PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pitt.../s_792277.html


Quote:
Tight North Shore parking clue to connector's popularity

By Tom Fontaine, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, April 21, 2012

Port Authority of Allegheny County won't say how many people have used the $517 million North Shore Connector since the light-rail extension opened a month ago, but signs around the North Shore show ridership is robust.

"Now I have to go up to at least the eighth floor to find a parking spot in the mornings. I used to get one by the fifth," said Oakmont commuter Marty Kennedy, 50, who works at ROOT Sports and parks in the 10-story West General Robinson Street Garage above the new North Side Station.

The Pittsburgh Stadium Authority's 1,321-space garage, built for $28.9 million, has been a target of criticism since it opened in 2006 because of low occupancy. The authority said in December that debt payments exceeded parking revenue since the garage opened, with the average occupancy rate about 68 percent.

Today average weekday occupancy is about 95 percent, said Alco Parking President Merrill Stabile, who manages the garage. Signs reading, "Garage full, leases only," have been placed outside garage entrances at least three times a week since the connector's March 25 opening, he said.

A check of the lot one afternoon this week showed just 33 spaces available. No special events were in progress on the North Shore to inflate occupancy.

"We're very pleased with how well it's been going," Stabile said.

"These are people who work Downtown in the (Golden) Triangle," he said, noting there are no new ventures in the North Side to account for the change.

In December, Alco and the Stadium Authority reached a three-year deal with the Port Authority to provide a $160,000 subsidy to make rides free between Downtown and the North Side Station in the connector's first year of operation, and $5,000 on top of the base payment in each of the subsequent two years.

The Steelers and Rivers Casino reached a similar deal in relation to Allegheny Station at North Shore Drive and Reedsdale Street, ensuring free T rides in all of the North Shore and Downtown.

The Stadium Authority also lowered all-day parking rates to $6 from $8, making them less than half of the average cost of parking Downtown, where all-day garage rates are about $14. All-day rates for surface lots Alco owns surrounding the West General Robinson garage also are $6.

Stabile said North Shore lots still have 700 to 800 available spaces on an average weekday, about the same as before the connector opened.

"I don't want to discourage people from coming over to the North Shore because they think there's no longer any room to park," he said.

About 70 to 80 commuters a day use the Carnegie Science Center's 250-space lot next to Allegheny Station, said center spokeswoman Susan Zimecki. All-day rates there are $6.

When asked how many commuters used the lot before the connector opened, Zimecki said, "Oh, like zero." Instead, the center used the lot for overflow parking.

Community College of Allegheny County students and employees use the connector to get to and from the North Side campus, said spokeswoman Elizabeth Johnston. She could not provide statistics but said, "Every time I go by (Allegheny Station), it seems like there are 25 students walking up the hill" toward the campus. She said she drives to work.

Port Authority won't release ridership statistics until May, after the connector has been in operation for a full calendar month, officials said. Employees have been counting heads at times in the two new North Shore stations and Downtown's new Gateway Station.

"We've seen a lot of use of the system. It's really been well-received, both in the morning and evening rush and midday," said connector project director Keith Wargo.

The Port Authority has worked to resolve minor problems that cropped up after service began. Spokesman Jim Ritchie said the agency re-recorded audio messages that could barely be heard on station platforms when they were not cutting in and out, and it reprogrammed the system that delivers audio and electronic messages on trains that were out of sync.

The agency plans to put up additional signs that better explain where trains are headed.

"A lot of the issues are with new riders or people from out of town who aren't familiar with the system," Ritchie said, noting they might not know that Gateway Station is Downtown or that both Red and Blue Line trains go through Downtown.

He said the agency will post temporary signs where needed and permanent ones in coming months.

The occupation of the North Shore is complete. We can now pull out and head back to our homes in Cranberry Twp.

[Evergrey]

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/...mentum-632704/

New project in East Liberty keeps up the momentum

April 23, 2012 12:00 am

By Diana Nelson Jones / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In East Liberty, the hits just keep on coming.

By next year, the 13-story Highland Building, a signature entity near Penn Avenue, will combine with the three-story Wallace Building to become Walnut on Highland.

