Pittsburgh parallels converge, where five plus six equals one

 From a map of Pittsburgh's "Golden Triangle", if dim but serviceable here....

 a closer look, as in so many cities, shows the routine site of numbered streets running parallel to each other - with specific reference here to Sixth and then Fifth Avenue two streets below that (with both of them visible under the "WOOD STREET" notation)....

but looking again at what's above, you will see that Sixth Avenue takes a turn for the weird below the right center of the map and intersects Fifth Avenue, with that encounter seen below in the flesh, or at least stone, glass and more, and where the tunnel to the right above Sixth Avenue - if built long after this strange meeting - makes me think that, in combination with nearby freeways, hasty urban renewal may have seen this latter part of Sixth Avenue as just a "pass-through" unworthy of renaming ....

looking west on 5th Avenue towards the intersection of 5th and 6th Avenues, Th., Jan. 3, 2013

On the other hand, I feel we have too few weirdnesses like this, so I'll take it! And whether it is an old or new story, it is even better in being graced by one of the great works of American architecture - the now ex-jail of the 1888 complex designed by Henry Hobson Richardson for the Allegheny County Courthouse - at its southwest corner, and partly seen here....

with one final view for now at the corner and more of the "Richardsonian Romanesque" landmark off to the left....

A few blocks in the South Side Slopes of Pittsburgh

Since my first visit to Pittsburgh on four warmly remembered days in February, 1980, I have had a love affair with the city, with a large part of that residing in its hilly neighborhoods. In combination with an old urban landscape, the city often has a sense of intrigue and adventure, of literally reaching new heights and not knowing what discoveries are next.

On my most recent trip to Pittsburgh, I had that joy again on Fri., Jan. 4 inside of just ten blocks of what is sometimes called the "South Side Slopes". Prior to reaching the area I explored, its hills beckoned, as in this view looking south from 26th Street below Carson....

Besides crossing Sarah, a long side street south of Carson, little did I know that I would meet at least two new women, including Josephine, who lives right near the railroad tracks that run along the south end of the "Slopes" area, and can be seen to the right in this image....

Just one short block later, I started up the hill on Kosciusko Way, whose name suggested a  Polish neighborhood, at least in the past...

As with a number of streets I've begun to see in "Da Burg", the alleyways look pretty interesting too, but given their semi-private nature, I'm ok just looking, as with this one on the east side of Kosciusko Way between houses at 23 and 25....

just prior to the next phase up the hill, walking east on a "step street" portion of Leticoe....

As elsewhere, you have nice views along the way of two of the city's "nerve centers" - Downtown and the cultural/university center of Oakland - with downtown visible to the upper right here...

looking west from Stella, with Leticoe straight ahead 

...in a close-up here....

looking northwest from Stella near Leticoe [taken across from 73 1/2 Stella :)!] 

 and Oakland below...

looking north from Stella near Leticoe, with the University of Pittsburgh's "Cathedral of Learning" seen behind the crossing electric wires :) ! ] near the upper right side

Turning south from that vista, I was eager for what came next on Stella (with my assuming the name was chosen to either continue the theme of ladies' names in this general area or to imply being just a little closer to the stars)....   

looking south (and up!) on Stella from Leticoe

Within a block of that point, I had the choice of more enticing hilly streets to the east or finding out more about a church to the west on Mission Street, seen in the background here...

looking west on Mission from Barry

and in a closer-up view....

but first, an early 20th-century building on the south side of Mission caught my interest....

and the mosaic image of a bird above its entrance, which I imagined might be one of many famous symbols from the fraternal organization of the Polish Falcons....

Inside the building, after entering its foyer....

I learned from two staffers of the Pittsburgh Binding Company that their edifice was indeed said to have been a Polish Falcons center as well as bowling alley and a roller rink, and that the Binding Co. had been there for 18 or 19 years.

On the way to more (and modified!) information on 2538 Mission Street, I saw what turned out to be the closed and once very Polish-American St. Josaphat's Church...

peered inside at its vacant and forelorn but beautiful state....

and learned from an older lady that there have been hopes to turn it into residences. More importantly, she had approached me to ask if I would mail letters for her because of icy surfaces between her and a mailbox, and while she modestly declined my request to include her in this writing - after having said she had been in the neighborhood for her whole life and that she was "80-some years old" - she was very helpful in saying that the structure of the Pittsburgh Binding Company had not housed a Polish Falcons club AND, pointing to the very nearby Garvey's bar at the corner of Mission and Sterling....

 she said there was an "old-timer" inside who could tell me more about the section.


