According to a new study from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, Pittsburgh is the eighth most gentrified city in America.
With 20 percent of its eligible census tracts being gentrified between 2000-2013, Pittsburgh was more gentrified than cities like San Francisco, Austin, and Denver. Gentrification is when redevelopment brings in more affluent residents, typically at the cost of displacing low-income people.
The national average for gentrification among eligible census tracts is about 9 percent, according to NCRC. The most gentrified city in the country is Washington, D.C., where 40 percent of census tracts were gentrified from 2000-2013.
Pittsburgh’s gentrification might surprise some observers. To be on par with fast-growing cities like Portland, Ore. and Seattle could look unsettling considering Pittsburgh isn’t experiencing the same level of economic growth. And the exact Pittsburgh neighborhoods that experienced gentrification according to NCRC don’t match popular perceptions.
In Pittsburgh, those areas include Lawrenceville, Bloomfield, Garfield, Polish Hill, Downtown, and sections of the North Side and Mount Washington. According to NCRC, Pittsburgh experienced three neighborhoods with Black displacement: Downtown, the Mexican War Streets in North Side, and St. Clair.
For example, the study doesn’t list any census tracts in East Liberty as having experienced gentrification (in one tract average home prices actually went down from 2000-2010). The study also looked at displacement by race and East Liberty wasn’t included in the study’s Black displacement metric. (One East Liberty tract did lose more than 600 Black people between 2000-2010, but that was not large enough to qualify for displacement, by NCRC metrics.)
Jason Richardson, one of the study’s authors, notes the likelihood that other neighborhoods, like East Liberty, could qualify for gentrification by NCRC metrics down the line, but he won’t know until data from 2013-2017 is released later this year. University of Pittsburgh economist Chris Briem has been documenting how some of the trends NCRC is studying have continued in East Liberty post-2013.
Richardson says NCRC adopted a methodology developed by Columbia University professor Lance Freeman, which is also utilized by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve. Richardson says neighborhoods that experience gentrification had sharp increases in average home values, residents with college attainment, and incomes.
Ernie Hogan of Pittsburgh Community Redevelopment Group says the displacement in St. Clair was caused by the razing of public housing there in 2010, but adds that other neighborhoods seeing displacement and gentrification are concerning.
He says many neighborhoods that gentrified contain service jobs staffed by low-income workers, who now can’t afford to live in those neighborhoods.
“We have to think about it from a social economic standpoint,” says Hogan. “Pittsburgh can’t figure out how to retain and build its local workforce. The further we push people out, I think that puts us at a disadvantage.”
Take Downtown. The neighborhood is home to thousands of high-paying jobs, but also plenty of service jobs at restaurants, retail stores, and bars. But Downtown is one of Pittsburgh’s most gentrified neighborhoods, with its average home prices tripling from $80,000 to $240,000 and its college attainment and average incomes doubling.
“That is a classic Downtown Rust Belt story,” says Richardson. “In most cities Pittsburgh’s size, we mostly see gentrification concentrated in the core.”
Hogan says part of this was an intentional effort to revitalize the neighborhood, as several developers were encouraged to create market-rate housing. Downtown affordable housing was preserved, but without a push to increase affordable units, many residents were forced out due to increases in the market-rate rents. Downtown lost 1,466 Black residents from 2000-2010.
For some neighborhoods included in the report, Hogan takes a more nuanced view.
“Are we really gentrifying, or are we diluting?” he asks. Hogan points out Deutschtown in the North Side, which lost mostly white residents as its home values and college attainment increased. But the average incomes there barely increased. A similar phenomenon played out in sections of Bloomfield.
Hogan says some of these changes were driven by Pittsburgh seeing an influx of college-educated millennials moving into historically white-working class neighborhoods, even though many of those millennials were still working low-wage jobs. Pittsburgh went from having one of the oldest average populations to the youngest over the same time span studied in the NCRC report. The home values increased possibly because many residential properties were remodeled and flipped.
But Hogan does see cases of “clear gentrification.” Lower Lawrenceville saw its average incomes increase by 25 percent, its college attainment double to 30 percent of residents and its average home values increase by 126 percent to $133,600. Other sections of Lawrenceville were also classified as gentrified, but experienced more modest changes comparatively.
“That gentrification was driven by the changes of Butler Street. And I think it is amenities and the main street development stuff. And the flipping that started,” says Hogan, referring to home flipping or residential redevelopment.
Hogan adds the study shows how gentrification has hurt both white and Black Pittsburghers. Upper Lawrenceville experienced a threefold increase in college attainment, a 20 percent increase in average income and a modest increase in average home values. Except Upper Lawrenceville was one of the few census tracts in America to experience white displacement. The area lost 740 white people and added about 440 Black people.
