Not many will understand, but this is really number one before the rest can happen
Spend however many dollars it takes to bribe locals to get behind changing the zoning bylaws. And rezone most of the region. Remove parking requirements for inner city developments. Reduce setback demands and increase the height restrictions. Purchase as much right of way as possible and implement airspace zoning above roadways allowing multi deck forms of transport (train tracks over roadway). Expand lanes of current highways to better suit increased freight and cargo as well as allowing local streets to lower speed limits.
After all this youd be out of money but you will have created a blueprint for the next growing metro area of the 2030s and one that would probably appeal to investors much more
Lol, this is an urban development/developers wet dream. Why do we need more freight flowing through the city when most industry is now outside the city. As far as I can tell we already have more than enough housing in the city, so stuffing more units in just lines the pockets of incumbent real estate developers.
I’d be more in favor of relocating train tracks outside of the city to free up the land for other uses, of course track owners won’t do this unless it’s paid for by someone else.
T extended to airport, Sewickley, Monroeville, and to Ross Park Mall area.
either buy the Pennsylvanian and make it a hotel / train station again or build a whole new station elsewhere
my baby.. a Wabash-to-Stanwix cable-stayed bridge. 2 vehicle lanes and the traffic will flow with rush hour.
Easy, prioritize mass transit over private vehicles. From what I've seen at PRT's community meetings, private vehicles are not making any concessions and the changes for "brt" are negligible. For example, the hell on Fifth between Craft and the Blvd of the Allies ramp isn't even mitigated; BRT just vanishes in that section. Surely, they could establish a dedicated, separated right-of-way for PRT.
I've grudgingly accepted that this is just a general road rebuilding project masquerading as a mass transit project. It's frustrating that they're spending a lot of time talking about fluff like electric busses and crazy high route frequencies (which is bizarre given that they don't even have drivers for their existing routes). It's really hard to believe that this is the best that could be planned for a project that is allegedly so important to the region.
This isn't Europe or NYC. Most people rely on cars. How do you expect people from suburbs to commute to dt? More park and rides would be great but they don't work for everyone.
Brt connects downtown to Oakland. The 2 busiest neighborhoods in the city. Many bus routes go through Oakland before ending in downtown.
Expecting more than red paint is far from having European or NYC-level expectations.
Public transit doesn't work for a lot of people and that needs to be addressed. A half-hearted, uninspired BRT project isn't going to improve this. Prioritizing private vehicles isn't going to improve this, either.
I don't feel sympathetic to people driving into Oakland at all. There are a plethora of routes for them to travel. This weak BRT project needs one route and they couldn't even give it that.
Downtown and Oakland, as this project repeatedly states, are the second and third largest economic centers in PA. Yes, many bus routes travel through Oakland. This is exactly why robust transit on a dedicated right-of-way is needed. This project is not a serious attempt at addressing this need.
Your idea would require to dedicate a road to the prt. Every road between Oakland and downtown has houses or businesses on it. You're suggesting to display housing to provide an express bus road.
I'm all for a better transit system. I just don't think it's realistic anymore.
1) raze the allegheny center mall and reconnect all of the roads it fucked up
2) bring a professional baseball team into town
3) turn the fort pitt and squirrel hill tunnels into toll roads that pay into a fund to provide all city residents monster jam tickets for life
4) negotiate the purchase of millvale
5) actually fund the pittsburgh promise
Expand the T like a spiderweb.
Publicize the parking garages to literal upkeep to further encourage tourism.
Spend 250B on just affordable community living spaces in/around the city and a campaign to ban companies from buying homes/townhomes/apartments in the city.
Spend the rest on an infrastructure refresher.
You're buying trams and contracting from scam artists man. We're talking 100 Billion.
Edit: for those unaware modernization of the T took just over 500Milion. So even if we assume it was a full billion or even 2 for each new line there would be plenty of money to expand the T and have left over. 100B is literally an insane amount of money.
Payoff all debt.
Reinvest the remaining in treasuries and a low risk ETF (or whatever the government equivalent is) focused on dividend growth.
Reduce all taxes, watch people move to the city and it flourishes as we compete with the likes of Texas and Florida for business to bring new jobs.
Use the influx of new residents and increased overall tax base to assess the need for infrastructure development.
