Pittston, PA – Scranton Metro Area Historic Town and dubbed “The Quality Tomato Capital of the World”

I included most of Pittston but cut out the Upper Pittston north of Parsonage St as its lower-density and has a lot of newer development. In 1853, Pittston broke away from Pittston Township and officially became a borough. Pittson quickly grew to 3K by 1860 and quadrupled to 12K by 1900. Pittston became a vital center for coal mining in the 19th century, part of the larger Anthracite Coal Region of Pennsylvania. This era attracted a large influx of immigrants, mainly from Ireland, Italy, and Eastern Europe. By the mid 19th century the demand for anthracite coal declined and Pittston began to decline like many other rust belt towns in the area. Yet Pittston’s population had already peaked in 1920 at 18,500 souls. Even with the decline in coal mining Pittston’s economy remained strong from 1930 to the 1980s, as the town emerged as a national center for clothing manufacturing. But this dried up by the late 20th century as well and the town was faced with continued population decline, increased poverty, and vacancy. Yet civic leaders never gave up and in 2008, under the leadership of Mayor Joseph P. Keating, the City invested heavily in its Downtown area with a complete streetscape refresh. new street art through numerous sculpture pieces and colorful brick pavers, creation of a new riverfront park, and investment of many of its historic buildings and even in-fill urban development. Pittston now promotes itself as “The Quality Tomato Capital of the World.” as the region is a major tomatoes producing area especially for New York’s insatiable appetite for tomato imports. Fortunately Pittston population decline has slowed since 2000 and the City now sits at 7,600 residents.

The next stage for urban renewal is the revitalization of its residential areas. Much blight and disinvestment still exist in Pittston’s residential areas and there is a need for more economic diversity as nearly 30% of the town lives in poverty. I’d also like to see more bike infrastructure, immigration, rental housing variety and investment in Main Street outside of Dwtn (esp. north as this is a major blighted area in town).

Click here to view my Pittston album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Decent Dwtn access as Pittston is located btwn Scranton & Wilkes-Barre; 20 min drive to each. But 1 Hr bus ride to Scranton and only 25 mins to Wilkes-Barre.
* Nice recreational trail running along the Susquehanna River on the southern half of Dwtn.
* Pretty good generational diversity as the medium age here is 35 (much lower than the state of PA). Also a good pct of families w/ children.
*Good array of elementary and middle schoos in Pittston and pretty good rating. The high school, however, isn’t walkable to most residents sitting on the edge of town.
* For sale housing is generally pretty affordable but some good medium range options too. 2-beds sell btwn 70K-350K. 3 & 4 beds sell btwn 50K-350K.
* Decent # of affordable rentals provided by the Pittston Housing Authority.
* Great Riverfront park located right next to the main street. Completement by a couple nice medium sized parks and a couple of smaller parklettes dwtn.
* Highly in-tact and attractive dwtn main street. Several excellent historic churches near the main street as well.
* Excellent urban form in the heart of Dwtn which runs about 5 blocks. Excellent streetscaping project along Main St Dwtn and running to the souther border. Urban form and streetscaping along Main street north of Dwtn is pretty poor.
* Good cultural amenities several restaurants & bars, a distillery, several cafes, a couple art galleries and lots of public street art including an intential sculpture campaign, and several night clubs.
* Also good retail amenities including a couple dollar & drug stores, several boutiques, clothing stores, and gift stores, plenty of banks, a dwtn public library & post office, a music store, a couple dessert shops, a YMCA and a couple gyms, several churches and a couple doctor’s offices.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

Other than the river trail, there is no bike infrastructure here.
Sidewalk infrastructure is generally good but sometimes missing on the residential streets which almost never have up to date ADA curbs. Core of Main Street is solid.
So so public transit
Some economic diversity but poverty is high here, 27%.
80% White population but the Hispanic population appears to be growing.
Crime seems to be higher than average in Pittston and the town has a good amount of grit and blight. But it doesn’t feel unsafe walking the Main Street.
Decent # of rentals but not much variety as they are all pretty affordable. 1-beds lease around 1K. 2-beds btwn low 1Ks and a handful of 3-beds leasing for a bit more.
Historic residential housing is pretty gritty thanks to the working class styling.
Some decent in-fill bldg dwtn but a fair amount of autocentric crud on the southern end of Pittston.”

