Eastside is getting mixed reviews along East Liberty's business corridor on Penn Avenue.

Guido Altun, who has owned Hip Hop City at the corner of Highland and Penn for the past for 10 years, believes all the redevelopment, starting with the tear-down of the East Mall high rise, has leached his customer base away.

All these improvements "are killing my business," he said. "They're not blending the two neighborhoods; they're just bringing Shadyside this way."

Right next door, Sam Arabian, of Sam's Bostonian shoes, couldn't agree less.

"Eastside is bringing in a lot of different customers," he said. "It's a changing atmosphere. How could you not be happy?"

Baiyinah Brookins, who works at her father's Jamil's Global Village store, which sells jewelry, candles, fragrances and exotic goods, says she happily patronizes Borders and Whole Foods. "It brings a new dynamic to the neighborhood."

But, added Ms. Brookins, 22, "I don't want to see a suburbanization of this area. I wouldn't want to see a Bath and Body Works shop here."

Todd Levine, owner of the Mo' Gear sportswear shop on Penn, said he thinks Eastside isn't "bringing these two neighborhoods together. It's pushing them farther apart.

"There's no bonding going on," he said. "You're just expanding Shadyside this way and making it an extension of Ellsworth Avenue. Rents will go up, and low-income residents will simply have to move somewhere else."

Despite the criticism, Eastside co-developer Steve Mosites remains confident in his development and the broader goal of building stronger connections between two neighborhoods by offering options everyone wants.

"The goal is to find great uses for property that everyone in the region can enjoy. The goal isn't to push out the less fortunate," he said, a point he emphasizes by noting that all the new mixed-income housing that has been built in the community in recent years is doing well.

"We already know that high concentrations of low income do not lead to sustainable communities," added Malik Bankston, director of the Kingsley Community Center in Larimer.

"I understand some people have a sense of loss about what once was here, but so much of that is shaped by looking backward, and we can't keep doing that."

It's a concept that Nicole Carter, a minority business owner who just opened Visionary Dance Studio on Penn, strongly agrees with.

"For me, Eastside is exciting," she said. "I used to run out to the mall for things, but now I can go to Walgreens, or the bookstore or even Staples," in a nearby shopping center that once housed a Phar-Mor and later, a Shop 'n Save and goes by the name of the Village of East Side.

"I teach my children, low income doesn't have to mean low quality. There's got to be a mix in this neighborhood; otherwise, our children won't ever have the opportunity to know what good quality is. They deserve to know that as much as everyone else."