Pittsburghers for Public Transit celebrated the success of keeping bus stops in front of the Target and Giant Eagle stores at The Waterfront shopping and entertainment complex Monday in a very Pittsburgh way: They held a parade.
But in a brilliant indisputable way, the parade highlighted why it probably wasn’t a good idea to propose moving the stops from the stores to the Amity Street bus station about 1,000 feet away. The store stops are on private property, and after years of trying to eliminate what complex owners consider a dangerous situation when buses bunch together and customers try to cross the street between them, the complex ordered the stops closed on Sunday only to relent after strong public reaction and store owners agreeing to move the stops away from parking lots.
This sign acknowledges that a Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus stop will continue outside the Giant Eagle grocery store after riders and elected officials protested The Waterfront moving that stop and one next door at Target about 1,000 feet away. (Ed Blazina/Pittsburgh Union Progress)
To celebrate, about 50 transit advocates gathered at Amity Monday for chants, music and remarks before trying to parade to the stores. The parade was anything but smooth because the extremely narrow sidewalks made it difficult to march even two abreast, and marchers spilled out into the street, inadvertently highlighting their concerns about elderly or disabled customers who would have had to navigate that course with packages if the changes had been approved.
During the presentation, Mary Nesby, vice president of Homestead Council, stressed how important The Waterfront is to residents in the Monongahela Valley, especially bus riders. She noted the site of the complex is the former Homestead Works of U.S. Steel and the original developers received years of tax breaks to transform it into a massive retail and entertainment complex.
Now, instead of thousands of manufacturing jobs, it provides thousands of service jobs and meets important community needs in different ways through the stores and the services they provide. The stops average 800 on-and-off passengers every day, making them among the busiest PRT stops in the valley.
Nesby said it would have been “harmful, disrespectful and dangerous” to remove the stops.
“This was built to be a lifeline,” she said. “It’s not a convenience. It’s survival. You don’t just inconvenience people [by removing the stops]. You paralyze them.”
Pittsburgh Councilwoman Barb Warwick said it wasn’t difficult to get elected officials on board to fight the proposed bus stop changes.
“Everyone said, ‘This is some BS,’” she said. “[The Waterfront] is not just here for people who drive cars.”
Laura Wiens, executive director of Pittsburghers for Public Transit, leads riders in chants at The Waterfront shopping and entertainment complex to celebrate defeating a proposal to move bus stops from in front of Giant Eagle and Target stores to Amity Street about 1,000 feet away. (Ed Blazina/Pittsburgh Union Progress)
Cheryl Stephens, PPT’s community organizing manager who served as master of ceremonies for the event, credited riders for speaking out against the elimination of the bus stops.
“We are here to say transit riders shouldn’t be pushed to the margins,” she said. “Riders belong here and everywhere.”
Officials at complex owner M&J Wilkow Ltd. said last month they had been trying for nearly four years to move the stops because they feared customers coming into the busy street in front of the stores from between buses would be hit by motorists. General Manager Carey Kann said they thought they had a deal several times among store owners, municipal officials from West Homestead, Homestead and Munhall, and Pittsburgh Regional Transit, but at the last minute someone always pulled out.
So in September, the complex ordered PRT to remove the stops at its next service change, which was Sunday. The complex was going to build a new pathway from the stores to a new stop on Waterfront Drive so needy customers could ride motorized shopping carts there.
But after protests from riders and elected officials, a tentative deal was reached to keep the stops in front of the stores for now until they can be moved to the sides so buses don’t bunch between the stores and the parking lots. Laura Wiens, executive director of PPT, said those would be “fine” locations.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he’s currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.