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Editorial: Saving a landmark The Duquesne Incline is threatened by a drop in ridership Wednesday, December 08, 1999
People who live in cities - particularly tradition-minded Pittsburghers - want things that evoke a sense of the past, that are comforting reminders of their own heritage and individual history. But one of those special things that makes Pittsburgh distinctive - the Duquesne Heights Incline - is threatened.
Despite the addition of an observation deck, gift shop and upper station improvements 10 years ago, the number of riders on the Duquesne Incline has dropped from more than 500,000 to below 400,000 a year. The Duquesne Incline and the Monongahela Incline, which doesn't have a ridership problem, are the last of 15 inclines that once operated in the city.
Officials with the nonprofit Society for the Preservation of the Duquesne Heights Incline believe that more people who live on Mount Washington and surrounding neighborhoods now rely on their cars to get to jobs in the city below.
The incline's declining ridership must not be allowed to result in its disappearance. It is too much a part of the city and has too much potential as a visitors' attraction and as a promotional tool for that to be allowed to happen.
Community support is needed for a fund-raising drive now being conducted by the nonprofit Society for the Preservation of the Duquesne Heights Incline. It seeks to raise between $600,000 and $800,000.
The money would be used for much-needed upkeep and improvements on the city-owned pedestrian footbridge over Carson Street and an elevator at the lower station house.
What is also needed is a sound development plan that would stabilize and then increase ridership and use of the incline for tourism.
It also would be helpful if something would be done with the Lawrence Paint Building at the foot of the incline. A historic designation hangs in the balance for it because the city planning commission rejected the designation and the historic review commission approved it, leaving it up to a City Council vote to decide the matter. That could lead to a practical plan for reusing it as lofts or shops or for something else.
But allowing the building to simply sit vacant, boarded up and faded makes little sense and detracts from the willingness to use the incline itself.
Those in a position to do so should mobilize now to save the Duquesne Heights Incline, a treasured Pittsburgh landmark before it goes the way of the Syria Mosque and Jenkins Arcade.
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