A specter is haunting the city of Pittsburgh — the specter of organized renters and unhoused people. All the powers of ruling-class Pittsburgh are teaming up to stop us. From real estate developers to landlords, from technology to health care CEOs and elected officials, all are leaning in to enforce their greedy decrees.
This specter loomed during the recent sadistic sweep of the unhoused encampments. Breaking its promises, the city displaced our neighbors without offering credible shelter options.
On the same day, the city council entertained a dangerous approach to “legalize housing abundance” during a special session on zoning.
The proponents of this approach confuse abundance with gentrification. They promote YIMBY economics, a tired rehash of Reaganomics.
Polemically, they frame us as parochial. They smear us as trying to keep people out of our yards. Here’s what we don’t want in our yards: a world where people in Highland Park live 20 years longer than those in Larimer.
Here’s what we need: social housing, an end to corporations buying our homes, no more vacant properties, public mental health support and expanded eviction protections.
The specter of an organized 99% is rising in Pittsburgh. We will all join together to fight for hope for all, not abundance for the few.
Brian Nuckols
Strip District
The writer is a member of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.