A new wave of players in Penn Hills civic life are going after vacant land and blighted properties in historically neglected neighborhoods in hopes of attracting new residents and, in turn, amenities.
And while some of that work is happening through Elevate Penn Hills, an initiative of the Penn Hills Community Development Corporation, several of its organizers are seeking spots on the municipality’s nine-member economic development committee to further those objectives.
It’s been about four years since the committee unofficially dissolved.
Some council members asked Oct. 21: What’s one more month?
Councilman Shawn Kerestus introduced a motion to table the appointments of Devon Goetze, David McGowan and Tariq Williams, not for lack of support, but because they wouldn’t be able to reach a quorom without at least two additional members.
“I say, let’s find two members at least. Honestly, let’s find six members,” Kerestus argued. “Let’s fill this committee up and give them the ability to actually meet and function as a body of this municipality.”
Kerestus, along with council members Alan Waldron and Joanne Fascio, put the motion through in a 3-1 vote. Mayor Pauline Calabrese dissented. Deputy Mayor Catherine Sapp was not in attendance.
Before her no vote, Calabrese explained her opposition in winding fashion.
She brought up efforts to beautify community entryways, bring in young residents and attract investments she believes too often skip over the region’s eastern suburbs. Then, she looped back to the appointments.
“You don’t start to execute on day one. This committee could start to meet, make their plan and then you move to execution,” she said. “Why are we delaying?”
Her comments led Waldron to change his mind about the motion, he said in a text message, adding the mayor has had “years to build that committee and now all of the sudden it can’t wait any longer.”
Applicants interested in joing the Penn Hills’ various boards, commissons and committees are asked to contact the mayor with a letter of interest.
Empty lots
For all the council drama, the prospective appointees told TribLive they are unbothered by the delay and have been meeting anyway to discuss Elevate Penn Hills, an effort to bring single-family housing development to disinvested neighborhoods.
“We don’t feel slighted or anything,” said McGowan, 32, as he stood on East Lemington Avenue in Lincoln Park. “It shouldn’t have gotten to this point — we do feel that.”
Lincoln Park, the historically Black western section of Penn Hills that borders several parts of Pittsburgh, is the group’s first target. McGowan has seen the area wither firsthand.
His childhood home, where he lived from 2003 to 2010, was torn down shortly after he left for college. Without the money or credit to fix the leaky roof and other structural issues, his mother, like so many in the area, left the property behind.
These days, only one home remains on the block, a well-kept three-story dwelling surrounded by vacant, overgrown lots. Another 10 townhomes are slated for demolition on an adjacent street.
“We have a list of properties that have been torn down in Penn Hills in general, and most of those properties seem to be in that area,” said McGowan, treasurer of the Community Development Corporation. “We want to bring life back to the neighborhood.”
All that available space is the community’s greatest asset, according to Goetze, who also serves on the Penn Hills School Board. She said the Community Development Corporation is pursuing state and foundation grants to build and rehabilitate housing geared toward a mix of incomes.
Local service organization Jamar’s Place of Peace recently secured a state grant of its own: $200,000 to build five tiny homes and two sheds to be used as a community food bank and storage area.
Ideally, any new properties will go to families looking to settle in the municipality, not flippers or transients, Williams said.
Once those homes are filled, the group’s theory goes that more businesses, public transit access, infrastructure improvements and recreation spaces will follow.
Reviving the committee
If the appointments go through, Elevate Penn Hills will remain under Community Development Corporation control, though Goetze noted it could become a separate nonprofit some day.
The Community Development Corporation, founded in 2009, operates separately from the municipality.
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Prospective members made clear they view the committee as a bridge between the municipality and community stakeholders — not a substitute for the Community Development Corporation.
In the past, the committee has worked to lure and retain business, while also holding them to the terms of their site plans and subdivisions. The body ultimately is advisory.
Work stopped in January 2020, when council booted committee chairman Tyler Tomasino for allegedly creating and disseminating satire of then-Rep. Tony DeLuca, then-Mayor-elect Pauline Calabrese and other current and soon-to-be officials on social media.
The cartoon borrowed from “The Goonies” movie poster and gave each person a disparaging nickname.
Committee members stopped meeting at that point, which roughly coincided with the start of widespread covid-19 transmission.
The economic development committee isn’t the only municipal body that has wanted for members in recent years.
Howard Davidson, the former planning director for Penn Hills, was appointed as the fourth member of the library board Oct. 21. The board reached its full complement of seven members in March but quickly lost four of them. Larry Choby, Lori Theofilis and Karen Murray remained and are now joined by Davidson.
According to Waldron, the mayor is sitting on 12 other potential appointees recommended by the library after a monthslong process.
In response, Calabrese said, “to this day, I still have not received all of the letters (or interest) for the individuals. I’ve asked them.”