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Okay folks, I'm disturbed by this discussion because of the apparent lack of understanding and compassion for people in my neighborhood who are struggling with the impacts of a cruel, oppressive, economy and culture. On top of that, I'm seeing a lot of incorrect speculation about who lives here, what our lives are actually like, and the trajectory of the Greater Hill District and Uptown.
I have owned a row house in Uptown since 2014 when I moved into the area as a first-time homebuyer. I'm work in the urban design field and am a member of two different Development Review panels who evaluate new proposed projects from the perspective of the community and our City-adopted neighborhood plans.
I also am currently trying to sell the empty row house next to mine (reach out if interested ), which was abandoned and neglected for over 20 years before I bought it out of necessity (the two homes were sold together by the previous owner). It is upsetting that many people in the city do not recognize the inherent value of a neighborhood that is a short walk from three of the city's most robust real estate markets. More upsetting is reading some of your comments, peppered with outdated classist and racist terms like "ghetto" and "prostitute", opinions from suburbanites who have used our community as a parking lot or pass-thru, and assumptions about what we need in order to become an acceptable and desirable neighborhood in your (small) minds.
The facts are that like the rest of the Hill, Uptown was abandoned and intentionally stripped of its most valuable assets by greedy rich white men. We've spent the last few decade climbing out of that huge pit, investing our own labor and a mix of public and private funding, and slowly the market is beginning to reflect that value. However, those of us doing the work are careful not to regard unhoused residents, sex workers, and folks struggling with addiction who are left behind in our economy as undesirable elements or a disposable population that's holding back the neighborhood from becoming a vibrant area. On the contrary, we as a community are proud to host and support dozens of regional service providers who provide life-saving resources to this city's forgotten neighbors. We are not trying to become the next Lawrenceville—if you're uncomfortable around poor people, don't project your bias onto the neighborhood with the assumption that we live in a scary crime-ridden "ghetto".
In reality, there is a healthy mix of market rate and affordable housing being built throughout the Fifth-Forbes corridor, as well as improved shelters and facilities for the social service providers who have been helping people around here for decades. Not every wealthy young professional wants to hoard money and resources—some new residents value the diversity of Uptown and do not mind that their rent may be subsidizing a less fortunate person or family. If you cannot imagine that, I suggest you reexamine your own values and look for some moral justification for your existence.
Is it a "perfect" neighborhood? Hell no, there are lots of issues impacting our safety and quality of life. But most of them do not arise from living among the poor, or from illicit street activity. Our issues have to do with safe streets, which are jeopardized by wreckless motorists who speed through the corridor and the lack of traffic calming in place to mitigate the danger. We suffer from the worst air quality in the city because of being surrounded by highways and being situated in the path of industrial emissions, without sufficient tree canopy or green space. And we need better access to retail & amenities, which is coming with the addition of several large multifamily residential developments that are already in the pipeline. The new UPMC Mercy vision hospital and the Bus Rapid Transit project are two other major developments shifting the neighborhood economy toward becoming a more vibrant, mixed income regional magnet.
I, for one, have been happy here and have not felt less safe than other neighborhoods. I am openly LGBTQ and do not feel targeted by anyone in Uptown more than elsewhere (I have been harassed in many other neighborhoods around Pittsburgh), and I do not own a car so I'm usually walking or riding a bike. That means I interact with more people on the streets, and I am happy to chat with all kinds, offer some help where I can, and feel a sense of belonging among an interesting mix of people. I think Uptown is a good place for low-income folks looking to rent or purchase a home, as well as more financially stable people who enjoy a dense and walkable urban fabric where car-free or "car-lite" living is viable. Yes, there are many improvements needed, but our success will not be measured through crime rates or by how comfortable a middle class white person feels parking their car.
It is through projects like the one referenced in the initial post that Uptown is going to achieve the shared community vision for success, which centers human rights, diversity, "eco-innovation", and equitable development.
More upsetting is reading some of your comments, peppered with outdated classist and racist terms like "ghetto" and "prostitute", opinions from suburbanites who have used our community as a parking lot or pass-thru, and assumptions about what we need in order to become an acceptable and desirable neighborhood in your (small) minds.
The facts are that like the rest of the Hill, Uptown was abandoned and intentionally stripped of its most valuable assets by greedy rich white men.
Put down the Progressive Kool-Aid. You're clearly in danger of overdosing on it.
Also, way to complain about alleged racism while displaying your own racism.
Put down the Progressive Kool-Aid. You're clearly in danger of overdosing on it.
