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NEW NEIGHBORHOODS
The truth is: even among American cities, Pittsburgh isn’t that old. We’re too far inland. And it wasn’t until 1758 that General John Forbes decided to this place need a name: Pittsburgh. But we like to think of our city as having a grand and glorious past, and we love to cherish the old stuff that’s still left from decades gone by.
And we have some neighborhoods that have enough history to be considered “old.”

At the same time, this town is still growing and changing in lots of places, and there are two new neighborhoods that have changed people’s minds about what can be done in our city: the new upscale island community at Washington’s Landing (formerly the very funky, smelly and industrial Herr’s Island) in the Allegheny River and the development of swanky Summerset at Frick Park atop an old slag dump (basically a pile of leftovers from the steel-making process) by the Squirrel Hill Tunnels. These are the kind of projects that not long ago were considered outrageous and improbable if not impossible.

Lots of bright people, organizations and government agencies (what is often called a “public-private partnership”) all played a part in the creation of these new neighborhoods, but we decided to take a quick look at the two places with Mark Schneider, president of the Rubinoff Company, who was heavily involved in both projects. He was happy to point out the innovations and talk about some of the unusual ideas that led to these amazing improvements and new model urban neighborhoods.

Click on the button to hear Mark Schneider talk about some of the thinking behing Washington's Landing.

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Production of IT'S THE NEIGHBORHOODS was made possible by:
The Buhl Foundation.

Additional funding (helping to make things like this web site possible)
was provided by:

RICK'S FAVORITE LINKS

The Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh is proud of its involvement in Washington’s Landing.

Hey, it won the Phoenix Award!

Mark Schneider is president of the Rubinoff Company with headquarters on the North Side.

Chris Potter tells you the truth about the name “Washington’s Landing.”

You can rent a bike and pedal around Washington’s Landing.

Yes, there’s Old-Style Pittsburgh Charm on the old slag dump.

Who’s doing the buildings in these new neighborhoods?