OT: Historical Pittsburgh sports question for those before my time

[YourPittDanceTeam]

If you pay much attention to the local political scene you know that Pitt and UPMC don't really have any political weight locally. They are, and have been for a long time, the boogeymen that local politicians use as a punching bag to score political points.

The Rooney's have more political weight than them simply because something is more than nothing.

Was told by a friend who would have more access to information regarding the North Side, that the Rooney family owns quite a bit of property in and around the stadium. Based upon what he told me, they have would have a lot of influence upon any additions to the area around and near the stadium.

 

[HailtoPitt]

Yeah but it gives the SEA and the Steelers an excuse for getting rid of surface lot after surface lot so that they can develop the area.

One of the justifications for the T to the North Shore was that it could be part of a spur that would extend to the airport. I haven't heard anything in years about that being a possibility, but Port Authority/PRT, local politicians, and whoever else has enough clout should be trying to get funding to connect that to the airport as well as build a line to Oakland (and ignore this bus rapid transit thing).

They simply lied. Told everyone that the extension would go to the Northside, and eventually extend to the airport. Didn't even build the full extension to the NorthSIDE, let alone exploring extending it to the airport.

 

[HailtoPitt]

driving into the north shore for steelers games/pirate games was never an issue, that's what i dont understand. we've been doing it for decades and decades, all of us on here. it was never really that hard at all. i've been going to bucco / steeler games since the 80s and again, was never that hard.

to spend what? hundreds of millions of dollars to solve a problem that never existed is weird to me.. it's not like it's gonna sell more tickets to either or make it a more pleasant experience or bring in more money. just a waste..

the workforce in north shore too, not that hard. i work in the north shorte for 6 years, it's not that hard.

It would have been fine if the extension happened to stop on the Northshore on it't way to the NorthSIDE.

Put it this way. Suppose that there was a plan to extend the T into Oakland, and the politicians touted that and started to built it, and then say "oh well not enough funds, but we still have the money to build it to the PPG Arena and but it will end there". Then we find out that Mario and the Pengunis ownership was involed in the planning. I mean, what would tbe the conclusion?

 

[Upg bobcat]

I have to disagree. There might be a couple places, but it literally sucks around the arena. I picked up a business colleague at the Marriott last week and we drove to a desirable place to congregate. His words to me were “the arena is right there there has to be dozens of places right here within a block to walk to”. Then he checked the map on his phone and the yelp app and said “I’ve never seen an arena district with less options”.

What would be cool as hell as if they built a 21st century Crawford Grill that brought in jazz musicians and had a Pittsburgh Crawfords/Homestead Grays HOF adjacent to it.

Isn't there a little museum (more like a memorial I guess?) for Chuck Cooper right there?

 

[Fk_Pitt]

Isn't there a little museum (more like a memorial I guess?) for Chuck Cooper right there?

No idea.

 

[Rickey]

Why did the city use eminent domain to bulldoze the lower Hill District and construct Civic Arena? Why couldn’t they have just built it on the North Side where there was vacant land? Even if the Pirates already had plans to leave Forbes Field and were looking at that same site, there would’ve been more than enough room to build both a stadium and an arena.

That seems like it would’ve made much more sense than bulldozing one of the nation’s most culturally significant African American neighborhoods via eminent domain in the name of urban renewal. Was there any discussion regarding alternative sites for the project? I couldn’t find anything online, but I’m sure there’s more to the story.

I go back that far. That portion of the lower Hill where the Civic Arena was built was more Italian/Jewish than it was black.

It was iconic, neighborhood grocery stores, row houses.