I Love Me Some Peduto (Pittsburgh, Allentown: middle-class, 2015, apartments)

[Blackbeauty212]

It's just the understanding that development for development's sake is not our goal any longer. But quality development that will enhance and bring with it further quality development is now the model," the mayor said.


Mayor Bill Peduto says 'good enough' is no longer an acceptable standard for Pittsburgh development | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Too bad he wasn't in power before Steelers, Pirates and Continental basically destroyed the real potential the North Shore really had, instead giving us these Suburban style office park structures that one wouldn't even remember in order to be able to forget them.

Am I hoping and praying that when he lumps "Uptown" into this he's taking aim directly at that USX Bullsh*t the Pens want to lump downtown right next to Downtown. That was a Total capitulation of every leader just to keep USX in the city limits. I would've said let them go to the Burbs with that Crap.

The Mayor is Right, its time to up the Cities game. Go hard or go home!

[SteelCityRising]

I have to agree that Pittsburgh has reached the tipping point where enough people find it desirable (sans perhaps the issue of public school perception for parents of adolescent youth) that it can compete very well with the suburbs for capturing new residents and, in turn, developers' dollars. As such we need to stop getting on our knees and servicing Buncher for being so kind to bring us blase 3-story beige monstrosities and start demanding better.

Baum Boulevard is a prime example. Rudy Molnar's garage is slated to become a really awesome-looking modern mid-rise apartment building. The Crazy Mocha/Aldi Building was a great adaptive reuse. The Hyatt House Hotel is acceptable to me aesthetically, and the Morrow Park City Apartment towers under construction across the street will also be fine. I'm not sure what's going to be built on the recently-sold parcel of land next to Jiffy Lube (I have a hunch UPMC bought it speculatively to expand their Shadyside medical campus down the road and will probably also be looking to buy out Jiffy Lube), but I'm hopeful that it, too, will be a quality project. I believe UPMC was waiting for the Luna Garage to be completed before moving ahead with plans to put researchers in the building on the corner of Baum & Morewood (opposite GetGo), so I'd expect to see more movement there, too, soon.

Pittsburgh is "hot" right now. We don't need to settle for garbage.

[I_Like_Spam]

The Civic Arena site as well as over in Hazelwood and the North Side could be redeveloped into high-end apartments, boutiques and restaurants, but you still need to have space for offices and industry.

The City of Pittsburgh encompasses a lot more than just the central areas, a comprehensive program of development can and should include industry and office buildings in many of the outlying areas. The old Armour plant near the Thornburg Bridge isn't really being utilized and could be a location for jobs, same with vacant sites in Esplen, East Carnegie or on the old Parkway Center Mall space- although there, engineers will have to do a better job at building on fill than they did the first time.

But someone along the way I guess that it was "prestigious" to have US Steel in town.

[SteelCityRising]

Cities can heal themselves from the inside-out, and that's exactly what's happening with Pittsburgh. The urban core neighborhoods---generally those contiguous with Downtown and Oakland---are booming and becoming more expensive in the process. That gentrification is displacing people, not all of whom are "undesirables". Those of us who rent in these expensive urban core neighborhoods now but want to buy a first home have been priced out now and WILL buy in outer semi-transitional neighborhoods like Elliott, Sheraden, Brightwood, Carrick, Allentown, etc. in the coming years.

For me I'm looking for a ~$50,000 home that needs work but is solid enough to be habitable while completing the work piecemeal over the course of 5-10 years. I can spend $50,000 on a total gut job in East End neighborhoods like Larimer, Hazelwood, Garfield, etc. OR I can spend $50,000 on an outdated yet livable home in a place like Esplen. For me it's a no-brainer, and other middle-class East Enders are also going to try to determine if it's really worth the extra hassle and expense to buy into the East End in the coming years. In 2000 places like Polish Hill, Lawrenceville, Bloomfield, Friendship, Regent Square, East Liberty, Greenfield, etc. were all places many younger people could EASILY buy their first starter home. Today? Not so much. You're going to be seeing neighborhoods like Allentown, Arlington, Elliott, and Brightwood really turning around over the course of the next ten years.

