West Carson Street and Beyond

West Carson Street has been in the news a lot lately. Last week, community groups were protesting the site of a proposed Strip Club on West Carson Street. They object to its location directly adjacent to the Onala Club, an alcohol and drug recovery center.

Early Tuesday morning, a mere 0.3 miles away along Carson Street, a warehouse suspicously caught fire.

Arson investigators were trying to determine the fire's cause, terming it "suspicious," but unsafe conditions kept them from examining where it started. Fire officials said interior floors collapsed. The building, thought to be empty for 20 years, had no electricity.

Anyone else wonder if protesters got the wrong address? That would certainly send a stern message to developers from a potential renegade community group. The more likely scenario?

The Forza Group which bought the company as an investment decided to expedite the demolition process of their property. (Or as the Angry Drunk Bureaucrat suspects another renegade community group decided to expedite the process for them.) According to Greg Erosenko, a spokesman for the Forza Group, "The company is considering building a hotel there someday."

This of course brings to mind dozens of other abandoned warehouses and houses in the Pittsburgh area that are owned as "investment" opportunities. In the meantime, they are dangerous eyesores for the rest of us. They are dangerous because desperate people like to squat in abandoned buildings increasing area crime, and kids like to play in these very same areas.

My request to the city? Let's stop letting developers leave these dangerous eyesores speckled throughout the city in the hopes of profiting off of these properties when yet another Pittsburgh neighborhood "reawakens."

Regularly, send your building inspectors to these sites and fine the hell out of them for being out-of-code, having unkempt landscaping, lack of proper snow removal, and anything else that's legal. This West Carson Street warehouse should have been demolished (or remodeled) long ago. The only people that pay the price for this developer dragging-of-the-heels are Pittsburgh residents. If we hassle the developers, they'll either do something with the property or pass it on to someone who will.