Yarone Zober: Downtown can make comeback again … with care for place and people
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Since 1753, when a young British major named George Washington recognized that the land at the confluence of Pittsburgh’s three rivers was “extremely well situated for a fort,” our “Golden Triangle” of a Downtown has been recognized as a special place.
This little patch of land, a little less than one square mile, is one of a handful ties that bind the entire region together. It is the second largest hub for jobs in Pennsylvania. It is where we congregate as a region to celebrate, to be entertained, to root for our home teams, to feel like Pittsburgh.
In the nearly 300 years since, from time to time critical moments have appeared to threaten Downtown’s very existence. Fires, floods, depressions, recessions and pandemics — a host of apocalyptic events of biblical proportion. Flipping through the yellowed newspaper clippings of those times, in the moment these events seemed to signal the end of Downtown for good. In some cases, physical devastation leveling entire city blocks. In others, economic or social conditions causing the Downtown fabric to deteriorate, an unsafe, unclean ghost town. Looking back, however, there was never a true point of no return. Each time, there was a comeback of one kind or another, some announced publicly, some evolving quietly, gradually, one building or block at a time. Never on its own. Always led by a group, formal or informal, and key individuals.
For example, in the 1970s and ’80s, a large swath of downtown was considered a “red light district,” teeming with pornographic movie theaters, XXX video and book stores, massage parlors, nuisance bars and other “adult” themed shops and venues. These conditions led to another crisis, Pittsburghers and visitors afraid to go downtown and finding less they’d like to do when they did. In response, the corporate, philanthropic, civic and arts communities worked with government to create a 14-block Cultural District, with historic theaters restored, new ones built, blight replaced with public parks and art installations, buildings used for irreputable business purchased and repurposed to serve a more public interest.
In the 2000s, after the Great Recession, downtown was at another tipping point. The last of Downtown’s department stores closed and entire buildings — and city blocks — were left vacant. Once again, Pittsburgh stakeholders rose to the occasion to rescue Downtown. Working groups and task forces were assembled by city government and downtown stakeholders to address issues as part of a building-by-building, block-by-block approach. Large employers, private developers, nonprofit leaders, educational institutions and government officials and redevelopment agencies ushered in a building boom resulting in the first skyscrapers in decades, the conversion, beautification and preservation of underutilized historic buildings, new activity in formerly vacant storefronts, and new apartments, condos and parking facilities.
These comebacks have been achieved, most often, by acquiring, developing and converting real estate and buildings, improving and activating public space and creating programs for business and property owners to help meet desired community outcomes.
If and when a new group of civic leaders unite, the same tools can be used again to advance a new Downtown comeback. Specifically, this time, in a post-pandemic world where many office workers may not return from remote work and companies are downsizing their real estate needs, there must be an additional push to convert formerly occupied office buildings to new and, particularly, residential uses.
There is one element of the current crisis, however, that feels more pervasive than Downtown challenges in recent memory: a sense of lawlessness that wasn’t present before. “Tent city” camps of the unhoused along city streets. Open-air drug dealing and hard drug use. Heroin addicts self-injecting in broad daylight on street corners. People exposing, and relieving, themselves in front of bystanders of all ages.
Perceptions of public safety in downtowns don’t always match reality. City centers are louder, more crowded and disorderly than newcomers would expect in a suburban mall or office park. But, as Jane Jacobs, one of history’s great urban activists recognized, in a downtown where virtually everyone on the street is a stranger “the bedrock attribute of a successful city district is that a person must feel personally safe and secure on the street among all these strangers.” It is hard for many to feel safe among the strangers right now.
Much has been made during this Downtown turning point about the need to actually solve, not just address, Downtown homelessness if order is to be restored. In reality, Downtown has always been a place of refuge to the region’s relatively small unhoused population (around 100 living outside, unsheltered in the 477,000 acres that make up Allegheny County), and its churches, shelters and agencies have always tended to the needs of those seeking help. The difference appears to be a new laissez faire approach to public illegal conduct where police officers and other officials are not empowered to stop unlawful conduct or actively guide those with addiction and mental health issues to aid. It is an open secret than many police officers and Downtown stakeholders, only willing to speak confidentially for fear of losing their jobs or public attack, would like to do more to prevent illegal activity, but have either been told directly or indirectly by superiors to take no action in a political environment where prevention of illegal activity can be perceived as insensitive to those in need.
But there is nothing humane about turning a blind eye to illegal tent cities in public spaces when those who live in them clearly need help. Just last month, one person was stabbed to death in a homeless camp area. There is nothing kind about standing by and watching those struggling with addiction deal or use drugs in the street or a public park. Only a few months ago a man who had overdosed on a downtown street died after being shot repeatedly with a BB gun while unconscious. There is nothing caring about allowing those suffering from mental illness to threaten, or expose themselves to, a public that includes vulnerable populations like young high school and college students attending school Downtown.
To make the latest in a series of comebacks, in addition to the traditional real estate-based solutions, this time, Downtown needs an engaged government that encourages and trains public safety and public health officials to actively address illegal conduct that puts the actor and the innocent bystander at risk. Unafraid to get those who need help the help they need.
Yarone Zober served as deputy mayor and chief of staff to Pittsburgh’s mayor from 2006 through 2013 and is a former chairman of the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh.