Stowe Township, a rare urban township on Pittsburgh’s Westside

I only evaluated the portion of Stowe Township between Benwood Ave/McCoy Rd town to the Twp’s southern border mostly abutting McKees Rocks.

Stowe Township is a rarity as it is one of the few Townships in Pennsylvania with a historic main street and extensive pre WWII residential areas. The historic part of Stowe is very tied to the fate of McKees Rock its neighbor to the east and south. Both municipalities share a school district and the blight of McKees Rock has certainly spread to Stowe Township. But Stowe is more intact and has lost less population. Its business district along Broadway is surprisingly still in tact and hosts a good array of restaurants, bars and even a Historic Movie Theater and Brewery.  The Business District along Broadway got a major facelift in 1983 with a comprehensive streetscaping redo but little has changed since.

Stowe Township’s best chance for revitalization and an active Business District is immigration. Already there are signs of this occurring with a new African restaurant and grocery store open along Broadway. Immigration would help fill up the vacant homes and retail spaces before too much vacancy brings the community down and tips the community into a death spiral of blight. Given its convenient access to Dwtn Pittsburgh (12 minutes by car and 20 by bus), I’m hopefully that Stowe Township will stabilize and improve.

Click here to view my Stowe Township Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Solid urban density. 
* Great access to Dwtn as it is a 12 min drive and 20 minute bus ride. The frequency of service, however, is so so.
* Generally good connectivity with a strong street grid but this gets broken up at times with the hills and hollers.
* Decent racial diversity with a large Black population of about 20% -30% of the population.
* Good amount of families here.
* Decent cultural amenities including a brewery, several restaurants, a local movie theater, and a handful of bars.
* Historic Commercial District is relatively in tact. Gets a bit spotty along Broadway closer to McKeesport.
* Streetscaping was redone in the early 80s. Feels dated but still largely holding up.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Decent sidewalk coverage but ADA ramps are pretty spotty. Some newer or hiller streets without sidewalks.
* No bike infrastructure to speak of.
* Economically Stowe is mostly low-moderate income. It has a very working class feel.
* Schools are limited to  a poorly rated public high school and a Catholic grad school.
 * Not a lot of housing diversity and housing is very affordable. A handful of 1-beds that sell around 70K. 2-beds sell anywhere btwn 50K-150. 3 & 4 beds sell btwn 70K-200K.
* Parks are limited to Norwood Park (a small park with a playground and ballcourt) and a Jewish cemetery just over the line in McKees Rocks.
* Tree canopy is limited in most of the evaluation area but lots of trees on the edges on the hillsides.
* Missing important retail amenities such as supermarkets, drug stores, banks,  boutiques, a public library & post office, and any medical offices. Retail amenities that do exist include a bakery, a couple clothing stores and gift stores, a couple salons and several churches.
* Historic Commercial Architecture is ok but historic residential while plentiful is pretty low quality.
* Modern in-fill largely doesn’t existing in Stowe.