Quote:
Originally Posted by pj3000
Yeah, the massive demolition of the Lower hill neighborhood/Crosstown Blvd. (to go along with downtown Pittsburgh's situation with water on its other two sides) is a major reason why downtown Pittsburgh will never have the vibrant urban environment like Philly, Boston, etc... where residential neighborhoods scale up and link rather seamlessly into the central business district. Pittsburgh destroyed all of that.
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So I have been thinking about this and I want to sketch out a vision which is a LITTLE less glum.
It is true the Golden Triangle is mostly surrounded by rivers, and then on top of that it was surrounded by a ring of destruction. But, it is also true outside that first ring, a lot survived. So, much of Lawrenceville survived, much of the Hill survived, some of Uptown survived, a lot of residential Oakland survived, a lot of the South Side survived, a lot of Mt Washington survived, and a lot of the North Side and Manchester survived.
We now have the opportunity, and it is gradually happening (too gradually), to infill that ring of destruction. The Strip is filling in. The Lower Hill MIGHT finally be starting to fill in. Near Uptown and some of the more wiped out parts of the Middle Hill and western Oakland are starting to fill in. The "South Shore", "North Shore", and now maybe Chateau are filling in.
We have a long way to go, and it won't all be perfect, but at some point it may be possible to walk or bike from all of those surviving "second ring" historic neighborhoods to the Golden Triangle without passing seas of surface parking, with instead going past occupied apartment buildings, office buildings, hotels, shops, a Ferris wheel, and so on.
That leaves the rivers and hills and ravines and such, and we can't eliminate those. But even holding aside the possibility of using some new transit technologies to make those less of a barrier, I think those natural features are both curse AND blessing. They are a blessing in the sense they introduce nature into the built environment, and provide natural paths for walking, biking, and even boating if you like.
OK, so Pittsburgh is never going to look like a "normal" city which can have a single street grid that stretches for miles and miles, with minimal interruptions as the built environment gradually scales down with less proximity to the CBD.
But, it can still be something very liveable, workable, and cool. Indeed, for the same reasons it can't be a "normal" city, it can be pretty unique, and unique can be good. We just have to focus on making it that way.