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Sorry for the delay guys. I had a sick kid yesterday (not the one in remission with cancer).
Anyway, East Liberty is of course a large neighborhood arguably at the heart of the East End of Pittsburgh. It began its history in the mid 19th century as a small concentration of denser housing built around a single-track rail line to Philadelphia - making East Liberty the stopping off point for anyone traveling westward across the state by train. Due to the large concentration of millionaires and later upper-middle class people in East Liberty and surrounding areas which would later be called Highland Park, Friendship, and Point Breeze, the local commercial area became not only bustling, but upscale as well from the 1890s through to the Great Depression.
While East Liberty remained a vibrant commercial area, beginning in 1958 the commercial was faced with its first commercial vacancies in decades due to increased competition with suburban malls. Urban planners of the era embarked on one of the classic mid-century follies, constructing a highway-like ring road around the commercial area, demolishing much of the outlying portions of the commercial zone in order to build extensive parking lots, and turning Penn Avenue through the core of the district into a pedestrian mall. What is often lost is this construction process took a decade, which made it even more of a hassle for people to visit East Liberty. At the same time the decision was made to place new high-rise government housing projects directly within the commercial zone. This worsened many of the issues, as (for example) the local pedestrian mall was perceived as a dangerous place to loiter. As a result the plan ultimately hastened the decline of the neighborhood.
Of course, the story of East Liberty over the last 15+ years has been its renewal. The old public housing towers have been razed, with new smaller-scale projects replacing them. Other public housing projects have been replaced with privately-managed mixed income developments where crime is much less of an issue. Penn Avenue became a through street again. Centre Avenue is now two ways, with the remainder of the old Penn Circle soon to follow. There's been new big-box development, like Home Depot, Target, and Trader Joe's. East Liberty Development Inc. (ELDI) was instrumental in buying out "slumlord" properties in the northern portions of the neighborhood and flipping them into safe homeowner occupied or rental properties. Crime is way down. And gentrification is ongoing, albeit probably not as dramatic as people claim it is.
So now we're at the present - I'll go through each of the "sub-neighborhoods" of East Liberty as they are today, with my thoughts.
"Friendship" East Liberty:
A small residential area comprised of one side of South Negley, Amber Street, and S Saint Clair. Similar to Friendship proper, this area is comprised of large brick houses built out between 1890 and 1910 which have often (but not always) been subdivided into apartments. The area never had substantial white flight, although it went through a "sketchy" phase similar to Friendship. Although it's mostly residential, the Sharp Edge, a notable bar for its large beer menu, is located here. The edge of the neighborhood also has the Spinning Plate Lofts and the best mechanic I know of in Pittsburgh (Walter's Automotive). One could also say it includes the
Downtown East Liberty:
First, a word on boundaries. The city defines the southern border of East liberty as being Centre Avenue until it intersects with Penn. This means that technically speaking a lot of the new development in East Liberty is in Shadyside, including the original East Side shopping center (which contains Whole Foods) the new Eastside Bond Apartments, and Bakery Square's residential portion. It's not important for the redevelopment of the neighborhood, but it will be important when the census records the population change.
East Liberty's commercial district is unique within city limits because it was originally a three-dimensional downtown, not merely a strip largely along a single street like East Carson in South Side or Butler Street in Lawrenceville. Although this has been lost to a significant degree, the neighborhood still has two primary commercial streets (Penn and Highland) two smaller ones (Broad and Baum) and a few other random storefronts scattered around.
The level of gentrification of the business district is highest along the southern portion of Highland, which has essentially turned into an extension of Shadyside. On one short block of S Highland, for example, there's the Livermore, Pizza Taglio, Muddy Waters Oyster Bar, Spoon, and then BRGR around the corner, with nothing left of "old East Liberty" but the Global Food Market. The Ace Hotel is nearby on S Whitfield Street. Nearby portions of Baum are a mixture of long-time stable (but unfashionable) businesses and some new gentrified businesses.