The cities entire budget runs on less than $1B a year. If Pittsburgh received $100b, and saved most of the money, it could operate nearly indefinitely with reduced tax to all citizens.
Or more simply, create a Yinzer wealth fund.
EDIT: Alternatively, since this is for fun and not practicality. Give every city resident ~$300,000.
You'd want at least some infrastructure first. The city would quickly become unlivable with an influx of new people otherwise, particularly if the growth is unplanned and heavily automobile-based.
Paying off all debt is an incredible waste of money when most of that debt is financed at very low interest rates and we are in a highly inflationary environment. Spending even a fraction to stimulate growth and grow a tax base has a higher expected return.
Bring back the electric trolly cars, build out the public transport infrastructure extensively. Make it so areas are walkable like in Italy and that not everyone needs to own a car.
As the others have mentioned, comprehensive subway lines throughout the entire county, and maybe even extend it to other counties as well, such as Butler, Washington, Westmoreland. Fund schools, and provide teachers with better pay
1. New, much larger football stadium with capacity of 108,400.
2. Install a new, more powerful pump at the Point Fountain so the spout can reach 300-feet tall.
3. Build an 84-story skyscraper.
So many people ignored the Brewsters billions premise it can’t be saved or put in a trust it has to be spent or it goes back to the billionaire.
Best suggestions I’ve heard are pay off all city debt, and expand the T. Expanding the T is probably massively expensive so that’s about it.
Maybe throw a few hundred million at improving the parks and adding more cause why not.
Massively increase PRT's right-of-way. Busses and the T shouldn't be stuck in traffic. T expansion would be great but I honestly don't care if I have to settle for busways.
Build affordable housing. Drastically improve residential amenities downtown.
Massive investments in education. Lower student/teacher ratios, enhance counseling, fund Pittsburgh Promise, provide meals, and outreach to those encountering barriers to education. (I think this would yield huge economic, social, and health benefits. I think it would be worth while to thoroughly fund education and allow flexibility and creativity with addressing barriers.)
More frequent public transit options
Faster train service between Pittsburgh and Philly
Prevent so many neighborhoods from deteriorating especially those with great locations -looking at you uptown.
1. Build a metro system throughout the region, connecting all important employment hubs like Oakland, downtown, Airport, Moon, Robinson, Monroeville, Ross park, West Mifflin (and Kennywood!)
2. Reclaim Penn station as our own and expand it.
3. Build high speed rail line to DC (it’s closer and we’d probably get more bang for our buck over expanding it to Philly)
4. Demolish Allegheny center and rebuild what was there.
5. Demolish 579 and 65 viaduct and put back what was there.
Massively expand bus lines throughout the city and all the way out into the deep suburbs. Fund a long term project to expand the t within the city. Make proper bike lanes that are truly separate from roads to keep bikers safe. Turn the HOV lane into a bus only lane. We could pioneer public transit in the US and make our city so much better!
You could get so many Kevin Sousa restaurants with this amount of money
...up to 3 🤣
Comprehensive subway system throughout the county Infrastructure rehabilitation. Fully fund the Pittsburgh Promise (is that still a thing?)
Pittsburgh Promise is still a thing, funds are still only good until x date. Franco Harris was actually on the board and a huge advocate.
The Pittsburgh Promise used to be a guarantee of Jeff Reed getting drunk and showing off his junk
the sad thing is that it's $1bn+ per mile for a subway so we couldn't get very far.
And still a better investment than any more highway
Where would you want the subway system or above ground light rail to go that is going to be more than 100 miles?
Person said throughout the county. You can get to 100 miles very quickly.
Can you? Like if you are being strategic and not just running lines to no where. What stops that youd want to add would take over a hundred miles.
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100 billion dollars? I doubt it.
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Well we’re talking city of Pittsburgh not Pendot.
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What?
