Brookline: Neighborhood Rebranding (Dormont, Crafton, Clearfield: price, vs, bus)

[Evergrey]

Drove down Brookline Blvd last night to look at my friend's new house. Good lord, that Blvd is a blasted hellscape.

[Aqua Teen Carl]

To reiterate, the construction is not done yet. The full parking lane, greenery, signage, repaving, and lane markers will all be put in place soon.

Also, I'm convinced that if you are into "the architeccttureeee" of Brookline you secretly think Pittsburgh as a whole is ugly. Brookline's aesthetics are Pittsburgh in a nutshell.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

To reiterate, the construction is not done yet. The full parking lane, greenery, signage, repaving, and lane markers will all be put in place soon.

Also, I'm convinced that if you are into "the architeccttureeee" of Brookline you secretly think Pittsburgh as a whole is ugly. Brookline's aesthetics are Pittsburgh in a nutshell.

I'm mixed on the architecture of Brookline. I personally love the residential areas---densely-packed older homes (some with character) on narrow lots, sometimes set up a set of steps from the street, and mostly well-kept. I felt like something was "off", though, about the business district, and it wasn't until Eschaton pointed it out that I now see I agree that I don't like the "height vs. width" differential of having such a very wide street lined with a lot of one-story and two-story buildings. It reminded me a lot of the Google Street View tours I've taken of numerous smaller towns in the Great Plains. Berkshire Avenue, which runs parallel, would have been a much more pleasant site for the business district with its brick surface and narrow width. I think this aesthetic issue could be resolved via a landscaped median with mid-block crosswalk shelters for pedestrians, but I don't think there's any money in the city's budget for any infrastructural improvements that are anything besides utilitarian. Maybe in the future?

[I_Like_Spam]

Brookline Blvd is about equivalent in width to Broadway Ave. in Beechview. Both streets were laid out with the same function in mind, to have a streetcar line running down the middle of them.

Not the only streets out there I think with this functionality in mind. Ardmore Blvd in Wilkinsburg is another

[Goinback2011]

[PghYinzer]

It took over a decade to finally find the funding for the current Blvd reconstruction, that is not even complete yet, so no there is not funds to completely redo it or to add anything more to it.

I don’t know if it is even possible at this point to get back to the original question, but do these purposeful rebranding efforts work in a neighborhood? Has this been done in other areas of the city?

[Goinback2011]

I took the Red line downtown yesterday through Beechview and honestly, I don't see the attractiveness of this part of town at all to posters on this forum. It's clearly a neighborhood in decline, the business district is a sight. It has declined in just a couple years.

Brookline seems very stable in comparison.

[szug-bot]

Originally Posted by Goinback2011

I took the Red line downtown yesterday through Beechview and honestly, I don't see the attractiveness of this part of town at all to posters on this forum. It's clearly a neighborhood in decline, the business district is a sight. It has declined in just a couple years.

Brookline seems very stable in comparison.

i will concede that people here (myself included) tend to exaggerate the attractiveness of places just because they are urban neighborhoods that look cozy. its not a bad thing - many people here are just fans of urban living, beautiful homes, and the like, and perhaps have an idealistic vision (or fantasy) of an organic, historic neighborhood that is liveable and a happy place.

i cant recall beechview being anything but an 'up and coming' place in the threads here. i lived there for a year and gee, my experience was anything but welcoming or kind. except for the people at the local library there.

so im not sure what to make of that place specifically, but yes we do here tend to accentuate the positives of most places.

[steindle]

Brookline's aesthetics are Pittsburgh in a nutshell.

I don't really agree at all. When I think of Pittsburgh architecture, I think of Carson St., E. Ohio, Butler St., Liberty Ave.... Stuff built between 1880 and 1920. I like Brookline a lot, but I don't find it visually representative of the city in the least.

[JimboPGH]

Originally Posted by steindle

I don't really agree at all. When I think of Pittsburgh architecture, I think of Carson St., E. Ohio, Butler St., Liberty Ave.... Stuff built between 1880 and 1920. I like Brookline a lot, but I don't find it visually representative of the city in the least.

Brookline is the quintessential "streetcar suburb" neighborhood. It has the combination of rolling topography and the 'tween the wars architecture that a lot of people (myself included) tend to associate with Pittsburgh (it also has sections that are more post WWII and auto-centric, but that's not really what folks picture when they think of Brookline, so we'll conveniently ignore that).

To me, the rowhouse neighborhoods feel like Pittsburgh doing an impression of South Philly. I like most of those neighborhoods, but a lot them feel like they could be plopped down anywhere in the Mid-Atlantic and not feel out of place.

The counter to that is a lot of the streetcar suburbs could be plopped down just about anywhere in the Ohio Valley and not feel out of place, so I guess it's all just a matter of perspective. Who's to say that Troy Hill, Lawrenceville, and the Southside are more Pittsburgh than Brighton Heights, Greenfield, and Brookline, or vice versa?