Pittsburgh’s Grandview Avenue is a mecca for those flocking to watch fireworks explode and sparkle over the city skyline. But those headed to the one-mile scenic stretch along the edge of Mount Washington and Duquesne Heights this Fourth of July will find sections of deteriorating sidewalks closed.
City officials on June 24 closed two “failing” elevated sidewalks — sections that jut out from Grandview, over the edge of the mount — in addition to one section that’s been closed since April. Up to $1 million in repairs will be finished by Thanksgiving, the city said. An initial city press release said that “elevated sidewalks and three failing platforms” were closed. To be clear: All round overlooks — and the rectangular one at Maple Terrace — are open.
“If you're planning on going to Mount Washington for the Fourth of July, you still can go up there and still see the views, but please make sure you respect the barriers because we don’t want somebody falling straight through the sidewalk,” said Councilwoman Theresa Kail-Smith, who represents the neighborhood. “It’s a drop, it’s a significant drop.”
Those headed to Grandview to watch the 9:30 p.m. fireworks show will find the sidewalks closed at Ulysses Street, across from St. Mary of the Mount Catholic Church; Bertha Street across from the Carnegie Library branch; and a section between Kearsarge Street and Maple Terrace, near the Monongahela Incline.
Ms. Kail-Smith delivered her comments at the June 25 council meeting, after she said she asked Mayor Bill Peduto’s office to help ameliorate Grandview’s condition.
Grandview Avenue — officially designated as a Pennsylvania Scenic Byway — has fallen into disrepair over the past several years, residents and advocates say. Old concrete is crumbling. Peeling paint and rust spots dot the metal fencing along the route. High weeds grow just over the fencing, and through it in some spots. Unkempt flower beds line parts of the avenue.
The city maintains that federal and state dollars are needed for any structural fixes beyond the sidewalks now roped off with caution tape. Mr. Peduto said the city will apply for grants “in the next few years.” Ms. Kail-Smith said that she has taken state legislators to Grandview in recent years to see needs of the city’s “gem.”
The 1960s-era sidewalks were last rehabilitated in the 1980s.
“Everything is a resource issue. While there are millions, perhaps, of tourists that come to Mount Washington, it’s one of the great free experiences of the city,” said Karina Ricks, director of the city’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure. “There’s not a revenue captured ... [Tourists] of course contribute through the businesses that we hope they frequent while they’re there. ... But you know, they might be coming from Green Tree, staying in a hotel in Green Tree.”
But residents say they are frustrated, as city departments and nonprofits trade blame for Grandview’s problems.
“We’re not just a regular community. We’re like the top tourist attraction in this city,” said Cathy Gianella, who lives on the Duquesne Heights side of Grandview. “Thousands of people come up here all the time, so we need double safety and things being kept up.”
Ms. Gianella attended a June 19 community meeting led by Ms. Kail-Smith and the Mobility and Infrastructure department to discuss plans for speed humps and other “traffic calming” measures for Grandview.
“I see people day and night, in the middle of the night, I don’t care when it is, they’re at that statue taking pictures and weddings [visit],” she said, referring to the bronze statues of George Washington and Seneca leader Guyasuta near the Duquesne Incline.
Roughly 630,000 people travel via the Duquesne Incline each year, according to the preservation nonprofit that manages it. The Port Authority of Allegheny County estimates 700,000 rides per year on the Monongahela Incline.
“I have never had visitors from out of town that I didn’t take to Grandview,” said Mike Dawida, former state legislator and Allegheny County commissioner who now heads Scenic Pittsburgh, an advocacy organization focused on protecting local natural beauty.
Scenic America, the national nonprofit umbrella organization above Scenic Pittsburgh, is waiting for Congress to approve federal transportation funds, said its president, Mark Falzone.
The program last received funding in 2012 when it granted $42.5 million to 125 scenic byways in 44 states.
Mr. Falzone called Grandview a “a real selling point, for not only tourists, but actually in selling Pittsburgh as a city for jobs and for people to move to. This is a poster child for why this national scenic byways program needs to be funded again.”
Mr. Peduto said the budget to fix Grandview will be “more than suburban total budgets for townships and boroughs,” considering also the rusted railings and Jersey barriers along the landslide-prone P.J. McArdle Roadway, the route from the Liberty Bridge to Mount Washington that passes under the Mon Incline.
In 2017, it cost $200,000 just to bring one block of protruding sidewalk back onto solid ground.
“In the meantime, we’ll take care of the basic maintenance of Grandview and at that same time, make sure that it remains open,” he said.
But Ms. Kail-Smith said she would like to see a return of “basic city services that we should have been providing.”
“It shouldn't take an act of the chief of staff of the mayor who is so busy with so many things to worry about getting weeds cut, but it did,” she said on June 25.
The city said it will be “redoubling efforts to sweep Grandview and empty litter cans,” and the city’s Forestry Division will “trim trees and vegetation where possible.”
But Public Works director Mike Gable disagrees with Ms. Kail-Smith’s criticism, saying some of the vegetation is the responsibility of Parks Department maintenance employees and community volunteers.
“[W]e have had an excessive amount of rain to date requiring us to cut the grass and vegetation more often than planned; it is challenging,” he said in a written response.
But Alaina Davis, the head of the 15-volunteer member Mount Washington Community Development Corporation, said, “We’ve reached out and said ‘What is possible for an organization of our size to do?’”
Her organization worked with the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy in recent years to plant flowers along the route, but the grant funding has since run out.
“It’s not just one group or one department. There’s a lot of people who have failed [Grandview]. And it’s been decades of disinvestment,” Ms. Kail-Smith said.
Ashley Murray: 412-263-1750, amurray@post-gazette.com or on Twitter @Ashley__Murray
First Published: July 2, 2019, 11:00 a.m.
