Downtown Population increased 25% since 2000 (Pittsburgh, Millvale: attorney, cheap house, calculating)

[PghYinzer]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

YAY! Bring on the $1,500/month+ 1-BR rentals and/or the low-income-subsidized rentals while forgetting about those of us who fall in the middle and are watching the supply of $700/month-$900/month 1-BR rentals becoming slimmer and slimmer annually.

I believe you said that you have made the decision to pay the "high" rent that your landlord charges in order to stay in your neighborhood. Once you do such a thing, you lose the right to complain about it.

You had an out, and didn't take it. It's like complaining about your cheating significant other, when you yourself caught them in bed with someone else.

[eschaton]

I don't like the tone of this article, but it's a pretty good summary of what it's like to live downtown these days.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by AaronPGH

Your constant posts about this are getting really tired. Yes it's an issue. No, posting this one million times will not help the situation.

I don't understand why a developer is being held hostage so the Hill District can force poor people to have 30% of the incoming housing on the Civic Arena site, yet those who don't qualify for "subsidized" housing yet can't afford the "new" market-rate rents of $1,500/month+ in the "new" Pittsburgh are maligned and chastised for working too hard to get free stuff but not hard enough, apparently, to keep up with the cost-of-living here. Good for you for not being gentrified out of your neighborhood (yet). That day is coming much sooner than you may think if current trends continue.

Even as steindle will come on here any second rolling his eyes screaming "TROY HILL!!! LOOK AT US!!!" bear in mind Polish Hill went from dirt cheap to very expensive in under five years. The very same may happen to Troy Hill, too, as another small, ugly, yet very convenient neighborhood, so be careful what you wish for.

[AaronPGH]

You do realize that we are talking about high dollar apartment units generally being created in neighborhoods where housing didn't exist at all before right? The only thing getting gentrified out of downtown or the strip district is class B/C office space and parking lots. Why won't somebody think of the parking lots!

Not to mention that every high-end unit built in one of these areas will take the pressure off of your *actual* neighborhood.

You don't even ****ing want to live downtown. Yet here you are bitching about it.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by PghYinzer

I believe you said that you have made the decision to pay the "high" rent that your landlord charges in order to stay in your neighborhood. Once you do such a thing, you lose the right to complain about it.

You had an out, and didn't take it. It's like complaining about your cheating significant other, when you yourself caught them in bed with someone else.

So I'm supposed to keep "neighborhood-hopping" every two to three years as gentrification chases me around like an SCR whack-a-mole game?

I can afford the $700/month I'm currently paying for a 1-BR. I can afford rent increases to $800/month or $900/month, which I know are coming over the next few years. Then what? When my rent hits $950/month I'll move to Troy Hill and pay a landlord $900/month for a 1-BR, displacing former tenants who were paying $800/month at the top of their budget? Then they'll go to Brightwood and pay $800/month for a 1-BR and weed out those who could only afford $700/month. Then where will THOSE people go? Homewood, where their children will be dodging stray bullets? Am I the only one who thinks about this?

Sure, today you may say we have the luxury of a zillion safe, affordable, walkable neighborhoods to choose from in this city. As you push more and more people around into a progressively smaller pool of affordable neighborhoods, though, you're eventually going to have a price spike in those neighborhoods, too, making the entire city only affordable for those living off the government or those who are wealthy while the middle-class moves to another area.

This isn't a Pittsburgh-specific problem. This is a national problem in many cities small and large that are catering to an affluent demographic to maximize their potential tax revenues and then using more of those tax revenues to reinforce and prop up the poorest via subsidies. What about those in the middle who won't get any subsidies?

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

This is a national problem in many cities small and large that are catering to an affluent demographic to maximize their potential tax revenues and then using more of those tax revenues to reinforce and prop up the poorest via subsidies. What about those in the middle who won't get any subsidies?

What is your solution? To get rid of housing subsidies for the poor, or to expand them to cover the gap? Or maybe something else entirely?

[JoeP]

Move to any of Pittsburgh's bigger peers on the east coast and then come back. You will LOVE the prices in Pittsburgh then and no you won't make that much (if any) more in those cities.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by ferraris

What is your solution? To get rid of housing subsidies for the poor, or to expand them to cover the gap? Or maybe something else entirely?

I don't know. Quite frankly if developers are only going to be building $1,500/month+ studios and 1-BR rentals from now on then we just might need to expand subsidies so anyone in the "working poor" who can't afford that much can afford a studio or 1-BR with a partial subsidy.

Developers CAN build a 1-BR unit for $1,000/month. They just don't want to. Someone wanting to pay $1,000/month (or a little less) for a 1-BR unit doesn't want or need stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, a whirpool jetted tub in the bathroom, "community amenities", bamboo floors, marble backsplashes, free WiFi, etc., etc. Get all of those fancy-pants items out, and you can offer rents a few hundred dollars per month LESS.

Originally Posted by JoeP

Move to any of Pittsburgh's bigger peers on the east coast and then come back. You will LOVE the prices in Pittsburgh then and no you won't make that much (if any) more in those cities.

Pittsburgh used to be touted for its housing affordability on a NATIONAL scale. Now it's just affordable compared to the coasts while we've plowed over our "flyover country" peers. We've lost that edge, and since so many on this sub-forum were used to a "normal" for rent that was OBSCENE in the SF Bay Area, Long Island, NYC, NoVA, etc. they view $1,500/month for a 1-BR as a "bargain". No offense, but the main thing that lured me here was the low cost-of-living. If I'm going to be attributing a progressively greater part of my paycheck each year towards rent we're going to look into moving to Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Detroit, or a multitude of other large cities that offer comparable amenities at a lower price point.

[JoeP]

But overall the region still is very affordable. I always viewed city centers as unaffordable, so I don't get caught up in cost for such areas.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by JoeP

But overall the region still is very affordable. I always viewed city centers as unaffordable, so I don't get caught up in cost for such areas.

Making urban areas unaffordable for the majority means that more urban sprawl will occur, which translates to longer commutes, more stress, more congestion, and worse air pollution for the entire region, including for those affluent enough to live within city limits in the coming years.

This isn't an area noted for having a good transit system to begin with, and now we're going to work to decentralize the residential population to make traffic worse in the coming years?

Decentralizing employment centers throughout the region doesn't help traffic or pollution, either, as we can see in a place like Northern Virginia where there are so many suburb-to-suburb commuters that the entire region sucks, and many rents are still unaffordable to the middle-class.