Walnut Capital, Massaro Properties and TKA Architects are partners on the project, which will result in 127 market-rate apartments, 15,000 square feet of retail space and a 180-car parking garage between the two buildings.

The project's imminent construction was announced at a recent street party in the void between the buildings, where strong winds blew paper plates and neckties. The winds of change have been equally strong in East Liberty over 10-15 years, starting with the placement of Home Depot and Whole Foods and continuing with new housing and a Target store.

But many storefronts in the Penn Avenue corridor have languished during the building boom all around it.

Maelene Myers, executive director of East Liberty Development, said a consultant recommended in 2000 that the wisest course would be "to start on our strong edges and let the market work its way in."

It seemed counterintuitive at the time, she said.

"But that's exactly what's happening," Todd Reidbord, president of Walnut Capital, said.

Walnut Capital's Bakery Square on Penn Avenue in Larimer provided a strong edge for Larimer to work from and another incentive for investment in the Penn Avenue corridor that runs through East Liberty.

Momentum is turning the corner onto Penn. In the fall, Blasier Urban LLC expects to buy the vacant PNC Bank and three buildings beside it rounding Penn. The plan is to raze them and build a six-story building that will be a restaurant and first-run movie theater with five floors of residences.

Molly Blasier, a partner in the development firm, said that project is expected to cost $20 million and that the financing should be complete by the fall.

The Highland Building's redevelopment depended on a $4.5 million grant from the state's Redevelopment Assistance Capital program, which had been committed by former Gov. Ed Rendell and was released last fall by Gov. Tom Corbett.

The Highland Building was an office building where long-timers remember visiting doctors and dentists.

The Highland Building in particular sat empty for more than two decades, a reminder of what wasn't working in East Liberty. It thwarted six developers who walked away because of the lack of parking and the cost.

The city in 2004 and the Urban Redevelopment Authority in 2009 respectively had bought the Highland and Wallace buildings. Two small buildings between them were razed to build the parking garage.

"It's hard to believe that after 20 years in the making, we're here to break ground today," Mr. Reidbord said at the event last week.

He said the project is expected to cost $25 million and credited the city, the URA, East Liberty Development Inc., the state and various banks for working together on it.

"After 30 years of going one way in East Liberty, we're seeing things go the other way," Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said. "This is going to be a great place."

"One of the things that excites me most is the adaptive reuse of these two buildings," Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said.

Diana Nelson Jones: djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626. Read her blog City Walkabout at www.post-gazette.com/citywalk.

http://www.theodeonbuilding.com/

About Odeon
75,640 sf New, Class A Office
13,400 useable sf per floor
Leased Parking in adjacent garage or hop on our shuttle to a nearby surface lot
Spotlight Theatre / Digital Projection Facility and the Odeon Café on the Ground Floor Level
Pre-Leasing Now for Proposed Occupancy Fall 2013

[glowrock]

Very nice news, Evergrey. Thanks for posting this!

Aaron (Glowrock)

[Private Dick]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

I can't believe nobody here is talking about the historic population gain experienced by the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area (and Allegheny County in particular) from 2010-2011 according to the Census Estimates released a couple weeks ago...

Thanks for the well-researched demographic report, Evergrey. Things are looking good.

Originally Posted by dcesar716

Looking forward to moving to Pitt.... The city has a lot of great things going for it but I will say that some work needs to be done in the area of connectivity. Not just transit but also pedestrian.... For example, cultural district to strip district or downtown/station square to south side. They are so close yet feel so divided... Walking or biking between them is not pleasant.

Definitely. I'm glad an outsider is able to observe this and point out this characteristic of Pittsburgh's core. I think we've had discussions about this topic a few times on here -- with a fair share of delusional comments from fellow Pittsburghers about how it's not really an issue at all.

Originally Posted by Evergrey

More renderings of the Hazelwood development site (thanks BrianTH)


Not sure what's going on in this one... almost looks agricultural!

I think there are some planned biomass renewable energy research components to the plan.

Originally Posted by Evergrey

One of my favorite things about Consol Energy Center is how they kept that beautiful historic church next to it (although the adjoining Catholic school was demolished). I love the way CEC is tucked into that lot... it has a much smaller, and more appropriately urban, footprint than the Civic Arena monstrosity that wiped out an entire neighborhood and severed Downtown's connectivity to adjoining districts.

