public safety and police presence (Pittsburgh, Smithfield: 2013, violent crime, lawyers)

[wpipkins2]

Originally Posted by zip95

I think Pittsburgh is actually behind in this regard. In the 80's the Eastern seaboard cities had terrible downtown sections. Then, there was an East Coast push to clean up the city centers. It has actually been relatively successful at attracting business and residents back to their respective downtowns. For example NY has a few cops on every corner in Manhatten... It seems to work.

My NYC and Philadelphia family often comment on how clean downtown Pittsburgh is. Penn, Liberty, and 5th Avenues have been totall rebuilt. The street trees was the best thing to happen to downtown Pittsburgh. Wood and Smithfield Streets are next in line.

[Buckeye Burgher]

Originally Posted by steindle

Yes, nothing at all like Pittsburgh -- Liberty Ave is still a bunch of porn shops and prostitutes and no one has moved Downtown in the last ten years.

Twelve years ago the company I was working for brought an engineer over from Ireland.
He set off to find himself a downtown loft apartment like the one he had in Dublin. He was
stunned to learn such a thing literally did not exist in our city.

A bit over a decade later and loft space is everywhere. You are mistaken that no one
has moved Downtown in the past ten years. Likely the opposite. Probably more people
moving there than in the past 150 years.

[doo dah]

Originally Posted by Buckeye Burgher

Twelve years ago the company I was working for brought an engineer over from Ireland.
He set off to find himself a downtown loft apartment like the one he had in Dublin. He was
stunned to learn such a thing literally did not exist in our city.

A bit over a decade later and loft space is everywhere. You are mistaken that no one
has moved Downtown in the past ten years. Likely the opposite. Probably more people
moving there than in the past 150 years.

I *think* maybe steindle forgot an emoticon or two

[XRiteMA98]

Originally Posted by Buckeye Burgher

Pittsburgh is a sizeable city. You will find this identical situation in nearly any other
large city. And there are Constitutional rights and protections which limit how aggressive
police are able to be in dealing with the problem.

I totally agree with this. I work downtown. I know all the beggars. I know where they are stationed and I simply avoid them. We are not supposed to give them money. however I've never been harassed or insulted and never felt unsafe.

[steindle]

Originally Posted by Buckeye Burgher

You are mistaken that no one
has moved Downtown in the past ten years. Likely the opposite. Probably more people
moving there than in the past 150 years.

Right. There are also not any porn shops or prostitutes on Liberty any more (that I'm aware of). I was employing the technique of light sarcasm in addressing this subject.

[Buckeye Burgher]

Sorry if I did not pick up on the sarcasm. I believe linguists are working on some new bit of
English punctuation to try and make this more clear in written text.

The Supreme Court has held that walking up to someone and asking them for money is
Constitutionally protected free speech. They only cross the line when they become too aggressive
and threatening. There are also limits to how much police are able to coerce people to leave public
spaces. If we were some sort of totalitarian dictatorship it would be a simple matter to just round
up all the homeless and haul them off in trucks (which has happened in a number of countries
prior to things like G8 summits and Olympic games). But these people do have rights.

[BurghDTownLove]

Originally Posted by The King of Um

North Side: first Spring Hill, and now West Deutschtown (East Allegheny).

When you had these issues it was before you moved to West/Historic Deutschtown, correct? Spring Hill has much more issues than the west side of 279. Crime has gone down significantly the past couple years in the entire North Side. I moved to Historic Deutschtown a little over a year ago and if you would have told me that 3 years ago I would have told you go to go smoke some more crack with the other crackheads on E Ohio.

You are completely accurate with the courtesy of the Pittsburgh Police. It is a shame that a few of them have ruined the reputation of the majority of the police. I have had pleasant experiences with a lot of them.

[Aqua Teen Carl]

I have spent way too much of my life in downtown Pittsburgh. I wouldn't call it dangerous by any stretch of the imagination. However, there are plenty of loons, people hitting you up for change, road ragers, and snobs abound. I have been hit up for drugs a few times right in the middle of Market Square (asking if I was selling no less, wtf) and been asked for change countless times but I've never felt "unsafe" walking around outside.

However, just because I have a high tolerance doesn't mean we should look down on others that don't. I worked with a client who had people fly in from the Northeast and they felt that our downtown was dangerous compared to where they had lived (some posh neighborhood I'm sure). It's just all personal preferences.

[doo dah]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

I have spent way too much of my life in downtown Pittsburgh. I wouldn't call it dangerous by any stretch of the imagination. However, there are plenty of loons, people hitting you up for change, road ragers, and snobs abound. I have been hit up for drugs a few times right in the middle of Market Square (asking if I was selling no less, wtf) and been asked for change countless times but I've never felt "unsafe" walking around outside.

However, just because I have a high tolerance doesn't mean we should look down on others that don't. I worked with a client who had people fly in from the Northeast and they felt that our downtown was dangerous compared to where they had lived (some posh neighborhood I'm sure). It's just all personal preferences.

Snobs are really scary.

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

I have been hit up for drugs a few times right in the middle of Market Square (asking if I was selling no less, wtf) ...

Maybe wear some Dockers. Nobody suspects a guy wearing Dockers of selling drugs.