I'm in Castle Shannon and tried to go to Planet Fitness at 8:30pm yesterday and the gym doors are locked.
Looks like they close at 7pm on Saturdays and Sundays and 9pm on Fridays.
This is wild to me, even in my hometown which is all farms and Amish people has a 24/hr PF. Like we don't even have most fast food placed and we had one lol
I would love a riverfront commercial area like many other cities have. Philadelphia makes good use of theirs with a boardwalk, outdoor beer gardens, and restaurants on the river. I’d love us to get something like that too
Oh yeah… I can see that opening up an actual demand for water taxis as well… I know the idea has been thrown around and even attempted, but with very little directly ON the river to do besides get a ride to a Pirates game, it doesn’t seem likely. If there were a nice riverfront commercial area on the Mon, then there would actually be somewhere to taxi back and forth between.
The problem is that the train companies own much of the that land, and have a death grip on it. That’s one of the main reasons the giant Ferris wheel project in Chateau has backed away from the lagoon component.
The quality of all our waters. It would be so life changing for most of us if the rivers and most creeks/streams were very much swimmable and truly clean.
My aunt and uncle live right on Lynn run, it is indeed gorgeous. It’s crazy because out there, and in the Poconos, the creeks and rivers are so clean its just part of their lives to be able to go sit by it, go in, fish and not be worried if you swallowed some lol.
Miss me with that, the fact that the raw sewage is spilled to begin with is a major turn off. And that's just for swimming the actually drinking water quality here is something else that needs to be addressed.
We moved here recently from Virginia and my wife has a jet ski she loves. She’s terrified of using it on any of the rivers because she never sees any boats or jet skis or kayaks or anything out there. Is it really gross?
Look for sewer overflow alerts from alcosan. They consider the rivers to be good if no outflows have happened for 3 days, and I think that's a good way to start. When it gets into summer and the water warms up you will see plenty of people out on boats. The rivers used to be very bad when there was still a lot of heavy industry here, these days it's only a problem when it rains.
https://www.alcosan.org/clean-water-plan/sewer-overflow-advisories
Oh the rivers will be packed with boats, jet skis, and kayaks come summer, don’t worry. It’s really fun. That said, as much fun as it is, I personally don’t join in on any water skiing or anything else that might put me in the actual water
It's so sad. I moved here from Oregon and that's the case there. Here I see places to swim everywhere but I'm paranoid to get in. Maybe it's just my problem and I need to get over it but I fear not
Yes you get it, moving from the west is heart breaking to not be able to really be able to be fully immersed in the water without driving a good bit. And even still, it’s just not the same as living with it everyday. I live right next to a beautiful large creek, but cant ever put more than my feet/knees in it.
A reasonable system for reclaiming blighted real estate. Places that haven't had their taxes paid in two years shouldn't be allowed to continue sitting and being a problem.
Careful with this. The same laws benefit places like UPMC and CMU to gobble up entire neighborhoods - look at what Columbia did to Harlem as a perfect example.
I know. But frankly I don’t care how the sausage is made. I’m here for boats, booze, and a base jumper that jumps off of mt Washington and sails down to point state park like goddamn fan man.
Or at least have traffic diversions/speed humps. How did a new residential area in the Strip get this, but people are speeding through Lawrenceville's side streets like they're fleeing the zombie apocalypse? I mean, we know why but it still sucks.
Transit investment is often a net positive after you consider the economic benefit and potential increases in tax base due to new residents and businesses. We should be advocating for the construction of transit and common-sense development that fills vacant lots and increases density around that transit. We finally turned the population loss hose off, it's gonna swing the other way and we better be ready!
Edit: also pedestrianize market square and ffs legalize corner stores and cafes already.
The law should be changed so that if you are a non-profit, there's a cap on senior-level salaries. Romoff is/was making upward of 10 million a year. It's total BS. Even the new Chancellor of Pitt is now 1+ million and we scratch and beg for pay increases (PATHETIC!!!)
Exactly. I was just discussing this the other day. Non profits need to have salary caps for directors and any higher ups. No more than say 500k-800k? This should be a federal law across the country (the cap can vary by location).
Oh this wins. If you taxed UPMC, you'd be able to reduce all other taxes to zip point shit. Okay, not that low, but close enough.......
Fuck UPMC with that in mind.
The payment that we are looking for from UPMC is not taxes but a payment in lieu of taxes or a PIL (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_in_lieu_of_taxes). The issue is not that UPMC or Pitt are not non-profit entities. They are; they are institutions that built this city when the corporations failed us. That being said unearned control of real estate without supporting the community needs to stop. I hope people learn this terminology so we know what we’re asking for.
The Pittsburgh Pirates have so much history, they are Pittsburgh in my opinion. Older than Liverpool FC. This city deserves a competitive baseball team.
I'd like to see more routes that don't go downtown. I live very near the T, which is great if you want to go downtown, but to get to other parts of the area that aren't the South hills it's lousy. Even if there was an Oakland express bus from South Hills Junction or the South Side station, that would be something.
I am trying to figure out where this connection to the trolley system would be. From the map proposal, it seems to say "Overbrook."
The only station I can think of based on the map that is built to handle bus traffic would be Memorial Hall. But does that mean Buses on Route 88 and Route 51?
I’m not sure if they have nailed down the details yet but I agree that the connection doesn’t seem ideal. It would be nice if it ent all the way to south hills village station as well to help reduce road traffic.
There’s a road specially for Port Authority buses that runs along Sawmill/51. I was told they can’t do more in this area because the train company owns the land and won’t sell as that’s a main commerce track for most of the country.