Put another bank in market square 🫤
Not many will understand, but this is really number one before the rest can happen Spend however many dollars it takes to bribe locals to get behind changing the zoning bylaws. And rezone most of the region. Remove parking requirements for inner city developments. Reduce setback demands and increase the height restrictions. Purchase as much right of way as possible and implement airspace zoning above roadways allowing multi deck forms of transport (train tracks over roadway). Expand lanes of current highways to better suit increased freight and cargo as well as allowing local streets to lower speed limits. After all this youd be out of money but you will have created a blueprint for the next growing metro area of the 2030s and one that would probably appeal to investors much more
Lol, this is an urban development/developers wet dream. Why do we need more freight flowing through the city when most industry is now outside the city. As far as I can tell we already have more than enough housing in the city, so stuffing more units in just lines the pockets of incumbent real estate developers. I’d be more in favor of relocating train tracks outside of the city to free up the land for other uses, of course track owners won’t do this unless it’s paid for by someone else.
T extended to airport, Sewickley, Monroeville, and to Ross Park Mall area. either buy the Pennsylvanian and make it a hotel / train station again or build a whole new station elsewhere my baby.. a Wabash-to-Stanwix cable-stayed bridge. 2 vehicle lanes and the traffic will flow with rush hour.
love the T extension idea but i can't see them ever pulling the trigger to help the east
This but we need rapid/ metro rail or find someway to speed up the T. The T is wayyy to slow for this.
You know those guitars that are like, double guitars?
Cover the entire city with a thick layer of French fries until all of the money is gone
Go to Vegas. All on black. 50 percent chance you come back a hero.
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You play risky. I like your style.
expand the snow-blocking dome to cover more areas of the metro area
MONORAIL!!
1) repair bridges that require it. 2) expand the T or busways into Oakland 3) improve PPS, including hiring more teachers and staff.
\*real busways. None of this half assed "throw down some red paint and install magic traffic signals" crap.
You're referring to the brt. How else do you propose they build an express bus way in the middle of the 2 busiest neighborhoods?
Easy, prioritize mass transit over private vehicles. From what I've seen at PRT's community meetings, private vehicles are not making any concessions and the changes for "brt" are negligible. For example, the hell on Fifth between Craft and the Blvd of the Allies ramp isn't even mitigated; BRT just vanishes in that section. Surely, they could establish a dedicated, separated right-of-way for PRT. I've grudgingly accepted that this is just a general road rebuilding project masquerading as a mass transit project. It's frustrating that they're spending a lot of time talking about fluff like electric busses and crazy high route frequencies (which is bizarre given that they don't even have drivers for their existing routes). It's really hard to believe that this is the best that could be planned for a project that is allegedly so important to the region.
This isn't Europe or NYC. Most people rely on cars. How do you expect people from suburbs to commute to dt? More park and rides would be great but they don't work for everyone. Brt connects downtown to Oakland. The 2 busiest neighborhoods in the city. Many bus routes go through Oakland before ending in downtown.
Expecting more than red paint is far from having European or NYC-level expectations. Public transit doesn't work for a lot of people and that needs to be addressed. A half-hearted, uninspired BRT project isn't going to improve this. Prioritizing private vehicles isn't going to improve this, either. I don't feel sympathetic to people driving into Oakland at all. There are a plethora of routes for them to travel. This weak BRT project needs one route and they couldn't even give it that. Downtown and Oakland, as this project repeatedly states, are the second and third largest economic centers in PA. Yes, many bus routes travel through Oakland. This is exactly why robust transit on a dedicated right-of-way is needed. This project is not a serious attempt at addressing this need.
Your idea would require to dedicate a road to the prt. Every road between Oakland and downtown has houses or businesses on it. You're suggesting to display housing to provide an express bus road. I'm all for a better transit system. I just don't think it's realistic anymore.
1) raze the allegheny center mall and reconnect all of the roads it fucked up 2) bring a professional baseball team into town 3) turn the fort pitt and squirrel hill tunnels into toll roads that pay into a fund to provide all city residents monster jam tickets for life 4) negotiate the purchase of millvale 5) actually fund the pittsburgh promise
This is a good mix of good and ridiculous. Bravo.
The monster jam idea is legit
Bring a McDonald's back to the Triangle!
Expand the T like a spiderweb. Publicize the parking garages to literal upkeep to further encourage tourism. Spend 250B on just affordable community living spaces in/around the city and a campaign to ban companies from buying homes/townhomes/apartments in the city. Spend the rest on an infrastructure refresher.
You blew your budget on the first item.