Hazelton, PA- An Eastern Pennsylvania City literally surrounded by Old Coal Fields

Hazleton was originally settled in the early 19th century, primarily by people of English and German descent. It was officially incorporated as a Borough in 1851 when it had 2,000 residents and later as a city in 1891. The discovery of anthracite coal in the surrounding areas in the early 19th century led to Hazleton becoming a bustling coal mining town. The coal mines attracted a large number of immigrants, particularly from Eastern Europe, Ireland, and Italy. Because of this influx of immigrants, Hazleton’s population drastically changed during the “boom period” starting in 1890 when the population w as 12K to 36K in 1920. The population peaked in 1940 at 38K. By the mid-20th century, the demand for anthracite coal declined, leading to the beginning of a period of decline in Hazleton. Fortunately a major influx of Hispanic immigrants primarily from Dominican Republic has stabilized the City. Hazelton’s population bottomed out at 23K in 2000 but thanks to a major influx of Hispanics the population grew to 30K, having grown by 20% in only a decade.

Hazelton has a solid urban fabric with good density and two in-tact business districts: Broad Street (the Historic Dwtn) and Wyoming St (a solid secondary urban biz district) perpendicular to Broad St. Some decent mixed-use fabric also along Diamond and Poplar St to the south. But Hazelwood is incredibly gritty, which makes sense as the town is literally surrounded and often constrained by old coal mines. While Hazelton has good retail amenities, its cultural options are limited. Sidewalks are often in poor condition and the town has no bike infrastructure but the City has lots of quality walkable schools and well dispersed park amenities. Housing, while affordable, is not diverse and limited to those with higher incomes.

Click here to view my Hazelton Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

Excellent gridded street fabric with short blocks.
Good density here
Good generational diversity with large number of households with children.
Good number of walkable schools throughout Hazelton generally with decent ratings. Large school campus just outside the City limits on the NW corner of town where the Public High School and middle/elementary School and Catholic High School are located. Just walkable to many Hazelton residents.
Good amount of housing authority run building providing lots of permanent affordability options.
Better retail amenities including several supermarkets and tons of Hispanic grocerias, plenty of drug stores, several boutiques and clothing stores, some gift shops, several banks, an Ollie’s Bargain store & lots of thrift shops, tons of salons, plenty of dessert joints and bakeries, plenty of gyms, a couple dollar generals, a dwtn library & post office, a major hospital and plenty of doctor’s offices, and several churches.
Decent amount of the quality historic commercial bldgs exist on Broad street. Residential is very worker housing and not terrible attractive.
Parks aren’t spectacular but a good number of small-medium sized parks that are well distributed throughout.
Decent pedestrian activity thanks to Hazelton’s density and high % of residents w/o cars.
Good mix of uses as there are lots of corner stores and restaurants/bars outside of the two main streets.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

There is a local bus service with a fare number of lines but service is infrequent.
Sidewalks are consistent but often in poor condition and without modern ADA infrastructure on the residential streets. Better sidewalk and ADA infrastructure on the main streets.
While Hazelton has its own modest dwtn its far from Dwtn Wilkes-Barres and Scranton; 35 & 50 minutes respectively. 1 Hr by bus to Wilkes-Barres.
No bike infrastructure to speak of.
Very Hispanic City, so much so that I wouldn’t consider this a diverse City as Hispanics make up 70% of the population.
Limited economic diversity as well as 25% of the population is living in poverty.
Crime itself doesn’t seem to be a major problem in Hazelwood but a very gritty city with a fair amount of blight.
Zillow listed rentals are pretty limited although I suspect there are plenty of unlisted rentals available. Product is generally in the low-mid 1Ks with a decent # of 2 & 3 beds.
Decent array of for-sale product but generally pretty affordable and not a ton diversity. 2-beds sell btwn 50K-260K and 3 & 4 beds sell btwn 60K- low 300Ks.
Tree canopy is so so. Better tree cover on the edge of development.
Cultural amenities are limited to several Hispanic & Italian restaurants, several bars & lounges, a couple cafes and art galleries, a small local history museum.
Any modern in-fil that exists is very autocentric.”

Hyde Park- West Scranton’s most iconic and in-tact neighborhood

Hyde Park is the most defined neighborhood in West Scranton due to the historic Borough that gave it its namesake but it is still difficult to nail down the boundaries. I choose to use Main Street as the eastern border, the railroad tracks as the western, Cathedral Cemetery as the northern border, and the Scranton Municipal line as the southern border. This seems to capture the core of Hyde Park and leave the area between Main Street and the Downtown as a separate neighborhood, which many would consider Bellevue.

