Formula for urban revitalization, redux
A year and a half ago, I posted about the formula for urban revitalization (called in the UK urban regeneration) by focusing on Roxbury; some months later, I highlighted Revere Beach, whose experience shows that cities must lead, and then provided a three-part post spotlighting a single building: Roxbury’s historic Dartmouth Hotel.
Many of the same elements are conspicuous in an emerging Pittsburgh neighborhood, South Side Slopes, as nicely illustrated by this New York Times article:
1. Location: view
ASK new South Side Slopes residents to name their neighborhood’s biggest draw, and the answer you will undoubtedly receive is, “the view.”
A view of the South Side Flats and the
It’s practically a mantra on the Slopes, an area that rises with steep and leafy grandeur from the edge of the South Side Flats, up to spectacular vistas of the city’s downtown skyline, the
2. Location: proximity to employment
As cities shift from manufacturing to information businesses, people pay premiums for homes just a walk to work, and as the jobs flowed back to
South Side Slopes, just about the South Side flats
The main thoroughfares are connected by an intricate system of steep stairways and goat-path roads, and cheek-by-jowl houses often stand only one room deep and three high to fit on small cliff-like footprints. It’s a place that’s on the brink in every sense of the word.
Brad Palmisiano, a 27-year-old architectural engineer, uses the staircases daily to walk down the Slopes to his downtown office.
3. Visible reinvestment
We are visual creatures, and we take comfort when we see locals investing their own capital:
Mr. Palmisiano, who renovated an 1898 town house, was delighted to find original pine floorboards beneath layers of orange shag carpeting, 1960’s newspapers and asphalt tile. He bought his three-story house in 2003 for $68,000 and estimates he has put $15,000 [plus labor and sweat equity — Ed.] into fixing it up, removing a dropped ceiling in the kitchen, restoring the pine floors and adding the piece de resistance: a roof deck where he holds Fourth of July fireworks-viewing parties.
Renovation comes from both occupant-owners and urban developers:
Ernie Sota, 56, is a prolific local developer who is constructing a series of nine “green” town houses, called Windom Hill Place, into a lush hillside here. He was drawn to the Slopes by the views and village-like feel, which, for him, conjure memories of visits to
“It’s just kind of quirky, funky and real, more organic, built by Europeans and other immigrants,” he explained. “The only other American cities that I find as geographically interesting are maybe
Top that,
Hey, what about
4. Economics: perception of appreciation
Reinvestment changes perceptions, and when a neighborhood is perceived to be rising, that can become a self-reinforcing prophecy:
If Tom Tripoli’s Angels Arms condominiums are any indication, there are people who are willing to spend freely to get in early on the Slopes’ revival.
When the observant herd senses profit, buying can become a stampede:
Mr. Tripoli, 58, is developing 23 residential units in the former St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church, where prices are $250,000 to $600,000 for one- to three-bedroom units that range from 1,300 to 2,300 square feet.
5. Affordability and value for money
We vote with our wallets, and compared with other cities,
Got any condos left?
The condos are selling fast:
Seven are occupied — by two doctors, a dentist, a physical therapist, a philosophy professor and a former developer and by Mr. Tripoli himself — and two more are nearing completion.
“If
6. Affordable housing as a community stimulus
In any pre-appreciating neighborhood, the current residents are poorer than the newcomers they hope to attract, so there is always a place for community development corporations (CDCs) to start things rolling:
“I think the Slopes is an exciting, vibrant neighborhood in transition, and one that has opportunity for all,” said Rick Belloli, executive director of the nonprofit South Side Local Development Company. The organization completed construction of eight town houses in the Slopes in 2003, and sold all for more than twice the average home in the neighborhood, which was $50,000 at the time.
SSLDC has been working in this area for 24 years; nice to see their efforts crowned with success.
South Side Slopes
7. Rehab of good housing stock
Buildings are a neighborhood’s skeleton, so a neighborhood to rise, it must have good bones:
Most homes on the market are not new construction. Harry O’Brien, an agent with Carlson & McGinley Real Estate, said there are 101 houses on the market in the entire 964-acre South Side, with a third of those in the Slopes, which covers about half the area.
Since Mr. Palmisiano’s arrival, he has become a neighborhood advocate — working on local improvement projects, becoming friendly with many other residents and volunteering as board president for the South Side Slopes Neighborhood Association, which attracts about 500 people each year to its October StepTrek. The event allows people to explore the neighborhood, guide in hand, using the system of staircases that wend through the hills.
To boldly climb steps many have climbed before
8. Critical mass
There comes a point when reinvestment overcomes deterioration, when the new-urbanist assets outweigh the old-manufacturing liabilities, and South Side Slopes has obviously reached that point — a New York Times encomium is proof, as is something much more visible and humble:
“In the three years I’ve been here, there’s been a major transformation,” Mr. Palmisiano noted. “There are usually two to three Dumpsters on my block, and never less than one. So people are starting to realize it’s a neat place to live.”
We close by tipping our cap to the humble Dumpster, whose blossoming heralds rebirth:
Revitalization’s crocus?
