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It has been a while since I've spent significant time in Wilkinsburg. From all the negativity towards the area on this website, I assumed it went way down hill. Wilkinsburg wasn't the greatest for as long as I can remember so that's saying something.
When I was driving through today, I was impressed with how vibrant it is. It was packed with people walking everywhere. There was incredible traffic. I noticed there were lots of businesses -- an Asian market, a very large low priced women's clothing store. I passed the East End Coop and decided to visit Construction Junction. Afterwards, I decided to drive around some more. Even the warehouses had interesting businesses.
City Data isn't giving Wilkinsburg credit. It's way more vibrant than Garfield. Let's use this thread to share the great things Wilkinsburg has going for it. Please share any interesting restaurants, small businesses, community events, etc.
It has been a while since I've spent significant time in Wilkinsburg. From all the negativity towards the area on this website, I assumed it went way down hill. Wilkinsburg wasn't the greatest for as long as I can remember so that's saying something.
When I was driving through today, I was impressed with how vibrant it is. It was packed with people walking everywhere. There was incredible traffic. I noticed there were lots of businesses -- an Asian market, a very large low priced women's clothing store. I passed the East End Coop and decided to visit Construction Junction. Afterwards, I decided to drive around some more. Even the warehouses had interesting businesses.
City Data isn't giving Wilkinsburg credit. It's way more vibrant than Garfield. Let's use this thread to share the great things Wilkinsburg has going for it. Please share any interesting restaurants, small businesses, community events, etc.
Wilkinsburg = skid row
Sure it is vibrant with prostitution, poverty, dope dealers, beggars, meth tweakers, squatters and enough crime to make an hour long episode of COPS.
Sure it is vibrant with prostitution, poverty, dope dealers, beggars, meth tweakers, squatters and enough crime to make an hour long episode of COPS.
There are dumpier places than Wilkinsburg in the Pittsburgh area.
Besides, Wilkinsburg is a very large area, to label it all as a dump is sort of unfair.
They are. They're in Point Breeze North. So is the Walgreen's, and I'm pretty sure also Peppi's Subs.
With that being said I also agree Wilkinsburg doesn't get talked about often enough on this sub-forum. BrianTH, squarian, and a few other former regulars lived in Wilkinsburg, but since they left it's sort of fallen by the wayside (just like how nobody would ever talk about Polish Hill if it wasn't for me).
One thing that I noticed that DC had that Pittsburgh lacks is a visible upper-middle-class African-American-dominated neighborhood with its own business district. It seems like most middle-class or upper-middle-class African-Americans in Pittsburgh have interspersed themselves amongst whites in Stanton Heights, Manchester, Highland Park, Sugar Top, and other neighborhoods that generally lack business districts. That's perfectly fine in theory, but it would be nice to have a vibrant business district that catered to and paid homage to the history of African-American culture. East Liberty is sort of like the unfortunate "downtown for the ghetto sub-culture" with a lot of weave shops, payday loan places, smoke shops, pawn shops, divey joints, rent-to-own places, and other low-class businesses littering Penn Avenue inside of Penn Circle. Instead of emerging as a viable upper-middle-class business district catering to African-Americans I foresee East Liberty continuing to evolve as an extension of Shadyside's boring white trustafarian atmosphere in the coming years---vegan fair-trade fro-yo, vegan fair-trade yoga, vegan fair-trade poodle psychotherapy, vegan fair-trade cupcakes, vegan fair-trade oxygen bars, vegan fair-trade male laser hair removal, vegan fair-trade drum circle sessions, vegan fair-trade half-skim no-whip double-shot of espresso frozen lattes, etc.
This leaves Wilkinsburg as the last bastion of hope that there CAN be a visible middle-class to upper-middle-class business district for African-Americans---a place with some great soul food restaurants, rib places, chili restaurants, upscale attire for classy black women (no, not Rainbow), a relocated August Wilson Center (on a more fiscally-prudent scale), cultural venues, etc. Obviously I don't want things to be "segregated" in our city, but just about every white person I know thinks of "ghetto" when they think of majority-black neighborhoods or suburbs in our region---Homewood, Hill District, Larimer, Lincoln-Lemington, East Hills, Homestead, Duquesne, California-Kirkbride, Knoxville, etc., and that's embarrassing for our local African-American community. Wilkinsburg is sort of 50/50 right now. It's not really thought of as being "ghetto" OR "nice". I want Pittsburgh to have something that's the equivalent of Shaw in DC, including the U Street Nightlife Corridor, murals, Ben's Chili Bowl, and Howard University. If we do have that (and perhaps someone like wpipkins2 can point it out for me), then I have no idea where it is, and that in and of itself is a problem in terms of neighborhood branding and reimaging. Since moving here in 2010 I just get the impression that Pittsburgh has a very large black underclass that is very visible and a disproportionately small black upper-middle-class (that may just be largely less visible). I feel like Penn Avenue through Wilkinsburg could be just like the U Street Corridor in Shaw (minus the infusion of culture from Howard University, of course). I'm white, and when I lived in DC (okay, NooooooooVA) I loved going out with a mixture of white and black friends to Shaw. Why don't we have something comparable here?
Sure it is vibrant with prostitution, poverty, dope dealers, beggars, meth tweakers, squatters and enough crime to make an hour long episode of COPS.
I completely disagree. I have patronized businesses in Downtown Wilkinsburg before, and I'll continue to do so.