Hyde Park is a tight-knit Scranton neighborhood, which developed rapidly during the turn of the 20th century. While the neighborhood’s rise was fueled by the coal mining industry, the neighborhood has also always had a strong middle class. Main Street is the neighborhood’s historic commercial street with the best concentration of businesses and urban fabric between Washburn and Lackawanna. The rest of Main Street is pretty mixed-use in character. While a decent number of businesses remain along Main Street, it is quite gritty and has lots of vacant storefronts. The residential areas of the neighborhood are generally intact thanks to new waves of Hispanic immigrants who are increasingly replacing the neighborhood’s strong Italian and Lebanese character.

Hyde Park is a fairly walkable community with convenient access to Dwtn and supports a wide array of affordable rental and for-sale housing options. Also great walkable schools remain here. For this to be a premiere urban district, Hyde Park needs to reinvest in its historic main street filing up vacancies and encouraging mixed-use in-fill development. The tree canopy and park amenities are limited, and bike infrastructure is non-existent.

Click here to view my Hyde Park album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

Sidewalk infrastructure is consistent across the neighborhood but ADA standard curb cuts really only exist along Main Street. A decent amount of sidewalks have been paved over by asphalt.
Pretty good density
Excellent access to Dwtn only 1.5 miles away. 6 min drive and a 25 min bus ride.
Good street connectivity and grid although blocks can be long at points.
Good diversity metrics all around. Large Hispanic Population here as well accounting for about 25% of the population.
Overall a safe community with limited blight but plenty of grittiness.
Decent urban form along Main Street especially several blocks btwn Washburn and Lackawanna.
Good array of walkable schools including public schools covering all grades and a couple private Catholic grade schools. Public middle and high schools are rated 3 out of 10 however.
Decent array of rental options and generally pretty affordable. 1-beds lease for around 1K, 2-beds for btwn $900-1.6K, and lots of 3-bed options that lease in the 1Ks. Even some 4-beds. Also an affordable senior high rise.
Good retail amenities including a supermarket, several Hispanic & Italian grocerias, a drug store, a hardware store, a family dollar, a couple furniture stores, several salons, a couple bakeries & gyms, post office, several banks, and several churches.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

Within Hyde Park the only parks really are cemeteries. The expansive McDade Park isn’t too far way however.
Very mediocre public transit access. Bike infrastructure is non-existent.
So so cultural amenities which includes several restaurants (mostly Lebanese, Hispanic, and Italian), and couple bars.
Tree canopy is pretty mediocre.
For sale housing is very affordable but not a ton of diversity. Limited 1-bed product. 2-beds sell btwn 50K-low 200Ks and 3 & 4 beds sell btwn 50K- low 300Ks.”

The Hill Section- Scranton’s best urban district and home of the University of Scranton

The boundaries of the Hill Section are a bit fuzzy but its pretty easy to carve out with Dwtn to the West (along Jefferson), Dunmore to the north, and the highway to the south and east. I included Scranton University in this evaluation. The Adam biz district just to the west of the Hill Section in Dwtn essentially functions as Scranton University’s biz district. Some business activity along Mulberry and a couple of mixed-use blocks at Ash St and Prescott.

The Hill Section was developed in the years following the Civil War as Scranton’s first suburb as coal barons who did not wish to live amidst the pollution in the Dwtn area and in the valleys built their homes high in the clean air of the Hill Section. Middle and working class Scrantonian’s increasingly moved to live in the Hill Section a couple decades later as they moved up in society. The Hill Section has also hosted many waves of immigrants including many Eastern Europeans in the turn of the 20th century, African Americas in the mid twentieth century, and in the present day immigrant groups from Latin America, and East and Central Asia. The University Of Scranton, which is the largest Hill Section institution was founded in 1888 as Thomas College but was renamed The University of Scranton and moved to its current location in 1940.

This is Scranton’s best urban area thanks to its density, seamless connection to Dwtn, large institutions, good walkability, and housing diversity and affordability. For this to be a premiere urban district I would start with further urbanizing Mulberry Street with mixed-income apartment buildings to fill in the many underutilized lots. Other important areas to improve is more frequent transit service, bike lanes, more walkable schools, and important retail amenities (i.e. supermarket, post office, and public library).