Also, way to complain about alleged racism while displaying your own racism.
Bingo…and imagine moving next to it Makes the area sound even less desirable
The word prostitute is racist? It is an occupation like barber or doctor. What is the appropriate term to refer to the human who sells their body for money? Desperate for your reply.
Put down the Progressive Kool-Aid. You're clearly in danger of overdosing on it.
Also, way to complain about alleged racism while displaying your own racism.
"The facts are that like the rest of the Hill, Uptown was abandoned and intentionally stripped of its most valuable assets by greedy rich white men"
This IS a racist/sexist statement and this person hates white men. The tax dollars from the wealthy are rebuilding parts of the Hill with the TON of government money. Without it the area would most likely be back to farmland/rewilding. You're welcome.
It is interesting people like justcitydesign have such hate in them by race and gender. Maybe they should be more welcoming to all instead of being so sexist and racist. Hate is a bad thing.
Hope everyone has a nice day regardless of what they look like and their sexual orientation.
...
I also am currently trying to sell the empty row house next to mine (reach out if interested ), which was abandoned and neglected for over 20 years before I bought it out of necessity (the two homes were sold together by the previous owner). It is upsetting that many people in the city do not recognize the inherent value of a neighborhood that is a short walk from three of the city's most robust real estate markets.....
The facts are that like the rest of the Hill, Uptown was abandoned and intentionally stripped of its most valuable assets by greedy rich white men. We've spent the last few decade climbing out of that huge pit, investing our own labor and a mix of public and private funding, and slowly the market is beginning to reflect that value.
Is it a "perfect" neighborhood? Hell no, there are lots of issues impacting our safety and quality of life. But most of them do not arise from living among the poor, or from illicit street activity. Our issues have to do with safe streets, which are jeopardized by wreckless motorists who speed through the corridor and the lack of traffic calming in place to mitigate the danger. We suffer from the worst air quality in the city because of being surrounded by highways and being situated in the path of industrial emissions, without sufficient tree canopy or green space......Yes, there are many improvements needed, but our success will not be measured through crime rates or by how comfortable a middle class white person feels parking their car.
i grew up in Uptown. It was a disaster then. You can kid yourself or not, it was not motorists alone that impacted 'safety and quality of life'. it was decentralization and depreciating home values.
that, and scuzzy people who settled in there - some real rednecks and idiot people who were unaware of first world standards in some ways. people who brought with them, or willingly took part of the drug culture, too.
plus, it was old. it was dirty. it was a victim of circumstance, as you have said with the cars and the bad air. no argument there, and i hate car over-dependency, but if you live there, well, there's no getting around it.
no one "stripped" it of anything - it was a victim of trends...during its decline, one can argue the monroevilles of the world were (in that era) growing, thriving, and were wonderful.
how was it 'abandoned'? the city of pittsburgh was in decline from the 1950s onward - people moving out of the central area, then moving out of the city limits. with that goes a tax base, and all that.
there was little investment compared to what we've seen in pittsburgh since the 1990s. i remember polish hill was ratty then, as well as other areas that were middle class and overwhelmingly white. you might be too young to remember Carson Street some time ago - it was a dump, and nothing like it is now. This is an example to counter your assumed argument that it is just racism and elitism that created what had been there, in Uptown.
you seem to forget the massive improvements to the Centre Avenue corridor - a library, a YMCA, streetscape improvements that Murray Avenue in Squirrel Hill can only dream about.
Uptown has improved two-fold since the 1980s.
you feel "success will not be measured through crime rates or by how comfortable a middle class white person feels parking their car." so, its OK to break in or vandalize a white person's car and not a black person's? otherwise, it sounds like you think no black people will visit uptown for any reason. this is just to point out you should proof-read your comments before you write ridiculous, mean-spirited things that pad your own ego and do nothing more to win over someone.
see, your post just sounds like a self-serving rant from an albeit well-intentioned, community minded person who is, under the surface, a hateful, spiteful person.
and i messaged you about the row house, out of sincere interest. would i live next to you? sure, i would for a central location where the car is not always necessary. right next door - it would be great! *dubious*
i grew up in Uptown. It was a disaster then. You can kid yourself or not, it was not motorists alone that impacted 'safety and quality of life'. it was decentralization and depreciating home values.
that, and scuzzy people who settled in there - some real rednecks and idiot people who were unaware of first world standards in some ways. people who brought with them, or willingly took part of the drug culture, too.
