Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Pennsylvania > Pittsburgh
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 11-14-2016, 07:10 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh, PA (Morningside)
14,362 posts, read 16,925,283 times
Reputation: 12390

Advertisements

California-Kirkbride is a small, mostly flat neighborhood on Pittsburgh's North Side. Once home to some of the most stunning late 19th century architecture in Pittsburgh, it is now more well known for having some of the most extensive urban prairie in Pittsburgh, with well over half of the neighborhood comprise of vacant lots.

The neighborhood can be described as roughly having three different sub-areas, broken up by topography and the giant postal facility (which was at one time a major rail yard).

The southernmost zone, below California Avenue, is mostly comprised of Brighton Place and the western side of Brighton Road. This zone has relatively low levels of blight, with around half of the houses still standing. Most of the houses are in good structural condition too, for the most part owned by a single property owner (Bob Mistick of Mistick Construction) who leases them out as long-term section 8 rental properties. This process has saved most of the remaining structures from further deterioration, but it has also meant that gentrification has not spilled over from the Mexican War Streets. The street is still fairly dangerous, but it's also in an area which is somewhat convenient and walkable. If the Brighton Street corridor is ever fixed up I could see it turning around and infilling with some new housing.

The middle zone of the neighborhood are those blocks north of California Avenue (and the postal facility, but south of the hilltop (mostly Sunday Street, but there's a little northwestern extension along California Avenue). This area is one o the most highly blighted in the city outside of perhaps some parts of the Hill District. There are several blocks with literally no houses remaining, and many more which only have 1-4 houses in total. The City continues to knock down housing in this area as well, meaning at its current trajectory it will be mostly urban prairie relatively soon. Perhaps at some point in the city's future demand will hit the point where it would make sense to fill these blocks in a planned pattern en-masse, which would be ironic, because this was one of the only parts of Pittsburgh where rowhouse construction was originally done Philly-style, with multiple blocks of identical housing.

The northern portion of the neighborhood is very geographically isolated from the rest of the neighborhood due to topography - only connected via the connection of Sunday and Omaha Streets, along with the Hyena Way steps (one of my favorite alley names in the city). Due to the presence of the (now mostly closed) Oliver High School, it basically functioned as an isolated pocket neighborhood. It is very different from the remainder of the neighborhood in built form, as instead of being dominated by Victorian brick rowhouses, it's a mixture of wood frame housing circa 1900, and slightly newer bungalow-era houses. The area also had very little white flight up until recently and very little in the way of blight - almost no homes are abandoned, and only 1-2 have been knocked down. Overall, it seems like the trajectory this area has had is more similar to nearby Marshall-Shadeland than the rest of California-Kirkbride. It will undoubtedly continue to decline slowly, but it would take decades of decline to hit the rock-bottom level the middle of the neighborhood hit.

Last edited by eschaton; 11-14-2016 at 08:17 AM..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 11-14-2016, 07:21 AM
 
2,522 posts, read 2,082,076 times
Reputation: 2299
FYI, Oliver is not closed. It's used as a last resort school for troubled kids before they have to enter into a more jail-like schooling option. A friend is a counselor there, it's a tough gig.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-14-2016, 07:59 AM
 
4,176 posts, read 2,930,832 times
Reputation: 3082
Quote:
Originally Posted by norcider View Post
FYI, Oliver is not closed. It's used as a last resort school for troubled kids before they have to enter into a more jail-like schooling option. A friend is a counselor there, it's a tough gig.
My friend is a counselor at the "more jail-like" school and he said it weighs heavily on him.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-14-2016, 10:25 AM
 
2,522 posts, read 2,082,076 times
Reputation: 2299
Quote:
Originally Posted by wpipkins2 View Post
My friend is a counselor at the "more jail-like" school and he said it weighs heavily on him.
Yeah Oliver is a mess. She had to diffuse a situation where a student managed to obtain a knife from somewhere within (teacher's kitchen/lounge etc) the school and it really rattled her cage. She's tough though and kept her cool.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-14-2016, 11:54 AM
 
4,176 posts, read 2,930,832 times
Reputation: 3082
Quote:
Originally Posted by norcider View Post
Yeah Oliver is a mess. She had to diffuse a situation where a student managed to obtain a knife from somewhere within (teacher's kitchen/lounge etc) the school and it really rattled her cage. She's tough though and kept her cool.
Wow! Tough lady. My friend is a 6'5 250 lbs black man. He said the amount of disrespect is jaw dropping. He saves those that want to be saved.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Pennsylvania > Pittsburgh

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top