Block Party in Lawrenceville, makes residents wonder who owns the neighborhood
On Labor Day, September 7th, members of the Lawrenceville/Millvale/Polish Hill Neighborhood Assembly gathered at 4229 Post St for what looked like a regular community gathering of lawn games, food, and conversation. About 50 people came out from all over the neighborhood for community building and to learn the history of why they were at that particular lot on Labor Day.
The lot that some referred to as “the green” is an empty field of grass immediately across from UPMC’s Children’s Hospital. The hospital loams large in Lawrenceville, as the most significant building project in the neighborhood over the last years. When it went up in 2009 after it took over St Francis Hospital, Lawrenceville was hit with some of the most intense gentrification the city of Pittsburgh had seen. A working class neighborhood saw home values triple and a wave of displacement ensue that affected immigrant Somali and Bantu communities as well as long term residents who had been in Lawrenceville for generations.
The lot at 4229 Post St is a great example of exactly how our city functions and who has the power to move large groups of people out of one part of the city while dramatically affecting those that manage to stay where they are. The lot for this block party is listed in the 2012 city masterplan for the hospital as a warehouse of 10,000 square feet. And for years there was a smaller warehouse that was demolished about 12 years ago. In the ensuing years, UPMC bought up two additional houses that were at 422 and 424 44th St and tore them down to expand the lot to its current size.
Those purchases by UPMC on 44th St are two lots of approximately 193 within the City of Pittsburgh that are owned by the "non-profit" giant. Making it the largest real estate investment corporation in our city. Because in addition to being Pennsylvania’s largest private employer, UPMC is also the largest land owner by value. And their exempt lots owned across the city pay no taxes on what would otherwise be $12.7 million coming into the city of Pittsburgh each year if they were taxed at the same rate as the neighbors on Post street who are now paying the taxes for their inflated home values.
The neighbors of Lawrenceville who came out enjoyed the day, talked with longtime residents and met new ones. All in the shadow of a building that towers above a community that has been long before. The lot was known by many to be owned by UPMC, and the Neighborhood Assemblies asked people attending to share what they would like to see this space be.
Lacking from the lot are any signs welcoming people, any art, any playground equipment - it is an open lot with grass, some benches on the side, and a few picnic benches. It could be a part of the community, it could be homes for more neighbors near bus lines and city services, and it could be a space that those who live there use to continue to meet and gather but that will only happen when it is truly owned by the neighbors who made it out on Labor Day and the first step has been taken - imagining what THEIR city would look like and not the largest land owning employer in the area.