Island effect
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve mentioned this before, but one of the things that always amazes me about Pittsburgh’s T system are the absence of ‘economic islands’ centered around the stations and stops. There’s office buildings and government offices nearby – literally across the street from the POV pictured in this post. My frame of reference is ‘back home’ of course, where bus and subway stops almost always draw Bodegas, Pizza joints, and shops to them which capitalize on the foot traffic. The transit stop itself is a de facto socio economic magnet, and retail usually sets itself up nearby to handle the transient’s needs and sell overpriced fruit.
Subway stops usually bring bars and restaurants to their environs, in my observation, which is a ‘level up’ in terms of the economic island effect of transit in NYC. Foot traffic, all that. You see this phenomena in Philly, Boston, Chicago – wherever mass transit exists.
Pittsburgh doesn’t seem to get the same bang out of its transit buck, regarding this corollary that other cities do. I wonder why.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s an inviting street scape, no? There’s also a lot of criminal justice world (jail, courts, etc.) stuff down here, maybe that’s why this zone is so desolate. For reference, this is basically downtown Pittsburgh, right about here. That scene above isn’t caused by people working from home. That’s landlord propaganda. As a rule, do not trust what realtors say about anything. That includes former real estate people, like the fellow in the White House.
The economic islands observation came out of an argument I once started with the MTA, when they first started talking about the Queens Bus Redesign Plan and I was on the community board in Astoria. I was trying to argue that the redesign would have broad economic consequence beyond them managing to shave a minute or two off the route of the Q103. The MTA guys got snarky, I received a talking to by the higher ups, and then COVID happened and the next time anyone saw that plan again was long after I had beat the retreat to Appalachia. Luckily, it’s someone else’s problem now.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This was shot on a Saturday, I should mention, but the day of the week doesn’t have anything to do with street level retail. This corridor is so noticeably blighted that it doesn’t make sense to me.
At any rate, this was a ‘walk’ day, not a ‘stand around and wonder’ one, so I leaned forward into the scuttle. Back tomorrow with more.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
The Newtown Pentacle 
Leave a comment