Neighborhood of the week: Hays (Pittsburgh, Baldwin: rental, crime, new home)

[eschaton]

Hays is a rural (seriously!) city neighborhood in southern Pittsburgh just across the Glenwood Bridge from Hazelwood/Glen Hazel. Although south of the Mon, it - along with neighboring New Homestead and Lincoln Place, are effectively an exclave of Pittsburgh, separated from the remainder of the southern portions of Pittsburgh by a weird extension of Baldwin township. Because of this, along with the long-standing school feeder pattern (which ultimately goes to Allderdice) this portion of the city identifies more with Hazelwood and the lower East End more generally than with south Pittsburgh.

Hazelwood today is a very rural depopulated place. While large portions of the neighborhood - including the hilltop now slated to become a public park - were never developed, back in the 1940s Hays had an active urban core with around 2,200 residents. Hays was effectively killed as a neighborhood due to two historic events. One was the closure of the munitions plant which employed over 1,000 people in 1970. The other was the reconstruction of the Glenwood Bridge from 1958-1966. The southern side (where the core of Hays lay) was over-engineered because at the time there was a planned "east west expressway" which was never built. I think this was part of the same failed highway which the Birmingham Bridge was constructed for, and which was slated to originally take out half of East Carson Street.

At last count (2010) Hays had only 362 people left. The vast majority of the land area of the neighborhood is now uninhabited woodlands, with the vast majority of the remaining houses located on Baldwin Road, Mifflin Road, or one of the small spur streets which come off of them(Calera Street in particular is pretty intact). The local road pattern is very confusing due to the various on and offramps for the Glenwood bridge (you need to take an "exit" off of Mifflin Road at one point to stay on Mifflin Road). For the most part the remainder of the neighborhood is residential, but there is a small light industrial area across from the GalvTech plant (which is still in business, but technically in neighboring New Homestead). The local business district was entirely wiped out except for a dive bar which appears to be closed.

Hays is dying. Every decade it loses another 100-200 people as more of the old houses are vacated and become abandoned, eventually to be knocked down. Only with less than 400 people remaining, there isn't really enough people left for the population to decline much further. The most likely path forward for the neighborhood is that in another 30 years it will mostly be gone, and be isolated houses in the forest. Perhaps this is for the best, because in a city with limited resources and growth, it's better that the dense places get denser and the sparse places get even sparser.

[PreservationPioneer]

Originally Posted by eschaton

The most likely path forward for the neighborhood is that in another 30 years it will mostly be gone, and be isolated houses in the forest. Perhaps this is for the best, because in a city with limited resources and growth, it's better that the dense places get denser and the sparse places get even sparser.

I agree with most of the things you post, but I cannot agree with this. If a place is already dense, why must it become more dense? I also think we should be trying to stabilize declining neighborhoods, instead of adding even more expensive housing in already gentrified and built up neighborhoods. I don't see why we need to encourage one side of the city being extremely packed and expensive, and the other sides being hollowed out and empty.

One of the main drawbacks of Hays is that it floods. Otherwise, it's pleasantly isolated, but convenient to everything, if that makes sense.

[SteelCityRising]

My landlady is currently trying in vain to rent out a detached 3-BR/1-BA house in Hays for $1,000/month. When I listed other rental properties for her in Polish Hill on CraigsList they went like hot cakes with dozens of replies. I don't think Hays has many people who would consider it to be a desirable place to live based upon the lack of interest in her rental there.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

My landlady is currently trying in vain to rent out a detached 3-BR/1-BA house in Hays for $1,000/month. When I listed other rental properties for her in Polish Hill on CraigsList they went like hot cakes with dozens of replies. I don't think Hays has many people who would consider it to be a desirable place to live based upon the lack of interest in her rental there.

Rent-to-own for you, boyfriend, and dog? It seems preordained.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by PreservationPioneer

I agree with most of the things you post, but I cannot agree with this. If a place is already dense, why must it become more dense? I also think we should be trying to stabilize declining neighborhoods, instead of adding even more expensive housing in already gentrified and built up neighborhoods. I don't see why we need to encourage one side of the city being extremely packed and expensive, and the other sides being hollowed out and empty.

There are two main reasons. First, it makes sense to add density to the areas where the market warrants it. You wouldn't get new development in Hays unless you actually subsidized it. Second, there are certain fixed costs to the city associated with things like road repair, trash collection, etc. If there are only a few houses left on a road, the city might be better off letting those properties return to nature, where infill in the core makes the provision of government services more effective.

