The city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority may be getting a bit ahead of itself.

In July, the URA applied for a state grant that would help fund a transit connector from Oakland to potential labs and tech centers at the Almono development site in Hazelwood and beyond. The project, which potentially could use driverless vehicles to shuttle riders, aims to foster “continued economic growth” between the two areas, according to the grant application.

The problem is, however, that the URA forgot to ask the two small neighborhoods the shuttles would travel through if they minded. At a Dec. 7 community meeting in the Four Mile Run section of Greenfield, however, one thing became clear: They mind very much. 

“I am vehemently opposed to this project,” says Tom D’Andrea, a lifelong Four Mile Run resident whose home is right on the proposed transit loop. “If I saw all the things our neighborhood needs directly impacted, it might be different, but I don’t see how that is possible.”

Four Mile Run resident Tom D’Andrea stands near the southern entrance of the Junction Hollow Trail, where the proposed shuttles will run through. Credit: Photo by Heather Mull

D’Andrea says residents aren’t very interested in a shuttle bus and would rather see some of the community benefits they have been requesting. He says neighborhood roads have not been paved in decades, blighted properties have not been addressed, and no action has been taken to mitigate problems with stormwater runoff. (In 2009, the neighborhood experienced a devastating flood.)

Pittsburgh City Councilor Corey O’Connor says the process to include community input has just begun. He says consultants have been hired to go door-to-door to the residents of all affected neighborhoods, including Hazelwood and Oakland. However, O’Connor says his office found out about the pre-community-input grant application from an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and that the city made a “mistake” in not reaching out beforehand. 

Pittsburgh Planning Director Ray Gastil agrees and says, “we probably should have been out here earlier.”

Kevin Acklin, URA chairman and Mayor Bill Peduto’s chief of staff, says that the URA didn’t have time to receive community input before applying in July. However, when asked by City Paper when the idea for the transit connecter first materialized, Acklin couldn’t specify and said the date when the idea first came up was a little “irrelevant” because the city was always going to reach out to the community after applying for the grant.

Acklin also reinforced that community engagement is just beginning and nothing is set in stone. “This is the beginning, it is the front end of this process,” says Acklin. “Change is difficult, and we are committed to working with the community. … No hard decisions have been made about the final road.”

But it is unclear how much the city can do to address residents’ requests. Funds from the grant, if it’s awarded, can only be used for transit and development enhancements related to the potential connector, according to the grant’s guidelines. So, a multi-million-dollar project to address Four Mile Run’s flooding problems can’t be incorporated. 

However, Chris Sandvig, from the Pittsburgh Community Redevelopment Group, says awarded grants can have a chain-reaction effect that makes other grants in the area more attractive. “Now that a potential transit project is there, it could make solving the stormwater issue more tangible,” he says.

But, the city also has work to do convincing Four Mile Run residents how the project will specifically benefit them. Many of the 50 residents at the meeting said they wouldn’t use the shuttles, with some saying they usually walk the mile-plus to the attractions in Oakland. 

D’Andrea’s wife, Christine, believes the transit loop would attract drivers wanting to avoid paying for parking in Oakland, who will park in the Run for free and take the shuttle to their jobs. 

But Gastil adds that the shuttle line could encourage people to not use their cars to go to work and that residents who live in Oakland, the Run and Hazelwood could potentially do this via the transit connector.  

Acklin says this connection could potentially link the affected neighborhoods to a city-wide connection at the East Busway, while avoiding the potential widening of Second Avenue to six lanes to accommodate development. Acklin says the city “heard loud and clear” the concerns of the residents, and the city will be back soon to see if they can address some of them. But he also encourages residents to work on a compromise that can help the potential growth of Pittsburgh.

“Just because things are how they are does not mean they don’t have to change,” says Acklin. “We are an evolving city. We can’t just sit idly by and not take advantage of this new economy.”

This article appears in Dec 16-22, 2015.