plus, it was old. it was dirty. it was a victim of circumstance, as you have said with the cars and the bad air. no argument there, and i hate car over-dependency, but if you live there, well, there's no getting around it.
no one "stripped" it of anything - it was a victim of trends...during its decline, one can argue the monroevilles of the world were (in that era) growing, thriving, and were wonderful.
how was it 'abandoned'? the city of pittsburgh was in decline from the 1950s onward - people moving out of the central area, then moving out of the city limits. with that goes a tax base, and all that.
there was little investment compared to what we've seen in pittsburgh since the 1990s. i remember polish hill was ratty then, as well as other areas that were middle class and overwhelmingly white. you might be too young to remember Carson Street some time ago - it was a dump, and nothing like it is now. This is an example to counter your assumed argument that it is just racism and elitism that created what had been there, in Uptown.
you seem to forget the massive improvements to the Centre Avenue corridor - a library, a YMCA, streetscape improvements that Murray Avenue in Squirrel Hill can only dream about.
Uptown has improved two-fold since the 1980s.
you feel "success will not be measured through crime rates or by how comfortable a middle class white person feels parking their car." so, its OK to break in or vandalize a white person's car and not a black person's? otherwise, it sounds like you think no black people will visit uptown for any reason. this is just to point out you should proof-read your comments before you write ridiculous, mean-spirited things that pad your own ego and do nothing more to win over someone.
see, your post just sounds like a self-serving rant from an albeit well-intentioned, community minded person who is, under the surface, a hateful, spiteful person.
and i messaged you about the row house, out of sincere interest. would i live next to you? sure, i would for a central location where the car is not always necessary. right next door - it would be great! *dubious*
A lot of great points here, but the best one IMHO is the MASS exodus that affected all of Pittsburgh. Lawrenceville was a crap hole as well and not a place to hang out. Pittsburgh lost 1/2 its population! I always get a kick out of the self serving folks that are so filled with their agenda they can't see any logic at all. Pittsburgh had to fully reinvent itself and it did. Did we get our 600,000+ people back here? No, we are still in decline a little, but some areas grabbed onto the reinvention. Lawrenceville was in a good location to hospitals and it grew and reinvented itself. I don't remember the South Side being a dump, but it was a great place with lots of cheap drinks. It reinvented itself as well, but sadly it is going in a bad direction with really violent crime. Shame.
People blame whoever on things, but if you want to really blame people it is the leaders that allowed our jobs to go to China. Pittsburgh got hammered by that. On the other hand, would you want to live what I grew up with and all the steel mills. Yes, I am old enough for pollution days that make our days now seem like a joke.
Neighborhoods throughout Pittsburgh were forgotten. The Northside for example was a crap hole. Mexican War Streets were pretty much garbage dumps. Young energetic people brought them back when Pittsburgh reinvented itself. If your area was "forgotten" it is because the residents didn't move with the times. It is on them, not some outside group. I restored a dump of a home in the Northside over 30 years ago. It is doing fine due to my hard work to get it back up and running. Roll your own sleeves up and be welcoming to anyone that has some money to fix things up instead of looking at them like "rich white men". Who knows, maybe places like the Hill could stop the rewilding process without government structures being build by rich people's tax dollars.
Sure would be nice if people could really live in the real world instead of such a fake narrative.
"The facts are that like the rest of the Hill, Uptown was abandoned and intentionally stripped of its most valuable assets by greedy rich white men"
This IS a racist/sexist statement and this person hates white men. The tax dollars from the wealthy are rebuilding parts of the Hill with the TON of government money. Without it the area would most likely be back to farmland/rewilding. You're welcome.
It is interesting people like justcitydesign have such hate in them by race and gender. Maybe they should be more welcoming to all instead of being so sexist and racist. Hate is a bad thing.
Hope everyone has a nice day regardless of what they look like and their sexual orientation.
The truth is often unpopular. I think you need to get over yourself as well. You are old enough to know of the land and property hoarding of the 1980s and 1990's. This led to mass demolition of historic structures. These properties were intended for parking only. These surface parking lots added nothing positive to the neighborhood.
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), which was abandoned and neglected for over 20 years before I bought it out of necessity (the two homes were sold together by the previous owner). It is upsetting that many people in the city do not recognize the inherent value of a neighborhood that is a short walk from three of the city's most robust real estate markets. More upsetting is reading some of your comments, peppered with outdated classist and racist terms like "ghetto" and "prostitute", opinions from suburbanites who have used our community as a parking lot or pass-thru, and assumptions about what we need in order to become an acceptable and desirable neighborhood in your (small) minds.