Who cares what CEC's roof looks like from the air? I love walking up Fifth Ave. and seeing that huge glass curtain wall. I love that there are street-level retail spaces built into the arena. And the actual function of the arena... the interior space... is infinitely superior to clunky, decrepit Civic Arena.

I can't believe we're still having this conversation.

Yeah, I never mentioned the ugliness of the Consol from those aerial shots to re-stir up debate about its merits vs. the Civic Arena's at all. I'm glad the Civic Arena was replaced with a much more effective and appropriate venue. I'm just somewhat disappointed that the Consol wasn't built with higher quality exterior details on all sides but the one with the huge glass wall... and I guess I just hate that ubiquitous yellow-brown brick of the majority of the structure and the god-awful matching parking garage and motel. But, it's what we got.

[BrianTH]

So it appears The Odeon was converted from an office project to a residential project. That should help accelerate the transformation of the Penn Avenue portion of East Liberty's commercial district.

And I would not be at all surprised if it was followed by more residential mid-rise projects--there is plenty of space available for development in East Liberty, and it is quickly becoming one of the best combinations of walkable amenities and transit service in the Metro.

[Ibanesse]

Originally Posted by Private Dick

I'm glad an outsider is able to observe this and point out this characteristic of Pittsburgh's core. I think we've had discussions about this topic a few times on here -- with a fair share of delusional comments from fellow Pittsburghers about how it's not really an issue at all.

I find it amazing anyone could spend any time in Pittsburgh and its near suburbs and not notice that. That lack of connectivity almost killed me when I was in college there. Literally. I got hit by a car while crossing the street to get to a bus stop that was located across an intersection that had no crosswalks or sidewalks, in the middle of a ditch. As I was going into shock and being strapped to a gurney, a policeman kindly informed me that I had "jaywalked," and that there was a crosswalk down the street. He neglected to mention that this crosswalk was 1.2 miles down the aforementioned street, and there were no sidewalks for that entire stretch, only a very, very small shoulder pressed up against a guardrail.

The fact that this sort of thing is still going on in areas that have been otherwise totally built up is a bit absurd. The compartmentalized nature of Pittsburgh's neighborhoods tends to exasperate the problem. Active, vibrant neighborhoods are all too often separated by swaths of veritable Scooby-Doo ghost towns: the no man's land surrounding the I-279 deck between the North Shore proper and the Mexican War Streets, the dark, creepy stretch of East Carson Street between Station Square and 10th Street, the entire freaking Romulan Neutral Zone the city accidentally set up around the Hill District when they built the Civic Arena (seriously, did Robert Moses make a cameo for that one?)...

Pittsburgh frustrates me like no other North American city. Glorious potential, realized just enough to make it so very, very nice, but stymied just enough to drive one insane.

[Private Dick]

^ Sorry to hear about your accident -- that sucks.


Getting around in Pittsburgh by car, bus, bike, or on foot can indeed be very frustrating. The topography of the region has much to do with the way the city and its suburbs developed in pockets, and therefore has much to do with the constraints in connectivity between all of those pockets. Trying to connect tightly-developed areas isolated from each other by forested hills, valleys, rivers, and vast swaths of formerly heavily-industrialized lands is no easy task -- it's like having numerous small sections of a jigsaw puzzle put together, but you can't join them all because you are missing a bunch of the pieces that would fit in between.

We're never going to have the type efficient transit which other, much flatter cities are able to enjoy due to Pittsburgh's physical barriers -- but those barriers also make Pittsburgh the wonderfully-unique place that it is. However, for the longest time, it seemed that the powers that be were attempting to make the situation worse (as has often been the case throughout the US, but the disconnect problems are amplified that much more in Pittsburgh because of the terrain and history).

There's no doubt that Pittsburgh regional leadership has failed miserably over the years in producing a type of comprehensive plan to guide redevelopment efforts which produce a cohesive and accessible central core to the region (still doing that patchwork thing without figuring out how to pull it together), but a lot has been done by the "behind the scenes players" in recent years to greatly improve the situation... Riverlife, for one, has done wonders for advancing the conversation and effort by providing an informed, maybe even enlightened, and integrative voice for a region with countless fiefdom parasite municipalities represented by small, suspicious, insular minds.