9 replies on “Four Mile Run residents wary of transit connector between Oakland and Almono site”

  2. A few items in this article cause me consternation.
    First: The City’s Planning Director says he “probably” should have been out there earlier?! What reason would there be for NOT informing the residents BEFORE you applied for the grant? Who does something like that?
    Second: Acklin says the date that the idea came up was “irrelevant” because the City was always going to reach out to the Community after applying for the grant?! Irrelevant to who? Certainly not the residents. In addition, the City NEVER reached out to the residents. We found out about it after it was leaked in the P-G and then DEMANDED a neighborhood meeting – almost 4 months after the grant application was filed. Why the delay?
    Third: What process of involving the community is Councilman O’Connor referring to? The residents have been waiting since Dec. 8th to hear from Councilman O’Connor on what his position is on this issue. His silence is deafening. No one at the meeting who filled out forms from the City’s consultant, Jackson Clark, has yet been contacted by them. Surely the City can do better than this.
    Fourth: Acklin says “… that community engagement is just beginning and nothing is set in stone.” What community engagement is he referring to? There has been no engagement.
    Fifth: What Acklin doesn’t mention is that if the fund is granted, the project WILL go through – despite the neighborhood’s objections.
    Sixth: Chris Sandvig and PCRG: I would have liked to have seen some specific examples of instances where a grant that involves public money, used to fund a private transit corridor, had a chain-reaction that made other grants that would better serve a community (i.e., to pave roads, remove blighted properties, solve flooding) more attractive. I’m all ears.
    Seventh: “…Gastil adds that the shuttle line could encourage people to not use their cars to go to work and that residents who live in Oakland, the Run and Hazelwood could potentially do this via the transit connector.” Mr. Gastil and others at the meeting on Dec. 7 did not provide sufficient information as to who exactly would be using these private shuttles, so I cannot respond to this. I’m pretty sure that in order to utilize the shuttle, people would have to drive to a drop-off point and then access the shuttle. If so, where will they park to access the shuttle? How does that eliminate people using their cars? People living in Hazelwood and working at Almono would have no use for the shuttle. This sounds like pure idiocy.
    Eighth: I have no idea where Acklin is getting his information about widening Second Ave to 6 lanes. This is the first that anyone has ever heard of this fallacy. This is just a diversion, and is to be ignored. There’s no need to widen Second Ave., nor will it ever happen. Move on.
    Ninth: The viability of the Almono site in no way hinges on the construction of this private transit corridor, so there is no need for the dramatics of Mr. Acklin on this point. If it does hinge on this, then we have a bigger problem than this transit project.

  3. Thank you for this article.

    In July, a resolution came before City Council to authorize the URA to apply for a grant from the DCED for a project in Polish Hill. Many other such resolutions have come before Council. Why would this transit corridor grant in this article be different from any other grant, bypassing Council, unless there was a reason they did not want to involve the councilors and thus the neighborhoods?

    We in Greenfield are fond of our neighbors in Hazelwood, and we want to see a successful ALMONO project. And the idea to use the existing railroad tracks for people transit (though later rejected by the railroad) was an interesting one. **However,** to take that idea too far is wrong-minded.

    What say we erect an aerial tram system, from Hazelwood to Oakland, maybe even to the South Side, flying over the valley rather than sending dozens of buses through neighborhoods that want to be left alone? An aerial tram (as they have in other cities and mountainous areas) could be a great tourist attraction, and also a business attraction.

    Since we don’t yet seem to have an anchor tenant for ALMONO, there does not seem to be a hurry in this regard. Secret grant applications and speaking with the neighbors only when they demanded it loudly enough does not engender much faith or trust. No amount of “stream daylighting” beginning the meeting could undo the presumption that the folks in The Run, Panther Hollow, and Oakland would just roll over and allow a road with numerous all-day buses (low emission or not) to race past their houses.

    ALMONO has been working with the Hazelwood community from the very beginning. They continue to work to integrate the new into the existing seamlessly. There was no reason to slight neighboring neighborhoods.

    The Run needs paving, runoff abatement, flooding abatement, vacant housing attention, landslide abatement, and also attention to the vine-laden water-rejecting hillsides of PennDOT embankments. And after all these years of neglect (recall former Councilor Doug Shields tripping on tv at the landslide?), The Run does not need to give anything back for the attention due.

    Greenfield right now is dealing with the lack of a major bridge. We do not need to be told that anything further, any “evolution,” is inevitable.