After taking a picture of a memorial for members of St. Josaphat's who served in the first and second World Wars, across from the church on the south side of Mission....

and seen more closely here....

I walked into Garvey's Bar and met Don Wojtowicz, who is 83 and is seen here with his son, Paul....

Don, who said that his baptismal name was Daniel, generously began to share his memories of the neighborhood where he was born, raised and has spent much of his life, including his Dad's beginning a store on Leticoe west of Kosciusko Way (so, generally, within the sixth photo above, just before the downtown skyline close-up) and his starting to work for him there when he was 16 or 17 shortly after World War II. Don took over the business in 1957 and 12 years later moved it to Mission and Eleanor, where I am guessing the new "Mission Market", since closed, was in the light-brown level of this structure (but welcoming corrections if necessary!)....

2400 Mission Street, with a "step-block" of Eleanor Street at the right edge of the photo

Don was proud of his family's reputation on the South Side, and aspects such as their one-time market's great Polish food, including kielbasi ("fresh or smoked"), "kiszka" (blood pudding) and "krakowska" (a popular lunch meat).


To him, it is very important to not forget where he came from, and while he has moved to the nearby suburb of Baldwin, he faithfully, happily and at least weekly returns to the neighborhood to visit friends, with Don noting that "I still loaf in the South Side"; it appeared that his son Paul, who is 48, may do just the same; he works in food-wrapping in the Shop-N-Save there, adding that he "stayed with the grocery business". Don emphasized that success is not just about the outward trappings of good fortune in business but that it has to include someone being a real person (or down-to-earth), "not putting on airs", and knowing the difference between the two.

Don also began to shed light on an earlier way of life, with one difference between "then and now" coming with his good-natured response to a friend at Garvey's when I asked him "what hospital were you born in?" and he said "I was born at 2505 Leticoe (above his Dad's market)" and "the lady next door was the midwife". He added that "you're better off having a midwife deliver (your baby) and then "take care of (your wife)".

Around 4pm, late for time with part of my own family, I left, knowing the many pathways I would love to return to, such as Sterling looking south (and again, uphill) from Mission, besides the steps up to Garvey's Bar....

and knowing that I had only scratched the surface as well with Don Wojtowicz, who said "I could tell you stories of the whole hill  - how it was, how it progressed...but change happens everywhere."
 
A block east of Garvey's, I was willing to take an Iron City Beer buzz (just one small bottle, but with my low tolerance compared to many others, I'll bet) down the slippery steps of Eleanor, seen here from Mission looking north....

and in reverse, or looking up Eleanor from Josephine....

as I came back to the "South Side Flats", with hopes for more exploration in the future!!

*************************

An additional note on 2538 Mission Street....

To the best of Don Wojtowicz's recollection, the evolution of the Pittsburgh Binding Company's current home took it from days as a private club at first, then, successively, a location for a roller rink, the "Penny King Company" (see below), a club again with bowling alleys, and the Bova Sheet Metal company.

The "Penny King Company", as per Don, made machines from which many of us once got gumballs or trinkets...for a penny! A tiny bit of its history can be seen through a quick google, and two examples respectively are found at sites you may wish to "cut and paste" [while we would all prefer to "click" on these addresses:)!]...

-- http://www.timepassagesnostalgia.com/&pm=0&searchkeywords=Pittsburgh+Penny+King&sin=b535, where a 1955 invoice not surprisingly gives its address as 2538 Mission and identifies it as the ''WORLD'S LARGEST MANUFACTURER OF MINIATURE CHARMS''

and an article, also from 1955 and a trade publication known as "The Billboard", at...

 http://books.google.com/books?id=OSMEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA78&lpg=PA78&dq=Penny+King+Company+Pittsburgh&source=bl&ots=MRbW45ZIJZ&sig=LP-1_EFIO5deGy7bVgleYnGzjWM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=XCPzUNv3EtSI0QGnnoCQBw&ved=0CFEQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=Penny%20King%20Company%20Pittsburgh&f=false,

which again notes its 2538 address on p. 79 and, on p. 78, refers to its opening a plant to make charms in Puerto Rico, which was remindful of Don's noting that Penny King ultimately moved its operations out of the U.S.