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

My landlady is currently trying in vain to rent out a detached 3-BR/1-BA house in Hays for $1,000/month. When I listed other rental properties for her in Polish Hill on CraigsList they went like hot cakes with dozens of replies. I don't think Hays has many people who would consider it to be a desirable place to live based upon the lack of interest in her rental there.

Hays has been "diversifying" lately. IIRC in 2010 it climbed to 27% black. I'm guessing the local black residents are people trying to "move on up" from Hazelwood, though they could be from Homestead as well. I don't anticipate this having a major effect in the longer run, since the number of housing units is decreasing so rapidly, but if you formerly lived in a high-crime area moving to one of the quietest, most rural parts of the city might seem a welcome change of pace.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Hays has been "diversifying" lately. IIRC in 2010 it climbed to 27% black. I'm guessing the local black residents are people trying to "move on up" from Hazelwood, though they could be from Homestead as well. I don't anticipate this having a major effect in the longer run, since the number of housing units is decreasing so rapidly, but if you formerly lived in a high-crime area moving to one of the quietest, most rural parts of the city might seem a welcome change of pace.

I double checked this morning, and I was wrong about this. Hays was only seven percent black in 2010, a much lower number. I think I was mistaken because I was looking at a census tract total, and Hays has shrunk so much it's now lumped in with half of Hazelwood with ACS census reporting.

Some interesting housing statistics for Hays: In 2010 there were 203 housing units, a decrease of 24 from ten years prior. Oot of that total, 18% of housing units were vacant - well above the city average of 12%. And every single remaining house in hays was built before 1959, with over 88% built before 1939 (as far back as the census bothers to track). That's pretty clear if you walk/drive around the neighborhood. You see houses ranging from the late 19th to early 20th century, but nothing more recent.

These houses are technically not in Hays, but in Lincoln Place. Still, Hays is right across the street, and they are good examples of the endangered housing vernacular of the neighborhood.

[Geeo]

This is fascinating. I used to drive through here to get to Century III Mall years ago but never ventured off the main roads. That expressway interchange in the middle of nowhere did real damage to this neighborhood, and I'm sure the de-industrialization of the immediate area didn't help. It's crazy that you have to exit Carson Street, loop around and use another on-ramp to stay on Carson Street.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Geeo

This is fascinating. I used to drive through here to get to Century III Mall years ago but never ventured off the main roads. That expressway interchange in the middle of nowhere did real damage to this neighborhood, and I'm sure the de-industrialization of the immediate area didn't help. It's crazy that you have to exit Carson Street, loop around and use another on-ramp to stay on Carson Street.

I can understand why it was overbuilt to begin with when they expected a highway to run through South Side Flats (and presumably Homestead). I cannot understand why they continue to rebuild the roads in their current configuration rather than going on a "road diet." A simple four-way intersection with a traffic signal isn't possible due to how the bridge is at elevation, the hillside, and to a lesser extent the railway. But there has to be something simpler than this.

[wpipkins2]

Originally Posted by eschaton

There are two main reasons. First, it makes sense to add density to the areas where the market warrants it. You wouldn't get new development in Hays unless you actually subsidized it. Second, there are certain fixed costs to the city associated with things like road repair, trash collection, etc. If there are only a few houses left on a road, the city might be better off letting those properties return to nature, where infill in the core makes the provision of government services more effective.



Hays has been "diversifying" lately. IIRC in 2010 it climbed to 27% black. I'm guessing the local black residents are people trying to "move on up" from Hazelwood, though they could be from Homestead as well. I don't anticipate this having a major effect in the longer run, since the number of housing units is decreasing so rapidly, but if you formerly lived in a high-crime area moving to one of the quietest, most rural parts of the city might seem a welcome change of pace.

I can't imagine any black person feeling as if Hays is a step up. I dont care what hood your from. Hays and Lincoln Place has a reputation. I would rather live in Hazelwood.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by wpipkins2

I can't imagine any black person feeling as if Hays is a step up. I dont care what hood your from. Hays and Lincoln Place has a reputation. I would rather live in Hazelwood.

I know Lincoln Place has a reputation as horribly racist, but I didn't know that about Hays.

Interestingly, I've noticed on old maps that nearby New Homestead historically used to be a much blacker neighborhood than today. Back in 1940 it was 30% black (210 people or so). The black percentage fell over time to less then 10%. I think what happened was mostly that new all-white areas near Munhall were built out, but still the black community in raw numbers fell significantly (today it's only around 70).