[Urbana]

CMU is planning another fairly major addition to their campus anticipated to start construction this summer. It will be a 100,000 sq. foot "Bio, Energy, Nano" research facility

http://www.cit.cmu.edu/media/feature..._building.html

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/...cility-219026/

Renderings:













Image Credit: Office 52

[Evergrey]

Pittsburgh is an incredibly walkable city... especially the collection of East End neighborhoods (though Baum Blvd is really harsh and Fifth-Forbes in Oakland is rough but improving). The fact that Pittsburgh (city proper) ranks top 3 every year for percentage of people who walk to work is certainly testament to this. However, I agree that there are major connectivity issues throughout the city due to highways, poor pedestrian infrastructure, misguided mid-20th century development, anything owned by Buncher, etc. Our compact Downtown is somewhat squandered by being surrounded by pedestrian dead zones (Allegheny Center, Strip District parking lots, Crosstown Blvd, Civic Arena, Station Square parking lots, etc.

Private Dick makes great points about the topography impacting urban development in Pittsburgh. Explore Pittsburgh on Google Terrain and you will begin to understand just how intense the topography here is. It really explains why there is so much segmentation and hyper-localism. There is no other major U.S. metro that has to deal with these issues.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by Ibanesse

I find it amazing anyone could spend any time in Pittsburgh and its near suburbs and not notice that. That lack of connectivity almost killed me when I was in college there. Literally. I got hit by a car while crossing the street to get to a bus stop that was located across an intersection that had no crosswalks or sidewalks, in the middle of a ditch. As I was going into shock and being strapped to a gurney, a policeman kindly informed me that I had "jaywalked," and that there was a crosswalk down the street. He neglected to mention that this crosswalk was 1.2 miles down the aforementioned street, and there were no sidewalks for that entire stretch, only a very, very small shoulder pressed up against a guardrail.

The fact that this sort of thing is still going on in areas that have been otherwise totally built up is a bit absurd. The compartmentalized nature of Pittsburgh's neighborhoods tends to exasperate the problem. Active, vibrant neighborhoods are all too often separated by swaths of veritable Scooby-Doo ghost towns: the no man's land surrounding the I-279 deck between the North Shore proper and the Mexican War Streets, the dark, creepy stretch of East Carson Street between Station Square and 10th Street, the entire freaking Romulan Neutral Zone the city accidentally set up around the Hill District when they built the Civic Arena (seriously, did Robert Moses make a cameo for that one?)...

Pittsburgh frustrates me like no other North American city. Glorious potential, realized just enough to make it so very, very nice, but stymied just enough to drive one insane.

Btw, here's an interesting article about jaywalking in NYC.

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/com...ywalking/1837/

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by Private Dick

Yeah, I never mentioned the ugliness of the Consol from those aerial shots to re-stir up debate about its merits vs. the Civic Arena's at all. I'm glad the Civic Arena was replaced with a much more effective and appropriate venue. I'm just somewhat disappointed that the Consol wasn't built with higher quality exterior details on all sides but the one with the huge glass wall... and I guess I just hate that ubiquitous yellow-brown brick of the majority of the structure and the god-awful matching parking garage and motel. But, it's what we got.

I generally agree with these criticisms... including the "rinky dink hotel".

[BrianTH]

Yeah, the core area of Pittsburgh has lots of highly walkable pockets, in turn separated from each other by barriers of various sorts. So how convenient it is for walking depends on what sort of scale you are talking about.

That said, we've been making great strides in at least providing usable bike connections between a lot of the major pockets. Lots more needs to be done, but that is already a big step forward in terms of non-motorized connectivity.

[PghSH22]

[QUOTE=Evergrey;5678966]Pittsburgh is an incredibly walkable city...


