Pittsburgh Area Development - Request for Info & Updates (Oxford: 2014, condominiums)

[szug-bot]

Originally Posted by gg

You can ride the tracks up to Verona if you want to head up to Dirty Harry's. Not for most people to try, but I have done it now and again. The guy has stopped people on those tracks before and yelled at them. He hates people near his tracks. I have a feeling someone got hit by a train or whatever and maybe he had to deal with lawsuits or something. Just guessing. I don't know any train people that want pedestrians roaming around their train tracks. It still amazes me that people get hit by a train. Really amazing.

i dont follow. the tracks are still there, and on his property?

you'd be surprised about getting hit by trains. its crazy, but we may not realize how much sound we hear that we filter out by habit. people just are so used to being in their own head that they HEAR, but somehow are still not listening.

in a training class a few years back, we saw a video of a woman exiting a commuter train somewhere in suburban NYC, possibly in CT. it was security video. you can HEAR the other train coming. i'm sure she did. but it was rush hour, and she was going home, as she had probably done hundreds of times.

well, with her train idle, she carefully strode in front it to cross a second set of tracks, and looked right...well, the sound you heard was the other train, COMING FROM THE SAME DIRECTION as hers - she looked right, but not left, as that second train barrelled through from being obscured from the idle train.

WHAM. dead on impact.

[gg]

Originally Posted by qwerty01

A bike ride sounds nice gg. If you start at Heinz history museum (on Liberty) traveling through the end of Lawrenceville, and then do a full "loop" back on the opposite side of the Strip, you'll see with your own eyes close to (if not exceeding) $1B in development currently under construction on that ride. It's quite impressive, relative to Pittsburgh development at least.

Took a bike ride Lawrenceville, The Strip and Downtown the other day and there was a lot of construction and new places going up. I still like the place on Butler and 55th a lot. Good location and easy walk to a lot of places on level ground. Also a very good place for a starting point to cycle. I didn't get to all the places I wanted to see, as I had some issues with a crazy motorist or two. I could elaborate, but whatever. Lets just say with my look I will be a target for certain types. Anyway, I ended up down at the Point. Ah, it was SUPER nice down there. Then went over to the North Shore and it really looks pretty nice and new. The apartments along the trail heading north really grew in nicely and look very relaxing. Rode up the trail to Millvale and it was just nice. Plenty of people out, but not crowded. It was about 3pm. I ended up riding the RR tracks to Sharpsburg and it was very rough. Not recommended unless you have fat tires or full suspension.

I am going to ride a lot more downtown and around the Strip and South Side. It was motivating and uplifting.

Oh, I road Penn Ave in the city and it looked very nice. Funny the bus sinkhole road is still closed. Oh and I LOVED that Thai Restaurant's outdoor seating. Just awesome!

[szug-bot]

Originally Posted by gg

... I didn't get to all the places I wanted to see, as I had some issues with a crazy motorist or two. I could elaborate, but whatever. Lets just say with my look I will be a target for certain types.

curious...and wish you would elaborate. maybe its just your bad luck to run into these d-bags.

i had some guy in brighton heights yell at me last year - it was so obvious i veered to my right so as not to take an entire lane (as some bike people do) to let him pass. this didnt matter. my existence rankled his right as a driver.

so im not sure you are taking it personally, or maybe you have a MAGA shirt on. or, a Nickelback concert shirt.

[Charley Barker]

Originally Posted by gg

Took a bike ride Lawrenceville, The Strip and Downtown the other day and there was a lot of construction and new places going up. I still like the place on Butler and 55th a lot. Good location and easy walk to a lot of places on level ground. Also a very good place for a starting point to cycle. I didn't get to all the places I wanted to see, as I had some issues with a crazy motorist or two. I could elaborate, but whatever. Lets just say with my look I will be a target for certain types. Anyway, I ended up down at the Point. Ah, it was SUPER nice down there. Then went over to the North Shore and it really looks pretty nice and new. The apartments along the trail heading north really grew in nicely and look very relaxing. Rode up the trail to Millvale and it was just nice. Plenty of people out, but not crowded. It was about 3pm. I ended up riding the RR tracks to Sharpsburg and it was very rough. Not recommended unless you have fat tires or full suspension.

I am going to ride a lot more downtown and around the Strip and South Side. It was motivating and uplifting.

Oh, I road Penn Ave in the city and it looked very nice. Funny the bus sinkhole road is still closed. Oh and I LOVED that Thai Restaurant's outdoor seating. Just awesome!

Good for you! We went to a couple of the Garfield first Fridays (or whatever they were calling them) last summer. I really like the scale of the buildings and what they've done with the facades on that part of Penn Ave. The events and businesses open were really unique. At 55 I was definitely on the tail of the curve as far as age distribution. But no one gave us any dirty looks. ;-) I REALLY miss all the outdoor summer festivals.

