Editorial: Will promises ever be kept in the Hill District?

There was a time in the early part of the 20th century when a handful of Black neighborhoods in America blossomed in a celebration of culture, economy and expression.

One of those was Pittsburgh’s Hill District. This month, the Pittsburgh Walk of Fame honored its inaugural class of regional history-makers. It included playwright August Wilson, whose dramas were set in the Hill, and jazz legend George Benson, who got his start playing a rescued ukulele on Wylie Avenue as a kid.

The Hill District is still there. It is as tenacious as its people. But it isn’t what it was before everything changed in 1956. That’s when about 8,000 Pittsburghers and hundreds of businesses were displaced by the construction of the Civic Arena. The land was taken via eminent domain, and the Hill District has not been the same since.

It’s been a sore spot with residents. The wound was reopened when the Civic Arena was abandoned for a new venue across the street, what is now PPG Paints Arena. Part of that move included redevelopment rights for the 28 acres of the Lower Hill, rights given to the primary user of the arena, the Pittsburgh Penguins.

That was in 2007. Those rights expired Wednesday. The hockey team’s development arm let its exclusive agreement with the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority and Sports & Exhibition Authority expire.

Was this an actual loss for the team? What about the city? The land is still there. Something could be done with it. An office tower was built. A concert venue is under construction. It isn’t that nothing was done.

But for 18 years, a lack of motivation and urgency wasted more than time. It squandered opportunity. Residents were promised affordable housing and community space that could rebuild what was lost 70 years ago. Instead, there is another generation waiting for fulfillment of a promise.

“I don’t think their heart ever was in it in the first place,” said Carol Hardeman, executive director of the Hill District Consensus Group. “We would’ve seen more progress by now.”

The Hill District’s city councilman, R. Daniel Lavelle, said the expiration could be a “blessing in disguise.” Maybe that’s true. Maybe a professional hockey team wasn’t the right fit for this urban development. Maybe someone who is prepared to meet that challenge can now come in and do what’s needed.

But that really puts things back at square one, with new rounds of plans and promises.

The Penguins aren’t the only ones to blame. Government has to shoulder its part. The Urban Redevelopment Authority and Sports & Exhibition Authority had years to enforce accountability and move the project forward. They didn’t.

This is not just a new opportunity for the property. This also is an opportunity for the people in charge to not just do things right but to do them at all. Affordable housing cannot be an afterthought. There is a critical demand for jobs and business and thoughtful, needs-based development.

The Penguins say they’ll remain “a collaborative partner.” They should. Whether they have development rights or not, they made commitments to this community that should be honored. Public-private partnerships work only when both sides remember who owns the land and who paid the price.

The Hill District was filled with promise at one time, long before broken vows and shattered oaths. It’s past time that those covenants be kept.