• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Central Northside A changing, historic Pittsburgh neighborhood Matthew Stieg, Karis Tzeng URP 582 | Neighborhood Planning | Etienne Fall 2017 | December 15, 2017 !1 Table of Contents List of Figures 3 List of Tables 5 1. Executive Summary 7 2. Neighborhood Overview 8 3. Demographic Profile 15 4. Housing & Affordability 19 5. Transportation 26 6. Employment 28 7. Retail 32 8. Conclusion 35 Sources 37 !2 List of Figures Figure 2.1: Central Northside Neighborhood, 2017; p. 8 Figure 2.2: North Side Area, 2017; p. 9 Figure 2.3: Character Profiles of Mexican War Streets; p.10 Figure 2.4: Home Owner’s Loan Corporation “Neighborhood Security Map,” North Side, 1933; p. 10 Figure 2.5: Central Northside Before and After Urban Renewal, 1957 and 1967; p. 11 Figure 2.6: Historic District Boundaries, 2011; p. 13 Figure 2.7: Character Sample of Neighborhood Artwork; p. 14 Figure 3.1: Race and Population Density, 1970 and 2015; p. 15 Figure 3.2: Income Distribution, Central Northside and City of Pittsburgh, 2015; p. 17 Figure 4.1: Vacancy and Uninhabitable Units, Central Northside and City of Pittsburgh, 2015 and 2012; p. 19 Figure 4.2: Vacancy Rates, Central Northside, 1950 to 2010; p. 20 Figure 4.3: Total Population, Central Northside, 1950 to 2010; p. 20 Figure 4.4: Cost Burdened Renters, Central Northside, 2015; p. 22 Figure 4.5: West Park Court Apartments, Central Northside; p. 23 Figure 4.6: Home Prices and Values, Central Northside and City of Pittsburgh, 2008 to 2017; p. 24 Figure 4.7: Building Permits, Central Northside, 2013 to 2017; p. 24 Figure 4.8: New development, Central Northside, 2016; p. 25 Figure 5.1: Employment Destinations, Central Northside, 2017; p. 26 Figure 5.2: Means of Transportation, Central Northside, 2015; p. 27 Figure 6.1: Job Counts by NAICS Industry Sector, held by CNS Residents; p. 28 Figure 6.2: Jobs by Sector, Opportunities within 1.5 miles of the Central Northside, 2015; p. 28 Figure 6.3: Job Counts by Location, Workers Earning Over $40,000 per year, CNS Residents, 2015; p. 29 !3 Figure 6.4: Job Counts by Location, Workers Earning Less than $15,000 per year, CNS Residents, 2015; p. 29 Figure 6.5: Job Counts by Commuter Direction, CNS Residents, 2015; p. 29 Figure 6.6: Inflow/Outflow Job Counts, 2015; p. 30 Figure 7.1: Retail Business Profile, Central Northside, 2017; p. 32 !4 List of Tables Table 2.1: Racial Composition, Central Northside, 1970 to 2010; p. 12 Table 3.1: Total population and density, Central Northside and City of Pittsburgh, 2015; p. 16 Table 3.2: Race, Central Northside, 2015; p. 16 Table 3:3: Age Cohorts, Central Northside and City of Pittsburgh, 2015; p. 16 Table 4.1: Housing Units in Structure, Central Northside, 2015; p. 19 Table 4.2: Housing Affordability by Tenure, Central Northside and City of Pittsburgh, 2015; p. 21 Table 7.1: Leakage/Surplus Factor by Industry Group, Central Northside, 2017; p. 33 !5 !6 Image credit: Mexican War Streets Society 1. Executive Summary face greater levels of cost-burden, despite the presence This report aims to assess the dynamics of the Central of subsidized, affordable housing in the neighborhood. Northside neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and ✦ While higher-income residents commute to downtown, understand key strengths and opportunities for improvement in lower-income residents travel throughout the metro area. the neighborhood. The Central Northside neighborhood covers Because they travel farther, lower-income residents likely 0.25 square miles on Pittsburgh’s North Side. Over the course incur greater transportation costs. of the 20th century, the neighborhood experienced impacts from ✦ Despite attractions of the neighborhood, there are lower urban renewal, including population decline and increasing retail establishments than the neighborhood can support, vacancy. Though the Central Northside has seen the vacancy indicating that residents must travel to other areas to rate rise to more than 20 percent in 2015, the neighborhood meet these retail needs. remains one of Pittsburgh’s most dense neighborhoods. It has ✦ Psychological and physical barriers between this retained its historical architectural character, contains an active neighborhood its surroundings isolate the neighborhood community, and sits proximate to numerous cultural amenities, from amenities, despite spatial proximity. sporting institutions, and downtown. After the construction of new stadiums on the North Shore in 2000, we expected to see increased demand and development in the neighborhood. This analysis investigates measures of housing, affordability, employment, transportation, and retail in order to understand the trends of the neighborhood. Key findings included the following: ✦ The neighborhood contains consistently high levels of vacancy relative to the city as a whole, despite rising property values. ✦ The majority of occupants of the neighborhood are renters, who are vulnerable to rising property values. Furthermore, lower-income renters in this neighborhood !7 2. Neighborhood Overview To understand the neighborhood of the Central Northside, it is