North Shore Connector Construction (pics via HerrVebah)
Unfortunately the video (said video has been removed by the original uploader for unknown reasons as of 1/23/12) for new North Shore Connector is more awesome than the thing itself. Not to be a bummer, but let’s put this into perspective. The main function of the two lines is to connect Downtown to some of our favorite places, including Heinz Field, Carnegie Science Center, PNC Park, The Andy Warhol Museum, etc…
Almost half a billion dollars has been spent developing a light rail system to take people a few blocks to a couple of sports venues that happen to have museums around them. Pittsburgh is a sports town, but come on, games in those stadiums are not played 7 days a week. Meanwhile, in other areas of the city, Pittsburghers are having difficulty finding a bus to take them Downtown.
What happened to the plan to create a light rail system from the airport to Oakland? Or the $81 million (cheap in comparison) plan Bill Peduto had that would connect Hazelwood to Oakland to Lawrenceville? Pittsburgh could use a more attractive way to get students from here to there.
Students are a driving force in the Pittsburgh economy and once again their influence is being neglected. Instead of finding new ways to transport rich CMU students to places other than Murray Avenue and Waterfront, the city is directing a lot of energy on a small radius that serves few.
Try to imagine all of the students in Oakland waiting on Fifth Avenue to take a cramped bus to Downtown, then get off and wait for a train to take them to North Shore. Not happening. Students don’t care about North Shore, and there’s nothing attracting them to Downtown.
In short, the new system is very linear, connecting a short distance of A to B, instead of connecting the neighborhoods that really need connected: Station Square, Southside, Squirrel Hill, Oakland, Shadyside, Lawrenceville, Strip District, etc.
The few people who actually live in Downtown Pittsburgh do not need to be transported out of Downtown, but instead, we should be thinking of new ways (and reasons) to transport people INTO town.
But hey, this is Pittsburgh. The city that can’t think too big, or else we’ll lose focus of the stuff that matter most in life: Super Bowls and Stanley Cups.
When is the North Shore Connector set to open?
March 25, 2012
- More info: Port Authority North Shore Connector
North Shore Connector Construction (pics via HerrVebah)
North Shore Connector Construction (pics via HerrVebah)
This is not the original video, but it is a good one.
- Excited
- Happy
- Amused
- Bored
- Sad
- Angry
They are cutting the Manchester 18 bus in September..which takes you directly from downtown to the North Shore and vice versa (and didn’t cost half a billion). It literally passes PNC Park, Heinz Field, Warhol, The Science Center, CCAC and Peppi’s (yum. sandwiches.)
There is “potential” in the North Shore Connector project, and I’m glad that it’s finally going to be here. I think the problem lies in that our local government is very secretive about their future plans, and do not have enough discussion leading up the spending of such funds.
For instance, the Port Authority had already allocated funds for this project, and conveniently it ended right where the casino ended up going in. However the supposed “vote” for the casino occurred over a year later. You can argue the morality of that, but the bigger picture is what it does to local business plans. If they had been up front with this project, other businesses could have looked at this part of the north shore as a very attractive area to develop. They could have also argued your points that this is not a good target for development, and other areas could benefit from the funds and % of effort involved.
Personally I’d like to see these development ideas shared on the City Council website, and allow city residents to ‘upvote’ certain ideas over others. Council could still have the final say, but at least allowing the people to have some sort of voice in what goes on. There needs to be a stronger structure to grow the city, disjointed neighborhoods are great to live in, but make unified development very difficult.
Vid is down…
Yes it was removed. That is the second video that was removed today. Not sure why… maybe Port Authority asked them to take it down for now. As soon as another one is available, we’ll add it to this post. Thanks
Great points made here. The page you linked to looks so desperate in how they state all of the figure of how many people attend the Andy Warhol annually and the Heinz Field annually. How many people go from neighborhood to neighborhood annually???
In other news, more transit cuts:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12020/1204651-192.stm#ixzz1kNy8vdqA
I saw this video briefly, too. I was searching for it to send to a friend but it is gone. Not on youtube, not on vimeo. It was a great video. Why would they just remove it like that, because of this post??