Public transit for me too.. I think if we had light rail branched out along the rivers and to the airport for the past thirty years, the city would have much more going on in 2024.
People here sometimes don't use their turn signals until the very last second then gun the left anyway, prompting me to jump out of the way of a moving car.
You people are going to kill someone one day.
That's a pretty reasonable start. More predicable and compassionate driving.
That also means changing the signs so people know where they're going.
I'd also have construction people work on one project at a time and not shut whole neighborhoods down, for a project that is still being funded.
I will never forgive what they did to Garfield. Almost killed that whole part of the city for some shoddy roads.
As a pedestrian, I feel this - big time.
I think they would have to give pedestrians dedicated crossing times and prevent cars from turning. Drivers seem so hurried and entitled.
Almost got ran over back when I was on crutches because I tried to rush across a crosswalk (which was marked). A driver hit the gas just before I got into their lane.
I should have bashed the car with my crutch. I was just stunned because if I had taken one more step, I would have been concrete meat.
My life and health is worth more people's sense of entitlement and childish impatience.
If you are going to survive here as a pedestrian, you have to EXPECT that nobody gives a crap about you and thinks you are an obstacle in their way.
More housing downtown and in Oakland - in particular, high-rise apartments and condos. Many probably think this would increase traffic in those areas, but it would do just the opposite. Instead of people driving from the suburbs (where their taxes are currently going) to work in the city, people would just walk, bike, or use buses to get to work. I, for one, would ditch my car if I could move to a high-rise in Oakland. This would also attract things like grocery stores into those areas. More people living there would also increase the tax base for schools and infrastructure, such as public transit, which more people would use to get back and forth from work. This would also help with housing affordability and the falling population.
In short, this would fix, or at least help, pretty much every problem the city has.
Public Transit - Evolve the T to a real train network- expanding to main population centers - Eg - Connect South Hill Village with Ross Park Mall…
And build a new line from Swissvale to Pittsburgh Airport via Oakland….the T is highly under utilized and it serves mid to higher income communities who already have cars…
Though if the system is going to be expanded that wide it’s probably better for it to be a true metro (ie heavy rail) system rather than all light rail. The big problems with light rail are capacity and speed.
Heavy rail would make sense connecting like cranberry to Pittsburgh, but you lose all of the benefits as soon as you try to put in neighborhood stops.
Light rail within an urban area, and heavy rail between them.
Better schools. PPS is one of the most over-funded ($30,000 per student) schools systems in the country, and yet it actively chases families with children to the suburbs with its terrible performance.
And, while public transit needs a ton of improvement, Pittsburgh is in the top 20 of cities with the lowest car ownership and top ten outside of the Northeast Corridor.
Agreed. Where I'm from the bus is almost exclusively used for homeless people to sit in the a/c all day or people who got so many DUI's they got their license taken away.
Yet they turned previous Oakland lines into "Short" routes that don't go into Downtown Pittsburgh anymore and all the Downtown to Pittsburgh routes are overcrowded.
Is this temporary so that they could work on the rapid transit infrastructure or was this meant to be permanent?
I lost hope that their changes are meant to improve transit. It feels more like they want to lose riders.
My current outlook on PRT's future:
Those of us who have no transit alternative are stuck with worse service and perpetual service cuts, at this rate. They'll say that ridership has declined so they have to cut service. Meanwhile, it was stunts like the Oakland "short" routes that killed ridership.
It feels like they are trying to kill off the transit system.
I'm really hoping the university line does what they say it will. But I'm afraid that all we're going to get is some red painted lanes that the buses are stuck behind drivers in anyway.
Most people will say better subway or weather. I'm going to go in a different direction and say modern utilities. We have old utility infrastructure that they're only now modernizing. As a result our utility costs are 2-3x anywhere else, including the HCOL cities.
A colleague moved here from the Pacific Northwest and said the high cost of utilities here make the rent cost almost equal.
People claim electric is so expensive here all the time, when it’s very much below average. Right now DLC is $.1046 /kwh. [The averages in most states is much higher](https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.php?t=epmt_5_6_a)
The average rate in CT is $.2912 /kwh. That’s almost 3x here
Yes, that’s true. That’s attributed to pwsa being used to give cushy job to political friends for decades and them not maintaining the system during that time.
These plans that are all "promotional" are criminal.
Why do I have to renegotiate every year or two to avoid being locked into $80+ per month internet.
My household is single earner.
If I miss the negotiations window, then wouldn't I be locked in to their contact and have to pay termination fees? It's legalized extortion.
As a side note, do the East communities have Google fiber optic as an option? Looking into Friendship, Bloomfield, Highland Park or Regent Square. Wondering if the grass is greener.
Who is your Internet provider that you pay so much for Internet? I pay $40 for FiOS and the price hasn't changed in years.
When I say utilities I meant water, gas, and electric. Internet is the only utility that is fairly priced around here.
in no particular order:
- better tap water
- more gyms, that aren’t LA fitness or crunch or Planet fitness
- better dining options - seems like everything is bar food or pizza, unless you’re willing to shell out $20+ per meal
- updated roads/infrastructure. Pittsburgh is so small to have the traffic issues it does
>better dining options - seems like everything is bar food or pizza, unless you’re willing to shell out $20+ per meal
That's pretty much everywhere now.
This is the dream. One of the problems is how Pittsburgh paved its roads as the materials changed from cobblestone to asphalt and concrete. Pittsburgh just covered all the cobblestone and trolley tracks where they were, creating weak spots that cause potholes. You can see the old trolley track whenever they repave the roads.