Click here to view my Hill Section album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Great density for a middle-sized City neighborhood.
* The Adam biz district just to the west of the Hill Section in Dwtn but essentially functions as Scranton University’s biz district. Some business activity along Mulberry and a couple mixed-use blocks where Prescott and Ash St. intersect.
* Very consistent sidewalk infrastructure generally in good shape. ADA curb cuts consistent along the main streets but only exist on about 1/3 of residential intersections.
* Excellent access to Dwtn being on its eastern edge and lots of employment opportunities within the Hill Section including Scranton University, Moses Taylor Hospital, and the Geisinger Community Medical Center.
* Great street grid and connectivity.
* Decent rental options especially 2-beds. 1-beds lease btwn $800-1.2K. 2-beds btwn $900-$1,800. Also a good # of 3 & 4 bed rentals leasing anywhere from the low 1Ks to mid 2Ks.
* Pretty good for sale market albeit without any condo options. 2-beds sell btwn 85K-low 300s. 3 & 4 beds btwn 50K-low 400Ks.
* Overall a safe community with limited blight.
* Good array of historic homes. For Scranton standards properties are in pretty good condition.
* Some urban in-fill especially near the university along Mulberry St. Some autocentric crud in spots but not too bad.
* Good tree canopy throughout.
* The neighborhood hosts the best park in the City: Nay Aug Park which is a planned park with great trails, a bandstand, outdoor pool, museum, iconic bridge, etc. Nearby are tons of ballfields, and Darcy park. However there are only a handful of smaller parks throughout the rest of the neighborhood although Scranton University has nice quads. Half of the residents aren’t within a 10 min walk of a park.
* Decent cultural amenities including several restaurants & bars, the Scranton Art and Natural History Museums, cultural amenities of Scranton University, the Caitlin House Museum and convenient access to Dwtn cultural amenities especially all the bars and restaurants along Adam St.
* Decent retail amenities including a pharmacy, some boutiques, a couple antique stores, a couple banks, the University bookstore, a couple dessert joints & gyms. a florist, two hospital, several medical offices, and convenient access to Dwtn retail amenities, which is pretty good.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

Biking infrastructure is very limited.Transit is so so.
Student population dominate the demographics of the Hill Section but still some age diversity and a fair # of households with Children.
Only a handful of small elementary age schools. Public schools are located north of Dwtn. Not too far away, but also not walkable to Hill Section residents.
Missing retail amenities including a post office, community library, churches, and grocery store.”

Scranton’s South Side- Center of the City’s growing Hispanic Community and one of Scranton’s most Urban Communities

Scranton’s South Side community is a classic working classic neighborhood that grew when German, Irish, Polish, Italian communities moved to the neighborhood to fill the mines and factories. The neighborhood hosts Scranton’s longest and most intact historic business along Pittston, which is complemented by a small business district (Cedar) a couple blocks away. Scranton’s withering economy at the turn of the 21th century hit the South Side neighborhood particularly hard and the neighborhood started to fall into decay with major drug and prostitutes issues. Thankfully the influx of Hispanics has turned the trajectory of the neighborhood around since the 2010s and new businesses are opening and the neighborhood has avoided large scale abandonment. This is no doubt still a very gritty neighborhood with lots of poorly constructed housing (as much of Scranton is), but there is energy and hope here.

Scranton’s South Side also hosts some of the best urbanity in the City thanks to its large business districts, accessibility to Dwtn, density and walkability, good walkable schools, and affordable housing. For the South side to really take off and be a premiere neighborhood it needs to clear up and invest in its business districts improving the streetscaping and making more storefronts available. There is also the need for more park amenities, bike infrastructure, better transit access, and a much better tree canopy.

Click here to view my South Side Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

Good Density
Convenient access to Dwtn and Scranton University.
Excellent street grid and small block connectivity.
Good economic diversity although South Side skews pretty low-moderate income.
Very racially diverse community with large Hispanic populations in the northside half and more White populations in the southern half. Also good number of Asians and Blacks here.
Good age diversity thanks to the large Hispanic community with larger families.
Several walkable schools including two public grade schools, a Catholic grade school and public middle school. Decent ratings.
Few 1-beds but good # of 2 & 3 bed rentals. 2-beds lease in the low-mid 1Ks and 3-beds lease generally in the mid 1Ks. Even some 4-bed rentals.
Better retail amenities including a supermarket, many ethnic grocerias, a couple drug stores & family dollars, some boutiques, gift shops, and clothing stores, a hardware store, a couple banks, several dessert joints, a couple floral shops, a bike shop, tons of salons, several churches, and decent access to a Hospital in the next neighborhood.
Generally a pretty safe community just lots of grid and some blight.
Some nice homes and interest historic architecture on the main streets (Pittston & Cedar) but neighborhood overall is very gritty.
Pretty good urban form along Cedar and Pittston, a very long biz district.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* So so public transit access and no bike infrastructure.
* For-sale housing is very affordable but not much diversity. The high end of the market is around 300K.
* Connell Park on the southern edge of the neighborhood is the premier South Side park. Good size and lots of amenities including trails, a public pool, playground, and ball fields. Only a handful of other smaller parks in the neighborhood and a couple of cemeteries.
* Tree canopy is so so.
* Decent cultural amenities including several restaurants (often ethnic) and several bars. But not much else. Convenient access to all the Dwtn Cultural amenities less than a 5 drive and 20 minute bus ride.
* Limited in-fill. A couple good urban buildings but some strip mall and autocentric development along Washington Ave.
* Sidewalks existing on 85% of streets in the South Side but most residential streets don’t have ADA standard curb cuts although the main streets do. Also some sidewalks on the business districts (Pittson & cedar) are in terrible shape.

