I remember asking my mother if I could get a hot dog at Weiner World, and she said no, you will get a BLT at the Tik-Tok cafe shop in the basement of Kaufman's department store.
They going to scrape up all the ‘homeless’ and gang bangers with front end loaders and deposit them in New York sh*tty?
If you want your city to look like Singapore you are gonna have to act like Singapore.
No American politician has the cojones to even attempt it.
“Changes are coming to Downtown Pittsburgh aimed at bringing back workers and stopping the exodus of jobs...”
Too late.
The ‘70s was the last gasp of greatness in American cities. Meaning, goodness. NYC was such a juggernaut that it really hasn’t slowed down completely yet or been dominated by crime until very recently. But most cities, much smaller, seemed to retain what they had before the riots changed everything along with “civil rights”, perhaps because the department stores remained and the whites who left still tried to go in to shop.
I didn’t get to experience that myself, mom didn’t seem to want to go down anymore, but I’ve seen film from our city in the ‘70s and people were still crowding the streets going to all the dept. stores.
Pittsburgh and other cities won’t turn the decline until they recognize the roots of the problem. First, there isn’t a homeless problem. It’s an open air drug market problem where people go to shoot up and don’t leave. Second, it’s a broader crime problem. Then, it’s a basic services problem - trash collection, street cleaning. All of these are easily solved. It just takes guts and spending tax dollars or the things that really matter. Stop wasting money on Marxist government programs. Lock up those that break the law and clean the streets.
Install huge fans on the west side of the city to blow the smell Eastward.
Pittsburgh - The “Paris of Appalachia”
Is the Mayor named Rudy Guilani? Then it may work. Otherwise, no chance.
Wash, rinse, repeat. Buffalo has had several "renew downtown" efforts over the past few decades, with predictable results. The one constant is that the Democrats control the city, which I believe is also the case in Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh had a liberal, kinda woke mayor. Then in 2021 they elected a fully woke, anti-police mayor. But, wait. It gets worse. In this year’s Democrat primary for DA a fully woke, anti-police candidate won the nomination. He’s the favorite for the fall general election.
So the city won’t be seeing any real corrective action. Pittsburgh is done.
To paraphrase Ernest Hemingway, slowly then all at once.
That game runs out when a municipality no longer assures adequate physical safety and quality of life for its citizens in return for a relatively level of taxation. When Leftism triumphs and high crime, trash, and panhandlers infest downtown, people and business flee. Unless those problems are resolved, downtown revitalization schemes become political theater with no genuine prospect of success.
Note to residents: Want your city back? Secure your elections.