\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAs Pittsburgh prepares to host the 2026 NFL Draft, residents and business owners beyond the draft campus, especially in the Strip District, are preparing for some major changes to their routine and looking for some plans. \u201cI\u2019m not moving my car for five days,\u201d said Elise Miranda, who works for Wigle Whiskey. \u201cMy car is not going to move, but we can walk everywhere from here. That\u2019s what makes this neighborhood so convenient,\u201d neighborhood resident Anthony Dean added. For many Pittsburghers, visiting the Strip District already comes with concerns about parking. With hundreds of thousands of football fans expected to pour into the city for the NFL Draft, neighbors say it is hard to imagine just how heavy traffic may be.Even though there is no official NFL Draft programming planned for the Strip District, residents and business owners expect a surge of visitors, and they’re excited. \u201cWe expect to serve thousands of people coming into Pittsburgh,\u201d Miranda said.\u201cEveryone\u2019s got to eat, right?\u201d said Pamela Austin, president of the group Strip District Neighbors. \u201cYou need a hotel.”Austin said parking remains one of the biggest unknowns. \u201cWe do have a lot of surface parking lots in the neighborhood,\u201d she said. \u201cSo, you know, we have had in the history of our neighborhood park and rides to help downtown. So I think one of the questions I had was, where are we going to have any kind of arrangements that this district could help with some of the parking needs?\u201dVisit Pittsburgh said a comprehensive traffic and transportation plan will be released five weeks before the NFL Draft. The plan will include public transit options and systems extending into surrounding counties.\u201cPRT is doing a really great job of working within their system,\u201d said Jerad Bachar of Visit Pittsburgh. \u201cThey are going to create independent park and rides in the north, the south, the east and the west that are uniquely specific for the draft. Expanding capacity as well as frequency to get people in using the light rail system.”Many neighbors say they are looking forward to the economic boost and the opportunity to showcase a city on the rise.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tPITTSBURGH \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
As Pittsburgh prepares to host the 2026 NFL Draft, residents and business owners beyond the draft campus, especially in the Strip District, are preparing for some major changes to their routine and looking for some plans. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not moving my car for five days,\u201d said Elise Miranda, who works for Wigle Whiskey. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy car is not going to move, but we can walk everywhere from here. That\u2019s what makes this neighborhood so convenient,\u201d neighborhood resident Anthony Dean added. <\/p>\n
For many Pittsburghers, visiting the Strip District already comes with concerns about parking. With hundreds of thousands of football fans expected to pour into the city for the NFL Draft, neighbors say it is hard to imagine just how heavy traffic may be.<\/p>\n
Even though there is no official NFL Draft programming planned for the Strip District, residents and business owners expect a surge of visitors, and they’re excited. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe expect to serve thousands of people coming into Pittsburgh,\u201d Miranda said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone\u2019s got to eat, right?\u201d said Pamela Austin, president of the group Strip District Neighbors. \u201cYou need a hotel.”<\/p>\n
Austin said parking remains one of the biggest unknowns. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe do have a lot of surface parking lots in the neighborhood,\u201d she said. \u201cSo, you know, we have had in the history of our neighborhood park and rides to help downtown. So I think one of the questions I had was, where are we going to have any kind of arrangements that this district could help with some of the parking needs?\u201d<\/p>\n
Visit Pittsburgh said a comprehensive traffic and transportation plan will be released five weeks before the NFL Draft. The plan will include public transit options and systems extending into surrounding counties.<\/p>\n
\u201cPRT is doing a really great job of working within their system,\u201d said Jerad Bachar of Visit Pittsburgh. \u201cThey are going to create independent park and rides in the north, the south, the east and the west that are uniquely specific for the draft. Expanding capacity as well as frequency to get people in using the light rail system.”<\/p>\n
Many neighbors say they are looking forward to the economic boost and the opportunity to showcase a city on the rise. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Pittsburgh prepares to host the 2026 NFL Draft, residents and business owners beyond the draft campus, especially…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4810,51139,51145,19611,51140,19184,8969,3537,51141,51144,51142,523,73,75,74,51138,4583,4628,12883,9387,2731,4757,7213,51143,24378],"class_list":{"0":"post-105981","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-business-owner","9":"tag-downtown-visitors","10":"tag-draft-campus","11":"tag-hundred","12":"tag-light-rail-expansion","13":"tag-neighbor","14":"tag-neighborhood","15":"tag-nfl-draft","16":"tag-park-and-ride","17":"tag-parking-challenge","18":"tag-parking-challenges","19":"tag-people","20":"tag-pittsburgh","21":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","22":"tag-pittsburgh-news","23":"tag-pittsburgh-nfl-draft","24":"tag-plan","25":"tag-prt","26":"tag-resident","27":"tag-ride","28":"tag-strip-district","29":"tag-system","30":"tag-thousand","31":"tag-traffic-surge","32":"tag-visit-pittsburgh"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}