Cocoa Village, Cocoa’s Historic Core and Major Space Coast Tourist Destination

I evaluated the portion of Cocoa referred to as “Cocoa Village”, which is essentially dwtn Cocoa. I didn’t exactly use the officially boundaries of Cocoa Village but instead used the two boulevards on the northern and western borders (King and Cocoa Blvd), the City boundaries to the south and Indian River to the East.

Cocoa was established in the late 1800s. Cocoa’s business district was mostly destroyed by fire in 1890. But redevelopment fortunately came quickly thanks to the extension of the Jacksonville, St. Augustine, and Indian River Ralline to Cocoa. The City was chartered in 1895 and in the 1910s, population growth accelerated reaching 1,500 in 1920. The population rose dramatically following the development of the space industry, quadrupling from 3,000 in 1940 to 12,000 in 1960. Cocoa Village has a small permanent population of just under 1,000 residents and its energy is driving by tourism including major Cruise liners coming from Port Canaveral for day trips. The City also sponsors around 50 special events each year to keep the City active.

From an urban perspective Cocoa has a great array of retail and cultural amenities with great vibrancy and walkability. But like many historic Florida centers few people live here and most visitors drive to Cocoa instead of walking or biking here. Because of this public transit is limited, there are few rentals available, for-sale housing is expensive, and the median age is around 65. Cocoa Village is also missing a supermarket and drug store. For Cocoa to turn the corner they need to incentivize more housing development, which should be prioritized along the western edge where there is currently lots of vacant and surface parking lots. I’d also like to see the Cocoa Blvd Stroad tamed and become more walkable.

Click here to view my Cocoa Village Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

Excellent Riverfront parks (Cocoa Riverfront Park & Lee Wenner Park) along with a central plaza.
Economic diversity.
Excellent sidewalk and ADA amenities btwn Florida Ave and the Indian River. But west of Florida Avenue the residential streets generally lack sidewalks.
Great cultural amenities including tons of restaurants, bars, cafes, a couple breweries, several art galleries & night clubs, a larger historic theater complex, a couple local museums and several historic sites along with a couple live music venues.
Good retail amenities including tons of boutiques, gift shops, and clothing stores, several antique stores, a couple banks, a book store, toy store, a bike shop, a hardware store, several dessert joins, a couple gyms, a post office, several churches, a couple medical offices, and the public library is located several blocks to the North.
Cocoa Village is very safe but the surrounding inner city Cocoa neighborhoods are pretty rough. You get a sense of this for the Dwtn Cocoa areas west of Florida Ave.
Excellent historic architecture with a good mix of historic commercial bldgs and older homes.
Mix of more urban in-fill (especially along the River) and auto centric crud along the Blvds.
Excellent urban form and streetscaping in the portions of Cocoa Village east of Florida but terrible urban form along the Blvds and large surface parking lots on its western edge.
Solid Tree Canopy.
Good pedestrian activity.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Very low density for an urban area.
* So so public transit access.
* Lots of small population centers in the Space Coast Region (i.e. Titusville County Seat, beaches, and Cape Canaveral) but all a spreadout and not well connected by transit.
* No Dedicated bike infrastructure.
* While the broader Cocoa FL is very racial diverse Dwtn Coca is very White an elderly (median age 65).
* Within Dwtn Cocoa there is only a Episcopal academy. A handful of small schools in the area and a larger middle school but not really walkable.
* Listed rentals are very limited.
* Some for sale product but limited 1-beds and generally expensive. 1-bed sell in the 200Ks. 2-beds are either small sf homes that sell around 200K or expensive waterfront condos selling btwn 600K-1m. 3 & 4 beds range btwn 300K to the lower 1 Millions depending if its a sf home or fancy waterfront condos.
* Missing a drug store and supermarket.

Scottdale, PA- the Historic Home of the H.C. Frick Coke Company sitting on the edge of the Laurel Highlands

The area witnessed an influx of Scotch-Irish immigrants in the late 1770s but it wasn’t until the construction of several branch lines through the community in the early 1870s that the settlement took off. The community was incorporated as Scottdale Borough in 1874 and by 1880 it had 1275 residents. The economy quickly transitioned from agriculture to manufacturing and mining and became the center of Henry Clay Frick’s coke interest where The H. C. Frick Coke Company was headquartered. But like many other rustbelt boomtowns in the area, Scottdale quickly declined starting in the 1930s when it reached a peak of 6700 residents. Scottdale now sits at 4,400 residents and the only major factory that remains is Duraloy Technologies.

