like Wash DC (but not for Pittsburgh), and one factor fueling the move out of some cities has been families in search of lower home prices in the burbs.
From at least two of the comments on this thread, it seems as though some of the displacement in Pittsburgh can also be attributed to a move to the suburbs? If so, has it been mostly places like Monroeville and Penn Hills- or do folks think the Black/Brown trend (if it exists in Pittsburgh) has extended to "blue ribbon" school areas like Fox Chapel and North Allegheny?
This is a really interesting thread (especially as my multiracial family and I are moving to Pittsburgh this summer). I have done a fair amount of research in the past on Black suburbanization trends in cities like Wash DC (but not for Pittsburgh), and one factor fueling the move out of some cities has been families in search of lower home prices in the burbs.
From at least two of the comments on this thread, it seems as though some of the displacement in Pittsburgh can also be attributed to a move to the suburbs? If so, has it been mostly places like Monroeville and Penn Hills- or do folks think the Black/Brown trend (if it exists in Pittsburgh) has extended to "blue ribbon" school areas like Fox Chapel and North Allegheny?
There's basically two different black "suburban" flows out of Pittsburgh right now. The middle-class one goes east through Penn Hills, some of the municipalities in Woodland Hills SD (Churchill, Wilkins township) and then out to Monroeville. Although it is still very small, there also is a growing black population in the next suburb out (Plum) as well).
The second migration is more of poor black folks, and it's concentrated along the Monongahela (Mon) and Turtle Creek valleys. These places are dirt cheap, have plentiful rentals, and access to transit (including transit into downtown).
There is not much black suburbanization to speak of into the North Hills. There's a little bit into some of the first-ring suburbs just north of Pittsburgh, like Bellvue, Avalon, and Sharpsburg, but most people would not call those suburbs.
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