DEFCON 2

Pardon my French, but this is bullshit.

I am sick and tired of this. I am so frustrated with Act 44. The state legislature passed the buck down the line a few years, hoping something would pan out. When it didn't, we're in the same position we were before, but now we're dealing with one of the worst budget years in history. The state legislature has completely let down my trust, and has demonstrated an unwillingness to even seriously weigh the benefits and losses of this issue.

I'm sick of Northern PA. The congressional representatives and lobbyists were able to prevent the tolling of I-80 in a move that just plain wasn't fair. How many roads have been paved up there off of the dollars of Southern residents? Northern PA needs to recognize they are parts of this state. Not to mention the fact that transit systems aren't exclusive to the Southern communities.

I'm sick of the fact that public perception is still anti-transit. If the lack of funding was half a dozen other things, there would be a crowd of pitchforks at the state capitol. There is still this perception, for whatever reason, that transit is this side show issue for a fringe community of environmentalists and urbanists. In reality, one more bus rider is one less car on the road. Better for the public, better for the government, better for everyone.

Please, call your state senator and representative. Let them know that they need to get their act together and actually deal with this issue.

A Note on Numbers

There are plenty of people who are far more qualified to talk about this then I am, but I just wanted to make an observation.

The preliminary numbers for 2009 population came out, and Allegheny County had 267 more residents than it had the previous year. Virtually every city over the last half-century has had to deal with population loss associated with the rush to the suburbs. But very few regions, Pittsburgh among them, have had to contend with population loss on a regional level. The fact that Allegheny county gained population, combined with the numbers about domestic in-migration a couple of weeks ago, and it paints a very different picture of the region than a decade ago.

I've been postulating a lot on the questions of population loss and brain drain recently, and it's interesting to see how they both get lumped into the same category. It is quite possible that a place can get smarter, even as it gets smaller. Just something to think about.

Is This Really What We Want?

I've been meaning to write about this for a while, but things got in the way. But a recent conversation with an old friend brought it up again.

Does anyone really know what is going on with this? The Allegheny Valley Railroad is one of the most fascinating stories in the local transportation world (not quite Skybus-esque in its permanence, but close). I've personally never really seen the benefit of the Arnold line (or at least compared to some of the other proposals out there). It seems to me that the project isn't really designed out of necessity, but of convenience. As I've talked about before, commuter lines are risky business. Are we really aiding development by putting a commuter line out to New Kensington? If it takes 40 minutes to drive from Arnold to Pittsburgh, and 20 minutes to train, who is to say that I wouldn't just move a 20 minute drive away from the Arnold park and ride? But I digress.

Anyway, apparently Urban Innovations and the AVRR were unsatisfied with the speed of progress on the HDR report of last year. So they went out and got financing (notice the distinction: financing, not funding) on their own. From the information that my friend provided me (which I presume is regarding Urban Innovation's proposal), it looks like AVRR was upset that the proposals would only take the line into the Strip District at worst or Penn Station at best. The proposal made it sound that there would be some way to integrate the train with the light rail spur to Steel Plaza. I'm not entirely sure at the technical feasibility, but I'm not an engineer. The more important question is if that's the best goal to be working toward.

The Trouble with Tunnels

This blog hasn't been shut down yet, I just haven't had time (or a computer) to post. Fortunately for you all, this article finally stirred me into action:

Jack Wagner is getting angry about cost overruns on the North Shore connector. Don't get me wrong, I'm not crazy about cost overruns either, though I recognize that is like getting angry at the tides or the wind.

It seems like the North Shore Connector has become a popular punching bag, representing either government waste or a personal attack on Dan Onorato. A few days ago, friend of the blog Jon Schmitz wrote about an Anthony Williams ad criticizing Onorato's "Tunnel to Nowhere" (which mistakenly describes the NSC as being funded by the drink tax).

In my opinion, it's funny that people are trying to peg Onorato, or Bland, or anyone else with the NSC, when in reality, they're just as quick to run away from it. The tunnel is a product of the past generation of community leaders, which has been inherited by this lot, and therefore they don't have as much stake in it (fun history lesson: this is still by far the most informative article on the subject). There hasn't really been a champion for this project since it's inception, which is why it's now our Big Dig. Had it been branded well, I think popular support would be a lot higher (and could probably have kept the spur to the convention center).