[gg]

Originally Posted by szug-bot

curious...and wish you would elaborate. maybe its just your bad luck to run into these d-bags.

i had some guy in brighton heights yell at me last year - it was so obvious i veered to my right so as not to take an entire lane (as some bike people do) to let him pass. this didnt matter. my existence rankled his right as a driver.

so im not sure you are taking it personally, or maybe you have a MAGA shirt on. or, a Nickelback concert shirt.

I wouldn't have any MAGA anything on. I don't judge anyone that does, which makes me tolerant of other people's views, which seems to be lacking these days. Makes me sick. Same losers that have "all are welcome" on their front lawns. I laugh every time I see that knowing that would run over a MAGA person in a second.

Anyway, my important part was about how nice things are coming along. I will ride more and mention more over the next weeks. I really wanted to enjoy the Point today, so it became a focus. So nice!!!!!

[svband76]

Originally Posted by gg

Same losers that have "all are welcome" on their front lawns. I laugh every time I see that knowing that would run over a MAGA person in a second.

Ha, so true. Anyway, do you know if that dirt path and rail tracks that go from Millvale parking lot towards Sharpsburg will ever be paved?

[gg]

Originally Posted by Charley Barker

Good for you! We went to a couple of the Garfield first Fridays (or whatever they were calling them) last summer. I really like the scale of the buildings and what they've done with the facades on that part of Penn Ave. The events and businesses open were really unique. At 55 I was definitely on the tail of the curve as far as age distribution. But no one gave us any dirty looks. ;-) I REALLY miss all the outdoor summer festivals.

Yeah, it has been a tough year for festivities unless you are a protester, then you can gather in huge groups and do as you please even with a police escort. Wow.

Anyway, I will be going down there more and more. I think you need to spend more time in the downtown/Strip area if you want to really get a feel. Reading on here makes it seem like Pittsburgh is in trouble or whatever. Sure this pandemic is tough, but I think when it mellows we will fully rebound. There is just too much to offer around Lawrenceville/East Liberty/Downtown and all around that region. I could go for a piece of cake about now. Butterwood open?

[gg]

Originally Posted by zalewskimm

Ha, so true. Anyway, do you know if that dirt path and rail tracks that go from Millvale parking lot towards Sharpsburg will ever be paved?

That isn't a bike trail it is a RR maintenance trail. As it is right now the RR doesn't want a trail going up to the new Etna Riverfront Park, that I rode by. It is very small, but has a great view and really is pretty cool. Very urban. I am not sure what the final plans are for that park, but it is kind of neat. I can understand why the RR is wildly against that park, but you gotta hand it to the leaders. They found some very old legal document that showed that RR crossing was legal and the RR couldn't do anything about it.

I know there are plans to get the trail there, but I don't know how or when. It needs to be further from the RR tracks than the road is.

[szug-bot]

and, hopefully never. this would be great for the lower north side, or for the center of downtown....

but for the Strip - good luck today at the Planning Commission. And go to hell while you are at it.

THis is pretty much what i was talking about - architects/planners not from a place are so insensitive TO it.


https://www.post-gazette.com/busines...s/202008250137


i know its maybe behind a paywall. i got in, though - i think you are given a few free views per month at the PG site.

the architect is quoted: "It’s meant to be an “elegant neighbor ... that will stand the test of time.”

“It doesn’t need to shout from the rooftops. It needs to be an elegant and humble and sober design in our view that will become a timeless classic over the course of history,” he said.

Go to hell, idiot.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by szug-bot

and, hopefully never. this would be great for the lower north side, or for the center of downtown....

but for the Strip - good luck today at the Planning Commission. And go to hell while you are at it.

THis is pretty much what i was talking about - architects/planners not from a place are so insensitive TO it.


https://www.post-gazette.com/busines...s/202008250137


i know its maybe behind a paywall. i got in, though - i think you are given a few free views per month at the PG site.

the architect is quoted: "It’s meant to be an “elegant neighbor ... that will stand the test of time.”

“It doesn’t need to shout from the rooftops. It needs to be an elegant and humble and sober design in our view that will become a timeless classic over the course of history,” he said.

Go to hell, idiot.

Having listened to most of the comments, I frankly thought the commissioners were a bit overly critical of the building.

I mean, do I love the design? No. But they're complying with zoning, and willing to bring a big new office building to market - on spec - in the current environment. And given the way that the economics of building design works, the alternative isn't some "signature building" of similar massing. Its either something of way smaller scale or nothing at all...probably a multi-year delay regardless.

My biggest hope with the project remains they find some way to reconfigure so that there are no parking garage entrances off of Penn Avenue, but there appears to be slim hope of that, as DOMI (the city department involved with designing the parking plan) seems convinced Smallman will be the "new pedestrian street" in the Strip, and thus that facade has to be the effective front of the building.