Looking up in Downtown Pittsburgh

This will mainly be a celebration of two classic Pittsburgh skyscrapers, the Gulf and Koppers Buildings, respectively of 1932 and 1929, and presented with the support of a skylight window in a double-decker "Megabus" leaving Pittsburgh (with this photographer aboard!) in late March, 2012, but with a few more recent salutes to them as well....

For those keeping geographical score, my bus went south on 10th Street from under the David Lawrence Convention Center, with the Gulf Building in the center here, the Koppers Building in the right background and part of the UPMC (formerly US Steel) Building in the left background....

...we continued south on William Penn Place past the east elevation of the Gulf Building and with tiny slivers of the UPMC and Koppers Buildings coming into view below the right center of this photo....

more revelations here....

 and then riding eastbound on 7th Avenue between the beautiful gauntlet of the Koppers and the Gulf Towers on the top and on the bottom respectively (or south and north sides of 7th to confuse and amuse!) as far as this view goes....

and an adios for the time being looking back as the bus went to an eastbound freeway entrance.... 

Two nights ago (and now nine months later), I was glad to say hello again to the colorful top of the Gulf Tower, apparently renewed in 2012 for its long-time role as a weather beacon for Pittsburghers. While you obviously cannot rely on my photos for that purpose, they are hopefully sufficient as semi-abstract art exercises, as seen from 6th Avenue east of Grant Street, and looking north....

May these buildings never flail as in this last picture and may their flames long burn bright as in the second last one above!

Barriers to Preservation - a walk south of the Bridge on April 8, 2012

The Sidaway Bridge from the Rapid, April 8, 2012

While summer and fall work commitments have been among the bases for the delay in this writing, it is possible that my less conscious apprehension about being perceived as critical or negative was also a reason for my putting off this posting.

To counterbalance any sense that this article IS critical of the neighborhood that I am observing here, I realize what I will present is, in a sense, a small fraction of 1/365 of its annual life and I believe there is a large well of goodness there as well as - I'd like to think - in every neighborhood.

On Sunday, April 8, now over eight months ago - and not for the first time in the area - I received some of that goodness, whether it was in 8-year old De'Andre Taylor inviting me to visit the next time I came back, the renewed hospitality of Ms. Luvenia Hardges and of Lou a few blocks away (see my other blogs for past references :) ! ], and a man following up with a phone call to me that night - such follow-up being rare - and even if it was to say he would not want to be interviewed by me.

That day, I gave up a one-time paradise in Cleveland that I hope is still a paradise for many people - the Cleveland Zoo - turning down a visit there with my oldest friend, his wife and kids, when I felt a sense of duty to spend some time in the "bridge area".

Looking back, I would emphasize, especially for neighborhood people who I hope will read this, that on April 8 I was getting a small slice of negativity - based on reasons I would have to at least sympathize with - and in a sea of complexity which also includes that of the two "critics" who were nice enough to talk with me.

At the same time, there is, I assume, real negative feeling in all neighborhoods which are struggling economically, the love of what is shiny and new, and the sense - understandable if respectfully opposed here - that the perception of the Sidaway Bridge may be that of an old, dark, jagged, corroded object out there, surrounded by a jungle including the weeds, trash and other waste (that readers of an earlier blog will remember) AND that given all that, it may be better to start fresh as the best way to go against the small neighborhood crises that really happen way too often, with ONCE being too much when it comes to house fires, tear-downs, shootings and occasional death. Not to mention that a focus on financial survival may give you little concern for a largely unseen piece of history, however close it is to you.

This secondary perception on my part has been borne out in e-mailed comments to me by both Tim Tramble and Marie Kittredge, the respective directors of the two "CDC's" (Community Development Corporations) whose areas flank the bridge - Burten Bell Carr to the north, and Slavic Village Development to the south.

