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Sep 11, 2008 10:36 pm US/Eastern
Mayor Ravenstahl Tours Polish Hill
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
The mayor's visit to the city's Polish Hill neighborhood comes nearly a year after a devastating apartment building fire left a gaping hole in the business district there.
It's part of the Ravenstahl administration's ongoing effort to help community leaders clean up many of the city's main drags.
With its quiet, tree lined streets, landmark Polish church and historic architecture the Polish Hill neighborhood is one of Pittsburgh's hidden gems.
For the people who live here it's also home, a place to be proud of. But the gaping hole left in the business district by last November's apartment fire has been tough to live with.
"It was quite debilitating for the neighborhood because what was happening is everyone's emotions were affected by it and it basically was a real morale killer," says Polish Hill Civic Association member Terry Doloughty.
After the property owner failed to tear the building down, the city stepped in to demolish it—part of Mayor Ravenstahl's promise to be pro-active about getting rid of neighborhood blight.
"There are dilapidated houses, those that are burned down, others that are just simply abandoned that we would like to be able to overnight get rid of but sometimes the process has to play itself out and it takes longer than we would have liked," says Ravenstahl.
The building across the street is a perfect example of that. It took a neighborhood couple six years to clear the liens on the property, enabling them to turn a forever VFW and automotive garage missing its roof into a beautiful renovated building to house their architectural firm.
Yoko Tai of Tai + Lee Architects says they are putting a lot of work into these kinds of projects
"We really put a lot of effort and we really took a big risk but it was worth it for us," Tai says, "and we really wanted somewhere we could stay and grow and finish out."
The city's revamped effort to get blighted property owners to sell, clear liens on properties more quickly and provide grant money for renovations, should help business owners who've recently expressed interest in Polish Hill realize their dream, and the dreams of this community more quickly.
Among the businesses that community leaders say have expressed an interest in Polish Hill are several restaurants and a man who wants to open a bakery.
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