So, what are we opposing being built today? A jail? A steel mill? A new cracker plant? A pollution-and-crime factory?
No, it’s housing. It’s always housing.
Oh, maybe it’s replacing something historic? No, it’s a parking lot and a corrugated metal shed, currently a taproom. The condo design is decent, too — by Indovina, one of our better local architects. We get a lot of sub-par new construction, but this isn’t that.
Moving to the Strip District and complaining about traffic and the “influx of new residents” is wild. That’s like building a house in the middle of I-376 and getting mad at all the cars driving through your yard. Isn’t there somewhere else where you might be more comfortable?
Many of our biggest problems as a country are downstream from the lack of affordable housing. People feel poor and stuck for a lot of reasons, but this is the big one. The only ways you can do anything about it are 1) increase the supply, or 2) wreck existing home values (via economic catastrophe, etc.). Building 14 stories of “luxury condos” is better than nothing because it keeps those future residents from bidding up the prices on existing houses in less-thriving neighborhoods. And if you can’t build tall right next to downtown, where is it acceptable?
Look, lots of change is bad, and it’s OK to be nervous about it. And the Strip is unique; nobody wants it to lose its character. However, no neighborhood has changed more over the past 30 years, and it has somehow lost almost none of that character. (Unless by character you mean parking lots and one-story metal sheds).
Allowing dense residential development on empty/parking lots did most of the heavy lifting here. Now few of those are left, so you have some choices to make. When there’s an empty building with clear historical importance and architectural merit, you leave it be in the hopes that a future use emerges. There was pressure to mangle or demolish the Produce Terminal, and resistance stopped it. But if it’s just empty lots and metal sheds, you should be allowed to build housing.
For rent: Wightman Terrace, 2130 Wightman St., Squirrel Hill, $1,000/month.
Squirrel Hill is a great neighborhood for a lot of reasons, but here’s an underappreciated one: old apartment buildings like this. They add a lot of units at various price points, including $1K and below. This allows lots of different people to live here — students, young families, the elderly — and that encourages foot traffic for local businesses, and lots of eyes on the street at different times of day; an underappreciated boost to safety. Sure, some of these need updates badly, and some need air-conditioning, but you can walk to most things you need and it’s easy to hop on a bus for anything else.
For sale: 119 Margaret St., Mt. Oliver, $122,900.
A turn-of-the-century beauty built in a time so deep in the smoke-shrouded past that the unstoppable powerhouses in town were the Pittsburgh Pirates and Duquesne Dukes football. When it’s not stained by decades of soot, yellow brick can look pretty good. There’s even a detached garage and a backyard, though the recent dry spell makes it look way sadder than normal.
For rent: Hyland Hills, 275 Oakville Dr., Banksville, $1,050/month.
I’m sure there are some people out there who desire all the inconvenience of the suburbs and all the taxes of the city; just for them, here’s Banksville. I’m being a little unfair; away from Banksville Road, it’s pleasant and quiet. It’s also quite diverse, with food options to match, including Indian, Venezuelan, Pakistani, and cold cheese on pizza for some reason (Beto’s). It’s not easy to walk to anything except maybe the park, but if that doesn’t bother you, the rents are reasonable.
For sale: 154 Henderson St., Fineview, $290,000.
Pittsburgh: where million-dollar views are a dime a dozen. Sure, there are principles to good urban design, but if you are building a house on what most sane cities would consider impossible/impassable terrain, you should get some flexibility. Not sure why this house looks like it has a hat made out of plastic, but it’s got patios galore, some sweet Pittsburgh steps, a bright, airy interior and even a clean, finished basement. Plus, that view is fine.
For sale: 3375 Spring Garden Rd., Spring Garden, $145,000.
The ultimate Pittsburgh grandma cottage, wood-frame edition. Everything is slightly off-center and mismatched, like grandma’s kitchen. I can almost smell the sauteed onions and pierogies (sob). I think I’ve only been to Spring Garden by accident, but I recently learned of the existence of the Uzbek restaurant House of Shish Kebab, which is delicious and something you won’t find many places outside of Uzbekistan.
For rent: Riverwind at Chatham Park Drive, 301 Chatham Park Dr., Banksville. $1,125/month.
Developments with names like “Riverwind” always sound suspicious to me, suggesting a rural idyll that used to be here before the suburbs devoured it. But don’t hold that against this place, which includes fairly dense townhomes in a city neighborhood, along with a pool and tennis courts.
This article appears in Election Guide Oct. 8-14, 2025.
