A Look Back

1910–1950s BOOMING BUSINESS DISTRICT

The early decades of the Twentieth Century were the peak of progress for East Liberty. Industry was booming, schools were being built, and the social life of the community flourished. By the 1950s, East Liberty was the third-largest shopping district in Pennsylvania, behind Center City Philadelphia and downtown Pittsburgh. Around its peak in 1959, East Liberty boasted 575 businesses and a population of nearly 14,000.

1960

Urban Renewal And The Decline

East Liberty was a booming regional business district until 1958 when increasing traffic, lack of parking, and competition from the suburbs drove East Liberty's business leaders to call for change. Not long after, one of the nation's largest urban renewal projects began in East Liberty. Mimicking suburban development, streets, residential homes, and commercial properties were demolished and replaced by highway-sized Penn Circle and vast parking lots. The new suburban-style development ultimately failed and left a moat of vacant buildings in its wake.

1960s-1970s POPULATION LOSS AND CRIME ON THE RISE

Urban renewal and its poorly designed streets and walking mall began a two-decadelong decline in both East Liberty’s commercial and residential areas. By the 1970s, only around 125 businesses remained and over 15% of the residential enclaves were vacant. East Liberty became known for blight and crime.

This decline was only exacerbated by the collapse of Pittsburgh’s steel and manufacturing industry throughout the late 1970s and into the 80s as families struggled to afford and/or maintain their homes or simply left the area for employment. Between 1970 and 1990, the Pittsburgh region lost 158,000 manufacturing jobs and over 150,000 residents.

1980s

EAST LIBERTY DEVELOPMENT, INC. FOUNDED

In the fall of 1979, the East Liberty Quarter Chamber of Commerce formed the nonprofit East Liberty Development, Inc. to facilitate redevelopment efforts in the neighborhood and begin reversing the effects of urban renewal. In the 1980s, the group focused on reopening Penn Avenue, Highland Avenue, and Broad Street to vehicular traffic. ELDI also worked with partners to restore and redevelop buildings along Penn Avenue.

1999 A Plan For East Liberty

New leaders in East Liberty brought a sense of urgency to tackling old problems. Through a community-driven process, stakeholders developed a community plan— A Vision for East Liberty. The plan highlighted community initiatives that represented the beginning of local investment and success, which became the building blocks for a self-sustaining community.

2005-2009

THREE TOWERS DEMOLISHED

A historic partnership of private developers, community stakeholders, and building tenants brought about the demolition of the Liberty Park and East Mall high-rises in 2005, and later Penn Circle Apartments in 2009. These three poorly-managed, high-rise apartment buildings were replaced with nearly 400 units of higher quality mixed-income rental and affordable homeownership options. As of 2009, over 160 displaced residents returned to the mixed-income communities of New Pennley Place, Penn Manor, Negley Neighbors, and Fairfield Apartments.

2004-2012 RECONNECTING EAST LIBERTY

With dead-end streets, fences, and the removal of bridges that once connected East Liberty and neighboring Shadyside, the first step to merging the two communities was building a bridge to span the literal and figurative divide. The Eastside Pedestrian Bridge, which was finally completed in 2012, connects the Eastside parking lot to Ellsworth Avenue and was part of a larger development strategy to restore the commercial and residential market in East Liberty as well as the pedestrian infrastructure that was lost during urban renewal.

Community Amenities And Job Opportunities

Shortly after Google established itself in Larimer, Target opened its doors to the community as a part of the Eastside V development. The store's opening was the culmination of a long-term plan that designated the former Penn Circle Apartments site—the five-acre site bordering Penn Avenue, Penn Circle, and Broad Street—for a department store. ELDI worked with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and a wide range of community groups for over seven years to find a potential retailer and ultimately secure Target for the site.

