Uptown: Pittsburgh's next hot neighborhood?
-
Lyn Hyde, left, and Helen Perilloux, who both live in the Uptown area, and other volunteers work on a new community garden on Tustin Street. -
Emily Ballinger moved to Tustin Street in Uptown six months ago. -
Jeanne McNutt, left, executive director of Uptown Partners, Nate Hurt, 45, of Uptown and other volunteers work on a new community garden on Tustin Street. -
John Fleenor, 44, his wife, Helen Perilloux, 41, and their 8-month-old daughter, Zephyrine Fleenor, are living on Gist Street, Uptown, a neighborhood that Mr. Fleenor calls "a work in progress."
Share with others:
When Chris Spina went to Duquesne University in the 1970s, he didn't think the area was a neighborhood. Most students commuted and few ventured to Fifth Avenue.
The northern boundary of Uptown, Fifth Avenue now bustles with students, restaurant patrons, hockey fans, concert-goers, workers and potential investors.
It's a pivotal time for the roughly 905 households that nestle nearly invisibly into the industrial and institutional streetscape. Tens of thousands of drivers pass through every day without seeing the neighborhood. But it is starting to assert itself.
On a recent balmy day, do-it-yourselfers on ladders pounded and painted along Locust and Tustin streets. Ed D'Angelo popped out of his Forbes Auto Repair shop on Gist Street to hail sculptor James Simon. Children were walking home from school. A dog barked.
It was a village moment in a place that John Fleenor, a Gist Street resident and artist, calls "a work in progress."
The negative perception that dogs so many neighborhoods dogs Uptown. But Mr. Fleenor said that in the fixing up of first one then another house on his street, "we have seen a big difference."
"I think people think our crime is higher than it is," said Jeanne McNutt, executive director of Uptown Partners. Uptown, which the city officially calls the Bluff, had 147 serious crimes in 2009, similar to Upper Lawrenceville and Squirrel Hill North, albeit with a much smaller population.
Ten years ago, when Mr. Simon moved into a warehouse on Gist, the street was a hangout for prostitutes. Neighbors relentlessly called 911, he said, and the nuisance has almost completely abated.
"It's now probably the way it was 30 years ago," said Mr. D'Angelo. "It was good, then it flopped. Now it's coming around again."
Jon Kasunic, a partner at Agency 1903, a TV-commercial production company, renovated a typesetting warehouse on Gist and moved the business there six years ago.
"My wife said, 'Are you crazy?' but we were so happy to land here," he said. "South Side was a little too hip, and we got graffiti. Here we have a lot of characters and local color" but so far no vandals.
Longtime residents are proud to note the number of newcomers.
Lynn Hyde grew up in Ben Avon and moved back to Pittsburgh from Brooklyn this year.
"My dad's a real estate agent," she said, "and he said, 'Why not Uptown?' "
First Published November 21, 2010 12:00 am
