Civic Arena Site Redevelopment

[B21]

Curious where the other Pens fans (or anyone for that matter) stand on this...

 

The History:  The Civic Arena was built in 1961 for the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera as part of an urban revitalization project.  100 acres, 1,300 buildings, and 413 businesses were wiped away by demolition in the "revitalization" project (the Civic arena was the only planned part of the "revitalization" to come to fruition).  Most of the buildings were housing projects and small businesses. "The Hill" as it is commonly known is a primarily African American community in Pittsburgh that had been in decline in the decades leading up to the Arena project.

 

Geographically, the Civic Arena "cut off" the Hill from downtown Pittsburgh.  If you view the Pittsburgh topography on a map you see that that downtown area shrinks is size as you get closer to The Point where the rivers meet.  Basically, downtown extends from The Point to the Arena site.  Continue on past the Arean site and you enter the Hill District which is flanked on either side by hills/cliffs...Polish Hill to the north and The Bluff where Duquesne is to the south.  The Pens became tenants in 1967.  Race riots in the Hill in 1968 after the MLK assassination were the final nail in the coffin as far as the decline of the area. 

 

Fast forward to Consol Engery Center.  As part of the agreement to build Consol, the Pens won the rights to redevelop the former Civic Arena site. After over a year of negotiations with goverment agencies and Hill District community groups, an agreement was reached on the details of the site including agreed upon percentages of minority and female labor and 20% of the 1,200 housing units qualifying as "affordable housing" (in the neighborhood of $600/month).

 

The plan also created money to be reinvested in the middle and upper Hill District (the lower Hill is the site of the old arena). That money would come from a tax increment financing plan expected to generate at least $22 million — some estimates are as high as $50 million — over 20 years to go back into the community.

 

Now - residents and other community groups are taking issue with the plan arguing that the percentages of affordable housing are too low and the the plans for the site (retail, a hotel, office space, residential, plazas) will drive up housing prices within the Hill. 

 

My $.02 - I think the Penguins have been more than fair in this instance. 1) They are under no obligation to hear these organizations out though they did on many occasions via sevaral community meetings open to the public and meetings with leaders of various community groups. The Pens didn't build the arena - it wasn't even built for them. 2) Maybe it's just me but there seems to be an abundance of "community groups" coming out of the woodwork looking for their share in this thing. 3) In the 1990's, the site above the Civic Arena was developed into an affordable housing community of townhomes, apartments and single family homes - Crawford Square.  This project has not impacted property values further into the Hill District and it has remained predominantly African American (87%) though slightly more diverse than the remaining Hill District (97%).