Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood is a mix of city housing, institutions and retail businesses with limited space, too much traffic and too little parking.

Oakland also is where people from the president of City Council to the general manager of the Port Authority say low-speed maglev transit makes the most sense.

Even John Rawls, vice president of electromagnetic systems for San Diego-based General Atomics, which is to build the high-tech components for maglev if it becomes a reality, prefers Oakland over a Civic Arena-to-Downtown shuttle.

Here’s what Rawls said in a recent interview:

"An Oakland route would serve an urban area where a real transit need exists but is difficult to meet without a unique system like maglev. … Oakland is the place we would like to showcase our technology to the rest of the world."

Western Pennsylvania Maglev Development Corp., Pittsburgh promoter and developer of the low-speed maglev here, said Oakland was its first choice, too, and the route it initially studied with funding from the Mellon Foundation.

But WPMD said Mayor Murphy resisted the proposal because it involved a parking garage and elevated guideway next to Second Avenue and former LTV industrial property he was preserving for a coke works and other development.

As a result of Murphy’s stance and WPMD’s opportunity to raise more money from a 5,000-space parking garage behind the Civic Arena, WPMD officials focused on the Downtown maglev first.

Murphy’s press secretary, Craig Kwiecinski, said Murphy had no comment.

WPMD President David O’Loughlin said it’s too late to back down on the Civic Arena maglev shuttle system and that maglev would still be extended to Oakland as part of the next stage of the $700 million, 10-mile Pittsburgh project.

The Oakland extension would cost about $300 million. WPMD said two-thirds would come from the federal government.

The line would run from the Civic Arena, past Mercy Hospital and Duquesne University, and follow Second Avenue to Oakland and Fifth Avenue, stopping at Magee-Womens Hospital, University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie museums and Carnegie Mellon University.

Maglev would loop through Panther Hollow to Second Avenue, where a 5,000-car parking garage on a former LTV site would intercept traffic from the Parkway East, Mon-Fayette Expressway, Second Avenue and Greenfield Avenue.

"If that [Civic Arena shuttle] is a test system, OK," City Council President Bob O’Connor said. "The real benefit would be in Oakland. The Port Authority has no plans, and we’re still driving the same roads we took to Forbes Field and Oakland 50 years ago."

Port Authority General Manager Paul Skoutelas said if the authority encouraged maglev anywhere, it would be in Oakland.

"Oakland is a possibility as long as maglev does not interfere with our current plans and needs," Skoutelas said.