EDITORIAL – Downtown upgrades to upscale

Are you alone?

Is life making you lonely?

You can always go — Downtown.

Downtown… Are you alone?

Is life making you lonely?

You can always go — Downtown.

Downtown might not have been our first choice for fun and fine living in the past, but some developers are trying to change that.

According to an article in Sunday’s Post-Gazette, people are diving into new, upscale Downtown digs. Developers aren’t having many problems finding people to fill newly developed urban residential units with price tags starting at $250,000 or monthly rent as high as $3,275. Tenants are offered incentives for making the move Downtown, such as free parking or waiving a month or two’s rent.

Despite the developer’s confidence, a local study points to some holes in the developer’s plans. According to a Carnegie Mellon University study, young professionals are still hesitant to pay high rent in an area that is lacking essentials like a grocery store or more late-night pharmacies.

Downtown is notorious for shutting down at 5 p.m. as workers flee the city. In order to make Downtown living sustainable, developers are going to have to bring in businesses to meet the demands of the new Downtown residents.

Still, the same study indicates that young professionals’ demand for Downtown dwellings exceeds the availability. It’s reasonable to think that businesses will be attracted to the Downtown area as residency grows over the next few years, and that’s just good news for Pittsburgh.

What isn’t so great is the number of low-income residents that are being pushed out as developers bring in luxury condominiums and high-end businesses. The city’s strategy to bring money back into the city makes sense — more upscale housing will mean more tax revenue for the city, and it’s clear that Pittsburgh needs the money. But the gentrification of Pittsburgh areas like East Liberty (where two luxury apartment buildings are being built near the Whole Foods), The Waterfront and now Downtown only means that others are being forced away from the city. The people who need to be the closest — those who rely on public transportation — are forced to move farther and farther away. The increase in upscale housing is also widening the gap between the upper and lower classes in the city.

And if Downtown’s development starts a larger migration into city neighborhoods, maybe we can get rid of that insufferable occupation tax. It was created to pump revenue back into the city because most of its workers were earning their money in the city and taking it back to the suburbs with them. We’d love to see an end to it.

We’re glad to see people returning to Downtown and we hope it stimulates the city’s economy, but we urge developers not to neglect the lower-income people in the city.