Civic Arena: crime scene
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Post-Gazette columnist Brian O'Neill finally said out loud what everyone knows is true ("Point of Realism Interferes with Preserving Arena," Feb. 8): Whatever replaces the Civic Arena, in the end, must serve the needs and growth of the Hill District as much as it serves the Penguins' bottom line.
A wound needs to be healed. A wrong needs to be righted. Seems like a no-brainer. But it's not so easy.
The Penguins have legal development rights to the property. They can do almost whatever they want with it. They should not. They should show enormous forbearance, unprecedented in the history of corporate America, and agree to a cooperative master plan. One that still makes them money, but one in which they let other architects, the Hill community and local leaders have actual design power.
Yes, I am saying that a company with the legal right to develop property should relinquish substantial control. Call me a socialist, or a libertarian, or a whatever.
The Civic Arena was built by legal means. The group that tore down the Lower Hill was legally entitled to do so. The development was called a triumph. But it was a crime.
Big news: Just because something's legal doesn't mean it's right. Just because you have legal rights to something doesn't always mean you have no one to answer to when you want to chuck it. Especially when that something is a monument.
Yes, the arena is an important symbol, an historically crucial object. Because it's a modernist masterpiece? I'm no architect, but I'd have to say, "No."
It's important because it's evidence in a crime scene. It's a weapon left on a battlefield. And this sword should be made into a plough share.
We should never forget what happened on those 28 acres. A strong, nationally known working-class neighborhood was wiped away. A neighborhood that gave Pittsburgh and America a symphony of cultural giants -- musicians, actors, merchants, sports heroes and civic leaders -- was chopped off at the knees.
The Hill gave generations of immigrants a foothold in this country, it gave them their first home and it gave them a voice -- quite literally with the Pittsburgh Courier, which was to the African-American population The New York Times of its day.
First Published February 11, 2011 12:00 am