That is supposed to be a joke, right? Walkable is just about the last adjective I would use to describe Pittsburgh. Sure, once you are already downtown, or
already in the east end, or already in the south side or north side or oakland you can walk around easily within those areas. However, it is terribly impractical, if not almost impossible to walk between these neighborhoods (let alone the fact that Pittsburgh's weather is atrocious). As someone who grew up in Pittsburgh and has subsequently lived in Seoul, Rome and now Manhattan, it has unfortunately become glaringly apparent that Pittsburgh's largest flaw is its lack of connectivity/walkability. The T is useless unless you are commuting from the South Hills, cabs are nonexistent, the bus system is inefficient and like I stated earlier, unless you have an extra few hours, dont mind risking your life or possibly getting drenched by rain, walking from area to area is just not really an option. One of the main aspects of home that bothers me the most is the fact that I need to drive just about everywhere. Obviously, I don't expect Pittsburgh to have the same scale of public transportation or taxi services as the aforementioned world class cities with huge populations, but its certainly can and should have much better than exists now, regardless of the geography. As the US population is becoming more and more Urban seeking, walkability throughout a city and accessibility to services/entertainment are also becoming more and more important in drawing larger populations. Anyone that tries to argue that fact is not in touch with reality and anyone who tries to argue that Pittsburgh is indeed walkable also is sadly mistaken. There are many, many wonderful things about Pittsburgh, and I would defend it to the death, but walkability and accessibility throughout the central core neighborhoods is certainly not one of its compliments and is something that, in my opinion, should be the MAIN focus of improvement for city leaders if they intend to further the progress that Pittsburgh has made in the past decade and really start to draw a sizable population into the city limits.

[glowrock]

[QUOTE=PghSH22;5679360]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

Pittsburgh is an incredibly walkable city...


That is supposed to be a joke, right? Walkable is just about the last adjective I would use to describe Pittsburgh. Sure, once you are already downtown, or
already in the east end, or already in the south side or north side or oakland you can walk around easily within those areas. However, it is terribly impractical, if not almost impossible to walk between these neighborhoods (let alone the fact that Pittsburgh's weather is atrocious). As someone who grew up in Pittsburgh and has subsequently lived in Seoul, Rome and now Manhattan, it has unfortunately become glaringly apparent that Pittsburgh's largest flaw is its lack of connectivity/walkability. The T is useless unless you are commuting from the South Hills, cabs are nonexistent, the bus system is inefficient and like I stated earlier, unless you have an extra few hours, dont mind risking your life or possibly getting drenched by rain, walking from area to area is just not really an option. One of the main aspects of home that bothers me the most is the fact that I need to drive just about everywhere. Obviously, I don't expect Pittsburgh to have the same scale of public transportation or taxi services as the aforementioned world class cities with huge populations, but its certainly can and should have much better than exists now, regardless of the geography. As the US population is becoming more and more Urban seeking, walkability throughout a city and accessibility to services/entertainment are also becoming more and more important in drawing larger populations. Anyone that tries to argue that fact is not in touch with reality and anyone who tries to argue that Pittsburgh is indeed walkable also is sadly mistaken. There are many, many wonderful things about Pittsburgh, and I would defend it to the death, but walkability and accessibility throughout the central core neighborhoods is certainly not one of its compliments and is something that, in my opinion, should be the MAIN focus of improvement for city leaders if they intend to further the progress that Pittsburgh has made in the past decade and really start to draw a sizable population into the city limits.

Wow, comparisons of Pittsburgh with places like Rome, Manhattan and Seoul? Are you freaking kidding me? Not to mention that none of these places have topographical challenges quite the way Pittsburgh's got them? Don't get me wrong, there are many things that can and should be done when it comes to properly connecting major pedestrian zones with each other, but most of the issues involve hills, slopes, rivers, ravines, and other obstructions (such as Crosstown Blvd.), these are things that aren't easily rectified by simply adding more sidewalks, for instance.

Downtown to the Strip District is easy, just fill in some of the huge parking lots with some buildings. I believe this will probably happen in the next couple of years. Strip to Hill District, that potential new incline sounds like a hell of an idea! Downtown to Oakland? Well Forbes is slowly, SLOWLY getting better through The Bluff, but obviously it's not even close to "there" yet... Shadyside, Squirrel Hill, East Liberty, etc., are all pretty walkable to and from each other. South Side definitely needs a better way to get downtown, though the 10th St. Bridge isn't exactly a bad way currently. Station Square and Downtown? Easy, Smithfield St. Bridge.

