Pittsburgh's Hill District pushes all the buttons to qualify for the Federal Highway Administration's Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity program.
The program, part of the Biden administration's stimulus package, is designed to help correct sins of the past and resurrect low-income areas cut off from the main part of a community for previous projects. Demolition of blocks of the Hill to make room for construction of the former Civic Arena in the late 1950s, separating the remainder of the neighborhood from the Golden Triangle, led to decades of despair.
Thursday morning, FHA Acting Administrator Stephanie Pollack visited the Thelma Lovette YMCA to celebrate an $11.3 million RAISE grant to refurbish the Centre Avenue business district and several nearby streets with new sidewalks, street lights and other amenities. Her appearance is part of this week's Building a Better America tour that has Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and other administration officials touting the benefits of the stimulus program across the country to build momentum for the midterm election in November.
“This project is an exemplar of the kind work RAISE is designed for,” Ms. Pollack said in an interview before the event.
Over five years, the program will have $7.5 billion available to fund projects. In addition to urban projects, the program also sets aside about half the funds for projects in rural areas that often have been ignored at the federal level.
“Every kind of community can generate its own home-grown project,” Ms. Pollack said.
The grant will be part of a $14.1 million effort in the neighborhood that will transform the Centre Avenue business district into a boulevard with planters down the middle, new sidewalks and improved traffic signals with safer crosswalks. That part of the project is expected to cost about $7.5 million.
Cross streets, including Crawford Street at Freedom Corner, Dinwiddie Street and Kirkpatrick Street, also will see major upgrades. Nine intersections will become part of the city's "smart spine" program, where traffic lights will be coordinated and monitored from a central location to keep traffic flowing at a cost of about $2.7 million.
Another $1 million will be used to rebuild the steps from Chauncey Street to the Bedford Dwellings housing complex.
During s news conference on the roof of the YMCA, Ms. Pollack said the program had six times as many grant requests as the 166 the agency approved. She called the city’s application “one of the best of the best” because of the wide range of partners involved and the preparatory work the neighborhood has done.
“We share your vision for making this community safer,” Ms. Pollack said. “This infrastructure is going to help bring back a piece of what was taken away.
“But it’s really about the people who will use this new, modern, safe infrastructure every day.”
Mayor Ed Gainey said the grant “couldn’t have come at a better time,” following last year’s opening of the Frankie Pace Park that was built on a cap over Interstate 579 to reconnect the Hill with the central business district. The Hill District Community Development Corp. also has a series of building restoration projects underway.
“This is how we restore the vitality of the Hill District,” the mayor said. “This is what we do to restore what was taken away from this neighborhood.“
Rev. Lee Walls, a resident whose development company Amani Christian Development Corp. has a series of projects in the neighborhood, said there is “no doubt” how important the street improvements will be for the neighborhood.
“It helps us develop the human capital in our community,” he said.
Marimba Milliones, president and CEO of the HDCDC, said the goal is for the grant to enhance the neighborhood, not change it.
“Our hope is you will recognize it as the jewel it has always been,” she said.
Ed Blazina: eblazina@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1470 or on Twitter @EdBlazina.
First Published: August 25, 2022, 4:55 p.m.