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There is a wal-mart at the waterworks - which is city limits.
Sorry, but that reeks of privilege. How the heck are people going to walk to Walmart in the Waterworks? The city needs Walmart in that vacant lot. People don't want Whole Foods because they went viral, but at least Walmart is cheap and that is what the city needs. Bring it on!
What's wrong with mixed-income development? Penn Plaza was a DUMP, and if it was going to stay, then it at least needed an overhaul in the coming years. What about a dense new mixed-use project that was 75% market-rate (yuppie-friendly) and 25% subsidized? It seems to work well for Crawford Square. It's better to have mixed-income projects than sprawling low-income projects like Northview Heights or Chauncey Drive. I don't qualify for subsidized housing and can't afford market-rate housing (the "caught in between" demographic this sub-forum pretends doesn't exist), but if I was a yuppie I'd have no problem having one neighbor who was a Google engineer and one neighbor who was on food stamps.
Sorry, but that reeks of privilege. How the heck are people going to walk to Walmart in the Waterworks? The city needs Walmart in that vacant lot. People don't want Whole Foods because they went viral, but at least Walmart is cheap and that is what the city needs. Bring it on!
I was on my cell, so I couldn't quote easily. Somebody said they were happy that there isn't a walmart in the city. There is. I was just stating a fact.
I was on my cell, so I couldn't quote easily. Somebody said they were happy that there isn't a walmart in the city. There is. I was just stating a fact.
you are actually wrong... there is not a SUPER walmart.. that aspinwall walmart is tiny and has nothing
We will do anything we can to stop growth of any kind and only cater to jobs that require high level degrees and lots of training! Geez, what a bunch of morons stopping this. Talk about the privileged stopping jobs for those in need, but that is our way around here!
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Originally Posted by gg
Pittsburgh sure seems to do everything in their power to discourage logical growth.
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Originally Posted by xdv8
Anyone who believes that compromise is possible from the community groups is deluding themselves, that's what makes them nearly as annoying as the developer.
It's the City's job to manage this, and so far BP and Kev Acklin are just doing the bidding of one side and the rest of us suffer, including all of those who would have already benefited from the contribution to the affordable housing contributions this project would have made which was estimated at $10-12m.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SteelCityRising
I don't qualify for subsidized housing and can't afford market-rate housing (the "caught in between" demographic this sub-forum pretends doesn't exist), but if I was a yuppie I'd have no problem having one neighbor who was a Google engineer and one neighbor who was on food stamps.
It's because the middle class here is silent, and braindead. People here live like zombies, with their lives pre-ordained. It is such an annoying, parochial bubble of "know your place, don't rock the boat, be happy you have a job, things used to be worse".
There are no advocates for the middle-class, no advocates for making things work more efficiently. Instead the middle-class is conditioned to be grateful that they have a job, didn't have to join the Yinzer economic diaspora in the 80s/90s/early 00s, and can still live in their own little bubble with their whole extended family. And they'll keep being nominal Democratic, Catholic, union-supporters since that's what their mill-hunky ancestors were conditioned to be.
It's my absolute biggest criticism of Pittsburgh - things here are completely focused on the upper-class and the lower-class. Nobody, absolutely nobody, cares about the middle class here. All of the tax breaks and incentives are going to construction of the luxury condo boom to house our new techie Übermensch overlords. And the Democratic Party's Santa-Clause-esque giveaway of "affordable housing" doesn't benefit the middle class either.
Instead, the middle class finds itself being squeezed by both ends. Costs are appreciating - particularly housing costs. The tech workers can afford it, and its still a bargain compared to the coastal cities they're relocating from. But the middle-class here is hit with stagnant wages, and stagnant opportunities. I said in another thread, that the economic bubble is going to pop in Pittsburgh because while everything is becoming more expensive the middle class is not seeing its wages increase. Employers still want to pay like it's Pittsburgh circa 2007.
So even though costs are increasing, and wages are stagnant, City leadership (aka the Politburo) still wants to bend over the middle class and place another barrier in their way of home ownership by increasing the transfer tax - to subsidize the lower class. It's insanity. And on top of that, Comrade Rudiak wants to look into giving away more free pre-school slots. Guess where that money is going to come from? Yup, the middle class - bless their generous hearts!
And while PWSA is going to H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks in a hand-basket, the communist clowns in City Hall were wasting their time talking about banning the circus from coming to town. It's farcical.
And nobody sees anything wrong with any of this this. That's the craziest part to me!
SCR, you're a good guy - but you've gotta give up this illogical dream of buying a house in City limits. For all of the love you have for the City, the City doesn't give a darn about you or about folks like you. Look at the policies City government is advocating. You're not rich, you're not Latino, and you live in the wrong "Hill" neighborhood. City government doesn't care about your issues. You're going to keep paying more and more and getting less and less in return my friend. And look at the attitudes - you're going to be facing the John Welch's of the City who want to take more from you because of your "privileges", and you're going to be looked at with disdain by the Whole Foods crowd when you complain about rising costs and being left behind. Look at how posters here treat you.
White working class guys like you and I belong in the suburbs - best of both worlds my friend. Easy access to the amenities of the City, significantly lower real estate costs (my mortgage, taxes, and insurance for a 1k ft^2 home are $386/month), more responsive governments (I've influenced ordinances in my Borough - you don't need to have money or a pressure group or other connections behind you to be able to play a role in small towns... I doubt you've been able to have the same effects in the City), etc.