From an urban perspective Scottdale still retains a solid 2-block historic business district on Pittsburgh along with a semi-urban biz district running several blocks of Broadway. Even with its steep population decline Scottdale doesn’t have widespread vacancy and retains many attractive historic homes. The community is also safe and served well by many parks and decent retail amenities. Median household wealth runs about 55K, higher than many other rustbelt cities in the area. I don’t see Scottdale urbanizing/densifying anytime soon unless the Borough encounters a major influx of immigrants. At best it can hope to remain course, which apparently there are signs it is succeeded at as the population was flat between 2010 and 2020.

Click here to view my Scottdale Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Sidewalk infrastructure is so so with about 1/3 of streets without sidewalks and about half of all intersections with ADA curb cuts.
* Public transit is pretty limited.
* 45 min drive to Dwtn Pitt (no transit access) and 25 min drive to Dwtn Greensburg, which is a small county seat job center. 40 minute transit trip.
* Good connectivity.
* Bike infrastructure in the City but nice recreational trail connecting the City to Mt. Pleasant (Coal & Coke Trail).
* Rental listings (at least listings) are very limited.
* Housing is very affordable but not a ton of variety. Larger 4 & 5 bedrooms top out at around 300K.
* Not much modern in-fill and what exist is generally autocentric crud along Broadway.
* Streetscape along Broadway and Pittsburgh is functional but warn and outdated.
* Some cultural amenities including several restaurants & bars, a couple cafes, a performing arts theater, a couple historic sites,

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

Mount Pleasant- a Pittsburgh Satellite suburb on the foothills of the Laural Highlands and Childhood Home to Henry Clay Frick

I only evaluated the core of Mount Pleasant as the residential streets towards the outskirts of the Borough start to become low density and often without sidewalk infrastructure. This is the area generally between Broad St to the north and Warden/Walnut Street to the south. I also didn’t include the eastern edge of Mt. Pleasant east of the railroad tracks.

Sparse settlement came to Mt. Pleasant around the American Revolutionary War. By the early 19th century Mt. Pleasant became a small village and grew into a borough in 1828. By the 1850s Mt. Pleasant had 500 residents. Glass manufacturing became the foundation of the local economy in the mid 19th century quickly followed by coke production thanks to the discovered of coal deposits in the area. Henry Frick, the town’s most famous resident, was born in a small village a couple miles outside of the Mt. Pleasant and spent many years working for his grandfather’s shop in the town (the building still exists today). At a young age Frick began buying up coal land in the area in the 1870s and it was here that Frick began to build his coke business empire. Fueled by growing coke production and coal mining, Mt Pleasant blossomed to 5K by 1900. The Borough peaked at 6K residents in 1960 but has since been gradually declining and sits at 4K residents today. Many other steel towns in Westmoreland County have lost much more of their peak population and Mt. Pleasant fortunately remains very intact.

Mt. Pleasant has a mediocre urban center with a relatively in-tact main street with a good amount of remaining shops (especially furniture and antiques). Much of the historic 19th century architecture remains including lots of early-mid 1800 buildings and the town is served well by several parks and a pretty walkable fabric. But this is essentially a country town that still finds itself in the larger Pittsburgh Metro. Mt. Pleasant is an aging City with few immigrants and limited cultural amenities. Unless Mt. Pleasant somehow sees a major influx of immigrants, I don’t see it altering its slow declining course.

Click here to view my Mount Pleasant Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Good connectivity and gridded fabric.
* Best historic architecture is main street with some mid 19th century architecture mixed in but some good residential homes too.
* Good street connectivity.
* Overall a pretty safe community.
* Decent park amenities including the central Frick park and the more extensive Willow part on the edge of the core city. Also a couple cemeteries as well.
* Better retail amenities including a Shop n Save, and smaller locally owner grocer, couple drug stores, a couple antique and boutiques, a larger Levin Furniture Store, a couple florist, a public library, a couple dessert joints and gyms, post office, plenty of churches, and a hospital just located south of the core city.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* About 70% of the streets in this evaluation area have sidewalks but often very narrow and 1/2 of them have modern ADA curb cuts.
* 45 min drive to Dwtn Pitt (no transit access) and 20 min drive to Dwtn Greensburg, which is a small county seat job center. 35 minute transit trip.
Not much urban in-fill other than some autocentric crud.
* No bike infrastructure to speak of.
* Very low urban density
* Decent number of families but a very aging population. Median age is 52.
* Only the elementary school is located in the City core. High school is on the outskirts of town.
* Cultural amenities limited to a handful of restaurants & bars, a couple cafes, the Helltown Brewery, and a couple of historic homes & sites.
* Housing is very affordable but not a ton of variety. Larger 4 & 5 bedrooms top out at around 300K.
* Rental options (at least listed) are very limited as well but very affordable.

