Pittsburgh Places: Some readers defend plaza crackdowns
Share with others:
I felt like the girl who kicked the hornet's nest on Sept. 29, the day my column ran about Downtown building owners limiting access to their plazas -- specifically Four Gateway Center and EQT Plaza.
"Have you ever been to Four Gateway's park except at lunchtime?" e-mailed Rob McKenna, who for the past year has walked through the plaza to get to and from the building he works in on Stanwix Street. "I commend Hertz on cleaning up that area."
Mr. McKenna wrote that he has "seen two fist fights, witnessed folks sharing bottles of liquor, saw people urinating in the doorway (exiting the parking garage below)" and often encounters "a heavy smell of marijuana and urine, and has seen other pedestrians being harassed.
"There are several women at my office that will take a longer route rather than pass through that park for their personal safety."
Steve Magill, who also works in a building on Stanwix Street, had a similar reaction:
"On a daily basis, my co-workers and I upon leaving work had to walk through the plaza while gangs of 'unruly' (using the term mildly) young people verbally fight, physically fight, urinate beside benches, have sex on benches, enjoy boisterous conversations that always seem to include 'F' this and 'F' that.
"And, no, I'm not exaggerating; I've seen all of the behavior listed. It's really not the sort of thing I (or my co-workers) need on a daily basis when leaving work. I couldn't understand how the property management let that behavior continue. Then, the signs showed up, and now it's a pleasant walk through the plaza. The only people that are down there are the ones that know how to act in public. Finally they did something to correct the problem, and you're complaining about it?"
There's a similar issue in EQT Plaza, writes Lisa Worsing, who works in a law firm in the building.
First Published October 12, 2010 12:00 am
