Pittsburgh's Zone 3 police station is moving on up, from a South Side Flats spot that was subject to a state safety inspection last week to a former youth hostel on the shooting-plagued Hilltop.

Mayor Luke Ravenstathl announced the move yesterday, saying he made the decision Thursday when he heard news of a shooting that wounded two in St. Clair Village. That convinced him that "criminals in the Hilltop communities needed to hear that we were serious. ... I was sick of sending e-mails. I was sick of talking about things."

On the Hilltop, battle-scarred residents and business owners rejoiced.

"I'm celebrating," said Judy Hackel, president of the Allentown Community Development Corp., who has "watched a lot of things go" in 30 years fighting for the neighborhood.

"There's never been a police station up here. Maybe now it's finally our time."

On the Flats?

"I'm shocked," said Virginia Carik, board member of the South Side Community Council. "We should have been informed as to why they're closing it, and it should have been a proposal instead of a flat statement."

The move from 1725 Mary St. to 830 Warrington Ave. in Allentown is to take effect Jan. 1. That's also when Mr. Ravenstahl hopes to restart enforcement of the city's long-dormant youth curfew. First the city needs to find a private agency to care for children caught violating the curfew.

Mr. Ravenstahl said he will also increase extra police "saturation patrols" on the Hilltop from three to seven days a week. "We have to restore peace to the Hilltop," he said.

There may also be new urgency to do something about the antiquated Flats station.

State Department of Labor and Industry inspectors visited the station on July 11, after Cmdr. Catherine McNeilly filed a complaint about working conditions there. The department's report may be completed next week.

Officers recently have said the station has plumbing problems and chronic insect infestation.

Still, the station is popular on the South Side, where the struggle with unruly bar patrons never ends.

"Losing that [police] presence on the Flats, my sense is it will be viewed with great concern," said Hugh Brannan, chair of the South Side Planning Forum.

"I don't want this to be a divisive issue -- us against them, Flats against Hilltop," said Councilman Bruce Kraus, who represents both areas and chairs council's Public Safety Committee but was not consulted on the move. "My issues concerning policing in Zone 3 are not addressed by bricks and mortar, but by management."

He said the zone, which stretches from Mount Washington to Arlington Heights and Banksville to Carrick, has had a "revolving door" of commanders, giving each little time to get to know the community.

He said it also suffered from the reopening this year of the Zone 6 station in West End. A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette review of incidents and staffing numbers in the zones found that during the first three months of this year, Zone 3 was the most overworked, and Zone 6 the least busy per officer.

Mr. Kraus said there are usually just 22 officers patrolling Zone 3. He said Brookline, Beechview, Overbrook and Banksville should be policed from Zone 6, as they were before the West End station closed in 2003.

Mr. Ravenstahl said he's not redrawing the policing map now, but moving the station will make it more central to Zone 3. Mr. Kraus said there has been no study proving that.

The city doesn't yet know what it will cost to turn a youth hostel -- and before that a bank -- into a police station. The new site is owned by the city's Urban Redevelopment Authority, which has hired architect Suzan Lami to turn it into a station.

Also unknown is the ultimate fate of the Mary Street building. The fire station there will remain for now, the mayor said.

No one on the Hilltop seemed worried about the details.

Three brothers at Herman J. Heyl Florist -- Robert, Brian and Joseph -- all agreed that having the police station across from their storefront is "great," said Robert Heyl. "The hostel is another empty building, and filling it will hopefully curtail the problems. We have garbage, prostitution, drug dealing. They don't even hide it, they do it right out on the street."

Jonathan Vlasic opened his restaurant, Alla Famiglia, on Warrington Avenue more than three years ago and said the police presence might do more than curb crimes.

"We need more business on the street, and maybe the police will be a step toward making the streets cleaner and safer for businesses to invest," he said.