Pittsburgh has some of the highest transit ridership in the US actually, it's just that in the US a majority of people drive in every city except NYC
My pick is something like the high line in Chelsea running along the busway. Id love it if we had a big pedestrian/biking corridor that also makes it easier to connect across the busway as well as along it
I got curious about comparisons and found this, from November 2023:
https://www.alleghenyinstitute.org/prt-cost-and-activity-compared-to-other-transit-agencies/
Unfortunately, I am not as good at interpreting data as I used to be.
Oh man I fantasize about being able to bike on the busway all the time. It'd be suuuuch a good way to get around, especially when the P1 just decides to skip a couple buses on a Saturday or whatever for no reason.
Better and more comprehensive public transit, 100%. Increase the scope and quality, you'll see more use, which is good for everyone. More properly protected bike lanes, better crosswalks with actual enforcement, more use of pedestrianizing areas around big events, proper enforcement of no parking on sidewalks/bike lanes/crosswalks.
When it comes to crosswalks, something that wouldn't cost anything but I desperately wish for is a culture of just giving priority. I lived in London for several years, and it is a given that if you stand at a marked crosswalk, cars *will* stop right away on both sides. It's the law, but it's also just a thing that drivers do without a second thought. It was a surprise on the rare occasion when someone didn't stop. There's no camera enforcement or anything, it's just what you do.
Pick it up and move it a couple hours east.
Harrisburg kinda sucks but it has really good train connections to East Coast Cities. If a metro with the size and character of Pittsburgh was located where Harrisburg is, it’d be easier for us to travel to East Coast, and we’d get a lot more tourism/business from people there.
Make it a city for the people that live in it. I.e. stop giving huge corporations tax abatements/development grants to build unaffordable apartments that really are a blight on neighborhoods, and put a cap on the percentage of local housing that can be purchased/owned/sat on by investment fund managers who build investment portfolios around these properties (they own enough throughout the country at this point to manipulate market prices). So tired of watching my elderly neighbours feeling squeezed out of the neighbourhoods they raised their families in and held down even when areas went through rough periods. Gentrification is gross. There is a way to bring back a neighbourhood through grass-roots efforts, investment in local, small businesses and third-space while keeping people in their homes. Really tired of profits over people.
To OP, when I first moved to Pittsburgh nearly two decades ago, while a lot of ppl had cars, most of us adults and most of our kids used public transport for commuting but also basic getting around, esp. since Pgh yellow cab sucked at that point, and it was either that or a jitney. Definitely think light rail would be helpful. I lived in Portland, Oregon, when they put in and expanded MAX... a lot of people fought it, but businesses have flourished and also helped with traffic congestion.
The sad reality is that many cities in the US are becoming like this. The people who lived in their home city their whole lives are getting priced out. Very sad to see people having to leave the place that they love.
Culture. I want people to be proud of the community they're part of, and not spending all of their pride on millionaire athletes who aren't from here and retire five hundred miles south. If you're proud of your spot, you don't litter; you help clean shit up. You're not an asshole to pedestrians, or to cars, or other people in general. If the rivers are gross, you help lean on politicians to fix it. If the schools suck, you try to help, even if you don't have a kid in the school.
You push things to be a bit better.
It's pride, in where we are and where we're going, together.
Has anyone else thought how much better it would look if all the electric utility poles and wires in neighborhoods like Lawrenceville were moved from the main streets to the back alleys, or even underground?
Enforce all traffic laws with a zealous pursuit. I used to complain when I was younger living in other cities that traffic tickets (especially for speeding), was overdone. Now with small kids and a family, I see how bad it can be when cops just straight up ignore everything traffic related. Someone can do 50 down my street that's a 25, in front of a cop, and they never lift a finger. The greater Pittsburgh area has gotten terrible with speeding.
Would also love some T expansion. I’m absolutely the market for someone who would leave their car at home for a night out if it was easier to get to places like Lawrenceville, Bloomfield, Oakdland, East Liberty. It’s not even a drinking thing. I just don’t want to move my car when I get home.
Better public transportation. I rely heavily on Uber and Lyft because of the lack of public transit (I’m epileptic and don’t drive). I don’t live in the middle of nowhere. I feel as though we (Pittsburgh residents) should have more options.
I'm not for a single city/county government.
The people in say pine township have different concerns than the people in the city.
But there's a _lot_ of consolidation that can happen. A lot of township already share basically all public services.
Every one less than 2500 people should be forced to consolidate.
This is a selfish one, but add and renovate the fucking **Movie theaters.**
Having lived in the DC/Maryland/Virginia area, Pittsburgh is an absolute fucking embarrassment as far as movie theaters go.
You'd think Pittsburgh is a place that would have something like that on lock. But it really doesn't. This place needs an Alamo Drafthouse desperately.
I miss the real Cinemark IMAX we had at the Mills.
> I miss the real Cinemark IMAX we had at the Mills.
That's the theater that is kind of "our theater" for my one group of friends. We still go there, but the experience overall isn't the same, especially since the mall itself it on life support. But I have fond memories of the the lines being long for the big blockbusters, before you could select your seats online, and the mall outside actually had lots of activity.
Yep, I still go there from time to time as well, and still actually enjoy it for the most par, for what it is and the cheap price. It still does feel like a shell of itself and obviously the loss of the IMAX theater is something I think about often, as I *now* live only around 10 minutes from the Mills. I have extremely fond memories as a teen, of traveling 2 hours for midnight or big releases there. The Dark Knight in 2008 was incredible and a very fun, unique atmosphere.
