Press release from the Mayor’s Office:
City Looks to Transit to Further East Liberty’s Revitalization
(PITTSBURGH) August 5, 2010 – Mayor Luke Ravenstahl announced today that the City’s Department of City Planning has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for urban planning and transportation consultants to develop a Transit Revitalization Investment District (TRID) planning study along the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway, located in the East Liberty neighborhood. The study will identify key infrastructure improvement strategies to better connect the transit area with the neighborhood’s burgeoning development. On weekdays, the neighborhood sees well over 25,000 travelers on the East Busway and 16,000 motorists along Penn Avenue.
“There is a strategic relationship between the Busway and the amount of economic development happening right next to it,” Ravenstahl said. “Our goal is to maximize that relationship so that the area can experience its full potential and spur development opportunities for nearby neighborhoods like Homewood and Larimer.”
This targeted TRID location will include the areas that could reconnect Shadyside and East Liberty around the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway. This next phase will seek to capitalize upon the transit-oriented advantage of the development potential in and around the Busway.
In June of 2008, the Mayor applied to the state’s Department of Community and Economic Development to receive funding for the TRID study. The study will cost $75,000 and take approximately six-months to complete.
Proposals are due to the Department of City Planning by 4:00 PM on August 20th, 2010. The detailed RFP is available on the Department of City Planning website at: http://www.planpgh.com.