1 West Pittsburgh Community Action Plan A COLLABORATIVE VISION FOR FUTURE GROWTH AND ENHANCEMENT Prepared for the West Pittsburgh Operation Weed and Seed Steering Committee by Jackson/Clark Partners and Studio for Spatial Practice SPRING 2010 2 Acknowledgements Jackson/Clark Partners and Studio for Spatial Practice would like to thank the West Pittsburgh Operation Weed and Seed Steering Committee For more information for the opportunity to be part of this landmark collaborative project. regarding the planning Operation Weed and Seed is a public safety initiative funded through the process contact: U.S.Department of Justice, Community Capacity Development Office to reduce gun and drug crime and increase community stability. In the Pat Clark, Project Manager City of Pittsburgh it is a partnership with Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, the Jackson/Clark Partners U.S. Attorney of Western Pennsylvania and community stakeholders in 412.583.3211 federally-designated sites. [email protected] Thanks to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, Kim Graziani, Weed and Seed Project Director, and Liz Style and Rebecca Kottler-Wein, Weed and Seed Coordinators in the Office of Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, Theresa Kail-Smith, For more information Councilwoman, District 2 and her staff and Senator Wayne D. Fontana for regarding community providing funding support. planning initiatives and how you can get involved, Special thanks to the community members who volunteered their time contact Operation Weed as neighborhood project managers for the planning process: Johanna and Seed Coordinators in Murphy, Donna Washington, John Paul Jones and Chuck Tanner, and the the Office of Mayor Luke residents, business owners and community leaders of West Pittsburgh Ravenstahl: who participated directly in the planning process. Liz Style Our team would also like to acknowledge the life and service of the late 412.255.4772 Elmer Clark who freely gave his time to improve the neighborhood [email protected] of Elliott and create a better West Pittsburgh. Rebecca Kottler-Wein 412.255.4773 [email protected]. pa.us 3 Contents page 2 Acknowledgements page 3 Contents page 4 Project Overview page 5 Community Plan Overview page 6 Vision and Mission page 7 Strategies Overview page 8 Strategy 1: Capacity and Resources page 10 Strategy 2: Communications and Marketing page 12 Strategy 3: Housing page 14 Strategy 4: Environment page 16 Strategy 5: Transportation and Connectivity page 18 Strategy 6: Business Districts page 20 Strategy 7: Community Health and Safety page 22 Phasing Matrix page 24 Chartiers City: Assets, Challenges and Opportunities page 25 Crafton Heights: Assets, Challenges and Opportunities page 26 Elliott: Assets, Challenges and Opportunities page 27 Esplen: Assets, Challenges and Opportunities page 28 Fairywood: Assets, Challenges and Opportunities page 29 Sheraden: Assets, Challenges and Opportunities page 30 West End Village: Assets, Challenges and Opportunities page 31 Wind Gap: Assets, Challenges and Opportunities 4 Project Overview The West Pittsburgh Community Action Plan is a project of the West Pittsburgh Weed and Seed Steering Committee and is funded by Senator Wayne D. Fontana. The planning process includes the communities of Chartiers City, Crafton Heights, Esplen, Elliott, Fairywood, Sheraden, West End Village and Windgap. The initiative is community driven and is being managed by the West Pittsburgh Weed and Seed Steering Committee and the Neighborhood Restoration Subcommittee with facilitation and planning services provided by Pittsburgh-based Jackson/Clark Partners and Studio for Spatial Practice. Weed and Seed Overview Operation Weed and Seed is a comprehensive, joint law enforcement and community investment strategy designed to help make communities safer, so that other resources will be attracted to those communities. A multi-agency strategy to “weed out” violent crime, gang activity, drug use, and drug trafficking in targeted high-crime neighborhoods, Operation Weed and Seed also “seeds” the target area by helping to restore those neighborhoods through social and economic revitalization. Operation Weed and Seed is a partnership of Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, the U. S. Attorney for Western Pennsylvania and community stakeholders in federally-designated sites. 