Friday, July 25, 2025, 4:45PM | 
MENU
Advertisement
1
MORE

Retooling the URA: A neighborhood focus must not duplicate efforts

Getty Images/iStockphoto

Retooling the URA: A neighborhood focus must not duplicate efforts

The city should always be working to improve its economic development efforts — the economy is ever evolving, after all — so Mayor Bill Peduto’s plan to reimagine the Urban Redevelopment Authority merits cautious enthusiasm.

Cautious because changes at the URA, established in 1946 to stimulate the city’s postwar renaissance, could bring improvements or setbacks.

Mr. Peduto wants the “new URA” to focus more on neighborhood development and small businesses. Those are legitimate goals, but the agency must not duplicate the work of existing neighborhood development groups, such as the Bloomfield-Garfield Corp., or start dictating how neighborhoods will grow. Neighborhoods deserve to control their destinies. 

Advertisement

Better for the URA to offer more help to development groups already doing good work and facilitate the creation of these organizations in places lacking them. The city’s postindustrial recovery across 90 neighborhoods has been uneven. A retooled URA could play a role in bringing vibrant business districts to neglected neighborhoods, such as Homewood and Larimer, and help local leaders develop plans for tying their corners of Pittsburgh to the larger economy.

Mr. Peduto’s refocusing of the URA was prompted partly by a Brookings Institution report last year that called for the city to better commercialize the research done at hospitals and universities. In partnership with neighborhood residents, the URA might explore how Homewood could own a part of that effort. 

A University of Pittsburgh report last year championed the city’s potential to be a center for the life sciences. If supported by people living and working there, the URA might ask how Larimer could stake a claim to that work.

A heightened focus on small business would be welcome. Studies by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation have shown that Pittsburgh trails other cities in generating startups, helping them grow and supporting entrepreneurs. Shortage of venture capital is a chronic problem.

Advertisement

As much as certain neighborhoods and small businesses could use more help from the URA, the agency must be careful not to overextend itself. There’s no one to take over the agency’s portfolio of big projects, such as the long overdue redevelopment of the former Civic Arena site, and little good would come from the URA morphing into a bigger bureaucracy with substantially more power.

The city, URA and Pittsburgh Housing Authority have partnered for the $27.5 million purchase of the former Art Institute of Pittsburgh building, Downtown. It is posh space in a prime location best suited for a taxpaying developer, not government agencies. This is a bad move — especially for a development group  — that exposes the defects in Grant Street decision-making.

The URA should offer neighborhoods and small businesses as much assistance as it can, while understanding its limits and respecting neighborhood sensibilities. The URA has much to offer, but it doesn’t have all the answers.

First Published: September 24, 2018, 4:00 a.m.

RELATED
SHOW COMMENTS (0)  
Join the Conversation
Commenting policy | How to Report Abuse
If you would like your comment to be considered for a published letter to the editor, please send it to letters@post-gazette.com. Letters must be under 250 words and may be edited for length and clarity.
Partners
Advertisement
David Mielnicki, left, and Debbie and Jerry Santucci, owners of Cafe Notte in Emsworth.
1
life
Cafe Notte sharpens its focus after transformation via a major TV makeover show
An aerial view of Hersheypark.
2
news
9-year-old dies in incident at The Boardwalk in Hersheypark
There is a large covered porch at the front of the house at 115 Forest Hills Road in Forest Hills.
3
life
Buying Here: Forest Hills home in its own 'mini-forest' listed for $425,000
Pirates starting pitcher Johan Oviedo delivers against the St. Louis Cardinals in the first inning in Pittsburgh, Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023.
4
sports
Pirates Pipeline: Johan Oviedo earns 1st win since 2023 as he inches closer to MLB
New Steelers wide receiver DK Metcalf, (4), hauls in a pass during practice on the first day of Steelers Training Camp at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe Thursday, July 24, 2025.
5
sports
Steelers training camp observations: Aaron Rodgers-DK Metcalf connection is a work in progress
 (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Getty Images/iStockphoto
Advertisement
LATEST opinion
Advertisement
TOP
Email a Story