Editor’s Note: As journalists, we spend a lot of time talking with officials and community members and distilling it into stories that explore important issues of our time. But we realize that sometimes it is just more powerful to hear it straight from the source. This is one of those times.I’ve lived in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood for most of my 37 years. I can remember as a child stepping out of my house in the morning and smelling the cookies and baked goods from Stagno’s Bakery and the Nabisco factory. The scent permeated our neighborhood, but now Stagno’s Bakery is closed to the community and the Nabisco building houses Google and UPMC offices, expensive boutique chains and new luxury apartments.I’m a mother of two (soon to be three) and I work as an administrative assistant in the pathology department at UPMC Presbyterian. Over the years, I have seen these and other changes in Pittsburgh that just don’t spell real progress for families like mine.
Many of my neighbors are also my co-workers at the hospital. Together, we’ve been fighting for living wages and union rights for all service workers in the city. We want our children to be able to live comfortably in what is supposed to be one of the “Most Livable Cities” in the United States.
Yet we don’t necessarily benefit from many developments that promise to “improve” our city’s livability. In fact, we’re often harmed. So, when we hear about coming improvements, our first question is: Improvements for whom?
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https://www.publicsource.org/pittsburghs-progress-is-leaving-families-like-mine-behind/