Yes, the bus service is erratic at best, terrible at worst. Partially PAT's fault, probably mainly the State's fault for not properly funding public transit both here in Pittsburgh as well as in Philadelphia. This state seems to focus almost entirely on the vast part of Pennsylvania in between the two main cities, and pretty much ignores Pittsburgh and Philly for most things. As far as taxis being nearly nonexistent, well, hopefully the new proposals for a taxi service that regularly patrols places like Station Square, the South Side, Oakland, etc., will come to fruition and help out substantially.

Aaron (Glowrock)

[Jonboy1983]

[QUOTE=PghSH22;5679360]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

Pittsburgh is an incredibly walkable city...


That is supposed to be a joke, right? Walkable is just about the last adjective I would use to describe Pittsburgh. Sure, once you are already downtown, or
already in the east end, or already in the south side or north side or oakland you can walk around easily within those areas. However, it is terribly impractical, if not almost impossible to walk between these neighborhoods (let alone the fact that Pittsburgh's weather is atrocious). As someone who grew up in Pittsburgh and has subsequently lived in Seoul, Rome and now Manhattan, it has unfortunately become glaringly apparent that Pittsburgh's largest flaw is its lack of connectivity/walkability. The T is useless unless you are commuting from the South Hills, cabs are nonexistent, the bus system is inefficient and like I stated earlier, unless you have an extra few hours, dont mind risking your life or possibly getting drenched by rain, walking from area to area is just not really an option. One of the main aspects of home that bothers me the most is the fact that I need to drive just about everywhere. Obviously, I don't expect Pittsburgh to have the same scale of public transportation or taxi services as the aforementioned world class cities with huge populations, but its certainly can and should have much better than exists now, regardless of the geography. As the US population is becoming more and more Urban seeking, walkability throughout a city and accessibility to services/entertainment are also becoming more and more important in drawing larger populations. Anyone that tries to argue that fact is not in touch with reality and anyone who tries to argue that Pittsburgh is indeed walkable also is sadly mistaken. There are many, many wonderful things about Pittsburgh, and I would defend it to the death, but walkability and accessibility throughout the central core neighborhoods is certainly not one of its compliments and is something that, in my opinion, should be the MAIN focus of improvement for city leaders if they intend to further the progress that Pittsburgh has made in the past decade and really start to draw a sizable population into the city limits.

Hey, I've been barking up this tree for some time myself. I'm arguing for extension of our T beyond the North Side (up to Cranberry and out to the Airport) and for a heavy metro line extending out to Oakland and East Liberty.

In terms of a bus service/sytem that is inadequate, I wholeheartedly agree. Instead of cutting "costs" the Port Authority should be figuring out how to better utilize said costs to enhance the system instead of slicing it up. The Port Authority is pretty much slitting its own wrists...

[Minivan Werner]

In terms of walkability reconnecting Webster & Wylie back to the edge of downtown will go a long way in reconnecting the Hill with the city, too. Decking one block of the Crosstown Blvd would be icing on the cake.

Wish something could be done about the scary walkways between the North Side and the North Shore. It wouldn't even take much, just some cement, paint and lighting.

[themaguffin]

Walkable doesn't mean that one can walk from one end of the city to another without disruption. that's ridiculous.

Pittsburgh is rich in neighborhoods that are very walkable. The topography creates some barriers and a disjointedness yes, but that's the reality of the geography.

Cities also have large boulevards and part of the character of Oakland is Fifth and Forbes (maybe not "grand" but still...)

[George Woods]

Originally Posted by Minivan Werner

Wish something could be done about the scary walkways between the North Side and the North Shore. It wouldn't even take much, just some cement, paint and lighting.

Now that's one thing that actually HAS been done! They've been fixed up exactly the way you suggested. They're a lot better.