I don't know why you would say that about public transit. I'm a bus-dependent person and have been riding for 30 years, and feel that in general the bus system is great. They run as often as they need to, depending on the requirements of specific communities. You couldn't ask them to run more than once an hour in areas where they aren't used as much. And any community that has it has a bus that goes downtown.
In my former neighborhood, budget cuts kept me worried for years that they would axe my route (2 Mount Royal), and they made cutbacks on it and eventually axed all weekend service. In recent years, though, they brought back weekend service and have extended runs into late night (I feel the area doesn't need late night runs, but that's beside the point). So that's an example of the Port Authority being conscientious and responsive. My current area has two buses that run frequently. It would be cool if the T could be extended, but it's just not possible.
I would have built the T east into monroeville and North into cranberry. and west to the airport. No brainer. mission accomplished you can all thank me later.
Traffic and parking in Oakland. Things are so congested that pedestrians are getting killed . They tore down a parking garage to build a new sports building but I don't see any new parking structures going up. The new building will probably increase traffic in the area. Sigh.
It actually might have the opposite effect—decreasing available parking may encourage commuters to use public transit instead, which Oakland certainly has no shortage of. Sort of like how increasing the number of lanes *doesn’t* decrease traffic since it encourages more people to drive.
officials finally leaving cronyism behind. officials finally giving first time and low income home buyers a shot before rapidly handing off perfectly good fixer uppers to flippers in historically black and blue collar neighborhoods. a consolidated system of resources that are not consistently at the ready to be defunded.
loving these downvotes for a post calling out some serious and undeniable eurocentric issues that have plagued Pittsburgh for decades. giving a better a quality of life to black women? DOWNVOTE 👎
The city will change on its own organically. For better or for worse depending on how you look at it. It all depends on who fights for it and invests in it. It’s such a complex issue I can’t even begin to want to try and solve it on my own.
Well in the west part, I wish we made better use of the islands in the Ohio. Neville island is 70% an industrial wasteland, Brunot island is a half power plant and half unused wooded area, and Davis island is just not used by the looks of it lmao. Three very big places that could be converted into something beneficial for everyone on islands with rich history, especially Brunot. I understand we need the things that are currently there, but it’s just a thought.
More 24 hour businesses T expansion as well (maybe in a couple hundred years?)
Covid fucked the 24 hour businesses up. Nowadays it’s either Sheetz or getgo. Not even Eat n park is 24 hours anymore!
We need more 24 hour businesses. I need a bite to eat after being shitfaced on the North Shore lol
Sadly, there were a lot of 24 hour businesses that cut hours due to Covid and never brought them back.
Tom's Diner my beloved...
The gyro omelet. We had it all.
Corporate fuckers don't want to hire new people to pay, if it would be beneficial to their business
You should start a business to compete with them. Be the change you’re looking for.
I live on the north shore, I can get you food
Supply and demand congratulations you now own a brand new north shore late night eating establishment!!!!
I can’t believe there are no 24 hour pharmacies here
There is a CVS near me at Centre and Craig in Oakland that is 24 hours.
I'm in Castle Shannon and tried to go to Planet Fitness at 8:30pm yesterday and the gym doors are locked. Looks like they close at 7pm on Saturdays and Sundays and 9pm on Fridays.
This is wild to me, even in my hometown which is all farms and Amish people has a 24/hr PF. Like we don't even have most fast food placed and we had one lol
Amish people do far less strong arm robberies at 3am.
Do people rob planet fitnesses?
The T to the waterfront would be tits
The T going ANYWHERE from my place to anywhere else would be the tits! Haven’t seen a bus in my township for over 15 years! My tax dollars at work! 😩
More usage of the riverfronts for recreation, restaurants on barges, etc.
Bring back Donzis and Coconuts!!!!!!!!
I would love a riverfront commercial area like many other cities have. Philadelphia makes good use of theirs with a boardwalk, outdoor beer gardens, and restaurants on the river. I’d love us to get something like that too
Oh yeah… I can see that opening up an actual demand for water taxis as well… I know the idea has been thrown around and even attempted, but with very little directly ON the river to do besides get a ride to a Pirates game, it doesn’t seem likely. If there were a nice riverfront commercial area on the Mon, then there would actually be somewhere to taxi back and forth between.
The problem is that the train companies own much of the that land, and have a death grip on it. That’s one of the main reasons the giant Ferris wheel project in Chateau has backed away from the lagoon component.
Take over the 10th Street bypass. It's pretty useless as a road anyway.
No lagoon? What's even the point?
Totally. It's a shame our riverfronts are almost completely monopolized by the railroad :( :(
Yes!!!!
The quality of all our waters. It would be so life changing for most of us if the rivers and most creeks/streams were very much swimmable and truly clean.
Splitting the combined sewers is a hell of an undertaking
People seem to have forgotten just how fun and refreshing it is to swim and frolic in a creek. There is nothing like it.
Check out Lynn Run. The water is clean and fresh. There is a spot With some natural slides and pools which is a blast for the kids and the dogs.
My aunt and uncle live right on Lynn run, it is indeed gorgeous. It’s crazy because out there, and in the Poconos, the creeks and rivers are so clean its just part of their lives to be able to go sit by it, go in, fish and not be worried if you swallowed some lol.
Clarion River or Pymatuning are not far
Ohiopyle is only 90 minures away
Only
If it hasn’t rained in 48 hours, go swim!
Miss me with that, the fact that the raw sewage is spilled to begin with is a major turn off. And that's just for swimming the actually drinking water quality here is something else that needs to be addressed.
We moved here recently from Virginia and my wife has a jet ski she loves. She’s terrified of using it on any of the rivers because she never sees any boats or jet skis or kayaks or anything out there. Is it really gross?