Tim wrote of preservation, in his opinion, being a low priority for residents of low-income neighborhoods, with "[such issues being] luxuries of people in stable circumstances", and adding, "[a]sk yourself, if you were jobless, didn't know where your rent payment was going to come from, didn't know how you were going to pay all of your bills, had concerns about the security of your possessions and loved ones, and were challenged with getting to and from places of necessity, would you be proactive about saving a vacant building or unutilized structure of any kind?"

He continued..."[t]his coupled with the fact that most people that live in the neighborhood did not live here when the bridge was functional. Therefore, there is no sentimental regard for the bridge by newer residents."

His ending was a modest open door to saving landmarks: "[t]hat said, most people like to see revitalization of any kind in the neighborhood that does not create disadvantageous circumstances to their family."  

 Marie Kittredge wrote that, with essentials like the ones Tim separately noted - talk of historically preserving the bridge is "irrelevant".

Both at least are open to the goal of its preservation (Tim at the meeting this past March of which I wrote) and Marie in supporting the idea, but not wanting staff resources focused on it, at least at present with a crucial need to strengthen housing and other assets (a decision I might make myself in her role).[Endnote 1]

My thoughts, in a respectful augmentation of theirs, are that there is still very much a role for private citizens, clearly identifying themselves as such, and thus separate from "CDC" efforts, to lobby for neglected structures as well as for human beings, because these landmarks also should be an essential if less urgent part of the human experience in all neighborhoods - and indeed, any well-intended communication can at least modestly fill the gaps which are so plain in the teaching of history and, more broadly, could enhance peoples' capacity to dream and to envision a better place. Beyond that, I am assuming that, as with preservation in other economically challenged neighborhoods, once a will to save something is there, the financial way will come from governments, foundations and any willing individuals.

There is so much that remains undone in the inner city, low-income America, whatever you wish to call it, but I have faith that there are many people out there who see that historic preservation is one part of the puzzle - for jobs, for a greener world that saves the built energy of the past, for community pride and for other reasons.

But in the meantime....

Even though I disagree with the critical views which I received below, I also feel that if I do not have the respect for the people who express them, how can I expect they will give me the time of day?

"They", in this case, were primarily two younger women - Sandy, on 66th, and Ashely, on 65th near Francis, who should certainly be understood in terms of an assumption that they absolutely want what is good and pleasant, as opposed to the jagged and corroded (to quote the above), but, I think, could also have a genuine fear of what is little known rather than thinking of what could be a kind of mini- if land-locked Golden Sidaway Gate Park, once again with that good old imagination.

I thank them for their openness to talk to me, and hope it can continue, with respect on both sides.

Sandy, who at 27 was studying forensic investigation at "Tri-C" (Cuyahoga Community College) and responded that she had lived in the neighborhood for about two years, said that she had not known about the bridge but added in regards to the valley below it that "that's where they hide the bodies" and, that, to "reduce the murders in Ohio," it should not be kept.

I wonder in retrospect if she may have somehow vaguely heard about the Kingsbury Run Murders of the 1930's, and perhaps tales in this section of Cleveland such as that of a doctor who was a suspect living in a house not far away seen here in a view from this past winter....

6011 Butler, Jan. 2, 2012 

After I told her about those relatively ancient crimes, she at least acted stunned, and proclaimed from her porch - with perhaps an entertainer within her and as a visiting friend was nearby - "I'm movin' outta here tomorrow!"

Ashely, who was 21 and is seen here on 65th....

 

 

felt that "you should tear it down" because (due in part to my saying it had stood there unused for 46 years), it was no longer useful and "there's no point in doing anything with it", because of safety and other factors.

I was glad she at least listened to my sense of why it should be saved, and hope her time since we met, in a job she mentioned at a McDonald's on nearby Broadway Avenue, and otherwise, has gone well.

As much as anyone's life is moving forward, it would be hard not to be influenced in your outlook by at least two murders in the immediate area in the months before this past Spring.

The most prominent one was at a house at 6104 Butler Avenue, at the west end of the block where I had interviewed the Taylor boys, Ms. Hardges and Joyce Hairston (in Aug. 2011), with the residence seen here on April 8 after it was boarded up following the killing on October 26th, 2011 of 21-year old Shawn Geiter in front of it....