5 Community Plan Overview The West Pittsburgh Community Action Plan initiative began in the Summer of 2009 as an opportunity to unify the eight West Pittsburgh neighborhoods around a common vision and to provide a framework for continued community growth and enhancement. Residents, business owners, community organizations and partners in West Pittsburgh provided leadership and input to create the first-ever collaborative community-based plan. Through 40 one-on-one interviews, a community survey, 3 collaborative innovation sessions, interactive community meetings and bi-weekly team meetings over 7 months, the neighborhoods of West Pittsburgh have come together to develop a shared understanding of their own strengths and challenges, and a unified strategy for moving forward. A key goal of the planning process was to actively and directly engage the citizens and partners of West Pittsburgh to create projects that will change the community from within—and in the process, help residents across the 8 neighborhoods learn to work together, build trust, create immediate results and position community members as leaders in the future development of West Pittsburgh—all of which will be needed to attract the resources necessary for continued and sustainable progress. Full results of the interviews, surveys and innovation sessions can be found in the appendix of the community plan and are also available online at the West Pittsburgh Planning website: http://westpittsburghplan.com 6 Vision and Mission Vision “Just like the old tree in Sheraden – many branches into one trunk.” A healthy, safe prosperous and diverse community that works together to serve the needs of all residents and attracts new homeowners, businesses, visitors and customers. Mission To create a unified strategy for progress in the West Pittsburgh communities that builds on our past successes, leverages our assets and utilizes the combined strengths of our neighborhoods to build a greater community that can better achieve each of our goals. 7 Strategies Overview Organizing for Success Information gathered during the Community Planning Process was organized into seven main strategy areas that will help to guide and focus continued community efforts. Residents and partners are developing citizen-driven Action Teams for each of these strategy areaa that will serve as a critical resource for increasing capacity, achieving immediate outcomes, building community expertise and ensuring direct involvement in implementing the community plan. The seven strategy areas include: 1. Capacity and Resources residents/volunteers, funding, leadership, community development organizations, planning 2. Marketing and Communications external marketing, inter- and intra-community communication and relationship-building, race relations 3. Housing housing stock, renters, owners, property 4. Environment greenspace, parks, streetscape, trails, gardens 5. Transportation and Connectivity cars, busses, trails, access, travel, commuting 6. Business Districts stores, restaurants, services, markets, customers 7. Community Health safety, employment/training, community activities, social services 8 STRATEGY Capacity and Resources Existing Conditions The eight neighborhoods included in the collaborative community plan came together “Everyone talks about formally for the first time through the Weed and Seed Program. Several have small Lawrenceville. I keep saying neighborhood-focused community organizations, some have no formal neighborhood Lawrenceville wasn’t born organization and only one has a staffed community development organization. No single that way. I keep telling established organization focuses on all of the West Pittsburgh neighborhoods as its current people we can get there.” mission, although at least one organization, Westside United, is in the initial stages of establishing itself around that mission. “…it needs to be about doing things.” Working relationships between the neighborhoods have largely been fragmented, outside of the Weed and Seed initiative, with most organizations speaking only for their own community. Previous multi-neighborhood partnerships—including a formalized partnership between Elliott and the West End Village—were established, but not sustained. There are also a limited number of 501(c)3 community-based organizations within the neighborhoods, although most have faith-based organizations that maintain a level of community presence, some of which have community-directed programming and capacity. Community athletic leagues have long served as a source of community resources and connections. Capacity, participation and trust have been persistent challenges within West Pittsburgh. A lack of organizational staff is reflected in the fact that only one community organization regularly pursues and received foundation and other grants. Many neighborhoods and organizations express the need for more accessible venues to hold meetings and organizational participation is too often by the same limited number of core volunteers and board members who have run and regularly attended community meetings for years. The most effective community mobilizers in the past have been reactionary in nature: controversy surrounding the We Have program