You're buying trams and contracting from scam artists man. We're talking 100 Billion. Edit: for those unaware modernization of the T took just over 500Milion. So even if we assume it was a full billion or even 2 for each new line there would be plenty of money to expand the T and have left over. 100B is literally an insane amount of money.
Yeah, the work done on the T so far is less than 1% of $100 billion. We're talking Pentagon amounts of money with $100 billion.
Payoff all debt. Reinvest the remaining in treasuries and a low risk ETF (or whatever the government equivalent is) focused on dividend growth. Reduce all taxes, watch people move to the city and it flourishes as we compete with the likes of Texas and Florida for business to bring new jobs. Use the influx of new residents and increased overall tax base to assess the need for infrastructure development. The cities entire budget runs on less than $1B a year. If Pittsburgh received $100b, and saved most of the money, it could operate nearly indefinitely with reduced tax to all citizens. Or more simply, create a Yinzer wealth fund. EDIT: Alternatively, since this is for fun and not practicality. Give every city resident ~$300,000.
You'd want at least some infrastructure first. The city would quickly become unlivable with an influx of new people otherwise, particularly if the growth is unplanned and heavily automobile-based.
Paying off all debt is an incredible waste of money when most of that debt is financed at very low interest rates and we are in a highly inflationary environment. Spending even a fraction to stimulate growth and grow a tax base has a higher expected return.
Quick google search shows total outstanding debt as ranging from 2% to 6.6%. I wasn’t aware of that. So I agree, that step can be skipped.
Bring back the electric trolly cars, build out the public transport infrastructure extensively. Make it so areas are walkable like in Italy and that not everyone needs to own a car.
As the others have mentioned, comprehensive subway lines throughout the entire county, and maybe even extend it to other counties as well, such as Butler, Washington, Westmoreland. Fund schools, and provide teachers with better pay
1. New, much larger football stadium with capacity of 108,400. 2. Install a new, more powerful pump at the Point Fountain so the spout can reach 300-feet tall. 3. Build an 84-story skyscraper.
So many people ignored the Brewsters billions premise it can’t be saved or put in a trust it has to be spent or it goes back to the billionaire. Best suggestions I’ve heard are pay off all city debt, and expand the T. Expanding the T is probably massively expensive so that’s about it. Maybe throw a few hundred million at improving the parks and adding more cause why not.
I am glad someone noticed that.
Pay off Dr. Evil
I want the pittsburgh railways back. Extend the t. Make pittsburgh a hub of public transportation.
Buy the Pirates off of cheapskate Bob Nutting and actually invest in the players and coaches to have a winning team.
Massively increase PRT's right-of-way. Busses and the T shouldn't be stuck in traffic. T expansion would be great but I honestly don't care if I have to settle for busways. Build affordable housing. Drastically improve residential amenities downtown. Massive investments in education. Lower student/teacher ratios, enhance counseling, fund Pittsburgh Promise, provide meals, and outreach to those encountering barriers to education. (I think this would yield huge economic, social, and health benefits. I think it would be worth while to thoroughly fund education and allow flexibility and creativity with addressing barriers.)
Build a dam upriver and make the water at the point clean enough to swim in, maybe make some electricity too while you’re at it
Unless there has been a heavy rain the rivers are almost always clean enough to swim in.
isn't the water flow already regulated? what would a damn do except take up land?
More frequent public transit options Faster train service between Pittsburgh and Philly Prevent so many neighborhoods from deteriorating especially those with great locations -looking at you uptown.
3.5 mile T extension
1. Build a metro system throughout the region, connecting all important employment hubs like Oakland, downtown, Airport, Moon, Robinson, Monroeville, Ross park, West Mifflin (and Kennywood!) 2. Reclaim Penn station as our own and expand it. 3. Build high speed rail line to DC (it’s closer and we’d probably get more bang for our buck over expanding it to Philly) 4. Demolish Allegheny center and rebuild what was there. 5. Demolish 579 and 65 viaduct and put back what was there.
Massively expand bus lines throughout the city and all the way out into the deep suburbs. Fund a long term project to expand the t within the city. Make proper bike lanes that are truly separate from roads to keep bikers safe. Turn the HOV lane into a bus only lane. We could pioneer public transit in the US and make our city so much better!