Fifty years ago, the city fathers made a costly mistake.
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| | | Sala Udin is a member of Pittsburgh City Council, representing the 6th District. | |
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They uprooted 8,000 residents from the Lower Hill District and scattered them to various parts of the city to make room for a "cultural district" that would include the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Pittsburgh Ballet and the Civic Light Opera. After executing this "urban renewal" project, amputating the lower half of the Hill District, the city fathers decided, "Oops, we made a mistake. We don't want to put our cultural district there after all!"
By that time, they had already begun construction of the intended new home of the Civic Light Opera, called the Civic Arena (renamed Mellon Arena in late 1999). So the rest of the cultural district plan was abandoned and this vast area of "urban renewed" land lay empty. Later the Washington Plaza Apartments -- with no windows facing the Hill District -- and the Central Medical Pavilion Hospital were built. To this day, surface parking lots surround this area, from Fifth Avenue to Bedford Avenue and from Freedom Corner's Crawford Street to Chatham Street, encircling the entire 20 acre parcel.
The Civic Arena was a somewhat unique architectural design with its silver dome, which was to open for concerts under the stars. In fact, however, the dome was open only on rare, good-weather days in summer, when it wasn't raining. There were very few open-air concerts in the history of the arena, fewer and fewer over the years.
Now the hospital sits vacant and the Penguins are looking to build a new arena across the street on the site of the hospital. Also now, 50 years later, the vacant land accommodating a sea of parked cars has become some of the most valuable, undeveloped real estate in the city.
It sits centrally located in the heart of the city. It is near all the major arteries, I-579, I-279, I-376, Bigelow Boulevard, Boulevard of the Allies, Fifth Avenue, Forbes Avenue, Penn Avenue, Liberty Avenue. It is adjacent to Downtown, the Strip District, the Convention Center and Duquesne University/Mercy Hospital, and convenient to Oakland and the North Shore. It should be, in short, a developer's dream. That is because there are no families to relocate (anymore) and the land is owned by the city and the county, so it could be made available on favorable terms.
If the Penguins are successful in putting together a financing package, this community will be presented with the most attractive development opportunity we have had in 50 years.
This will be an opportunity to do much more than simply fill in a vast urban gap caused by an urban renewal mistake. Rather, it will be an opportunity to build a healthy organic neighborhood connection between the wonderful new Hill District neighborhood at Crawford Square and the rest of Downtown.
But this opportunity will rest entirely on getting rid of the original mistake --the Civic Arena -- itself. Unless we are prepared to do that, streets will not be reconnected to Downtown and the critical mass of residential and commercial building will not be reached.
To put it simply, this wonderful development opportunity demands that we be willing to face the consequences of our own city's past mistakes, not "preserve" them.
We are already hearing the desire being expressed by some historic preservationists to save the Civic Arena for old time's sake. If the Penguins are successful and vacate the Mellon Arena and build a new sports venue across the street, does any thoughtful Pittsburgher really believe that it is sound land use policy to have two arenas next door to each other?
There is no way to argue that preserving the arena simply out of preservationist nostalgia is an intelligent exchange for a truly once-in-a-lifetime development opportunity. The architecture may, in some technical ways, be unique. But there is no use for the building that could possibly compensate this community for the obstruction its continuing presence would be to a vibrant, renewed city neighborhood.
From the perspective of those of us who live in the Hill District, it is clear that after 50 years, most of the families uprooted from the Lower Hill have become acclimated to their new homes and would not likely return.
However, there are many important healing and economic benefits that would come to the remainder of the Hill District from the new development. The city would make every effort to provide favorable financing so that Hill District residents -- those who want to make the investment -- could become homeowners in the newly rebuilt Lower Hill District.
The development plans would provide contracting and employment opportunities for Hill District residents. We have all learned a great deal from Plan C experiences about how to be more effective in assuring fair participation.
Finally, businessmen and businesswomen should have access to capital to open and operate businesses in the new development. This new development should provide the critical mass needed to assure market based business district development throughout the Hill, including retail, grocery and the other normal amenities of a healthy city neighborhood.
Long overdue development is currently rebuilding parts of the Hill in Bedford Dwellings, the middle Hill and Oak Hill. The arena site would provide a tremendous opportunity to move toward the full revitalization of one of this city's great historic neighborhoods.
That's what we really need to be doing, "for old time's sake." And it would be the right thing to do for the future of our city.
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