Don't build the North Side Esplanade

The planned Esplanade development for Pittsburgh’s North Side is a project we don’t need and can’t afford.

First, it would divert traffic away from current shopping and entertainment centers, such as Station Square, South Side Works, and Homestead Waterfront. Our area is not growing, and in fact is losing population. So why do we need another commercial center?

Station Square has recently lost several major restaurants and South Side Works and Waterfront are dotted with empty storefronts. A new commercial complex would hasten the decline of existing commercial districts for which tremendous private and public funding has already been expended.

Consider the Pittsburgh Mills mall in Frazier which opened in 2006 and now is practically a ghost town. Like so many heralded projects that were supposed to bring economic development and jobs to our area, it turned into a boondoggle.

The only ones who benefit from these projects are developers and builders as well as the politicians who enable them. Furthermore, these projects don’t create good paying jobs, and so young people leave in search of jobs elsewhere.

If we really want to create an economic boom with good-paying jobs, why not bring more manufacturing to this region? This can be accomplished by lowering our high corporate taxes, removing antiquated regulations, and speeding up the permitting process. In 2021, U.S. Steel decided against spending $1 billion to modernize its Mon Valley facilities because of the slow permitting process.

Glitzy projects don’t create prosperity. So instead, let’s attract research and manufacturing industries that provide sustainable, high paying jobs that keep our young people rooted here.

Dave Majernik
Plum