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PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania — It’s 10:30 a.m. on a Thursday morning and a homeless man is curled up against the decorative angled brick below the archways of the large pane windows that line the office building known as the Fort Pitt Commons.
For context, it is important to understand that 40 years ago this building was a turn-of-the-century industrial warehouse that was converted into a breathtaking six-story structure with exposed brick, natural beams, an atrium lit by a skylight and various-sized balconies overlooking all floors.
The structure was so well architecturally regarded the year it opened it won the David L. Lawrence Building of the Year for its contribution to Pittsburgh’s Renaissance — and inside still retains the glory and uniqueness that earned that praise.
Outside along the sidewalk however is a different story; on most days feces and needles litter the sidewalks on either side of the building, and the smell of urine is omnipresent. So are the tents, which line two of the four sides of the building.
Some days the Pittsburgh Renewal truck will pull up to unload a crew to clean up the feces and needles. Today was one of those days; the crew is an effort by Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, a private nonprofit civic organization formed by local business owners to clean up the city’s decay.
In short, they are treating the symptom of a disease the city refuses to address.
The problem isn’t isolated; it is everywhere in the core of the city. The homeless problem is also far from harmless: Less than two weeks ago, just a couple of blocks from here, Larry Gilmore and his wife Shalawrae had just gotten married and were celebrating their honeymoon at the Even Hotel along Forbes Avenue when the groom was viciously assaulted by a homeless man. The man came at Larry from behind at an elevator, put him in a chokehold, banged his head on the floor, then returned several times to kick and stomp him as he took several items, including his pants.
Court documents show Gilmore was hospitalized with a head injury and was intubated and listed in critical condition.
Larry Ceisler, a Washington County native who has offices in both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, was staying at the Even Hotel and came upon the scene moments after the police arrived.
Ceisler said he had just left dinner down the street when he attempted to enter the hotel and found out quickly why he could not immediately do so. He penned a letter to the editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, writing that what he saw happening at the hotel was an extension of a city he saw in decay after spending the week doing business.
“In all my years of living in and visiting Pittsburgh, I have never seen the Downtown look so bad. Empty, dirty, and unsafe. Personally, I experienced an attempted homicide in the lobby of my hotel on Forbes Avenue and was accosted twice walking to my office in Gateway Center,” he wrote.
In an interview with me Thursday, it was clear the respected media pro and prominent Democrat was rattled by the city’s descent, particularly because it was upending its very heart: “A city is only as strong as its core.”
At the center of this collapse is Mayor Ed Gainey, who after taking office in January of 2022 has done little to nothing to address the city’s collapse. He is surrounded by people who are so wedded to ideology and the social justice movement that they failed to realize that you actually have to govern to run a city.
Six months ago, the last and only time Gainey addressed Pittsburgh’s slide in front of hundreds of downtown stakeholders, business owners, foundations and downtown residents, Gainey attempted to use stats to tell everyone in attendance to basically not believe their lying eyes.
As one downtown resident told former deputy mayor and well-regarded Democrat Joe Mistick in frustration after the meeting, “We live here. We’re here every day. We know that’s not true.”
As someone who had called Pittsburgh home for the first 60 years of my life and was a ride-or-die supporter no matter how bad things got in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, to see the city my family has called home since the mid-18th century take a turn this drastic is nothing less than heartbreaking.
Nearly every day of my life used to include strolls through the city, bikes along the trails and eating in the city’s wide range of small and unique restaurants. Now, I have not walked through the city alone in over 18 months, and rides along the city’s lovely trails have ended as well. The last time I ate in the city, the walk from the parking garage to the restaurant included so much harassment that I turned around and went home.
Ceisler reinforced what he said in his editorial in that in all of the years of either living in or visiting the city, he has never seen the core so bad, “Even during the rough years in the ’80s the core of the city was never empty with no one walking around, it was also never so dirty, and you not only don’t feel safe, you aren’t.”
He doesn’t have the answer, and it appears Gainey isn’t even looking for one. But in political reality he really doesn’t have to, because Pittsburgh is a one-party town. No one challenges him or the city council, and the populace doesn’t either, so it appears the new Pittsburgh status quo will be managing the decay.
