15211.org

It seems that the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has picked up on some of the buzz surrounding Mt. Washington, the re-zoning initiative on Virginia Avenue, and the struggle to rejuvenate a once vibrant neighborhood. We’re hoping that the issues we’ve raised and the subsequent discussions 15211 readers have had about them had a little something to do with this attention. You can check out the full article to get some context around the following commentary from members of our community.

“People are very possessive of their parking spots,” Mr. Valenta said. “Parking is a real issue … These are the cold, hard facts. It isn’t that some people are just [automatically] opposed to what goes in there.”

“In their hearts, they think they’re doing the right thing,” said Chuck Wallace, owner of Wallace Florist on Virginia Avenue and a life-long Mount Washington resident. “But they’re worried about 20 years from now. I’m worried about Mount Washington right now.”

“I was there about six weeks ago. I had two prospective buyers there,” he [Tom Chunchick, of R.E. Crawford Construction] said. “Both of them looked out the window and said, ‘You want me to pay this price for this place, and I can’t even see the city.’”

Mt. Washington is truly at a tipping point. If we as a community continue to discourage development, developers will eventually stop inquiring. An inevitable decline will occur. Businesses will fail and residents will move. There will be more than enough parking because no one will be here. This isn’t about parking. This is about fear. Fear of change. Fear of gentrification. Fear of displacement. A fear that residents have had in post-industrial cities across the country. This kind of concern should always be respected and taken into account during the urban planning process, but maybe the way to cope with it isn’t to reaffirm it by discouraging development.

Mt. Washington is unique, but it’s not. We have geographical attributes that draw people to us, but the challenges inherent in revitalizing our business districts are no different than what other urban neighborhoods have faced. There is no more or less parking here than there was in Shadyside or Squirrel Hill 20 years ago. These neighborhoods and neighborhoods like them around the country chose the difficult path. One that requires compromise and negotiation and realizing that what’s best for an individual or a small group of individuals is not always what’s best for everyone.

Cities like New York and Los Angeles have been exploring automated parking garages as an environmentally-friendly way to mitigate parking problems when developing urban areas. Pittsburgh has been trying to establish itself as a leader in green building. Wouldn’t being the first mid-sized city to experiment with this parking solution go a long way toward that goal?