Penn Avenue has, remarkably, changed relatively little commercially given the big changes in the remainder of the neighborhood. Target has of course opened up on one end, and there's a new gym in one of the mixed-income midrises on the other side. Zeke's Coffee is in the heart of the Penn Avenue business district, and visited by older and newer East Liberty residents. A new bank branch recently opened up on Penn as well. But for the most part the businesses along Penn still cater to a lower-income black clientele, and seem to be active.
North Highland is still a pretty sleepy area. My understanding from talking to people in the area is the Hotel Indigo, unlike the Ace Hotel, has been somewhat of a failure. There are some gentrified businesses in the nearby Indigo Square shopping center (a repurposed strip mall). I get olive oil at the local place because I know the vendor, and she complains about the lack of foot traffic. Broad Street is mostly filled up with offices of small nonprofits now. Several of the storefronts along N Highland are currently being rehabbed - to what ends I do not know.
On residents, as I noted most of the residential development which has taken place is actually in Shadyside. But the successful rehab of the Highland Building is in East Liberty proper, as is the new-construction midrise which recently went up at the corner of Penn and Highland. The two buildings on the western edge of the business district which replaced the towers are mixed-income residential buildings. Considering in 2010 there were literally less than 200 people living within the confines of Penn Circle, with most of those being at the local homeless shelter, this is a good start. Downtown East Liberty needs more apartment buildings if it's going to reach full vibrancy however. Already you can see there is a lot of commercial vacancy in the new construction buildings - vacancy which will not fill in without more pedestrians walking through the neighborhood, which in turn won't happen without more residents.
Old Project Areas:
Immediately to the west of downtown East Liberty is an area which was historically occupied by low-income lowrise apartments. To the north of Penn this development was partially rehabbed into the mixed-income New Pennley Place Apartments during the 1990s - a safe residential community. The area to the south was sold to LG Realty with a 30-year covenant and became Penn Plaza, which is right now in the process of being razed. As it has been reported in the news, LG desires to build 200 new market-rate apartments, along with commercial space for a new Whole Foods, on this location. LG Realty seems to have really screwed up their relations with the community in rolling out this development, so we'll see what happens.
To the east of downtown East Liberty, and north of Target is an area which is in the process of being totally rebuilt into new mixed-income apartments. The first of these projects was the Fairfield Apartments, which was built out in two stages, filling in the entire area along Centre Avenue. Last year a new phase of Larimer-focused infill also built new apartments along East Liberty Boulevard, where residents from the now-shuttered East Liberty Gardens have been relocated. Current plans call for a new park to be built in currently empty space along Larimer Avenue. In addition, now that East Liberty Gardens has been closed, the buildings are scheduled to be razed, adding a fourth phase to the residential infill which will begin this year. The only things which have not either been redone yet are the abandoned Saint Peter and Paul Church (which is apparently too expensive to rehab) and the Enright Court development (which are condos, and thus will continue to exist until the sun swells into a red giant and engulfs the earth).
North Central East Liberty:
There is a small residential area in East Liberty which is west of N Highland and South of East Liberty Boulevard. The area is a somewhat confusing mix of different developments - everything from apartments to houses, with a lot of unfortunate mid-century infill mixed in. I walk these streets a lot, and my perception is that this area never fell as far as some other parts of the neighborhood. There certainly are some rehabs, and I know there are plans for some market-rate new construction houses on the empty lots, but noting has happened yet.
Northeastern East Liberty:
Home Depot and the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary are both gigantic parcels spanning several city blocks, cutting down on the contiguity of East Liberty. Immediately to the east of these areas is a small residential zone. You can tell walking around this area that it was never wealthy like the other parts of East Liberty - most of the houses are frame, and many of them are small, making it look more similar to Larimer. It's also not gentrified in the slightest - I was just walking through the area last weekend, and many houses are still boarded up, with broken glass on the sidewalks. That said, ELDI is currently building several infill houses on vacant lots in this area for people of moderate income. I think there is one market-rate house which is being built on a vacant lot on Saint Marie Street as well.
Northern East Liberty:
The majority of the residential portion of east liberty is located between East Liberty Boulevard and Stanton Avenue. Historically there were three blocks heading north here, although Black Street was at some point filled in between Negley and Euclid, which is why you see 500 and 600 addresses on the same block on Mellon and N Saint Clair. The only reason to make a distinction is you can see the difference in housing quality walking up the streets. The old 500 blocks were more working-class housing, often built out of wood, but once you hit the 600s nearly every house is brick and grand similar to Highland Park. One notable exception is N Beatty, which has the Alpha Terrace historic district, made up of stone rowhouses.
