Trip #480 Bothwell Street to Viola Street, Perry North, Pittsburgh took place on August 6, 2020, and was published on August 24, 2020.
I don’t profess to have a native comprehension of “Pittsburgh DNA,” but one characteristic I routinely witness is the essential but uneasy navigation between yesterdays and tomorrows. This section of Milroy (née Bothwell) Street has a set of sidewalk steps that once passed four brown brick row houses. Four front doors with adjacent parlor windows went from habitable to inhabitable to boarded to razed. As I peer over the weedy and empty hillside, city crews are around the corner, resurfacing and paving the long stretch of Viola Street, and I wonder how many years it has been since that last happened. For every street improved, another deteriorates. Buildings languish while affordable housing melts away. We hold steady to the belief that decision-making should be fair and unbiased, but take a look at Lady Justice – she is blindfolded. Do you know how easy it is to lose your balance when your eyes are closed?
Field Notes: This sidewalk flight once ran alongside a brick apartment building (you can see if thanks to looking at 2007 in Google Maps’ Street View) but that building is gone and with it, the visual and physical impediment to cars plunging down the hillside. Hence, the large concrete barriers.
See the Risograph print of this photo and story in the Mis.Steps Shop.
Want to visit these stairs? You can locate them on the Pittsburgh City Steps Plan website!
Be a good neighbor! Have you visited these stairs and found them in poor condition or that illegal dumping (large items like tires, old furniture, and construction debris) and trash were abundant in the area? There are two things you can do to take action and make our city steps cleaner and safer for everyone! First, grab a photo if you can, and submit a report to Pittsburgh 311. All problems, both broken stairs, and railings, as well as trash and dumping, should be reported to the city. You can easily do this online or by calling.