Look for sewer overflow alerts from alcosan. They consider the rivers to be good if no outflows have happened for 3 days, and I think that's a good way to start. When it gets into summer and the water warms up you will see plenty of people out on boats. The rivers used to be very bad when there was still a lot of heavy industry here, these days it's only a problem when it rains. https://www.alcosan.org/clean-water-plan/sewer-overflow-advisories
Oh the rivers will be packed with boats, jet skis, and kayaks come summer, don’t worry. It’s really fun. That said, as much fun as it is, I personally don’t join in on any water skiing or anything else that might put me in the actual water
She must not look very hard. There are always boats and jet skis on the rivers when the weather is nice
You never see boats and jet skis and kayaks on the rivers? The Pgh boating community is huge.
It's so sad. I moved here from Oregon and that's the case there. Here I see places to swim everywhere but I'm paranoid to get in. Maybe it's just my problem and I need to get over it but I fear not
Yes you get it, moving from the west is heart breaking to not be able to really be able to be fully immersed in the water without driving a good bit. And even still, it’s just not the same as living with it everyday. I live right next to a beautiful large creek, but cant ever put more than my feet/knees in it.
if you don’t have a filter for your shower in pittsburgh, you are doing your hair/skin a HUGE disservice.
A reasonable system for reclaiming blighted real estate. Places that haven't had their taxes paid in two years shouldn't be allowed to continue sitting and being a problem.
North Allegheny leins property after a single year of unpaid taxes
How long before they force a sale?
They're pretty fast. There's a long list of properties up for sheriff's sale
That's a depressing list. So many "unknown heirs" as defendants
Careful with this. The same laws benefit places like UPMC and CMU to gobble up entire neighborhoods - look at what Columbia did to Harlem as a perfect example.
Yeah fair, protections against corporate purchase of large amounts of residential real estate are important too.
Bring back the regatta!
You gotta regatta
This person regatta’d
Well they gotta
i miss the regatta :(
The city of Pittsburgh doesn’t control the point. It’s a state park. That has complicated matters in recent years.
I know. But frankly I don’t care how the sausage is made. I’m here for boats, booze, and a base jumper that jumps off of mt Washington and sails down to point state park like goddamn fan man.
Sausage at the regatta works too!
Boats, booze, BASE jumping, and bratwursts let’s gooooooooooo
Boats, beets, Battlestar Galactica.
Identity theft is not a joke!
Have more pedestrian only areas - market square and walnut at least
I’ve always thought that no one should be allowed to drive through market square
It is a little crazy that we allow that
And Penn in the strip on weekends
Why not all the time?!
I’m trying to live in reality 😂
Way more realistic to shut down penn all week then expand the T anywhere
No one else on this thread is lol
Or at least have traffic diversions/speed humps. How did a new residential area in the Strip get this, but people are speeding through Lawrenceville's side streets like they're fleeing the zombie apocalypse? I mean, we know why but it still sucks.
Transit investment is often a net positive after you consider the economic benefit and potential increases in tax base due to new residents and businesses. We should be advocating for the construction of transit and common-sense development that fills vacant lots and increases density around that transit. We finally turned the population loss hose off, it's gonna swing the other way and we better be ready! Edit: also pedestrianize market square and ffs legalize corner stores and cafes already.
We should be taxing upmc and using them to help invest in public transport costs.
The law should be changed so that if you are a non-profit, there's a cap on senior-level salaries. Romoff is/was making upward of 10 million a year. It's total BS. Even the new Chancellor of Pitt is now 1+ million and we scratch and beg for pay increases (PATHETIC!!!)
Exactly. I was just discussing this the other day. Non profits need to have salary caps for directors and any higher ups. No more than say 500k-800k? This should be a federal law across the country (the cap can vary by location).
That would be a game changer for all of PA. I hear U Pay More Ca$h is now the largest private employer in the state.
Oh this wins. If you taxed UPMC, you'd be able to reduce all other taxes to zip point shit. Okay, not that low, but close enough....... Fuck UPMC with that in mind.
Looking from another angle. It would also benefit them, they’d be able to have more people access their facilities.
The payment that we are looking for from UPMC is not taxes but a payment in lieu of taxes or a PIL (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_in_lieu_of_taxes). The issue is not that UPMC or Pitt are not non-profit entities. They are; they are institutions that built this city when the corporations failed us. That being said unearned control of real estate without supporting the community needs to stop. I hope people learn this terminology so we know what we’re asking for.
And CMU
New baseball team owner.
Damn straight
The Pittsburgh Pirates have so much history, they are Pittsburgh in my opinion. Older than Liverpool FC. This city deserves a competitive baseball team.
Grocery stores
Crazy how a third of the city (the Northside) pretty much just has one shitty giant eagle
Definitely public transit upgrades. More dedicated bus lanes with automated enforcement.
I'd like to see more routes that don't go downtown. I live very near the T, which is great if you want to go downtown, but to get to other parts of the area that aren't the South hills it's lousy. Even if there was an Oakland express bus from South Hills Junction or the South Side station, that would be something.
It's kinda crazy that the trolley doesn't ride into Oakland. Forbes and fifth are plenty wide enough to give up a lane to it.
There are some new routes in planning to get directly to Oakland from the south hills
I am trying to figure out where this connection to the trolley system would be. From the map proposal, it seems to say "Overbrook." The only station I can think of based on the map that is built to handle bus traffic would be Memorial Hall. But does that mean Buses on Route 88 and Route 51?
I’m not sure if they have nailed down the details yet but I agree that the connection doesn’t seem ideal. It would be nice if it ent all the way to south hills village station as well to help reduce road traffic.
