Alik Widge did an angry post about the likely wasteful North Shore Connector project. I am also angry about it but I don’t think most people seem to be focusing on the real reason the project is now questionable. Like almost everything else in Pittsburgh, and pretty much anything on the near North Side, the problem relates to the Stadiums and a dirt bag named Tom Murphy.

I think a lot of people who come to Pittsburgh from somewhere else are surprised at how dramatic and potentially convenient the Near North Side is to downtown Pittsburgh (really it is part of downtown) I had visions of luxury apartment buildings, offices overlooking the river; people walking back and forth across the small bridges to work or shop downtown and likely served by a subway connection. The math of this type of development (which didn’t all have to be built at once) would likely have proven very cost effective since mixed use high density apartments, office buildings and hotels in downtown and the North Side would have provided Lott’s of potential riders for the subway/T, mixed at all hours throughout the day. It also would have done a lot to correct the major problem that troubles downtown– the fact that so few people live in or near it. The likely increase in shopping that could have been supported would likely have enhanced the value of living in places like the Mexican War Streets, Manchester etc..

Yes, there could have even been a stadium like PNC park since baseball has a strong history of successful urban ballparks because they play a lot more games and are generally much smaller in size. Remember that when a game is not on, a stadium isn’t much more than a fancy hole in the city and a car oriented stadium has to have a much bigger hole for it’s parking.

The killer decision, which really comes close to destroying the city was to double down and use tax dollars to build Heinz Field which as we can see has created huge peak load issues for all the roads and pretty much committed the North Side’s most valuable land to being a parking lot for as long as the stadium is there. The effects of this act of criminal negligence is only now coming out. Anyway, the end result is a that the North Shore Connector will likely not do much more than serve the stadiums.

Related posts:

1. Pittsburgh Soon To Host Giant, Awesome Machine
2. Strip Club : Another Big Benefit To The North Side
3. The North Shore Connector — why?!?
4. Some Tips On How To Destroy A City
5. The Canopy Effect