Steph wrote: > I lived near > the university of Pittsburgh campus in a nighborhood called Oakland, which would > be a much closer match to West Philly. Shadyside was always considered kind of > fru fru, the place where grad students with good stipends go to live, and where > one prances stylishly into the Laura Ashley store to get some bedding in a > tasteful cornflower. More like a Manayunk, really.
Your characterization of Shadyside was fairly on-target. But the "undergrad ghetto" patches of Oakland look like they were built for a more downscale market originally; I don't think there's much High Victoriana there. I have no idea whether Oakland has ever explored a Historic Designation. Melani wrote: > Although you've told us (how was that determined?) that Shadyside resembles > Spruce Hill, you haven't told us if Pittsburgh's historic district ordinance > resembles Philadelphia's. Do you have the text of it?/- No, I don't. I interviewed a homeowner in Shadyside West who described in broad outlines a proposal similar to Spruce Hill's, from my perspective as a homeowner. It regulated all features visible from the street, with the exception of paint. If the City of Pittsburgh has a website comparable to ours, it should be possible for investigators to navigate their way to its Historic Commission, or just give them a buzz. Neil wrote: > We have some powerful forces working to > undermine our architectural heritage: Penn's expansion and large (and > small) rental-property companies' ownership of the neighborhood. Is this > the same case for your Pittsburgh neighborhood example? If it is, then > there's a reason to take a closer look. If not, then I think apples and > oranges are being compared. All politics is local, and the same can be said of history. So no two communities are ever exactly alike. My inexpert impression is that Shadyside West is more single-family single-home homeowner-occupied than SH to the east, toward (Pittsburgh's) Walnut Street, but that it has more multi-unit construction than SH does toward the west where it abuts Pitt. I don't even know the exact boundaries of the rejected HD (this was, after all, 12 years ago and people tend not to retain such details in their memories). Like our community, its older buildings tend to be large; the class that can afford them today tend to be professionals with small families that don't need 10 rooms for living space; they are affiliated with a large and growing academic/medical/scientific complex; and this same complex guarantees a large and growing demand for relatively transient rental housing for a population that isn't lower class, but isn't affluent either. -- Tony West ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
