Enright Park, East Liberty: 200 Amber Street
Enright Park was initially constructed in 1964 as part of the “urban renewal” of East Liberty, a process that hastened rather than corrected the neighborhood’s population decline. Still, one positive outcome of this destructive time was the creation of the park, which provided a much-needed public space in an area that had previously had none.
In the decades since, East Liberty’s development plans and schemes have continued, generally for worse and occasionally for better. In a flashback to 1964, Enright Park recently underwent a major renovation and is once again a popular spot. With a wide variety of playground equipment and athletic amenities for all ages and abilities (such as the kid-sized basketball hoops), people congregate under shade trees, on benches, and at pavilions with picnic tables. Folks with dogs and baby strollers amble along the paths that connect to the adjacent residential and business corridors and the East Liberty branch of the Carnegie Pittsburgh Library. It’s a great-looking spot that’s missing only one thing: the hundreds of longtime residents who were displaced and dispersed in the name of “urban renewal.”
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