Pittsburgh’s Hill District is one of the most notable neighborhoods in the city. Unfortunately today the Hill’s reputation is far from the thriving cultural hotspot that it was in the past. In the early to mid 20th century Wylie Ave and the Hill as a whole, was thriving African American community that could rival Harlem. It was a community full of bodegas, jazz clubs, movie theaters, and social clubs. In the 1960’s after the Martin Luther King riots and the demolition of over 12 city blocks the Hill began to lose itself and the environment began to transform. The bulldozers took over 400 businesses and displaced over 8,000 members of the community.
Today the Hill is most known for the environment it lacks. It is not defined by what it has but the simple attributes that are missing. Aside from the music and cultural relevance, the environment has lost its social sense of community. It is hard to imagine that in an area that holds of 17,000 residents there is not a single grocery or market (which the Hill has lacked for over 30 years) or even a drugstore.
Yesterday I went to the Hill for the first time. I would be lying if I said I had zero concerns or apprehensions about doing this. Being a 25 year old “outsider” (who just happens to be a 5’8, 140lb white man), I was told by a friend, “Don’t really expect to be welcomed. They all know each other up there, and well, yeah. They don’t know you.” I appreciated my friends warning, but I reminded myself that it was: first, noon on a very sunny Wednesday, and secondly, I was not inside of a Scorsese. I figured I would be fine.
I stood on Wylie Ave and pictured the hustle and bustle that famed “son of Hill” August Wilson depicted. I did not find what Wilson described (I knew I wouldn’t), but I also didn’t find an atmosphere that didn’t necessarily want me there (which I thought I would). In the neighborhood, I primarily felt a level of indifference. I parked my car and walked down the street. Aside from maybe the two cars that past by (the divers of both vehicles seemingly in the act of texting), I don’t think anyone even noticed I had come to see the reputed area.
The Hill District now acts as primarily a boarding house or extremely large dormitory. With over 40% of its residents living below the poverty line, and 9% unemployed, the people of the Hill have become as dilapidated as the condemned buildings. We like to believe the old adage, that it is what is on the inside of the soul that will be reflected on out. However, in regards to the Hill, there have been outside forces pressing against and tearing down the neighborhood for decade. Now, the Hill is a malnourished frame of a soul that seems to be beyond salvation. I am sorry to say this, but the Hill is a place where people simply sleep
Now, the Hill is a malnourished frame of a soul that seems to be beyond salvation. I am sorry to say this, but the Hill is a place where people simply sleep.
ReplyDeleteSuch powerful lines, and so sadly true.
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ReplyDeleteWhen I first moved to Pittsburgh, I lived at 245 Hillside Drive, in the "Lower Hill," part of what the city is trying to call Crawford-Roberts now (my apartment was a block from the sign marking where August Wilson was born). It's still the Hill District, and you absolutely captured it. It's hard to imagine that a neighborhood so close to downtown, so close to the financial district and the wealth of the Golden Triangle could be so distraught, so depressed. But you caught it.
ReplyDeleteDuring the year that I lived there, I got to know some of the people around me, and they all had been long-time residents of the Hill. The building that housed my apartment was built partly as Section-8 housing after they razed the surrounding several blocks, and a few of my neighbors had lived near enough to have lived through their demolition. I wasn't particularly welcome, but I felt the dire need for some kind of business on the Hill. Last I heard, they are demolishing a block of abandoned buildings (an old hotel among them - but I direct you to at least three more) to put in a retail center with a grocery store.
If you ever want to see just how much urban decay can exist so close to the city, take a drive down 5th avenue through Uptown, towards downtown Pittsburgh, and turn right onto Dinwiddie Street. It'll be right across from the abandoned 5th Ave High School. Most of that block is nothing but derelict, abandoned housing, and it's all within easy eyesight of the BNY Mellon tower. It's astonishing how bad things are in the Hill. I come close to screaming and ranting every time the subject comes up. Maybe I just need to fucking do something about it. The whole damn city needs to do something.
Check this out for a look inside the New Granada Theater in the Hill nowadays:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuFSo5MNrAY