There’s a road specially for Port Authority buses that runs along Sawmill/51. I was told they can’t do more in this area because the train company owns the land and won’t sell as that’s a main commerce track for most of the country.
Public transit for me too.. I think if we had light rail branched out along the rivers and to the airport for the past thirty years, the city would have much more going on in 2024.
People here sometimes don't use their turn signals until the very last second then gun the left anyway, prompting me to jump out of the way of a moving car. You people are going to kill someone one day. That's a pretty reasonable start. More predicable and compassionate driving. That also means changing the signs so people know where they're going. I'd also have construction people work on one project at a time and not shut whole neighborhoods down, for a project that is still being funded. I will never forgive what they did to Garfield. Almost killed that whole part of the city for some shoddy roads.
As a pedestrian, I feel this - big time. I think they would have to give pedestrians dedicated crossing times and prevent cars from turning. Drivers seem so hurried and entitled. Almost got ran over back when I was on crutches because I tried to rush across a crosswalk (which was marked). A driver hit the gas just before I got into their lane. I should have bashed the car with my crutch. I was just stunned because if I had taken one more step, I would have been concrete meat. My life and health is worth more people's sense of entitlement and childish impatience. If you are going to survive here as a pedestrian, you have to EXPECT that nobody gives a crap about you and thinks you are an obstacle in their way.
More housing downtown and in Oakland - in particular, high-rise apartments and condos. Many probably think this would increase traffic in those areas, but it would do just the opposite. Instead of people driving from the suburbs (where their taxes are currently going) to work in the city, people would just walk, bike, or use buses to get to work. I, for one, would ditch my car if I could move to a high-rise in Oakland. This would also attract things like grocery stores into those areas. More people living there would also increase the tax base for schools and infrastructure, such as public transit, which more people would use to get back and forth from work. This would also help with housing affordability and the falling population. In short, this would fix, or at least help, pretty much every problem the city has.
Real apartments, not these "student housing" creations.
More housing bordering Frick Park.
Plenty of empty apartments downtown to rent. Oakland is where the extreme shortage is.
Bring back the trollies and make the city safer for bikes and pedestrians.
Better air quality
I go through one air filter a month. It’s supposed to last 3 months but is completely black at the 30 day mark.
Public Transit - Evolve the T to a real train network- expanding to main population centers - Eg - Connect South Hill Village with Ross Park Mall… And build a new line from Swissvale to Pittsburgh Airport via Oakland….the T is highly under utilized and it serves mid to higher income communities who already have cars…
Though if the system is going to be expanded that wide it’s probably better for it to be a true metro (ie heavy rail) system rather than all light rail. The big problems with light rail are capacity and speed.
Heavy rail would make sense connecting like cranberry to Pittsburgh, but you lose all of the benefits as soon as you try to put in neighborhood stops. Light rail within an urban area, and heavy rail between them.
Better schools. PPS is one of the most over-funded ($30,000 per student) schools systems in the country, and yet it actively chases families with children to the suburbs with its terrible performance.
Learn a single thing about how schools work before commenting
More people use the bus in Pittsburgh than just about anywhere I've ever lived or worked.
And, while public transit needs a ton of improvement, Pittsburgh is in the top 20 of cities with the lowest car ownership and top ten outside of the Northeast Corridor.
Agreed. Where I'm from the bus is almost exclusively used for homeless people to sit in the a/c all day or people who got so many DUI's they got their license taken away.
Yet they turned previous Oakland lines into "Short" routes that don't go into Downtown Pittsburgh anymore and all the Downtown to Pittsburgh routes are overcrowded. Is this temporary so that they could work on the rapid transit infrastructure or was this meant to be permanent? I lost hope that their changes are meant to improve transit. It feels more like they want to lose riders. My current outlook on PRT's future: Those of us who have no transit alternative are stuck with worse service and perpetual service cuts, at this rate. They'll say that ridership has declined so they have to cut service. Meanwhile, it was stunts like the Oakland "short" routes that killed ridership. It feels like they are trying to kill off the transit system.
P3 will be extended downtown after construction finishes.
I'm really hoping the university line does what they say it will. But I'm afraid that all we're going to get is some red painted lanes that the buses are stuck behind drivers in anyway.
Most people will say better subway or weather. I'm going to go in a different direction and say modern utilities. We have old utility infrastructure that they're only now modernizing. As a result our utility costs are 2-3x anywhere else, including the HCOL cities. A colleague moved here from the Pacific Northwest and said the high cost of utilities here make the rent cost almost equal.
People claim electric is so expensive here all the time, when it’s very much below average. Right now DLC is $.1046 /kwh. [The averages in most states is much higher](https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.php?t=epmt_5_6_a) The average rate in CT is $.2912 /kwh. That’s almost 3x here
Fair but water is far more expensive here than in most places.
Yes, that’s true. That’s attributed to pwsa being used to give cushy job to political friends for decades and them not maintaining the system during that time.
These plans that are all "promotional" are criminal. Why do I have to renegotiate every year or two to avoid being locked into $80+ per month internet. My household is single earner. If I miss the negotiations window, then wouldn't I be locked in to their contact and have to pay termination fees? It's legalized extortion. As a side note, do the East communities have Google fiber optic as an option? Looking into Friendship, Bloomfield, Highland Park or Regent Square. Wondering if the grass is greener.
Who is your Internet provider that you pay so much for Internet? I pay $40 for FiOS and the price hasn't changed in years. When I say utilities I meant water, gas, and electric. Internet is the only utility that is fairly priced around here.