Consider coming to the dark side sir!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xdv8
The even sadder part is that while all this goes on there is even less time and energy spent on the 65 neighborhoods that are in actual need of our leadership's time and energy. I'm from the East End and even to me it's getting old, I can't even imagine how annoying this is for someone in Sheraden, Elliot, West End, Beltzhoover, Allentown, etc.
Quit bowing to the community groups and make some rational decisions with the developer and let's all move on.
Because this administration only cares about the East End. The only exception to that would be the Mexicans in Brookline/Beechview. Otherwise it prioritizes rich white yuppies in a handful of East End neighborhoods (L'ville, E Liberty, Shadyside, Sq Hill, Point Breeze, Regent Sq, etc) and poor blacks in a handful of East End neighborhoods (Hill District and East Liberty). Everyone everywhere else is ignored.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RS_1982
I take pride in the fact that there are no Walmarts in the city of Pittsburgh.
Why is that a source of pride? Wouldn't you welcome jobs, and low-cost products, to help residents of poorer communities? What about the Family Dollar in the Hill? Should that be pulled out? I can't imagine it being better, or worse, than Wal-Mart would be?
Quote:
Originally Posted by gg
How the heck are people going to walk to Walmart in the Waterworks?
Tyovan4 makes a lot of good points. I expect the "group-think" crowd on here will eviscerate him for sharing a divergent opinion, but how "liberal" is it to say you're "open-minded" while bashing someone who is different?
1.) I've pointed out the working-class racial double-standard on this sub-forum many times before. If you're black, working-class, and want to stay in the trendiest neighborhoods everyone will bend over backwards to accommodate you because of white guilt. If you're white, working-class, and want to stay in borderline trendy neighborhoods you're told "go pound sand, check your privilege, and get out of the way of progress." Much ballyhooing is made about wealthy whites displacing working-class blacks in this city, but wealthy whites displacing poorer whites is viewed on here as being socially acceptable because, as whites, supposedly we should have used our inherent racial privilege better to be an attorney, engineer, surgeon, software developer, etc. like our wealthier white counterparts. Despite my eloquence I am NOT an intelligent person. I cry sometimes because despite how much I read and research to try to heighten my intellectual capabilities I'm still limited in how "smart" I can be. Not everyone can just "learn to be smarter and richer". Not everyone is wired correctly.
2.) I've been preaching about an impending disparity between sluggish real wage growth for the working-class and rapid increase in median rents since moving here in 2010. People on here balked at me. Only now with the Penn Plaza debacle, "Black Homes Matter" movement, City Paper articles, and Kevin Acklin press releases are people on here finally realizing I'm not a moron. I was actually more forward-sighted than they were, but I digress.
3.) This city is doing next to nothing to help struggling working-class white neighborhoods like Carrick, Sheraden, Brighton Heights, and others. The city is too busy pandering to wealthy white transplant neighborhoods and working-class majority-black neighborhoods while the working-class whites who made this city great just a few generations ago are left to rot. There's a very real possibility we may soon be facing eviction, and there's nearly no pet-friendly, affordable, non-subsidized rentals left in this city. My job REQUIRES me to live within city limits, so I can't just "move to the suburbs".
Tyovan4 makes a lot of good points. I expect the "group-think" crowd on here will eviscerate him for sharing a divergent opinion, but how "liberal" is it to say you're "open-minded" while bashing someone who is different?
1.) I've pointed out the working-class racial double-standard on this sub-forum many times before. If you're black, working-class, and want to stay in the trendiest neighborhoods everyone will bend over backwards to accommodate you because of white guilt. If you're white, working-class, and want to stay in borderline trendy neighborhoods you're told "go pound sand, check your privilege, and get out of the way of progress." Much ballyhooing is made about wealthy whites displacing working-class blacks in this city, but wealthy whites displacing poorer whites is viewed on here as being socially acceptable because, as whites, supposedly we should have used our inherent racial privilege better to be an attorney, engineer, surgeon, software developer, etc. like our wealthier white counterparts. Despite my eloquence I am NOT an intelligent person. I cry sometimes because despite how much I read and research to try to heighten my intellectual capabilities I'm still limited in how "smart" I can be. Not everyone can just "learn to be smarter and richer". Not everyone is wired correctly.
2.) I've been preaching about an impending disparity between sluggish real wage growth for the working-class and rapid increase in median rents since moving here in 2010. People on here balked at me. Only now with the Penn Plaza debacle, "Black Homes Matter" movement, City Paper articles, and Kevin Acklin press releases are people on here finally realizing I'm not a moron. I was actually more forward-sighted than they were, but I digress.
3.) This city is doing next to nothing to help struggling working-class white neighborhoods like Carrick, Sheraden, Brighton Heights, and others. The city is too busy pandering to wealthy white transplant neighborhoods and working-class majority-black neighborhoods while the working-class whites who made this city great just a few generations ago are left to rot. There's a very real possibility we may soon be facing eviction, and there's nearly no pet-friendly, affordable, non-subsidized rentals left in this city. My job REQUIRES me to live within city limits, so I can't just "move to the suburbs".
you are seriously outta line and need to keep the word BLACK out of your mouth.. Have some empathy
you are seriously outta line and need to keep the word BLACK out of your mouth.. Have some empathy
So here's the first attack from an "open-minded progressive liberal" implying I should check my privilege and have empathy towards people whose intentions of staying in their neighborhoods are being given attention while the rest of us are told to pound sand. Nice. Why has there been intensive focus on making sure working-class African-Americans aren't priced out of trendy areas by wealthy whites while there's been not only no interest but actual scorn towards working-class whites not wanting to be priced out of the same neighborhoods by wealthy whites? If you don't see a racial double-standard, then I can't help you.
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