This area suffered a lot through East Liberty's bad period but has been a big focus of ELDI in its neighborhood reconstruction. significant infill projects have taken place on Mellon Street and N Euclid. Virtually every single empty lot left in this zone has some sort of planned single-family infill. Habitable houses in this part of the neighborhood often sell for well over $300,000, which is a testament to how far along the gentrification process is. That said, the gentrification is a bit of a slow burn, because the area is lacking in walkable amenities. Aside from an auto garage and a barbershop, there are no businesses in this area, and it takes around 15 minutes to walk into East Liberty's commercial district. Thus it will never be "hot" in the same sense that Lawrenceville is.
Negley Place:
A few blocks of East Liberty are to the west of N Negley between Black Street and Stanton Avenue. This area has been historically called Negley Place, with local residents at times not even wanting to be considered part of East Liberty, instead identifying with Highland Park. My understanding is it never fell as hard as some other parts of East Liberty in the "bad old days." That said, I walk these blocks fairly often, and it seems like the overall level of gentrification is less. Still, perhaps this has more to do with the stability of the neighborhood - more of the run-down looking houses were either owned by homeowners or by responsible landlords rather than slumlords, so the houses were not targeted to be bought out and refurbished by ELDI.
Whew...I hope I don't have to do too many more like that.
Excellent history. I used to frequent "Sliberty" in the 1960's - Every Saturday I walked to the YMCA (now the Ace Hotel) from our house on Mathilda Street in Garfield. My friend and I learned to swim there, along with archery, wood shop, hockey, etc. I think we went for a year or 2, starting around 1962. We also used to go to the movies at the Regent on Penn Avenue. I do remember when the Penn Circle disaster was started. My family left Pittsburgh in 1970, and I've been back a handful of times on short visits. In fact, I'll be there in July for a few days. I'm a little homesick lately.
I always consider Black Street a little dicy when I drive by there on Negley and my guard is up there, but it always is and hand at the ready when driving my car. Don't bike there. $450K? Seems pretty high, but maybe they are selling like hotcakes?
I always consider Black Street a little dicy when I drive by there on Negley and my guard is up there, but it always is and hand at the ready when driving my car. Don't bike there. $450K? Seems pretty high, but maybe they are selling like hotcakes?
this is one topic we agree on 100% - people paying over $400k for cheaply built townhouses in east liberty have to be smoking crack - i mean i sort of understood it when the ace hotel was flying high and out-of-towners had no idea how bad the neighborhood was back in the day, but now that everything's closed, in most cases permanently, i don't get it - at all
when i was a kid the area directly behind peabody was considered to be worse than vietnam during the war, to be avoided at all costs - now check these ZESTIMATES
My wife and I are looking to purchase a property to make home for the foreseeable future and really like East Liberty's proximity to my job (in Oakland) and stuff we go to a bit like Trader Joe's bars like Lorelei/Kelly's etc, and easy access to other stuff in the east end. However for the same price as a townhouse, we can get a SFH in Greenfield. Anyone have advice on which they would lean? Greenfield seems pretty residential and established versus East Liberty having new stuff popping up all of the time. I am looking at this from a window of future equity and proximity to future growth of the city.
Interesting analysis, and great photos. That said, I don't want to accuse you of being disingenuous, but don't you also have to consider, for example, the rise of the bakery square development and shops and competing coffee shop right down the road?
Yeah, Margaux seems to do good business every time I pass by. Though I tend to stop in Redstart Roasters more, since it's on the way home when I walk through the neighborhood.
It is true though that the northern side of Penn Avenue has been remarkably resistant to business-level gentrification. There's not much on those few blocks other than the macaron place (I have no idea how it survived the pandemic). But IMHO it's a good thing, because there are still hundreds of lower-income people in the mixed-income housing which surrounds the business district, and the new-build developments like Eastside Bond certainly aren't going to have retail that caters to them.
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