Category: Commentary/Editorial || By

Over the past 50 years, McKeesport has been on the wrong side of every trend. And it's missing the boat again.

McKeesport is missing the boat by not following the example of Pittsburgh's Mexican War Streets and Lawrenceville and North Side and East Liberty --- and to a lesser extent, Braddock --- and turning its urban decay into urban character, and thus a selling point.

I've said this to a number of people in authority over the past year, and have gotten mostly indifference, so I might as well tell it to you. (And then you can ignore me, too.)

In Braddock, Mayor John Fetterman has had some success in turning around that borough's struggling image by attracting artists and small start-up businesses. There have been problems, to be sure. (Some of the people who Fetterman attracted to Braddock have complained they were sold a bill of goods.)

But across the country, people know something positive --- even if it's partly smoke and mirrors --- is happening in Braddock.

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Yet when I say this to people in McKeesport, I'm told, "Well, that wouldn't work in McKeesport, and besides, that's Braddock, and they have a lot of problems," and so on.

McKeesport is never going to attract people who like shiny new suburban development. Those people have gone to North Huntingdon and Murrysville and Peters Twp. and are never, ever coming back. They now make rude jokes about McKeesport. Forget about them.

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And let me lay a hard truth on you, and I know I'm going to get shellacked for this, but it's a damn fact: A certain number of people moved away from McKeesport, beginning in the 1970s, for racial reasons. They don't like people of color. Well, who needs racists anyway?

McKeesport is beat up and old and poor. All of the things that McKeesport had in its glory years --- department stores and movie theaters and fancy mansions --- are gone.

McKeesport is a shadow of what it was in the 1950s. Let's get over that. And embrace this, instead:

A certain class of young, college-educated professionals look at urban decline as character, and those are the kinds of people McKeesport needs to attract. McKeesport is doing jack-squat to attract them.

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Young, college-educated people have energy and ambition. They are artists and entrepreneurs. They don't have hang-ups about people of color. A lot of them are under-represented minorities or have mixed-race parents themselves.

They don't remember what McKeesport was like in the '50s or '60s, so they're not trying to recreate the glory days.

They like to ride bikes to work. (McKeesport has great bike trail access.) They like funky old buildings. (McKeesport has those in abundance.) They like outdoors activities. (McKeesport has two rivers and a great public park, and is close to other great outdoor attractions.)

People who are starting their own businesses, or who are marginally employed as artists, need low-cost housing and offices. McKeesport is practically a synonym for "low-cost real estate."

. . .

The city's retail corridor has moved out to Walnut Street, Christy Park and Route 48 --- which is logical, because big retailers want highway access and parking lots.

But little retailers --- antique stores, artists, crafters, coffee shops --- don't need highway access and probably can't afford it. They would be perfectly happy on newly repaved Fifth Avenue --- if there were storefronts or lofts ready for them to rent.

Is anyone working with --- in some cases, forcing --- landlords to fix up those storefronts and lofts for rent? If they are, I don't see it.

And that would help with McKeesport's housing problem, too. Because people who would rent studio or art gallery space in McKeesport would want to live nearby.

. . .

Former Mayor Joe Bendel had the right idea in trying to turn the old People's Building into a business incubator. He envisioned using that building and the McKees Point Marina and the Palisades as bookends of a new Fifth Avenue.

And then the next mayor and council came in and sold the People's Building for pennies on the dollar, and it was flipped, and flipped again, and now it sits, empty and dark.

The sale appeared to be motivated by petty politics --- "It wasn't our idea, so therefore, it must be crap."

. . .

Why isn't McKeesport following the lead of Pittsburgh's Lawrenceville or East Liberty neighborhoods? Or even trying to emulate what Homestead, West Homestead and Munhall are doing to bring back Eighth Avenue?

Public-private partnerships have brought those places back from the brink of collapse. When I suggest that, people give me more excuses: "Well, that couldn't work in McKeesport, because, you know, Lawrenceville is close to the universities, and Homestead has the Waterfront," and so forth.

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No, McKeesport doesn't have the Waterfront. But have you ever seen how much automobile traffic there is in McKeesport, for a supposedly dead town?

I'm Downtown a lot. According to PennDOT, 15,000 cars per day use the intersection of Lysle Boulevard and Market Street. About 25,000 cars per day cross the McKeesport-Duquesne Bridge.

Man, if you can't do something with 15,000 to 25,000 people coming through town every day, you're not trying.

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And frankly, that's what I see: A lack of trying, all the way around, from the public, private and non-profit sectors.

We wait for someone else to do something for McKeesport. Maybe some big-box retailer will move in. Maybe the Mon-Fayette Expressway will be built.

Maybe RIDC will attract some big industry to the old mill site. Maybe ... maybe ... maybe ...

Maybe this: Maybe no one in the rest of the world gives a damn about McKeesport.

. . .

Hey, maybe trying to turn McKeesport into a funky enclave for artists and entrepreneurs wouldn't work. But nothing that's been tried since about 1987 (or maybe 1977) has worked.

Maybe we need to get off of our asses and stop waiting for someone else to come up with solutions, and start doing things for ourselves, and maybe we need some leadership --- private, governmental and non-profit --- that's willing to try ideas that have worked to stem decline in other urban areas.

Maybe we need to open our minds a little bit. Otherwise, maybe we should quit screwing around, and kiss the whole thing goodbye.

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