Pittsburgh is run by Democrats and you bastards who vote for these anti-American thugs like Ed Gainey deserve every abuse and more. I left one of the Democratic-controlled shltholes, came to the Free State of Florida, opened up a thriving business, and making a fortune. No state income tax Florida is beautiful and thriving. But if you come to live in Florida, please don’t vote for what you fled. FJB/FBHO.
Excuse me, but there are an awful lot of conservatives in Pittsburgh. The problem is that we are essentially disenfranchised, with almost no Republicans on the ballots for any local and most statewide elections. That’s not a bug, it’s a feature of our political system, which goes back a long way and has been dominated by corrupt democrats. If I wanted a life in politics and could be twenty-five again, I might want to try to fix things, but I’m seventy-five, tired, and would have made an abysmal politician in any case. I don’t know any young people who want to take such a thankless job and I can’t blame them. But stop excoriating us and walk a mile in our shoes. Just watch where you step in some neighborhoods.
There is not a Republican in this world that wants to put themselves through the abuse of running for office , in a futile attempt. REPUBLICANS do not take politics seriously. The percentage of registered Republicans that actually vote is embarrassing
AAAHHH Communism, Leftism, Progressivism, Socialism, you name it, they all lead to one thing – the destruction of society.
Societal decay, moral decay, crime, drugs, poverty, etc are all features of Democrat rule. It is intentional because it helps them maintain their grip on power. The Democrat party is a crime syndicate and nearly impossible to evict once they are entrenched in city government. It’s not that they don’t understand the havoc their policies and poor governance create, they are simply gaslighting you and it’s easy because the media is part of their criminal enterprise.
It’s not just Pittsburgh
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/a-100-billion-wealth-migration-tilts-us-economy-s-center-of-gravity-south-1.1939466
As usual, the most vulnerable that have few if any options, will be left behind
The photo in the article is the perfect imagery of Leftist utopian outcomes… in ever major US city.
Think of all those needles washing out into the Pacific Ocean in So. Cal with those torrential downpours, not to mention the homeless excrement and other human waste.
As VDH calls it, the “de-civilization” of America.
Yeah and politicians are worried about plastic bags ending up in the ocean – drug needles are OK though. A*holes.
All large cities are run by Democrats and will continue to be run by Democrats.
The people in these cities have been brainwashed by their educators and media to believe voting Republican is the worst, and likely only true sin a person can do. The education and media brainwashing, even if stopped today, would still mean Democrats will be voted in and the decay will keep getting worse.
What happens is these Democrats leave the hellish conditions they voted in and the process is started all over ruining smaller cities.
They have a map that leads them straight to the Carolinas. It has become a form of chain migration.
Most seem to take about 30 years to get the shit out of their heads. The New Yorkers are the same,
but with bigger mouths.
“Thine alabaster cities gleam/Undimmed by human tears” Er….not so much anymore. Thanks, Democrats.
I left Pittsburgh in 1962 as the impact of Democrat rule under David Lawrence used Urban Renewal money to simultaneously destroy the Hill District and precipitate urban flight. They’ve been trying to cover their mistakes by doubling down ever since. Feeding an entitlement political culture by adding new identity group.
Democrat promises of utopia were driven by local party hacks, who used National Welfare Policy Programs to secure power. Now, as the Government Plantation implodes under the rot of abysmal failure and mounting public debt, they have turned to Law-fare in order to preserve their ill-gotten positions of authority.
It seems like every large city has incompetent Democrats in charge who refuse to enforce criminal laws or maintain order. We need a federal plan to get homeless people off the streets by forcing them into locked treatment centers, with some choices among public and private, Christian and secular etc. They need a medical and psych evaluation, drug testing and work, eventually learning skills if they have done. Prosecutors need certain obligations to enforce laws. However, it would please both Democrats and Republicans to have clean, safe prisons where convicts get detox and are sorted by whether sociopaths, low IQ, mentally ill etc. The Guards need to be trained to do these assessments so that prisons can be sorted in ways that minimize bad behavior. Prisoners should get Neurofeedback to retrain their brains and get a reward to encourage cooperation. We know a lot about prisoners, but the knowledge isn’t utilized. Mentally retarded inmates need to be in a special area, as do mentally people or addicts or a separate locked facility. Families should be able to feel that prisons help their deviant loved ones change and not have to fear that they leave prison a worse criminal. Sex offenders should be physically castrated and be subject to frequent testosterone testing and must take certain psych meds. Too many criminals escape the death penalty. Appeals should not take so long. The death penalty should be reserved for cases with multiple types of evidence plus incriminating statements or writings. Given the number of murders with good evidence, at least 1000 murderers should be executed each year. Certain rapists should face the death penalty, such as repeat violent rapists. Lots of punishment for the worst and rehab for the rest should be the National policy. No prosecutor who takes an oath should be allowed to ignore laws or do any dishonest things like without exculpatory evidence. Such prosecutors should be banned from government employment and contracts.
