Oakland residents want grocery store, speed traps

If you get caught speeding on your way to the Squirrel Hill Giant Eagle, don’t blame Oakland… If you get caught speeding on your way to the Squirrel Hill Giant Eagle, don’t blame Oakland natives: They’re part of the solution. Well, sort of.

Oakland residents gathered at the Lawn Community Center last night to tell members of the Oakland Planning and Development Corp. that they would like to see the city take efforts to enforce the speed limit along the Boulevard of the Allies and see a grocery store come to Oakland.

Members of the corporation sought Oakland residents’ opinions as part of the Mon Valley Corridor Study, an effort to collect suggestions about how to improve the Boulevard of the Allies between Forbes and Parkview avenues. The study, which began last October, will take about one year to complete.

David Blenk, executive director of the OPDC, said the study’s researchers, made up of members from the Renaissance Planning Group, Rothschild Doyno Architects and GSP and Olszak Management consulting firms, were not taking positions on community issues.

Instead, they were gathering public opinion so they could combine the results of their findings with the community’s feedback and create a proposal to send to City Council. The proposal should be completed by mid fall.

One of the architects working on the project added that this was part of an effort to allow for community-driven change, as opposed to change that begins with the government.

“The first step is understanding what the community’s view for change is,” said Ken Doyno of Rothschild Doyno Architects. “That future has to be driven by the market, by economic [goals], but it also has to be driven by social vision.”

Members of the planning commission split the residents who attended the meeting into five groups depending on which section of Oakland they lived.

Oakland residents, regardless of where they live, said they are concerned about the amount of traffic entering their neighborhoods.

Residents said the traffic in the area surrounding the Boulevard of the Allies is often congested, and the area isn’t safe for pedestrians because many people speed through the neighborhood.

Some residents suggested rerouting traffic or making certain streets one way to reduce congestion.

Others were concerned about the speed of the traffic entering the area.

Andrea Boykowycz, who lives on Parkview Avenue, said, “Pedestrian safety is almost non-existent” at the intersection of Parkview Avenue, and the Boulevard of the Allies is particularly dangerous because people fly through it.

Many of the groups suggested adding a row of trees to serve as a median on the Boulevard. This, they said, would signal that people are entering a residential area and convince them to drive slower.

They suggested that this would also be a step toward beautification.

“It’s a 19th century-Paris idea but without Haussmann’s architecture,” said Walter Boykowycz, who lives on Parkview Avenue. Many Oakland residents also said they would like to see a grocery store come back to Oakland.

One Bates Street resident said that having a grocery store in the area would allow her to become more independent.

“I have to buy dog food and bird seed. I’m not allowed to drive,” said Carol Mitchell. “I have to have somebody take me. We do need more places to go for shopping.”

Mitchell also added that she would like to see landlords take responsibility for their tenants. She said some of the college students who have lived near her in the past have been respectful, but others “yell, scream and slam the door.”

She added that the landlords need to control their residents’ actions, and she would like permanent Oakland residents to have a say in who rents the apartments around them.

Another Oakland resident, Geof Becker of Ophelia Street, would also like to see landlords take more responsibility. He would like to see them abide by the current zoning standards, which prohibit them from converting some homes into apartments.

He said if the city’s building codes were more strictly enforced, the appearance, quality and safety of the neighborhood would dramatically improve.

“Students are paying way too much for that substandard unit,” Becker said.

He said that students should invite inspectors into their apartments if they have concerns.