[Pghuser]

Still lacking any major investment/change in the majority of the western city neighborhoods.

[airwave09]

Originally Posted by Pghuser

Still lacking any major investment/change in the majority of the western city neighborhoods.

I think that the main problem with these neighborhoods is the lack of distinctive commercial areas nearby. All of the places where we are seeing massive increases of development are locations within walking distance to an established core of retail/office/attractions.

At the moment it makes more sense for private developers to piggy back off of the existing momentum in the white hot established areas of the city, since there is still plenty of flat development-ready land nearby.

It's a bit of a chicken/egg issue, but if the city wants to catalyze improvements in these neighborhoods, it's going to have to create a West End master plan that includes better transit options as well as providing incentive's for new development.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by airwave09

I think that the main problem with these neighborhoods is the lack of distinctive commercial areas nearby. All of the places where we are seeing massive increases of development are locations within walking distance to an established core of retail/office/attractions.

At the moment it makes more sense for private developers to piggy back off of the existing momentum in the white hot established areas of the city, since there is still plenty of flat development-ready land nearby.

It's a bit of a chicken/egg issue, but if the city wants to catalyze improvements in these neighborhoods, it's going to have to create a West End master plan that includes better transit options as well as providing incentive's for new development.

Unfortunately, the way that the city boundaries worked out, the portions of the West End with the most potential are all outside of the city. Carnegie and McKees Rocks/Stowe have the best commercial districts. Crafton and Ingram have the best housing stock. The city portions of the West End are mostly either blighted neighborhoods built out around 1900 with no commercial development, or suburbia. The West End Village proper has many gems, but being in a flood zone (and having poor connectivity to the rest of the city, or even the rest of the West End) makes it unlikely anything will ever happen there.

I've become increasingly convinced that stabilizing Sheraden is the key to reviving the West End. Sheraden is probably right now in a quicker decline than anywhere in the city but Knoxville. But it has several distinct advantages. First, it is on the West Busway, and thus is a candidate for TOD. Secondly, it arguably has some of the best housing stock in the city portions of the West End (although Oakwood would give it a run for its money). Besides crime and the increasing blight, the relative lack of commercial development is the biggest issue, but what's around the busway already could be the base for a nice little business district.

[DoubleStraps]

The construction on West Carson has to be a drag on West End development, too. It's a pain to get anywhere west of the city at non-rush hour times, and rush hour is a total nightmare. As an Ingram tunnel, I long for the day when I can just bypass the West End Circle and scoot up the Corliss Tunnel to get from downtown to my home.

I can't even imagine the commute for McKees Rocks residents. Well, I kind of can, having taken 65 in the evening several times. The left turn lane onto the McKees Rocks Bridge is... long.

Well, only a year to go, right!?

[Pghuser]

Sheraden is in serious decline with no end in sight. No one wants to move to Sheraden because of the belief that it's unsafe.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I've become increasingly convinced that stabilizing Sheraden is the key to reviving the West End. Sheraden is probably right now in a quicker decline than anywhere in the city but Knoxville. But it has several distinct advantages. First, it is on the West Busway, and thus is a candidate for TOD. Secondly, it arguably has some of the best housing stock in the city portions of the West End (although Oakwood would give it a run for its money). Besides crime and the increasing blight, the relative lack of commercial development is the biggest issue, but what's around the busway already could be the base for a nice little business district.

There seems to be a just a lot of vacant land, mostly. in your pic, the one building at Sheraden Blvd and Hillsboro is still together, but all of the vacant lots where the bakery, the candy store, and Bard's used to sit are just vacant lots. The Foodland above there on the boulevard is boarded up, I can't see a future for it as a grocery as it is just too tiny for a modern supermarket.



It might be better to focus up near Chartiers and Allendale, more intact buildings, and generally just less bleak.