{"id":164595,"date":"2026-04-13T16:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T16:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/164595\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T16:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T16:24:07","slug":"downtown-building-owners-organizing-against-spread-of-vape-shops-wpxi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/164595\/","title":{"rendered":"Downtown building owners organizing against spread of vape shops \u2013 WPXI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">PITTSBURGH \u2014 Harris Jones came to testify with both a running count of just how many vape shops have cropped up downtown and how quickly as well as how he\u2019s witnessed the potential for damage they can bring.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Speaking before the Pittsburgh Planning Commission for a hearing on whether to recommend on to Pittsburgh City Council legislation to place limits on retailers largely operating as vape shops, Jones spoke as a developer and resident of the building at 824 Liberty Avenue, an historic building originally commissioned by the founder of the Jones &amp; Laughlin Steel Company and built in 1884, on what he sees from his front door.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">\u201cWithin 150 feet of my residential front door, I have five of these shops. And with that comes all of the streetscape surrounding them, public drinking, drug use, street crime, loitering, fighting, public urination, drug dealing, homelessness, et cetera,\u201d said Jones. \u201cBut the most important thing and the most powerful image that I\u2019d like to leave you with is in the morning when I get up and drink coffee and look out my window, every time a bus unloads, I see children going to the public schools around the corner, and they flow into these stores like they\u2019re candy shops. At 7:30 to 7:50 every morning. It makes you cry as a parent, and as a downtown resident.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bizjournals.com\/pittsburgh\/news\/2026\/04\/07\/vape-shops-downtown-zoning-pittsburgh.html?ana=wpxi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.bizjournals.com\/pittsburgh\/news\/2026\/04\/07\/vape-shops-downtown-zoning-pittsburgh.html?ana=wpxi\">Click here to read more from our partners at the Pittsburgh Business Times.<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Download the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/mobile-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FREE WPXI News app<\/a> for breaking news alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Follow Channel 11 News on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wpxi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WPXI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>. | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch WPXI NOW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>TOP STORIES FROM CHANNEL 11 NEWS <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 Harris Jones came to testify with both a running count of just how many vape shops&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[14672,39208,17558,46980,74170,4738,12620,4029,4030,8216,8090,74171,60,74172,16367,14273,7017,7018,29595,74173,39472,48322,48323,74174,74175,227,74176,74177,37640,2328,4033,74178,16241,422,74179,8429,7678,7680,20436,12933,74180,1057,15264,7685,48020,8040,837,7026,74181,54681,43457,74182,9272,23200,74183,22080,74184,15656,2008,74185,22496,60288,73,75,74,1397,36392,7172,4047,74186,521,5690,6664,74187,13471,7696,503,10693,74188,4911,48326,48327,4051,15658,15659,15276],"class_list":{"0":"post-164595","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-addiction","9":"tag-adults","10":"tag-alternative","11":"tag-archive","12":"tag-atomizer","13":"tag-background","14":"tag-battery","15":"tag-black","16":"tag-blue","17":"tag-book","18":"tag-books","19":"tag-bottle","20":"tag-business","21":"tag-can","22":"tag-cigarette","23":"tag-closeup","24":"tag-color","25":"tag-colorful","26":"tag-device","27":"tag-devices","28":"tag-e","29":"tag-e-cig","30":"tag-e-cigarette","31":"tag-ecig","32":"tag-ecigarette","33":"tag-education","34":"tag-ejuice","35":"tag-eleaf","36":"tag-electronic","37":"tag-energy","38":"tag-equipment","39":"tag-eurovape","40":"tag-file","41":"tag-fire","42":"tag-folder","43":"tag-free","44":"tag-fuel","45":"tag-gas","46":"tag-glass","47":"tag-green","48":"tag-habit","49":"tag-health","50":"tag-healthy","51":"tag-isolated","52":"tag-juice","53":"tag-library","54":"tag-lifestyle","55":"tag-light","56":"tag-lighter","57":"tag-liquid","58":"tag-marker","59":"tag-mechmod","60":"tag-medicine","61":"tag-metal","62":"tag-mod","63":"tag-modern","64":"tag-nicotine","65":"tag-object","66":"tag-office","67":"tag-pen","68":"tag-pencil","69":"tag-pin","70":"tag-pittsburgh","71":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","72":"tag-pittsburgh-news","73":"tag-plastic","74":"tag-popular","75":"tag-power","76":"tag-red","77":"tag-regulated","78":"tag-school","79":"tag-shop","80":"tag-smoke","81":"tag-spray","82":"tag-steel","83":"tag-tank","84":"tag-technology","85":"tag-vape","86":"tag-vapeshop","87":"tag-vaping","88":"tag-vapor","89":"tag-vaporizer","90":"tag-white","91":"tag-wood","92":"tag-wooden","93":"tag-young"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164595","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=164595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}