For purposes of brevity I want Penn Avenue in Wilkinsburg to become Pittsburgh's answer to the U Street Corridor in DC's Shaw neighborhood---a vibrant epicenter highlighting African-American culture and history while also bringing in great restaurants and nightlife. Why don't we have anything like this here? Do we just have too large of a black underclass relative to the black upper-middle-class that inhabits the Shaw/Columbia Heights areas in DC? Imagine walking from a lecture at a relocated (and right-sized) August Wilson Center to Ben's Chili Bowl to a wine bar playing blues music to dancing at a club as you pass by a mural of Peggy Lee---all within the same block in Wilkinsburg. It doesn't have to become like Penn Avenue in East Liberty---pretty much total garbage outside of Zeke's Coffee House.
I want Pittsburgh to have something that's the equivalent of Shaw in DC, including the U Street Nightlife Corridor, murals, Ben's Chili Bowl, and Howard University. If we do have that (and perhaps someone like wpipkins2 can point it out for me), then I have no idea where it is, and that in and of itself is a problem in terms of neighborhood branding and reimaging. Since moving here in 2010 I just get the impression that Pittsburgh has a very large black underclass that is very visible and a disproportionately small black upper-middle-class (that may just be largely less visible). I feel like Penn Avenue through Wilkinsburg could be just like the U Street Corridor in Shaw (minus the infusion of culture from Howard University, of course). I'm white, and when I lived in DC (okay, NooooooooVA) I loved going out with a mixture of white and black friends to Shaw. Why don't we have something comparable here?
You realize Shaw and U Street have been mostly white for well over a decade now, don't you? And that if I wanted to stock up on some of that fro-yo logorrhea that leaks out of you on a now-daily basis, Shaw and U Street would be ground zero in downtown DC. Read it and leak:
1. Faithfully Sweet
Shaw 801 Mt. Vernon Pl NW
Washington, DC 20011 Phone number (202) 643-9309
...to see ice cream frozen with liquid nitrogen right in front of you. • i've sampled the cookies and cream, butter pecan (by far, my favorite... • Faith herself is also very friendly and…
U Street Corridor 1939 12th St NW
Washington, DC 20009 Phone number (202) 289-7588
I have been to many fro yo places, but Menchie's is the best by far. • Their pumpkin and graham cracker flavors are to die for. • ...filled us in on how the color changing spoons are…
U Street Corridor 1301 U St NW
Washington, DC 20009 Phone number (202) 299-0020
The red velvet mango sherbert are pretty good. • ...and with incredible flavors like Carrot Cake and Banana Pudding you... • ...U Street - as another reviewer mentioned, this replaced…
U Street Corridor 1017 U St NW
Washington, DC 20001 Phone number (202) 509-1553
Fro Yo is Fro Yo but the staff her is extremely friendly. • There are also a gazillion toppings; including fancy fruits like... • Mango yogurt was really good and friendly service.
U Street Corridor 1017 U St NW
Washington, DC 20002 Phone number (202) 232-4459
They have some very good tasting low calorie options. Even when I went at late night, the toppings were still fresh and there were a lot of choices. Also, one of the staff members who works…
Lets talk Wilkinsburg. You sound like you visited Penn Ave/the besiness district, and this is the first time you visted it in a long time? If you want to drive around Wilkinsburg and see a solid East End neighborhood go to Greater Park Place/Whitney Park; wanna see a currently gentrifying neighborhood drive around Kelly West/Pebbles Square or Hammett Place. If you wanna see Wilkinsburg that looks like Penn Hills go to Blackridge or Laketon/Beacon Hills/Upper Penn.
BUT if you want to see the one of Pittsburgh's worst ghettos drive around Frankin, Upper Central, Hunter Park, etc.
I've lived in Upper Lincoln in Lincoln-Lemington, southern Beltzhoover, and Hunter Park/Park Triangle Wilkinsburg, and still frequent these areas... I can tell you personally that Wilkinsburg's bad areas are (& will always be/have been since 1992) third worst non project area in the county only to a large part of Homewood and the [shrinking] core of the Hill District.
Gangs, murders, crime, drugs, riff-raff, blight, urban decay, bad schools, bad police-community relations, long story short a lot if things need to be fixed besides the taxes. The majority of residents in Central Wilkinsburg are hard working, law abiding, low income African American people. That being said I'm convinced Wilkinsburg has more gang members on the streets than any neighborhood in the county even though many are in jail.
Last edited by Uptown kid; 03-31-2014 at 09:53 PM..
You realize Shaw and U Street have been mostly white for well over a decade now, don't you? And that if I wanted to stock up on some of that fro-yo logorrhea that leaks out of you on a now-daily basis, Shaw and U Street would be fro-yo ground zero in downtown DC. Read it and leak: Ice Cream & Frozen Yogurt Washington, DC 20005[Shaw,U_Street_Corridor]
Pretty much all of NW is "majority-white" these days, Jay, including Shaw and Columbia Heights. A lot of whites are also now moving into NE DC and, yes, even SE DC, where yuppies are buying condos in Anacostia while the black underclass in SE DC is fleeing to Prince George's County, MD. The District, in terms of percentages, anyways, is one of the nation's fastest-growing cities right now, and due to the silly height restriction (to protect the "view" of the Washington Monument for NoVA residents) every little bit of available land is going to have to be developed to its fullest potential in the coming years. This doesn't mean DC has disavowed its African-American heritage or roots, even if there's now a Starbucks, fro-yo place, and yoga studio within walking distance of the Ben's Chili Bowl on U Street. I was in Shaw as recently as 2010 and felt like it was a great neighborhood that paid homage to the African-American community through murals, learning opportunities, and businesses run by African-Americans. I want to see that in Pittsburgh and am dismayed we don't have anything like that here. When I think of African-American heritage or culture in Pittsburgh I think of Homewood, East Liberty, or the Hill District, none of which are very flattering, to say the least.
I stand corrected about the East End Coop and Construction Junction.
Even being a stone's throw away is a big positive.
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