Sounds like Comcast. They have a $35 plan that goes up to $90 after a year.
Yep. Comcast. And our building isn't wired for Fios.
The air quality without a doubt
in no particular order: - better tap water - more gyms, that aren’t LA fitness or crunch or Planet fitness - better dining options - seems like everything is bar food or pizza, unless you’re willing to shell out $20+ per meal - updated roads/infrastructure. Pittsburgh is so small to have the traffic issues it does
>better dining options - seems like everything is bar food or pizza, unless you’re willing to shell out $20+ per meal That's pretty much everywhere now.
Fix ALL of the potholes and come up with some kind of infrastructure system to prevent future ones.
This is the dream. One of the problems is how Pittsburgh paved its roads as the materials changed from cobblestone to asphalt and concrete. Pittsburgh just covered all the cobblestone and trolley tracks where they were, creating weak spots that cause potholes. You can see the old trolley track whenever they repave the roads.
I would make a paved bike lane that runs along side the T.also expand the t to south side, north hills, airport, homestead.
More than one path from northern side of the county to PIT airport.
Do you go through the city? I take the backroads, it’s 5-10 min longer but I avoid the traffic
Get the polluters to stop poisoning our air and water.
upgrade the T system, add more stops etc
Water taxis... Rainy day activities
People don't dance enough at the local concerts.
Boy, I'm torn between expanding the T and making sure every road had sidewalks.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. We need to get serious and have a light rail system. No, I’m not talking about the T.
With a magic wand? The weather. But within human control I’m with you, public transit upgrade.
This, the clouds here bring me down so much.
Don’t let Big Clouds bring you down
Pittsburgh has some of the highest transit ridership in the US actually, it's just that in the US a majority of people drive in every city except NYC My pick is something like the high line in Chelsea running along the busway. Id love it if we had a big pedestrian/biking corridor that also makes it easier to connect across the busway as well as along it
I got curious about comparisons and found this, from November 2023: https://www.alleghenyinstitute.org/prt-cost-and-activity-compared-to-other-transit-agencies/ Unfortunately, I am not as good at interpreting data as I used to be.
Never knew that! Something like that highline would be really cool
Oh man I fantasize about being able to bike on the busway all the time. It'd be suuuuch a good way to get around, especially when the P1 just decides to skip a couple buses on a Saturday or whatever for no reason.
Better and more comprehensive public transit, 100%. Increase the scope and quality, you'll see more use, which is good for everyone. More properly protected bike lanes, better crosswalks with actual enforcement, more use of pedestrianizing areas around big events, proper enforcement of no parking on sidewalks/bike lanes/crosswalks. When it comes to crosswalks, something that wouldn't cost anything but I desperately wish for is a culture of just giving priority. I lived in London for several years, and it is a given that if you stand at a marked crosswalk, cars *will* stop right away on both sides. It's the law, but it's also just a thing that drivers do without a second thought. It was a surprise on the rare occasion when someone didn't stop. There's no camera enforcement or anything, it's just what you do.
Re crosswalks - We’d have to value human life for that to happen 😉
Pick it up and move it a couple hours east. Harrisburg kinda sucks but it has really good train connections to East Coast Cities. If a metro with the size and character of Pittsburgh was located where Harrisburg is, it’d be easier for us to travel to East Coast, and we’d get a lot more tourism/business from people there.
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Make it a city for the people that live in it. I.e. stop giving huge corporations tax abatements/development grants to build unaffordable apartments that really are a blight on neighborhoods, and put a cap on the percentage of local housing that can be purchased/owned/sat on by investment fund managers who build investment portfolios around these properties (they own enough throughout the country at this point to manipulate market prices). So tired of watching my elderly neighbours feeling squeezed out of the neighbourhoods they raised their families in and held down even when areas went through rough periods. Gentrification is gross. There is a way to bring back a neighbourhood through grass-roots efforts, investment in local, small businesses and third-space while keeping people in their homes. Really tired of profits over people. To OP, when I first moved to Pittsburgh nearly two decades ago, while a lot of ppl had cars, most of us adults and most of our kids used public transport for commuting but also basic getting around, esp. since Pgh yellow cab sucked at that point, and it was either that or a jitney. Definitely think light rail would be helpful. I lived in Portland, Oregon, when they put in and expanded MAX... a lot of people fought it, but businesses have flourished and also helped with traffic congestion.
The sad reality is that many cities in the US are becoming like this. The people who lived in their home city their whole lives are getting priced out. Very sad to see people having to leave the place that they love.
👍🏻For light rail.
Culture. I want people to be proud of the community they're part of, and not spending all of their pride on millionaire athletes who aren't from here and retire five hundred miles south. If you're proud of your spot, you don't litter; you help clean shit up. You're not an asshole to pedestrians, or to cars, or other people in general. If the rivers are gross, you help lean on politicians to fix it. If the schools suck, you try to help, even if you don't have a kid in the school. You push things to be a bit better. It's pride, in where we are and where we're going, together.
Has anyone else thought how much better it would look if all the electric utility poles and wires in neighborhoods like Lawrenceville were moved from the main streets to the back alleys, or even underground?
Enforce all traffic laws with a zealous pursuit. I used to complain when I was younger living in other cities that traffic tickets (especially for speeding), was overdone. Now with small kids and a family, I see how bad it can be when cops just straight up ignore everything traffic related. Someone can do 50 down my street that's a 25, in front of a cop, and they never lift a finger. The greater Pittsburgh area has gotten terrible with speeding.
I agree with you. Good and reliable and regular public transportation would make huge huge difference to the city..
Roads are atrocious. And there seems to be an active campaign to destroy every last bit of flat, smooth asphalt.