 

the west side of 6104 Butler

It was clear since that tragedy that he has been widely and deeply missed in his neighborhood (AND on-line), with a memorial in front of the house as of April 8 in these three increasing close-ups of its front entrance area....

    

numerous homages on its west side....

 

graffiti in his memory on nearby homes, as in this one very close to his....

2903 E. 61st Street, at the northeast corner of 61st and Carpenter, to the right, and the home where Shawn Geiter had lived visible (and light-brown in color) in the left-center background

...and shirts remembering Shawn Geiter by his nickname of "Smurf", including one which I saw on 12-year old Andre Taylor, one of my acquaintances on Butler Avenue.

 

On a visit I made on Weds., Aug 8, remembrance for him had continued....

but it seemed likely that it would somehow be swept away with the house, in greater deterioration since April...

 and marked for demolition according to Ms. Hardges, who lives on its immediate east side and was disheartened that as a tear-down it would add to three that she said have happened immediately to HER house's eastern side in the seven years that she has been on this block of Butler. 

At the same time, she hopes that the pine tree in front of Shawn Geiter's house will be saved....

 

looking west to the home where Shawn Geiter had lived [See also endnote 2 for further references to Shawn Geiter.]

Another less publicized but perhaps more brutal murder happened on a quiet cul-de-sac I had admired last year on 66th just south of Wren, just three short blocks south of the bridge.

I heard about it from Lou, who recounted that its victim - Steven Hart, Sr. - "was executed" - shot two times in the back of the head and his house burned with him....

 Steven Hart, Sr.'s home at 2989 E. 66th on April 8, 2012

and Lou briefly memorialized him as "a good dude, laid back" but added that "he wasn't no punk - he didn't go down easy". I did not confirm the exact reason for his murder, but my sense then (and less precisely now, to be sure), is that his murderer had no personal vendetta, except against a world which had somehow made him hardened and angry. [Endnote 3]

While these two tragedies were the deepest valleys I glanced at on April 8, I personally felt the cluster of negative emotion continue in two other encounters as well.

One was with David, a 42-year old man near 61st and Francis who had lived in the neighborhood for virtually his whole life and said of the bridge that "I could care less about it; I've never used it".

Echoing the fact that I was just getting slices of the neighborhood, if meaningful ones, and that you cannot know individuals in all of their complexity, David may very well have cared about at least one piece of the area - the house that he was working on as I walked up his driveway, which he explained had been his grandparents', with his adding that "everybody else used to live here, they moved away, and I'm the only one who's here."

Another somber moment may have just been ordered by the Gods of social dynamics - as they saw the dominant tone of my once-possible "Cleveland Zoo" afternoon -  when I started talking with an older man at the back of a house near 64th and Carpenter. He was not interested in the bridge, or probably much of anything that day, based on his needing to mourn the day before, when, according to him, he had gone to his granddaughter's funeral, volunteering that his son had to take him out of the church because of how emotional he became.

There is no inroad to either David or this man, or at least there would have been no easy and appropriate one at times like those, but arguably to Ashely and Sandy, the young women above. There I hope that my readers do not mind a return to Lou, certainly someone closer to having a pulse on his neighborhood then I do.

His response to their opinions on the bridge, while he had not met them, was that "they don't understand...they have no idea about the value [of it] to the people who have lived around it all of their life".

In a reiteration of something he had said to me on an earlier visit he observed that every 20, 30 or 40 years, neighborhoods revive as an outgrowth of it taking, in his estimation, 20 years of people "bitching" about their area to get improvements, and he used the example of Tremont, a section of the city's near South side, saying it was one of the worst parts of the city in the 70's.

While I personally think that Tremont - with its semi-exotic Orthodox churches, scenic perch on top of a bluff overlooking the city's industrial valley, etc. - has perhaps three times the historic and visual assets of the area next to the south side of "the bridge" -  I once researched how it suffered through a miserable rash of poverty, arson and other ills 30-40 years ago and start to think as I write this about how, three decades ago and more, it was a place beginning to have artists and other pioneers there with great imagination about how it COULD be. Today, I bet that its poverty continues, but its assets include several popular restaurants and clubs, eclectic architecture, and a popular park for arts events, etc. It is far different now than then!