So if I may, let me take a shot at trying to defend this lovable mile of light rail track. Let me try to convince you that, even if we came by it in a way you don't approve, for a product you wish was better, and spending more than you think we should, the NSC is still a regional asset:

1. It expands the urban frontier. Downtown Pittsburgh, as the Golden Triangle, is hedged in by geography. New buildings aren't going to be built on rafts on the rivers. After we put all that money into the city's front yard, we aren't going to do anything stupid there (not that we haven't thought about it). 579 continues to be a roadblock in the way of Hill redevelopment, far more than Mellon Arena would be if it were left around (and, you know, the fact that it's a hill doesn't really make it any easier). The South Side is still too industrialized too really get really built up, and again topography doesn't help. You're left with the North Side, a neighborhood that has a lot of potential. The NSC essentially completes the annexation of Allegheny city from a century ago; it makes it possible to get from Grant Street to the Science Center in a matter of a minute or two. The North Side (and the North Shore, insomuch as it exists) becomes integrated into the Central Business District in a way that bridges alone could not. The North Side is close enough that we're not creating an edge city, but far enough away that we're creating a larger, denser space.
2. It has the possibility to change the layout of the Near North Side. I'm not saying it is an absolute possibility, but the NSC has the potential to change how the North Side looks. In the past, the area has been the site of some disastrous projects (Parkway North, Allegheny Center, etc.). The NSC has the potential to make density more desirable for the area. With more chance that people will want to use the service and property values may go up, maybe parking lots may make more sense as mixed use retail and residential buildings, or at the very least, parking garages.
3. You get a new Gateway Center Station out of it. Gateway Center has always been a poorly placed station, in my opinion. But this new plan repositions the station to a better location where it is actually more useful, in my opinion. Not to mention more aesthetically pleasing, from the sketches I've seen.
4. Because it's a gift, you ingrate. The county paid 3.3% of the budget for this project. The rest was federal and state money. Think of all the other places in the country or the state who could have got that funding, but we did. It's sort of like when you were a kid, and your grandparents got you Mega Bloks when you really wanted Legos and your mother would say "well think about all the poor kids who didn't even get a Christmas present". The NSC is our Mega Blok set. It may not be what you wanted, but you can still build with it.

Wheels on the Bus

I heard from GiG that Megabus is resuming service to New York. Apparently I'm one of the last people to know, but I wanted to say something about it.

While I obviously prefer the train, I actually don't mind Megabus/Bolt Bus all that much. Unlike Greyhound, which seems to take forever because of so many stops, my experience on the budget lines has been fairly quick. The other reason the service is so great is cost. This weekend my ballroom partner and I are traveling to Boston via Megabus, and our tickets to travel out of DC on Friday afternoon are half the cost of our tickets to return via Amtrak on the red-eye train Sunday night.

Some of you may remember that Megabus actually had a brief presence in Pittsburgh already. For a while, early in it's life (the company has only been around in the US since 2006) Megabus provided service to Western destinations such as Chicago, Toledo, and Cleveland. The demand just wasn't there (it probably doesn't help that Pittsburgh is a major Greyhound hub for east-west travel, so there is already a substantial amount of service being provided in that direction).

After the failure of the Steel City Flyer, I'm still not sure I have a handle on how the market for intercity bus service is in Western Pennsylvania. I'm not sure why coach buses haven't taken off in the same way that you see them used on the East Coast. Travel times are really not that bad from Pittsburgh to other destinations. I imagine car ownership rates are higher in Pgh than they are on the coast, which means people feel less of a need to take a bus.

The connection to New York city isn't just a logistical bonus for Pittsburgh, it's a psychological boost as well. Pittsburgh's soul lies with the Midwest, but it's heart is in the East. The fact that the connection is with New York is not necessarily because it is the closest big city (Philadelphia or DC would probably fit that bill). It is because, fundamentally, connectivity to New York City is important. It has been that way for nearly New York's entire history. PIT still has nearly 50 more weekly flights to NYC than it does to the next most popular destination. Options that connect Pittsburgh to New York may not provide the economic ties of Pittsburgh-Cleveland, the Socio-cultural ties of Pittsburgh-Chicago, or the diasporic ties of Pittsburgh-DC, but they provide lesser forms of all three.

A final note: the schedule of the Megabus departure from Pittsburgh is within an hour of the Pennsylvanian departure. I'll be very curious to track Amtrak's ridership numbers in 6 months.

This is Bad News Bears

So let's talk about I-80.

For those not following the story, the state has been trying to toll Interstate 80, a stretch of road running between Ohio and New Jersey and serving a dramatically smaller population than I-76. While not serving a large population, I-80 passes through 5 of PA's 19 congressional districts. Several of these congresspersons, including Kathy Dahlkemper in Erie, lobbied the DOT hard to prevent the state from tolling, saying that it would harm local businesses.

The fact that I-80 will not be tolled is a huge kick to infrastructure in PA. Not only will it hurt road preservation (which is a major concern for a state as old as ours), it will devastate both PAT and SEPTA. There is virtually no way that transit in PA will wind up with the same level of service that it has right now.

