This morning, our entire group (all ten of us) ventured for a tour of the Hill District with Terri Baltimore, and I have to say, it might have been one of the most eye opening mornings I’ve had here throughout my time here in Pittsburgh so far. I went in not knowing much about the neighborhood at all since I wasn’t born or raised here, so there was a lot to think about. Terri has been part of this community for decades, and the way she gave us the tour really showed. Terri didn’t just point out buildings, she gave each of them specific backstories with all of them, both good and bad parts. We mainly drove around the parts of the neighborhood while she was talking us through everything from the Murals, to the old Carnegie Library – this is now a mosque where people gather for Friday prayer. I noticed how this is a neighborhood that’s clearly seen a lot of change, mainly because Terri showed of photos, she was carrying around a book filled with them and I thought it was a nice detail.
The story that stuck with me the most was the one about the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Lower Hill. When the PPG Paints Arena was built, the Penguins got exclusive rights to develop a 28 arc site in the Lower Hill. The deal was supposed to bring benefits back to the community, housing, commercial space, etc. Terri explained that they didn’t really follow through, and only a fraction of that land ever actually got developed before the rights were handed back to the community. Hearing that honestly frustrated me a little. It’s one thing to make a promise to a neighborhood, it’s another to actually show up for it. What I took away from the whole morning is that success in a place in the Hill District comes down to whether people and businesses are actually willing to work with the community instead of just building on top of it. Terri gave an example of a supermarket that opened around 2013, then later got shut down in 2019; and even it’s replacement got shut down too, which caught me off guard because Terri elaborated that it wasn’t because nobody went, the people in the neighborhood loved it, but they always had the habit to go somewhere else just away from the Hill District just to get something for food. I guess old habits never die fast.
Overall, today’s tour gave me a much deeper appreciation for the Hill District and for how much work goes into rebuilding trust in a community once it’s been broken. I also believe that it’s a lesson that can apply even for other towns beyond Pittsburgh or even Pennsylvania.