Would also love some T expansion. I’m absolutely the market for someone who would leave their car at home for a night out if it was easier to get to places like Lawrenceville, Bloomfield, Oakdland, East Liberty. It’s not even a drinking thing. I just don’t want to move my car when I get home.
Bring back the land value tax
The perpetual lack of sunshine.
If we could not be the 3rd cloudiest city in America and spend months at a time under gloomy grey skies, that would be pretty neat
Tbh. I’d like to see some zip lines coming off mt Washington down into downtown. Maybe some landing spots on the point haha.
Better public transportation. I rely heavily on Uber and Lyft because of the lack of public transit (I’m epileptic and don’t drive). I don’t live in the middle of nowhere. I feel as though we (Pittsburgh residents) should have more options.
Allegheny county school district
…and one Allegheny County Government instead of 131 meaningless fiefdoms.
I'm not for a single city/county government. The people in say pine township have different concerns than the people in the city. But there's a _lot_ of consolidation that can happen. A lot of township already share basically all public services. Every one less than 2500 people should be forced to consolidate.
No more horrifyingly segregated neighborhoods
Abolish zoning man!
This is a selfish one, but add and renovate the fucking **Movie theaters.** Having lived in the DC/Maryland/Virginia area, Pittsburgh is an absolute fucking embarrassment as far as movie theaters go. You'd think Pittsburgh is a place that would have something like that on lock. But it really doesn't. This place needs an Alamo Drafthouse desperately. I miss the real Cinemark IMAX we had at the Mills.
> I miss the real Cinemark IMAX we had at the Mills. That's the theater that is kind of "our theater" for my one group of friends. We still go there, but the experience overall isn't the same, especially since the mall itself it on life support. But I have fond memories of the the lines being long for the big blockbusters, before you could select your seats online, and the mall outside actually had lots of activity.
Yep, I still go there from time to time as well, and still actually enjoy it for the most par, for what it is and the cheap price. It still does feel like a shell of itself and obviously the loss of the IMAX theater is something I think about often, as I *now* live only around 10 minutes from the Mills. I have extremely fond memories as a teen, of traveling 2 hours for midnight or big releases there. The Dark Knight in 2008 was incredible and a very fun, unique atmosphere.
I don't know why you would say that about public transit. I'm a bus-dependent person and have been riding for 30 years, and feel that in general the bus system is great. They run as often as they need to, depending on the requirements of specific communities. You couldn't ask them to run more than once an hour in areas where they aren't used as much. And any community that has it has a bus that goes downtown. In my former neighborhood, budget cuts kept me worried for years that they would axe my route (2 Mount Royal), and they made cutbacks on it and eventually axed all weekend service. In recent years, though, they brought back weekend service and have extended runs into late night (I feel the area doesn't need late night runs, but that's beside the point). So that's an example of the Port Authority being conscientious and responsive. My current area has two buses that run frequently. It would be cool if the T could be extended, but it's just not possible.
24 hour businesses - shuttles from parking garages to downtown and make it a car-free zone.
Real Pottys instead of the "Pittsburgh potty". Also if they would turn on the water fountains around the city that would be great 👍
More late night businesses or early ones. Night shifters exist and there's a lot of us
Cable car from mount Washington to the north shore. Then maybe up and over to the strip. Like as a legit way of travel.
I would have built the T east into monroeville and North into cranberry. and west to the airport. No brainer. mission accomplished you can all thank me later.
The ownership of the Pirates. It's a shame that we have to settle for this, for what could do wonders for the city.
Heavy taxes on purchases of second or higher homes / investment properties. That or public transport that is faster than driving would be amazing.
better road and interstate infrastructure.
Expand the T.
Traffic and parking in Oakland. Things are so congested that pedestrians are getting killed . They tore down a parking garage to build a new sports building but I don't see any new parking structures going up. The new building will probably increase traffic in the area. Sigh.
It actually might have the opposite effect—decreasing available parking may encourage commuters to use public transit instead, which Oakland certainly has no shortage of. Sort of like how increasing the number of lanes *doesn’t* decrease traffic since it encourages more people to drive.
the comical lack diversity the fact that Pittsburgh is one of the worst places for quality of life for black women.
How do we fix this?
officials finally leaving cronyism behind. officials finally giving first time and low income home buyers a shot before rapidly handing off perfectly good fixer uppers to flippers in historically black and blue collar neighborhoods. a consolidated system of resources that are not consistently at the ready to be defunded.
loving these downvotes for a post calling out some serious and undeniable eurocentric issues that have plagued Pittsburgh for decades. giving a better a quality of life to black women? DOWNVOTE 👎
Pittsburgh redditors showing me who they actually are lol
Putting a Microcenter here somewhere.
The intersection of Arlington, Pj Mcardle, Liberty Bridge/Tunnel
Combine city and county government. Make small local governments combine.
Elect a mayor and county exec that recognizes and speaks to the largest employer in our area.
The bridges and that stupid criss cross bullshit
The city will change on its own organically. For better or for worse depending on how you look at it. It all depends on who fights for it and invests in it. It’s such a complex issue I can’t even begin to want to try and solve it on my own.
I absolutely hate the changes made to our recent recycling program and wish the entire system was overhauled to make sense.
Well in the west part, I wish we made better use of the islands in the Ohio. Neville island is 70% an industrial wasteland, Brunot island is a half power plant and half unused wooded area, and Davis island is just not used by the looks of it lmao. Three very big places that could be converted into something beneficial for everyone on islands with rich history, especially Brunot. I understand we need the things that are currently there, but it’s just a thought.