  4. As I mentioned at the 12/7 meeting, I learned of the idea for a transit shuttle through Junction Hollow over a year ago, at a public ALMONO meeting in October 2014. I wrote about it publicly at the time: http://bikepgh.org/mb/topic/hazelwood-trai… where I reported “there was talk (speculative at this point) of shuttle buses between Hazelwood and Oakland, perhaps directly up Junction Hollow, perhaps autonomously-driven!”. If you’re interested in the city’s planning, attend their public meetings!

    Instead of an angry NIMBY attitude, I recommend we think of the benefits that this shuttle can bring to Hazelwood, which has suffered far more than The Run and Panther Hollow. I think the shuttle can benefit all of these neighborhoods, if done right. If kids in The Run or Hazelwood want to get to the Carnegie Museum or want a job in Oakland or at ALMONO, what better transport than the proposed shuttle? (and in nice weather, a bicycle…) And think about all the noise and pollution that would result if ALMONO is built without this shuttle: car traffic on 2nd Ave, Bates, and Swinburne would get worse.

    I recommend we all keep pressure on the city to do its planning right, keep pressure on them to address flooding and fix potholes, lobby for a bike trail from Pocusset St to Saline St, and put pressure on Allegheny Valley Railroad to reopen the railroad crossing at Panther Hollow Lake that they’ve selfishly closed.

  5. Paul Heckbert- did you cut and paste your posting from the PG article about this issue published last Tuesday? Is it possibly because you were or are affiliated with the Robotics Institute at CMU as a Computer Science professor? Are you THAT Paul Heckbert?

    http://www.post-gazette.com/local/2015/12/08/Greenfield-residents-Pittsburgh-councilman-decry-plans-for-proposed-road-for-new-development/stories/201512080103

    How much do you stand to profit off of this deal? If you’re gonna be a troll or a shill for shady land grabs, yr gonna hafta be a bit more slick bruh.

  6. Hi,Id like to address the issue of the Run and say that although there are alot more people that would benefit than put at disadvantage as it would greatly ease traffic and also give many an easier comute to work in surounding areas and bring attention to roads getting repaved that the DeAndrea,s speak of but they had the city fund a tree planting project funded through the tax payer,s dollars but the tree,s were unfortunately only planted infront of and around the D ‘Andrea,s house and their many rental properties and a friend,s house nine tree,s total with tax payers dollars Just because Mr. D,Andrea who is a city Fire Fighter. although we do apreciate the hard and dangerous work that they do .I dont believe that the city tax dollars should pay to tear down properties and then sell to a city employee for as cheap as two hundred dollars a piece especially to a city of pgh fire fighter it raises alot of questions in alot of people,s mind,s such as the property at 307 and 309 saline st 307 wich i was forced out of recently so the city will pay thousands to tear down each one and again sell to a city employee on the cheap without the properties even being posted for public sale,and so although a few people arent comfortable with the change it,s very clear by a large margin more than half the people will greatly benefit with shorter comute,s and less expense as well as more time home with their children and loved one,s wich will result in alot less stressed out people and happier families . I think i speak for many in saying that you will never make everyone happy so go for whats best for most overall and those wich cant get to a happy medium are free to move to a place that is more suitable to their likes and need,s then all in those areas can live happier. Well feel free to comment back to this post i,d love to hear what people think .
    Happy Holidays
    Kelly’s

  7. I would like to comment on the statement that the City of Pgh did not let the people of the affected areas such as the Run (The D,Andrea,s )! know before they applied for a grant before asking the residents if they minded. It reminds me ‘-again that a certain city employee of of pgh that lives in the run owns alot of rentals down there also put a driveway in without as(king if anyone minded and did this with no building permit and also before he factually owned it yet and thats just one project amongst many others done with no permit application being filed” . So im appauled that it continues to happen and my complaints seem to fall on deaf ears for so long as well as The fact that these will be the new owners of the house that me and my children were forced out of after being a life long resident of the run . I believe this project is a plus for many hard working people to spend less money and travel time and more time with their children and families which most strive to do .
    Thank,s kryan1028@gmail.com

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