Hogan says Upper Lawrenceville, a historically white neighborhood, could be where many young Black residents working at tech companies are moving.
While gentrification is typically associated with the displacement of historically Black neighborhoods, Hogan says poverty, regardless of race, is the driving factor.
Hogan says this report should act as a clarion call to the city and regional leaders. He is encouraged by efforts like Community Land Trusts and inclusionary zoning in Lawrenceville. Pittsburgh City Councilor’s Deb Gross (D-Highland Park) recently introduced legislation calling inclusionary zoning in Lawrenceville, which would force new developments to include some affordable units.
But Hogan says broader and bolder changes need to be seriously considered, including big policies championed by Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto.
“The city really needs to and the mayor needs to talk about housing policy,” says Hogan.
This article appears in March 27, 2019 – Pittsburgh City Paper.
I see no problem.
The neighborhood value goes up and the crime goes down. This isn’t a race story. It’s a quality of life story. Want a good life go earn it. Dont depend others to support you. Take control of your life!
This person definitely does not understand the article..or did not bother to read it. Not everyone is able to draw an income that will subsidize the level to which these rents have skyrocketed. Lower and mid income individuals have been left out of the market. In addition, such high rents, with no other option, will push people out of the housing market. Less buying due to less saving.
The True Reality commenter is a glowing example of the Hidden Racism that plagues Pittsburgh, PA. I have worked with many people from different cites, states and countries and they all ask the same question: Why is Pittsburgh so segregated?
The answer: White Flight the minute too many of Non – Whites move into that area. This still happens even if the crime rate doesn’t change. Once the majority of Whites leave the area, the housing market takes a dive. Then there are abandoned properties and the number of rentals including Section 8 skyrockets. That’s when the crime rate goes up. Businesses start to close and people stop caring. Now it is a bad neighborhood. Years later people begin to realize, this bad neighborhood is super close to Downtown Pittsburgh, Oakland or one of the many hospitals. That’s when developers come in and start buying and taking over those abandoned properties and closed business buildings.
This would be awesome, but it’s never in the best interest of any people of color. Only White people. These developers work hand in hand with local government and non – profits companies to guarantee it. People of color will never be notified of the “community meetings” or have a voice in any of their “forums”. They will be strategically priced out of any new construction, rather it be employment or residential. The powers that be will bend and forge the rules dishonestly for family and friends. Those are the people that magically get loans for homes and businesses in these new gentrified neighborhoods. It’s never the people that stuck it out during the worse times and made that bad neighborhood their home.
But people like The True Reality will always deflect by stating “Those” people were lazy and don’t deserve it. It’s funny the new people that cheat to get the bad neighborhood for dirt cheap don’t deserve it either. But most people of color and low income people can’t fight against White Supremacy. All they can do is try to find somewhere new to live that’s affordable. Until the cycle begins there in their new bad neighborhood.
The city of Pittsburgh needs to understand their market can’t charge people 2,500 dollars to rent with no real value or attraction waste of money and not a good location to charge all this money for those complexes jobs are not paying that much in Pittsburgh. Know your demographics
Truth Reporter – you absolutely nailed it!
Add to the story – the next neighborhood over that is on the receiving end of those displaced are even MORE clueless about what to do….
Keturah Frankie Vactor is spot on. To further add, not only does Pittsburgh not have much in the way of jobs, what it does have pays extremely low. People regurgitate the lie that Pittsburgh is an “affordable city” but if you examine the tax burden (state income, city income, property taxes, insane fuel tax [note especially costly in an area where you need to drive everywhere], and low salaries, it’s very costly.
“Don’t depend on others to support you.” That’s a joke! Isn’t that HOW the U.S. was built?! On the backs of others? It sure wasn’t a “collaboration”.
High rent doesn’t mean less crime. Those same “high renters” snort coke, do meth, deal drugs, do white collar crimes, let’s not forget mass shootings. There’s good and bad EVERYWHERE. You’re delusional to try and equate the “high rent” to less crime.
And yes Pittsburgh is very segregated even more so now. This is not and never has been a great city for people of color. Honestly, I’d recommend they travel to other cities to get ahead in any industry. Attend college and leave. “Quality of life” is better in other cities. Work smarter not harder.
Wouldn’t most of this be explained by: “Pittsburgh went from having one of the oldest average populations to the youngest over the same time span studied in the NCRC report.” I would think that young people, even those working entry level type jobs, are going to have higher incomes than retired folks. The young are going to be willing and able to pay higher rents than the elderly. That’s going to lead to real estate developers building new residential properties. And not all these young people want to live in Cranberry or Peters Township where residential properties can be built on previously undeveloped land.