The challenges for the neighborhood of this writing may lie partly in decline not yet rousing enough anger for big change (which I still am concerned would be loads of bland new housing and a proportional loss of character), to the extent that Lou could be right, and his theory could be strengthened by reference to how long it took the CMHA, the City of Cleveland and other players to BEGIN to sweep away the ill-reputed Garden Valley projects for the first phase of the Heritage View homes. [Again, reference to those "other blogs" - or questions and comments - are encouraged!]

At the same time, while part of what's below could contradict what's just above (!)...

...Any weakness in the status of what has at times been called the "Hyacinth" neighborhood around 65th Street may lie partly in its being the northernmost section of what is known as the "North Broadway" or "Slavic Village" neighborhoods, farther from the "heart" of its area - a mile south near 55th and Broadway - as opposed to the sense that the big splash of the Heritage View development, just north of the bridge, may have been relatively less difficult in its being so close to the bigger adjacent influences of both Kinsman Avenue and the "BBC" community development corporation right across the street from it.

In part of the e-mails noted above, Marie Kittredge expressed great support for this northern reach of her CDC's area, saying that "[t]he reason...the Hyacinth neighborhood suffered so badly over the past 5-10 years was a crime spike by some real troublemakers which scared people, at the same time that the foreclosure and fraud crisis was heating up, and that the neighborhood was losing an anchor (St.Hyacinth Church)." She also commented that "[i]n the past few years there have been some very positive developments, including the wonderful Elizabeth Baptist Church making the neighborhood its home, and embracing residents there with all sorts of activities and resources, including the gym for basketball and a regular free meal, and the new RTA Rapid station [at 55th St.]".

She added that [SVD] is in the early stages of launching a new housing development initiative in the vicinity of the Church and the RTA station. [Endnote 4]


Additionally, while there actually IS a pretty large piece of preservation in this immediate section of ("North North Broadway"??) - the Hyacinth Lofts which I noted in my "big blog" of last September - it seems to be in but not of the neighborhood, partly as it is somewhat separated from a number of other residences, standing in isolated attractiveness on the west side of the City-owned Waterman Park. At the same time, I wish it continued good news, am glad it has been reborn and hope for it be more interwoven into a mixed-income neighborhood, as I think about the real and perceived problems with gentrification. [One of the websites with pictures of the Hyacinth development offers a profile from September 2006 of its creator, David Perkowski, at http://realneo.us/David-Perkowski.]

Whatever the case, I hope that there will be an enlargement of positive efforts in the neighborhood, such as a garden I saw near 61st and Francis and the nearby Elizabeth Baptist Church noted above and occupying the structure of the old St. Hyacinth Catholic Church...

 

(as seen in my Sept. 2011 blog)

...and that of course a barrier will someday become a reborn bridge @ 67th and Sidaway....

April 8, 2012

Endnotes

Endnote 1 - E-mail from Tim Tramble, Aug. 27, 2012; e-mails from Marie Kittredge, Sept. 4 and 5, 2012.

Endnote 2 - In recent days (writing here on Aug. 17), I first looked under Shawn Geiter's name on the internet, and, being apprehensive that his murder would follow the long pattern of seemingly anonymous and forgotten young men (and others) killed in various neighborhoods, I easily found items on him, including a notice just after he died mentioning his parents and siblings, giving the time of a funeral service for him in Cleveland's Buckeye neighborhood and displaying a rotating series of short testimonials for him [http://obits.cleveland.com/obituaries/cleveland/obituary.aspx?n=shawn-devon-geiter&pid=154435788#fbLoggedOut].

[On Friday, Oct. 26, I happened to be in the Cleveland area, and, after a visit to Ms. Hardges, was glad to see a number of people who had arrived early that evening for a memorial to Shawn Geiter, making contact with two to whom I will be sending this article.  The house, as expected, was no longer standing, but the pine tree which had been in front of it remained.  {JS, 10/30/12 and 12/12/12}]  


Endnote 3 - Here and elsewhere, I realize that these are sensitive subjects so I hope that whether it is a matter of responding to my comments or my facts, that I will get responses to this writing.]

Endnote 4 - Marie Kittredge in an e-mail quoted earlier of Sept. 4, 2012.