Pittsburgh’s Hill District- the Historic Home of the City’s Black Community and Major American Jazz Mecca

The Hill District sits the east of Downtown stretching to Oakland and arguable contains Pittsburgh most traumatic story of urban renewal. The larger Hill District contains several smaller City designated neighborhoods (i.e. Lower Hill, Crawford-Roberts, Middle Hill, Bedford Dwellings, & Terrace Village). The Hill District was first settled in the 19th century by a small middle-class free black community. By the turn of the 20th century the neighborhood was booming as the Black population expanded from 10K to 37K between 1890-1920 as part of the Great Migration. Immigrants from Italy, the Middle Eastern, and Eastern European Jews were also pouring into the neighborhood. The influx of so many new residents resulted in a housing shortage which was exacerbated by the rigid system of segregation that limited potential dwellings for blacks almost entirely to the Hill District. By the 1920s the “the Hill” was the cultural center of Black life in the City and a major center of jazz helping to propel Pittsburgh as one of the best City’s for jazz historically. In the summer of 1956, some 1,300 structures were razed, displacing 1,500 families (more than 8000 residents). But, the affects of urban renewal didn’t stop at the Lower Hill District as it severed the Hill District from surrounding neighborhoods, resulting in its dramatic economic decline. Jobs in Pittsburgh also were disappearing due to industrial restructuring, and numerous middle-class residents moved out to newer suburban housing. Between 1950 and 1990, the Hill lost 71% of its residents (more than 38,000 individuals) and about 400 businesses. Many people displaced from the Hill moved into the East Liberty and Homewood-Brushton neighborhoods creating a ripple effect, where mostly white middle-class families left these areas and moved to newer suburban housing. The Hill district also saw numerous project housing developments demolish other parts of the neighborhood, which also lead to major concentrations of poverty. In the present day about 1/3 of all Hill Residents live in poverty.

But even with all this disinvestment, the Hill District still retains decent urbanity and urban form, almost enough in its present form to be considered a viable neighborhood. It’s mazing to think that a neighborhood that used to host 50K now only has 10K. Urban strengths of the Hill District include excellent public transit service, convenient access to Pittsburgh’s largest job concentrations (Dwtn & Oakland), several walkable schools, relatively affordable housing, excellent park access, good sidewalk infrastructure, and good remaining historic architecture. There have been several revitalization efforts in the Hill District starting with the suburban homes built in the 70s, the more urban Crawford Square development in the early 2000s, and present day efforts including the Granada Theater redevelopment, several small-medium scale projects, and the slow moving but massive Lower Hill Redevelopment. The issue is that redevelopment efforts have moved much slower than the pace of neglect and abandonment and each decade the neighborhood looses more buildings and homes than it gains. There still remains so much potential to create an outstanding urban community in the Hill District. Hopefully the Lower Hill Development sparks more comprehensive efforts to repopulate the neighborhood.

Click here to view my Hill District Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

Lots of households with Children living here along with college students in the Upper Hill section of the neighborhood.
Solid public transit access with lots of bus lines running through the neighborhood.
Several decent elementary schools within the Hill District and several others in neighborhood Oakland including an Excellent Science & Technology School, a poorly rated public hsg and a couple Catholic elementary schools.
A decent # of rentals and generally affordable. 1-beds lease btwn 800-1.3K, 2-beds lease in the low 1Ks, 3-beds lease anywhere from 1K-3K with higher rents in the Upper Hill. Lots of affordable housing rentals across several large projects.
Good park amenities including several small, medium parks well distributed throughout the neighborhood. The Francie Pace Park is a new additional covering the crosstown high and Kennard Playground is an extensive park with lots of sports fields. Also a YMCA.
Still a lot of quality historic architecture remain in the Hill.
Sidewalks are pretty consistent in the Hill and ADA standard curb cuts are on about half of the intersections.”

