The problem with Pittsburgh’s progress

My grandmother grew up in Esplen, which is a tiny little sliver of Pittsburgh in the west end of the city. She packed up her family and left the city when my father, her youngest, was a baby. Almost half a century later, I started school north of the city, and Pittsburgh will always be home. My family’s American history began here, but my Pittsburgh is not my grandmother’s Pittsburgh.

My city has come a long way since the days of Fort Pitt, to say the least. We were once the center of the steel industry, and had been deemed the door to the west. This progress had a major price tag though, and we were eventually known as the city so smoggy that we had to leave our street lights on during the day. Our rivers looked like sewers, but in the 1940s Mayor David Lawrence was going to change that.

This was a regular day in Pittsburgh, back before the Clean Air Act.

Pittsburgh cleaned its act up, but again, this progress came with a price. The Clean Air Acts (which were absolutely needed) put strain on the working and lower class residents who now needed to buy cleaner coal—which, of course, was more expensive. The pressure on the factories to be cleaner also stifled production. This was all just a short time after the Great Depression, during which Pittsburgh had been an arena for intense labor strife.

Even with this all, we survived. Pittsburgh is a city that doesn’t give up easily, and you can see that reflected even today. We are the center of higher education for Pennsylvania, boasting an incredible number of universities. We are also a rich area of culture, between the Carnegie library and museum systems, The Benedum Center, and our rich arts scene. The cost of living here is also incredibly low, which has put us on many Most Livable Cities lists. We’ve been recognized by Forbes and The Huffington Post, among others.

Pittsburgh has an abundance of different museums with cutting edge technology

The Pittsburgh I live in now is not my grandmother’s Pittsburgh. She lived through those disgusting levels of smog, and grew up working in a meat packing plant. I live in this beautiful, grown up city, and both jobs I’ve worked here have been in cushy office buildings. I might not live in my grandmother’s Pittsburgh, but a lot of people still do.

You can’t watch the news without hearing about a shooting in the Hill District, or a drug deal gone bad in Homestead. Just last month, a shooting left ten children without parents when a group targeted a family barbeque in Wilkinsburg. Yet, it’s easy to ignore those problems unless you’re in the middle of it.

I live in Oakland, which is just a stone’s throw from the Hill District. The Hill District is a historically black neighborhood, and was once a thriving center of jazz and culture. Now, 40% of residents live below the poverty line. How did this fall happen, especially during what was herald as a time of growth and renaissance for the rest of the city? After all, we even got the Civic Arena during this time, which was totally great for everyone involved… Right?

The Civic Arena, which displaced 1500 families

The project, led by George E. Evans, was meant to revitalize the area. Instead, it displaced 8,000 residents and caused the economic and cultural death of the area. These effects are very blatantly still felt today, and it was only recently that the area got a grocery store.

There are recent movements to help the area, and that is the type of progress we as a city should be proud of. The first grocery store, a coffee shop, and a new branch of the YMCA… That is what we should be writing articles about and making lists for, but it’s not sexy. It surely doesn’t paint Pittsburgh as the millennial and tech paradise that the city is trying to market itself as.

These lists that we keep making blatantly ignore the “bad” areas of the city, and subsequently encourage others to look over them as well. My Facebook friends keep sharing those articles, and people not living in the city keep seeing our really tempting housing prices… and subsequently, we’re slowly becoming the next victim of gentrification.

I say we, but really, gentrification would benefit most of us because we can work with the system. I don’t have kids, I have good credit for my age, and while I’m buried in student debt, it’s honestly nothing more than the average millennial has.

In fact, I’m writing this from the new Starbucks in Amos Hall on campus. I look around here, and see a variety of students, working professionals, and one or two professors. Gentrification works for me because I have a nicely paid internship and can afford a $5 cup of coffee.

The beautiful Oakland students get to reside in

According to a 2012 report by The Department of Treasury, 47% of Pittsburgh residents reside in what is called a “food desert.” These deserts are pockets of areas where it’s very hard to come by fresh foods, mostly resulting from the lack of easily accessible grocery stores. This wouldn’t be as big of a deal if transportation in Pittsburgh wasn’t so awful—if you’ve ever had to rely on a PAT Bus to get to work, you know what I’m talking about.

Parking here is an absolute joke, and disgustingly expensive. PAT bus fare is $2.50, so even taking the bus to go grocery shopping takes $5 away from an already small food budget for many residents, without taking into account bringing along children or having to manage heavy bags on the way home.

These issues of housing and food insecurity will become worse with the further gentrification of Pittsburgh. Our low housing costs (compared to other similar sized cities) are low because many of the homes are not the nicest, but ringing in working professionals who CAN afford expensive rent will change that. There will be less affordable housing, and still the same demand, creating a cesspool ripe for slum lords.

From the Huffington Post 2016 Top 10 Cities Techies Should Consider Moving To

Take the new SkyeVue apartments, for instance. They’re really beautiful, and will have a killer view true to their name. They’re also right on the edge of West Oakland, close to the Hill District. This historically black neighborhood is suffering, and developers build palace-like apartments right next door. That is the real effect of gentrification, so please don’t brush over it because you want our city on another top whatever list.

I fear for the future of my city, and while I truly believe that Mayor Peduto has good intentions, he’s helping shuffle in this new image of Pittsburgh. After all, gentrification is technically good for a city. It helps bring up profits, and can help a city essentially clean up its act. But, where do the undesirable types of residents go? Where can they, when housing prices are raising and job availability is shrinking? Mayor Peduto likes to focus on bringing a new era to the city, but he needs to take a step back and remember who voted him into office.

A view from the Gateway Clipper

There are two sides of Pittsburgh, and for the love of Mr. Rogers, stop ignoring our less shiny and successful side. We can’t keep ignoring our literal and actual starving neighbors, because that is not something we want to have in common with New York and Chicago.

I know it’s hard, because you love this city and you want to be proud of how much “progress” we’ve made. But, instead, be proud of our resilience. Be proud of our story, and that means all of it. Show your pride by helping out at a community kitchen. Save the $5 from your coffee once a week and buy a homeless person a meal, or donate to one of the local animal shelters. Be more aware of those who live outside of your student bubble, and stop being a jagoff and sharing those damn most livable city lists until Pittsburgh is actually livable for everyone who’s lived here for generations.