Keith Betts thinks Wilkinsburg needs a makeover, and a merger with Pittsburgh might be the place to start.
The 38-year-old owner of the Crabs R Us restaurant, located on Penn Avenue in the eastern borough, was hopeful that the proposed annexation by the city could bring new business and life to the area, which has seen several attempts at revitalization over the years.
“It’s damn near whatever it takes at this point, because it’s just not a good look for the county,” he said. “It just looks bad.”
Others in the borough, which has an estimated 15,292 residents, shared similar sentiments when asked what they thought about making Wilkinsburg Pittsburgh’s 91st neighborhood. They lamented the vacant storefronts and properties that line the business district on and around Penn Avenue.
While the area hosts a number of locally owned shops and restaurants in addition to Mr. Betts’ seafood eatery — such as Nancy’s Revival diner, James Flower Shoppe and Soul Food Connection — there are also many storefronts that remain vacant, and are a concern for people in the community.
The old train station on Hay Street sat unused for 50 years and is now part of a $6.5 million renovation that began in 2019. Once redone, part of it could become a new restaurant, said 42-year-old Shane Stevick, who has lived in the borough for 20 years.
He said he doesn’t pay Wilkinsburg taxes since he works in Pittsburgh, so he doesn’t feel as strongly about the potential merger as others, but he hopes it could be a positive change and draw in new stores and companies. “More businesses bring more life into the town,” he said.
To annex the borough, Pittsburgh City Council would have to approve the merger in a vote after a petition is submitted to the Common Pleas Courts. While the Wilkinsburg Community Development Corporation — an organization not affiliated with the borough's government that has been at the forefront of the merger — was set to turn in that petition, the group recently announced it would hold off, putting the process on pause.
Although it remains unclear how the Pittsburgh’s legislative body would vote, Council President Theresa Kail-Smith has said she is against the idea.
The last time a municipality was annexed by the city was when it brought in part of Robinson in 1955.
Combining Wilkinsburg into Pittsburgh could be beneficial since the city and the borough already share resources, such as the Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire, said Deborah Perry, 68, of Duquesne. Although she doesn’t live in Wilkinsburg anymore, she commutes through the borough by bus and lived there for eight years, she said.
In that time, Ms. Perry saw it go from a blighted town to one consumed by gang violence in the 1990s. Now, she says, it is in need of a major uplift. “If Pittsburgh gets involved, I think we could see the rebirth of a [borough] that’s almost died.”
Thirty-one-year resident Vince Neal said he also remembers the gang problems of the ’90s, but says the area has seen positive changes in recent years.
The new Abraham Lincoln statue and other things have brought upgrades to the area, he said, but he would still like to see improvements to some of the dilapidated housing, which he called an “eyesore for the community.”
And the borough already shares some services with the city, Mr. Neal pointed out, such as sending high school students to Pittsburgh Public Schools’ Westinghouse Academy.
He said he can see the positives and negatives of adding the 2.25 square-mile borough to the city. On one hand, it would help grow Pittsburgh’s tax base and lower Wilkinsburg’s unusually high property taxes.
But, he added, the move would also take autonomy away from the borough once it becomes one of the dozens of city neighborhoods.
“Whichever way it goes, I’m OK with it,” he said. “I wasn’t born and raised in Wilkinsburg, and I know some of the long, longtime residents, they really don’t want the merger, but on all of our mail it’s Pittsburgh ... so everything is really like Pittsburgh other than this is a borough and we have our own municipal building. I don’t know, I always find that very interesting.”
Keon Arvin, a 22-year-old borough resident, said he feels like the merger could be “a decent decision.”
“It all depends on what that’s going to do for the community,” he said. “If they can get rid of these potholes out here, and fix these roads out here, man.”
“I feel like it could bring more life out here,” he added.
Mr. Betts agreed, saying he would like to see it become a destination for food and shopping. But he also worries that the city may neglect Wilkinsburg and its largely Black population, similar to how he believes his neighborhood of Homewood was largely ignored by the city after the exodus of many of its white residents in the mid-20th century.
“If they merge it, what if they just do the same thing they did with Homewood, which was basically nothing for years?” he said. But, he added, it seems that the borough is “already being neglected,” and it may be difficult for the city to ignore its problems after the publicity that the merger would bring.
“[It’s] like you adopted somebody, but you’re not going to buy them no clothes,” he said. “You adopted them on national television, but you’re not going to buy them no clothes and shoes, and everybody that’s watching sees them walking around with dirty clothes and shoes on.”
Mick Stinelli: mstinelli@post-gazette.com; 412-263-1869; and on Twitter: @MickStinelli
First Published: July 26, 2021, 9:01 a.m.