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* No dedicated bike lanes in the Hill District but several bike share stations.
* Largely an African American neighborhood (~70-75%) but some diversity especially in the Upper hill closest to Oakland with a large Asian population. Whites and Hispanics are slowly moving here as well.
* Very high poverty rate with 1/3 of residents living in it. Some income diversity but most households here are low-moderate income.
* For sale is pretty limited with a major divided between the bottom and top of the market of new and renovated homes. Most hsg is concentrated in Crawford Roberts and the Upper Hill. 2-bed sells btwn 40K-300K with renovation product starting the push the market a bit. 3 & 4 beds sell btwn 50K-500K.
* Cultural amenities are limited to a couple restaurants, a cafe, a local performing arts center, small dance company, an art gallery, a couple bars, the August Wilson House & Tennie Harris Center and decent access to all cultural amenities of Dwtn & Oakland.
* Retail amenities are pretty limited too but there is a supermarket, a public library, post office, a community drug store, a couple boutiques, several salons, a couple banks, tons of churches, a couple medical offices, and several hospitals surround the Hill District in adjacent communities.
* The Hill District is safer than it used to be but still has some crime issues and lot of remaining blight.
* Much of the in-fill is ugly suburban in-fill but more recent projects are pretty high quality urban projects.
* What remains of the Centre avenue business district generally has good urban form but lots of missing pieces. Streetscaping is pretty good.
* Wylie Ave was a secondary biz district but this is always all wiped away.

Brooklyn and LaVilla- Historic Jacksonville Neighborhoods slowly emerging from devastating Urban Renewal & Redlining policies of the past

In this evaluation I combined LaVilla and the Brooklyn neighborhoods as they are both neighborhoods with major urban renewal pasts sitting on the edge of Dwtn. In 1887 Brooklyn and LaVilla were annexed by Jacksonville. Brooklyn remained primarily residential into the 20th century, but it eventually developed into a commercial and industrial area with the increasing use of the railway. The neighborhood had a thriving African American community but it was LA Villa that during its height was considered the mecca for African American culture and heritage especially the part of LaVilla north of Adams Street. The area also became a transportation hub with rail service developed by Henry Flagler.

By In the 1950s, Interstate 95 was intentionally chosen to cut through the heart of these African American communities. In Brooklyn suburban office buildings surrounded by surfacing parking lots and strip malls lining Riverside Ave replaced the neighborhood’s waterfront properties The more interior part of the neighborhood was encouraged to fall blight and decay through redlining practices and neglect. In La Villa after the 1960s, the neighborhood entered a period of precipitous decline as the railroad industry restructured, I-95 chopped up the neighborhood, and active neglect by the City. During the 1980s the crack cocaine epidemic hit hard among struggling residents of LaVilla, resulting in an increase in crime and furthering the decline. By the 1990s the City finally turned its attention to reinvesting in LaVilla through blight removal and helping to renovate historical structures, such as the Ritz Theatre. More recently new urban in-fill projects are emerging helping the neighborhoods to reurbanize as a neighborhood just south of Dwtn should. But an immerse amount of vacant and underutilized space remain in both communities demonstrating the long road ahead to rebuilding these communities.

Given their great proximity to dwtn, great public transit access, in-tact urban grid, and access to the St. John’s river both neighborhoods are poised to return. I just hope that the redevelopment strategies are well throughout for how to bring back the neighborhood as a whole and deal with the wounds of intentional urban renewal that so harmed countless of African American families in the past.

Click here to view my Brooklyn and LaVilla Albums on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

Excellent public transit and access to Dwtn. Even decent bike infrastructure to dwtn although the lines are very skinny and unprotected.
Generally good sidewalk and ADA infrastructure.
Good rental amenities with studios and 1-beds leasing in the low-mid 1Ks, 2-beds lease btwn the mid 1Ks to low 2Ks. Only a handful of 3-beds available.
Decent parks including the unity plaza set around a ponk, a boardwalk and recreational trail along the river, and couple other small parks.
Neighborhood is generally safe but is pretty empty is spots encouraging homeless to set up shop.
Lots of dead space and autocentric arterial roads running through the neighborhood. The newer in-fill is starting to rectify this issue but it is still a long road ahead to urbanizing Brooklyn and LaVilla.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Extremely low density for an urban district.
* An excellent middle school for the arts in LaVilla, not much else other than a couple small private schools dwtn.
* For sale housing product is very limited in the neighborhood. Only a handful of older homes and new townhomes that have sold.
* Tree canopy isn’t great.
* Cultural amenities are a bit limited including a handful of restaurants, bars, and cafes, the Ritz Theater, the Friday Music hall, a live music venue, a night club and good access to the cultural amenities in neighboring Dwtn and Riverside.
* Retail amenities are also pretty limited including a supermarket, several banks, a couple boutiques & salons, an ice cream shop, a couple gyms, and several doctor’s offices.