Joseph Sabino Mistick: Can we save Downtown Pittsburgh?

People are worried about Downtown Pittsburgh. The recent daytime killing of a young man in broad daylight in the heart of Pittsburgh’s business and entertainment district has some businesses and residents worrying that Downtown might be over.

It was the latest in a string of violent encounters and brazen shootings in Downtown, which includes the drive-by shooting death of an 18-month-old child on a sunny Sunday afternoon in May just off Market Square.

If you are wondering why young shooters follow their targets into Downtown to pull the trigger, it is because they can. There are few police to be seen Downtown, and there is a sense of lawlessness felt by anyone willing to risk an evening stroll or walk to lunch.

Aggressive and threatening panhandlers, people camping on sidewalks and in doorways, city trash cans overflowing onto the sidewalk, public spaces used as toilets — some employers are telling their employees to head home before sunset, while others are looking to relocate as soon as possible.

As my grandfather told me when I was a young man, “There are some bars you should never go into just because of how they look from the outside.” Downtown Pittsburgh looks like one of those bars.

The stakes are high for all of us. In the communities surrounding the city, there has been a sense that the city gets more attention than it deserves, while the smaller towns are forgotten. But if Downtown Pittsburgh fails — and Golden Triangle real estate tax revenue plummets — that tax shortfall will be absorbed by everyone in the county.

And if the Cultural District and the stadiums and the convention center stagger because people are afraid to travel into the city, we will lose far more than those entertainment and tourism dollars. The entire region — even beyond Allegheny County — will lose the things that enrich our lives and make this a great place to live.

Almost all cities are struggling to come back post-covid. Some have led by example by requiring municipal employees to return to the office. Some are working to build 24-hour economies by switching office units to residential. But all of them are focused on public safety, because danger and the perception of danger top everything.

This is an all-hands-on-deck problem. New York City Mayor Eric Adams partnered with the state and the transit authority to create a “police omnipresence” by deploying 1,200 more police officers in the subway system. As Adams said, “The bottom line is that riders will see more officers in the system and so will those thinking of breaking the law.”

Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul also announced plans for more officers and crisis training to assist the unhoused mentally ill. They pledged to strengthen the law to provide better protection and more funding for the programs and facilities that are long overdue.

While Pittsburgh seems frozen now, there are many civic partners willing to help. No Pittsburgh problem has ever been solved without the combined efforts of the business community, corporate leaders, the foundations, universities and colleges, neighborhood groups, and political leaders from the state and county and city. It is time for our leadership to bring them together.

As Adams said on “Morning Joe” last week, “We can seek the justice we deserve with the safety we need.”