2014-2021

REVIVING ENRIGHT COURT

Penn Plaza

The displacement of more than 200 residents from the Penn Plaza Apartments in East Liberty captured the public’s attention and came to symbolize gentrification in Pittsburgh. The apartment complex was built and financed with a US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) mortgage during urban renewal, and while the HUD income restrictions had expired, the building’s owners—LG Realty Advisors—maintained affordability for several years on a month-to-month rental basis. Many tenants voluntarily moved, and then, in July 2015, they issued 90-day eviction notices to the remaining occupants of Penn Plaza. The City of Pittsburgh intervened on behalf of the tenants and a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was entered into between LG Realty Advisors, the City of Pittsburgh, the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh, and the newly formed resident tenant council. While the MOU was effective in securing more time for the residents to relocate, it did not resolve the fundamental problem or issue as to where these residents could go, and many Penn Plaza residents were forced to relocate to other neighborhoods.

2017-2023 FOSTERING MINORITY ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND HOMEOWNERSHIP

Choice Neighborhoods

The Larimer / East Liberty Choice Neighborhoods Initiative was a $30 million award from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to revitalize the Larimer and East Liberty neighborhoods. Revitalization includes 334 new housing units and a neighborhood park. 85 units were completed in 2016, 150 additional units were completed across from Target in 2019, and the final 99 units were completed in 2022. These 334 units replaced the 155 blighted units of East Liberty Garden Apartments and public housing known as Hamilton Larimer.

A key element of the Choice Neighborhoods grant was an awareness of the need to incorporate social services into the redevelopment strategy. This concept was spearheaded by a coalition of organizations known as KEEL—the Kingsley Association, East Liberty Housing Inc., ELDI, and the Larimer Consensus Group. This strategy proved so successful that the US Department of Housing and Urban Development recognized KEEL as a best practice in a national evaluation of the Choice Neighborhoods grant program.

Also part of Choice was the development of Liberty Green Park, which was completed in 2020. The $6.5 million park is located on 3.2 acres of land in East Liberty, nestled between mixed-income housing and the historic Sts. Peter and Paul Church.

Sitting just a few blocks east of East Liberty’s commercial core, the Enright Court townhouse community comprises 98 predominantly owner-occupied homes built using funds from the Housing and Urban Development Section 235 Program in the early 1970s. Over the years, Enright has suffered from vacancy and fallen into disrepair, but since 2014, ELDI has worked to change that, purchasing nearly 30 units in an effort to rehab them and return them to homeownership. Part of that process has been working with renting tenants to prepare them for homeownership with our partner program Catapult Greater Pittsburgh.

2015-2021

TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT & THE TRANSIT REVITALIZATION INVESTMENT DISTRICT

Transit Oriented Development (TOD) is a nationally recognized strategy for organizing mixed-use development around a transit station to encourage transit use. With its close proximity to the commercial district and residential enclaves, the busy East Liberty Station on Pittsburgh’s Bus Rapid Transit was an ideal candidate for TOD.

However, TOD work in older urban areas can be prohibitively expensive so East Liberty turned to the Transit Revitalization Improvement District (TRID) for assistance. The TRID was created by the Pennsylvania State Legislature in 2004 as a mechanism to capture a portion of future property tax revenues created as the value of private property surrounding transit investments increases over time. Developers are often hesitant to invest in an area that needs substantial infrastructure improvements, so a TRID provides a win-win for both developers and the municipality. Though tax funding is used, funds must also be guaranteed by the private developers. The TRID boundary is typically within a half-mile radius of a transit station in which private developments (sources of increased value) fund public infrastructure (uses of funds).

Phase one TRID dollars have funded several projects in East Liberty and Larimer, including the redevelopment of the East Liberty Bus Transit Station, safety improvements at The Obama Academy intersection, and the two-way conversion of Penn Circle. Phase two funds have been used to implement infrastructure improvements around Lincoln Elementary School and to fund affordable housing and workforce development projects in Larimer.

As new investment continues to come into the neighborhood, ELDI is working to preserve a healthy mix of affordable and market-rate housing while creating opportunities for long-time residents with its Affordable Homeownership Opportunities (AHO) program. The AHO program is a partnership with Catapult Greater Pittsburgh (formerly Circles Greater Pittsburgh, an organization incubated at ELDI) that helps ELDI rental tenants, particularly minority tenants, transition into homeownership by giving them the opportunities and tools they need to succeed. Catapult also provides mentorship to minority entrepreneurs in the area so that they can build and grow thriving businesses.