Pens pull out of Lower Hill Development

[DaveMuBai]

I don't really know a lot about the situation, but this seems fairly one-sided:

Nihilism and White Bliss in America’s Most Livable City

 

[HandshakeLine]

I too think the graffiti on the statue is pretty much a non-issue.

I've just never understood why people hate the Hill for existing, especially because it's not like Polish Hill was much better for most of the same period, just whiter. The amount of venom the Hill gets is just crazy, even when there's worse towns and neighborhoods in Pittsburgh which get a pass (and without the historical value of the Hill to boot!).

 

[SHOOTANDSCORE]

I too think the graffiti on the statue is pretty much a non-issue.

I've just never understood why people hate the Hill for existing, especially because it's not like Polish Hill was much better for most of the same period, just whiter. The amount of venom the Hill gets is just crazy, even when there's worse towns and neighborhoods in Pittsburgh which get a pass (and without the historical value of the Hill to boot!).

How dare you endorse such blaspheme! I hope you get bedbugs, and your bedbugs get bedbugs!

Ban him @ColePens

 

[Randy Butternubs]

Oh yeah, the graffiti on that statue was just a footnote in everything that has gone on. We are on a hockey forum so the responses here are probably magnified, which is what I expected. And what I expected to be the "most extreme" reactions to it.

But then I saw some headlines days after and realized it was more of a PGH problem. Hell, even earlier today I think I saw an article published about how "sacrilege" the action was.

There's certainly worse things.

 

[Jacob]

The Hill is more brownfield than neighborhood at this point. At least the lower and middle part. Looks like a bomb went off.

 

[HandshakeLine]

People accused Bronzeville (another incredibly historically important black neighborhood) in Chicago of the same thing in the late 90s, early 2000s, but it turns out that a lot of the vacant properties were actually owned by absentee white landlords who torched those buildings to get the insurance payout and kept the title. So, who knows?

The Hill's had it rough, no doubt, I just don't understand why yinzers are so against transforming it into a vibrant community like it used to be, and acknowledging that there's lots of reasons why it declined while other parts of the city got funds and help to rebuild.

 

[ziggyjoe212]

People accused Bronzeville (another incredibly historically important black neighborhood) in Chicago of the same thing in the late 90s, early 2000s, but it turns out that a lot of the vacant properties were actually owned by absentee white landlords who torched those buildings to get the insurance payout and kept the title. So, who knows?

The Hill's had it rough, no doubt, I just don't understand why yinzers are so against transforming it into a vibrant community like it used to be, and acknowledging that there's lots of reasons why it declined while other parts of the city got funds and help to rebuild.

Don't quote me on this but I recall hearing that The Hill leadership is adamanatly against gentrification because they want to keep it a black neighborhood. Well minority businesses aren't coming there either, so how do they expect to improve with no influx of business?

 

[Rakell67]

Don't quote me on this but I recall hearing that The Hill leadership is adamanatly against gentrification because they want to keep it a black neighborhood. Well minority businesses aren't coming there either, so how do they expect to improve with no influx of business?

Wow! I can’t imagine the backlash on social media, etc. If there was a neighborhood leadership group that stated they wanted to keep their neighborhood white.

 

[cookthebooks]

Wow! I can’t imagine the backlash on social media, etc. If there was a neighborhood leadership group that stated they wanted to keep their neighborhood white.

this is really eyeroll-y territory. a culturally pivotal black neighborhood gets demolished by a decades of redlining, mortgage discrimination, and urban development for the benefit of the suburbs and you are somehow of the opinion that the real racists are the civic leaders from those communities who want a historic wrong addressed.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Don't quote me on this but I recall hearing that The Hill leadership is adamanatly against gentrification because they want to keep it a black neighborhood. Well minority businesses aren't coming there either, so how do they expect to improve with no influx of business?

I've heard that for decades and I've never to my knowledge seen anyone come up with an actual quote on that, so I'd be interested to see if what's actually been said, or if it's just another one of those games of yinzer telephone. I have seen various personages in the Hill say they'd like development that wouldn't erase or change the character of the neighborhood, but hell, nearly every neighborhood leadership says that, including as places like Squirrel Hill, Polish Hill, Deutschtown, etc.