F E A T U R E
for Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT), notes that all turns made in downtown will be right turns, eliminating the traffic problems that result from buses turning left. The pattern should reduce congestion from bus traffic
As Downtown Pittsburgh sees more residential development, the developers will run into conflict with the desire of civic leadership to bring more affordable housing into the city. As Klehr noted, adaptive re-use of obsolete office buildings is usually complicated and complicated costs more money. Mayor Gainey launched the Downtown Conversion Pilot Program on July 1 to create opportunities for workforce housing by offering incentives to developers for up to 10 percent of the units and committed $2.1 million in American Rescue Plan (ARPA) funds to aid in financing. Though well intentioned, the program will need to bridge a larger gap in financing than the current funding level. “This conversation about commercial conversion to residential will continue to be a priority for us. We have been lobbying the city, county, and state to provide additional funds for this. Right now, we have a $9 million commitment and we’re looking to grow that to $50 million,” says Waldrup. “We’re interested in creating workforce housing, not just luxury units but opportunities for our service workers, healthcare workers, and restaurant workers to have access to downtown housing. That would be an amazing opportunity to provide but something that downtown landlords haven’t figured out yet. We see it as a boon to recruiting healthcare workers or other service providers to our region. Imagine the opportunity to offer a 20-something person just graduating from college to work and live downtown instead of being forced into a suburban setting.” Another regional improvement that could facilitate the development of more housing, particularly workforce housing, is the bus rapid transit system (BRT) that will connect downtown to Oakland and other eastern Pittsburgh locations that are employment centers. The downtown phases of the $291 million project are scheduled to go out for bid in late 2022, with construction starting in spring of 2023. The new system will be operational before the end of 2024. The BRT route will bring the buses west on Fifth Avenue into downtown and east on Sixth Avenue to the Steel Plaza Station, after which buses head east to Oakland and beyond on Forbes Avenue. Adam Brandolph, public relations manager
and speed up the trips from downtown stations to eastern Pittsburgh destinations.
Source: Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership
Stations will be built along Fifth Avenue at Ross Street, William Penn Place, and at Liberty Avenue, opposite Market Street. Along Sixth Avenue, the stations will be located at Wood Street and Steel Plaza on Grant Street. The latter two stations will be integral to connecting the BRT to the PRT’s light rail system.
Source: Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership
“The BRT will connect with the light rail system at the Wood Street and Steel Plaza stations,” says Brandolph. “From there riders can travel seamlessly to the North Shore or the destinations in the South Hills.” If these efforts to develop and attract more residents and visitors to downtown are successful, PDP recognizes that there will be increased focus on public safety and infrastructure in the CBD. After a decade of advocacy, funding has been freed to complete the redesign of Smithfield Street, which will improve pedestrian safety and traffic flow. Waldrup jokes that Downtown Pittsburgh needs another handful of similar projects and expects the public infrastructure upgrade to increase private
investment. He also expects improvements in human services downtown. “We’re focusing on downtown being a welcoming. We will continue to focus on clean and safe. We’re working with police department and homeless outreach providers to provide services. Things have changed. We have more people sleeping on our streets than we have in recent memory,” Waldrup acknowledges. “There are a lot of organizations interested in supporting those individuals. The Second Avenue Commons shelter facility will open in mid-September. That should be transformative to providing services for folks in a low barrier setting. We don’t have that now.”
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