If there's one message that always hits home whenever I cover events in the Hill District regarding redevelopment of the Civic Arena site, it's to never discount the importance of symbolism.
Just what the 28-acre site is called often can bring a verbal turf battle for the largely African-American residents of the community long wary of development plans -- including the construction of the original Civic Arena, which forced so many out of the Hill District more than 40 years ago.
Marimba Milliones, president and CEO of the Hill CDC, made clear from the start a definition of terms of the arena site as the Lower Hill and not the 28 acres, recalling the history of the eminent domain used to clear the community for the arena. It was a time, recalled Milliones, when residents "came home to a yellow sticker on your door telling you to be gone in 48 hours."
Be sure to use the name Lower Hill in conjunction with 28 acres, said Milliones, lest anyone get the wrong idea about which neighborhood the site is in.
"That's one strategy of remembering the story and making sure that it's not forgotten," she said.
Milliones was one of many who feels that way.
City Councilman Daniel Lavelle, whose district includes the Hill District, emphasized to the gathering, "We're looking to reconnect the Lower Hill to downtown. We're not just trying to expand downtown."
The meeting largely amounted to a progress report on the redevelopment plans for redevelopment by the city-county Sports & Exhibition Authority, the public agency which owns the arena property, and the Pittsburgh Penguins, which will soon begin pursuing development of the property under an exclusive option agreement. There remains plenty of wariness among the community's stakeholders that the neighborhood gets its share of the economic opportunity from the redevelopment, whether it's as employees, entrepreneurs or students.
Along with many others, Penguins COO Travis Williams, who is charged with leading the redevelopment, updated the assembly on the project's goals of minority and woman-owned business practices. He said the team's 10-year plan gets started this year.
With the word redevelopment still carrying ugly overtones to many in a neighborhood where "development without displacement" is a core goal for the arena site plan, that turf can't be protected enough, even if it's only with words.
"The Hill is the Hill. Why do we have to have the Upper Hill and the Lower Hill?" said one woman during the Q&A. "We are the Hill."
Tim Schooley covers retail, real estate, small business, hospitality, arts and entertainment, government and media. Contact him at tschooley [at] bizjournals.com or 412-208-3826.
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