Hidden in the urban riparian forest between the Veterans and Sixteenth Street Bidge is this huge rock and monument for a trail constructed in December 1990. Twenty years later it is a reminder of the aggressive and political issue that riverfront development was during the decade of the '80s.
By the end of 1990 I had been back in Pittsburgh for only one year and was incredibly naive to the ways of Pittsburgh politics (some would say I remain incredibly naive but that is the subject of another blog). In the late 80s there was a pitched battle between the Planning commission and City Council over a multi-million $ entertainment district proposal called "Down-by-the-Riverside". Fortunately the Planning Commission , with its requirement for more design oversight and approval, won.
This development and others in the 80s generated enough awareness about the development potential of the City's riverfront that there was a flurry of official studies, including:
1. The Department of City Planning's Riverfront Plan.
2. And when advocates of more access and/or more development complained about that Plan, the Mayor created a special Riverfront Commission to make further recommendations.
3. And even a Citizen's Commission on Riverfront Development sponsored by the Citizens' League of Southwestern Pennsylvania
In light of all this the plaque and its listing of numerous City agencies and many private sector partners seems to be a plea for compromise. But the one thing they forgot was that any project without a longterm stewardship plan is bound to fail.
So now, Twenty years after the rock is placed along the Strip's Riverfront we find it hidden among the growth and another development proposal for the site being advanced. Lets hope this proposal has more partners and that there are even more names on the next monument rock.
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