The Central Northside neighborhood of Pittsburgh, essential to understand the key anchor institutions around the Pennsylvania, is located on the North Side of Pittsburgh; that is, neighborhood. The influence of medical and educational the area north of the Ohio and Allegheny Rivers. The Central institutions characteristic to the City of Pittsburgh is present in Northside neighborhood is formally bounded by North Avenue to the Central Northside as well. Allegheny General Hospital is the its south, Brighton Road and Allegheny Avenue to its west, largest hospital in Allegheny County with 576 beds. While it is Perrysville Avenue and Fountain Street to its north, and Federal not affiliated with a local university, it does serve as the clinical and James Streets to its east (Figure 2.1). In addition to the campus for third and fourth year Temple University Medical neighborhood’s formal bounds, other physical barriers, including Students. Beyond the hospital, immediately to the south of the an industrial zone and Norfolk Southern Railroad tracks to the Central Northside is the Allegheny Commons, which includes west, steep, hilly topography to the north, Allegheny General the oldest public park in Pittsburgh (National Parks Service, Hospital at its eastern boundary, and the Allegheny Commons to the south, surround the Central Northside. These barriers, Figure 2.1. Central Northside Neighborhood, 2017. Adapted from ArcGIS Online. ArcGIS Online, Retrieved from https://www.arcgis.com/ though not formal boundaries of the neighborhood, effectively home/index.html. Copyright 2017 by ESRI. Adapted with permission. confine the Central Northside. In 2013, the Central Northside Neighborhood Council motioned to change the organization’s name to the Allegheny City Central Association in conjunction with branding the neighborhood as Allegheny City Central (Allegheny City Central Association, 2013, p. 1). While this analysis will seek to understand the impetus for rebranding the neighborhood as Allegheny City Central, we will refer to the neighborhood as the Central Northside in order to stay consistent with the City of Pittsburgh’s data. !8 Figure 2.2. North Side Area, 2017. Adapted from Google Maps. Google, 2017, Retrieved from https://www.google.com/maps. Copyright 2017 by Google. Adapted with permission. n.d.), the National Aviary, the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, Andy Warhol Museum, sit just to the south of the Allegheny and the historic New Hazlett Theater. In 1999, Heinz Field and Commons and less than a mile from the Central Northside. PNC Park began construction on the riverfront of the North Despite the proximity to these cultural amenities and Side, known as the North Shore (Heinz Field, n.d.; Ballparks of entertainment institutions, Allegheny Commons, the Allegheny Baseball, n.d.). These iconic riverfront stadiums, along with the Center redevelopment project and I-279/PA 65 cut through the !9 North Side and isolate the Central Northside from the riverfront streets after people and places from the Mexican-American War and downtown (Figure 2.2). (Figure 2.3). A construction boom in the 1890’s gave the neighborhood its current shape, increasing its density greatly. In this context, the neighborhood saw an increase incomes for the History middle class, and the “undersized structures were remodeled, expanded, or replaced” (Johnson, n.d.). The Central Northside is part of the original City of Allegheny, which was annexed into the City of Pittsburgh in 1907. The In 1940, the population of the Central Northside totaled 15,839 Central Northside is known for the Mexican War Streets, an people (U.S. Census Bureau, Social Explorer, Census 1940 1840s development carried out by General William Robinson, Census Tract Only, SE:T1, 1940). After 1950, the total Jr. He created the Victorian-style development and named the population fell to 14,730 people, and by 1960, the population Figure 2.4. Home Owner’s Loan Corporation. Reprinted from Mapping Figure 2.3. Character Profiles of Mexican War Streets. Reprinted from Inequality, 2017, Retrieved from https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/ Mexican War Street Society. Mexican War Streets Society, 2017, redlining/#loc=4/36.71/-96.93&opacity=0.8, Copyright 2015 by Retrieved from http://www.mexicanwarstreets.org/. Copyright 2015 by University of Richmond. Reprinted with permission. Mexican War Street Society. Reprinted with permission. !10 had decreased 37.4 percent to 9,214 people (U.S. Census old housing stock, but also because of black residents and an Bureau, Social Explorer, Census 1950 & 1960 Census Tract “undesirable white population,” including German immigrants Only, SE:T1, 1950, 1960). According to Trotter & Day, the (Figure 2.4; Nelson et al., 2017). The designation as redlined increased presence of black residents on the North Side may steered investments through loans for homeowners away from have spurred this decline in total population as discriminatory this neighborhood. real estate practices encouraged white residents to move to other neighborhoods or the suburbs (2014, p.

Load more

  43

Copy Link