This is an example of parochialism at its absolute worst. Without I-80 tolling, the entire state suffers except for a narrow strip of population along the road. East/West or civilization/Pennsyltucky battles are the ones that most often get attention, but what we've got here is a North/South struggle, a confrontation between what is best for the state as a whole and what is best for a narrow sliver of the state. Instead of recognizing that the health of the populated areas of the state can help the entire state, a few locals are being obstructionists for the entire commonwealth. You think last year's budget was a disaster? Wait until this one.

I just want to make sure that everyone reads this, right from Dahlkemper's website:

“We had a sustained effort to oppose this tolling plan, with representatives at the local and federal level working together to protect the jobs and commerce generated by Interstate 80,” Dahlkemper said. “We stood tall against a scheme that would have forced rural Pennsylvanians to foot the bill for urban transit on the other side of the state, and we won.”

Oh, ok. I hope you can explain that to the riders of Erie Metropolitan Transit Authority.

At this point, we've got a couple of options. First, there are no bones about it, the state needs to tax oil revenues. Marcellus is a very different situation than it was in 2007- it's vital now for the state to start generating some revenue off of it. The state should also consider a gasoline tax increase, which is going to be an absolute pain in an election year (ie, it won't happen).

We need to get serious about this funding situation. We need to work together as a state, at least attempting to put aside local concerns, in order to have our state transportation system literally fall apart beneath our feet. Otherwise, you might not have to pay to get off I-80 in Barkeyville (pop 237), Plymptonville (pop 1,040) or Buckhorn (pop 176), but you also won't have much of a road to drive on.

Shopping Spree

Big news about I-80, as I'm sure you've heard. I've got three tests on Thursday though, so my commentary is going to have to wait until tomorrow afternoon.

Just a quick post that I've been mulling over re: the PG's article on Lower Fifth Avenue retail. The article discusses the resurgence of retail options in the area of Fifth Avenue near Market Square and beyond. A couple of things struck me as particularly interesting.

I'm in the process of writing a term paper on retail gentrification, and I've noticed that gentrification tends to cluster in three categories. I use the term "Banana Belt" to describe high end, national chains such as you find in Shadyside. "Boutique Belt" describes areas with a high prevalence of unique shops, a la Lawrenceville. "Big Box Belt" is a corridor with a lot of large chains like Home Depot and Target (a la East Liberty). While these corridors aren't always clear cut, I would say that I'm noticing a high concentration of specialty stores in the downtown retail scene. This strategy is interesting to me, because it is fairly different from what has been done previously. When I talked to Tom Murphy about Fifth-Forbes development last year, he told me that his plan had always been to try to make downtown a unique corridor where there were options not available anywhere else. Unfortunately, for him, that meant Lord and Taylor and Lazurus (and unsuccessfully, Nordstrom). But as we're finding with the South Side, stores like that won't just stay in one place if the market wants them (the department store strategy was also a failure for other reasons, but work with me here). National retailers will do what national retailers do, which is expand. This tends to dilute the market, and make downtown less of a destination for shoppers. But a downtown (or any neighborhood, really) filled with independent shops not available anywhere else will be more successful, because these stores will not flee to the suburbs so quickly.

The second thing that I noticed is that there isn't actually a lot of new retail happening here- it's just retail that's shifting:

• "Heinz Healey's men's store to move from Station Square"
• "Nettleton Shop of Pittsburgh, a men's shoe store, to move from Oxford Centre"
• "Larrimor's clothing store relocated from Grant Street "
• "A popular Downtown hair salon, Izzazu Salon and Spa, also will move"
• "He also intends to move Prantl's and Mancini's bakeries a short distance"

So out of the stores that were mentioned by name, only one has not had a presence in the immediate downtown area. What I would say that we are seeing is a shifting in the poles of retail in greater downtown. Station Square is nearly 15 years old, and while it's too early to write its eulogy, the retail options have certainly been thinning there. Grant street, Pittsburgh's center of wealth for a century, is starting to wane, at least from a retail perspective, in favor of the younger, hipper areas near Point Park and Market Square (keeping in mind, of course, that downtown is geographically microscopic compared to many other American CBDs). I'm not necessarily saying that the polarity of downtown retail is a bad thing. On the contrary, I'd actually prefer to not have to hoof from Kuntz & Ryder in Oxford Centre to Saks Fifth Avenue on Smithfield during my lunch break. Concentrating retail options in a particular section of downtown will likely produce a multiplier affect. But it will be interesting to see what Grant and Smithfield look like in 5 years.

Overall, I'm encouraged by what is happening downtown. Can't wait to see it again when I return in a few months.