Keep the fed gov out of our local lives.
Follow nature, adapt or perish, no exalting the deviant.
Jail criminals and Dems/rinos who support their lifestyle.
Listen to Prez Bukele for the best way to treat criminals.
It was comical the manner our “media” took him to task. No wonder we as a society in such decline. From First World Nation, to 3rd World Nation, to 4th…. Damn fools.
You make alot of valid points about murderers, rapists, sex offenders, mentally retarded, prosecuters and more.
I don’t think this is something for the federal government to address. They can’t handle things when times are good let alone when times are bad.
I think this needs to be addressed on a city to city basis and the federal government needs to support the effort financially and with proper recognition.
Beyond that now. It would take a statist right-wing regime (that, btw, does not have even a theoretical chance of taking power) that punishes drug trafficking with death (with judicial mods that allow for Saud punishment not a yr after pronouncement) and drug addiction with labor prisons out in the country. Serial criminals would be permanently ensconced there, forced to be productive and away from honest, contributing folks.
No more revolving door justice system where 85% of violent crime is committed by 15% of criminals. Gun crime (first time/last time) punished in draconian fashion.
None of this will ever happen but if it did it would not be achieved through traditional, constitutional, political processes. There’s nobody out there with the stomach to engineer, literally, a coup (not on the right side of political spectrum) needed to bring about such unimaginably draconian change in the ever growing, desperate times.
We’re in irreversible decline. We fled, as a corporate whole, God’s mandates since the ’60s. And, by God, He’s said “okay, I’ll leave you to your deserved decline.” There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Frontier justice may need to make a comeback. Pittsburgh native, born 1947, left in 1966. Not even going back to visit any more.
So sorry this is happening to Pittsburgh, a beautiful city.
It really is beautiful, and the people, at least the native Pittsburghers, are friendly and good-natured. Many of us who are Old Pittsburgh (spent most of my life here, my ancestors are buried here and my children were born here) love it and a surprising number of us are quite conservative, but for some reason it’s hard to find a Republican on the ballot. I for one am uniquely unqualified to be a politician, so don’t tell me to run, but I really wonder why so few others, many of whom are surely suited to the work, won’t. You don’t see many Republicans on local or state ballots, and our primaries are so late we have no voice in the Republican candidates.
Selena Zito was a regional treasure for us in the Pittsburgh area, but she is well on her way to becoming a national treasure. Like some of the people writing for FrontPage, she is an old-school shoe leather journalist, and everything she writes, from wherever she writes it, is worth reading. This piece is no exception, disturbing as it is.
A doctor friend of mine who lives in the suburbs was driving into town on Route 376. When she crossed a bridge into the city she found a homeless encampment, complete with a large couch, in the underpass. Her husband filmed it on his phone as the drove in. I was saddened by it, though she did say that it was gone by the next day. Fear not, however, it was back a day or so later. Sooner or later the city will tire and run out of manpower to keep cleaning this up, and it will grow into a dysfunctional, medieval pigsty of its own, bringing rats, disease, and the drug-addled, hair-trigger violent mentally ill. Progress!
Mayor Ed Gainey, Our First Black Mayor(TM), is an idiot. This is confirmed by a lifetime machine democrat city functionary, a neighbor of mine and a genuinely nice guy. (Yes, they exist.) There are bets in City Hall about how much longer he’ll last and who will replace him. Personally, I don’t care if he’s black, or purple with orange polka dots; nothing changes the fact that he has no idea what he’s doing, and I just hope his replacement comes soon and is qualified for the job.
Well!!! Sooo…prise!…Sooprise!!!
Nearly everything I have written this past week is “awaiting moderation”, even though none of it is particularly exceptional or offensive. Any ideas why this is happening?
Uh…like…Bolshevik Communist Democrat censorship?
what you see all across america is a reprobate mind in action . once a nation has it there is no going back . it is downhill at a rate of knots . welcome to a living hell . followed by hell when you die .