[Private Dick]

[QUOTE=glowrock;5679373]

Originally Posted by PghSH22

Downtown to the Strip District is easy, just fill in some of the huge parking lots with some buildings. I believe this will probably happen in the next couple of years. Strip to Hill District, that potential new incline sounds like a hell of an idea! Downtown to Oakland? Well Forbes is slowly, SLOWLY getting better through The Bluff, but obviously it's not even close to "there" yet... ... South Side definitely needs a better way to get downtown, though the 10th St. Bridge isn't exactly a bad way currently.

Yes, the bus service is erratic at best, terrible at worst. Partially PAT's fault, probably mainly the State's fault for not properly funding public transit both here in Pittsburgh as well as in Philadelphia. This state seems to focus almost entirely on the vast part of Pennsylvania in between the two main cities, and pretty much ignores Pittsburgh and Philly for most things.

Aaron (Glowrock)

Yeah, the Strip-to-Downtown connections are by far the easiest from a physical standpoint. That's why I've always thought that the Strip is the natural extension of Downtown/Cultural District. The Strip has the potential to become Pittsburgh's "Warehouse District" a la New Orleans or Cleveland -- and it's made big moves in that direction with the renovations and construction of "loft-style" living options, addition of restaurants and cultural amenities.

I really think it would be huge for Pittsburgh to get a T line extending out from downtown providing transit to the Strip and into Lower Lawrenceville, then connecting with the tracks that parallel the busway into Oakland, thru Panther Hollow to 2nd Ave to connect with that proposed 2nd Ave line. The rights of way exist already, and let's face it, Pittsburgh is not going to build a T line through the Hill to connect Downtown and Oakland -- that's just not going to happen when flat, largely-unused railroad lands already exist that can be utilized to provide transit connections. It has about as much chance as the Strip to Hill District incline... meaning, not a chance in hell

10th Street Bridge really isn't a viable option to go between the Southside and Downtown. You can certainly do it without too much trouble, but it's not realistic to think that people will. Duquesne students use it (and then climb that crazy staircase), but few others do. Going downtown, it leaves you at a busy no mans land intersection under the parkway lanes and exit ramps with the Armstrong Tunnels facing you -- which leaves you with the option of either crossing busy traffic lanes to walk through a long, dark, smoggy tunnel or turning left and walking down along 2nd Ave past the jail. Either way, it's a rather long, unpleasant walk. The Smithfield St. Bridge is probably more realistic (and used much more by pedestrians) to go back and forth between downtown and Southside... though it leaves you in Station Square which is then a good hike through a crappy area along Carson St. to the Southside proper.

As for the part about the state ignoring Philadelphia and Pittsburgh almost entirely in favor of the vast part of the rest of the state... no, just no. Ever been anywhere else in PA? Thriving cities, booming even, with state funding, huh?

Originally Posted by Minivan Werner

In terms of walkability reconnecting Webster & Wylie back to the edge of downtown will go a long way in reconnecting the Hill with the city, too. Decking one block of the Crosstown Blvd would be icing on the cake.

The Arena site redevelopment SHOULD do wonders for connecting downtown once again. And the proposals to deck Crosstown would be awesome, but I'm not going to get too hopeful about that idea ever getting off the drawing boards.

[Private Dick]

This is cool!

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/...for-13-632924/


National arts convention picks Pittsburgh for '13
April 25, 2012 12:00 am
By Mackenzie Carpenter / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Once again, Pittsburgh has snagged a big one.

Americans for the Arts, the nation's largest nonprofit organization promoting arts and arts education, announced Tuesday it will be holding its annual convention in Pittsburgh next year -- giving the city a chance to show off its varied, vibrant community of artists.

The convention won't happen until June 2013, which means plenty of time to redd up beforehand.

An estimated 1,500 artists, educators, community leaders and business supporters are expected to attend the convention, said officials from Americans for the Arts at a meeting at Highmark headquarters at Fifth Avenue Place with business and foundation leaders.

Pittsburgh beat out Boston, Minneapolis and Chicago, among other cities, said Mitch Swain, CEO of the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, which helped put together the city's winning bid.

"There was an advance team that came here, and two of them had never been to Pittsburgh before. They had a 30-year-old view of the old Pittsburgh -- smoky, polluted. They were shocked to see how untrue that was," said Mr. Swain, whose group represents the region's arts, artists and cultural organizations.