New York Islanders playing at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Major League City: Balancing Civic Pride and Public Financing

April 30, 2022

At the beginning of April 2022, New York State approved a budget that included $600 million for a new football stadium in Orchard Park for the Buffalo Bills.This sparked criticisms and celebrations, with both sides arguing what value should be put on keeping a professional franchise in a particular city. Why should the public be spending hundreds of millions of dollars to subsidize a billionaire owner and one of the wealthiest leagues in the world? Why would we risk losing a franchise that is seen as a fundamental part of our community? Is there a better balance that we can strike?

I’ve written about how stadiums relate to the cities they’re in before on this blog, primarily focusing on baseball stadiums (surprisingly the sport with the most urban beginning). But I want to take a larger view of the discussion and how we might find a better way to keep our teams in the cities they have come to be synonymous with.

No one can question that being considered a “major league city” has a certain impact on the pride of a community. Having your skyline broadcast across the country and hearing your city’s name discussed alongside other cities who may be much larger or more prominent than your own helps boost a sense of pride among citizens, even those who are not fans. As Dan Moore put it in an article for the Ringer, “They remain perhaps the last public-private institution capable of transcending partisan divides at scale, and they inspire a kind of devotion that few enterprises can match.” And that is a powerful force. Providing a common theme to unite around and hold up as a symbol of your community is an intangible benefit that is hard to put a price on. While this discussion is primarily on professional sports, college sports can have the same (if not even a more robust) effect on the communities they reside in.

These teams come with many side benefits as well, including team sponsored foundations that support education, health, and athletic programs, often in disenfranchised communities. Just one of many examples is NYCFC building over 50 mini soccer pitches across New York City to help provide open space and athletic opportunities to kids in each of these neighborhoods. Teams can also attract other quality of life amenities such as musical performances, museums, and art shows as the City now has a raised profile across the country. These artistic scenes can, and do, thrive without a major league franchise, but there is a long history of athletes connecting with and promoting artists in their cities, giving them a reach they may not have been able to achieve on their own.

But these cultural benefits can also provide a team, and specifically their owner, with an incredible amount of power.

It is true that it’s tough to imagine Buffalo without the Bills, but at one point it was impossible to imagine Brooklyn without the Dodgers too. There are dozens of examples of teams leaving cities to seek out a higher profile or a better financial deal, and for the cities they leave behind it can be a true blow to civic pride and engagement. As Aaron Cowan wrote when discussing the major shifts in baseball during the urban renewal period of the ‘50s and ‘60s, the “…loss of a professional sports franchise amounted to a tacit admission that a city was dying.”

This mentality still rings true today. To lose one of your greatest promotional tools is a blow to a region, and the owners know it. Since the 1950s, teams have been using this power to their advantage in acquiring funding for new and improved stadiums, or extended tax breaks for renovations, all while gaining incredible wealth off of the talent of their players. They have continually threatened to leave cities if they weren’t given sweetheart deals on land to develop or, in what is increasingly the case, provided extreme amounts of public funding to support their for-profit businesses. And this is on top of evidence that these investments do not financially pay off in the long run, especially football stadiums.

New Yankee Stadium was developed with public assistance through the transfer of park land.

The New York Yankees were given park land for free to develop their new stadium and large tax deductions in tow, with the only requirement that they convert the old field to a park when it was torn down.Las Vegas put up $750 million to construct a $2 billion stadium for the Raiders, which was a prerequisite for attracting them to the city, slashing the area’s education budget to chip in. The Buffalo Bills stadium will receive a total of $850 million in taxpayer funds to build a $1.4 billion stadium across the street from the old one. While a Downtown Buffalo stadium was explored, the extra cost was deemed too steep, even if that location would provide additional development/economic opportunities and be far more accessible to all residents as it would be located near several bus lines and the light rail line.

While I won’t say the public should not invest to some degree in these facilities, as there truly are benefits to having a major league team, what has now become expected of cities (funding huge portions of these projects with little benefit beyond keeping the team in town) is unacceptable. If a team receives public investments in their projects, they should be expected to do more with that money than simply line their pockets.

Using NYCFC again as an example, the team’s current search for a suitable location for a soccer specific stadium includes the goal of providing hundreds of units of affordable housing in an adjacent development, along with retail and office space, helping to create a dense, mixed-use neighborhood. Housing affordability is a long-term crisis for New York City, so to have an MLS team include hundreds of units within their development plans only makes sense. Other cities should consider this requirement as part of stadium developments as well, but this brings up the discussion of where these developments should take place.

PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, sits across the river from Downtown Pittsburgh and is surrounded by restaurants, bars, and park land.

While we want to make sure any sort of stadium development does not displace residents or businesses as much as possible, we should be asking that these developments occur close to the urban center. By locating near the urban center, and reducing the size of the typically massive parking lots, you increase the accessibility of the stadium by non-car transportation modes, which is beneficial from an environmental stand point but also increases the ability of households without personal vehicles to attend games and events. The central location also benefits any affordable housing or commercial development associated with the stadium. Residents would enjoy access to public transit and shorter trips to work/shopping while businesses would benefit from an accessible location and association with their city’s team. You also benefit the businesses already in the neighborhood by bringing in additional customers during game days. Suburban stadiums are often surrounded by seas of parking lots with nothing around them, while urban stadiums encourage visits to nearby bars, restaurants, and retail locations.

Even if we do work out deals where team owners develop their stadiums in easily accessible urban locations and provide affordable housing/commercial development spaces alongside them, we still should not have public entities picking up the majority of the bill. Owners are billionaires with plenty of money to play with. If they require the public to put up substantial sums to subsidize their own wealth, cities/counties/states should be able to take partial ownership of these teams as they have invested in the teams as much, if not more, than the owners have. The development of a true public ownership model (most likely through a public-private partnership that leaves the team out of the day-to-day concerns of our elected officials) is beyond what I will discuss here, but its something that should be explored more if the public is continually asked to foot the bill for these large construction projects.

Hosting a major league team, or a high profile college team, does come with some powerful benefits; raised profile, increased civic pride, economic development opportunities, etc. But we cannot allow their owners to strong arm our cities and regions into subsidizing their profits. We need to ensure these stadium deals provide real benefits to their communities and give the public more of a say in what they entail. Teams are a quasi-public entity and we should try to make them more of a public benefit.

The new roof to the Carrier Dome, the most visible part of a $250 million renovation project that was primarily privately financed.

PNC ParkSource: Ed Massery Photography — PNC Park
Source: Ed Massery Photography

Urban Reinvention and the Ballpark: Baseball's Place in Pittsburgh's Urban Fabric

December 24, 2019

Baseball is often referred to as “America’s Pastime,” and a reflection of the American ideal. At the same time, few cities represent the traditional picture of American success, failure, and reinvention quite like Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh’s love affair with baseball, and the Pirates specifically, has lasted nearly 130 years through which the team has seen the city at the height of its industrial power, the struggles of reinvention through the Pittsburgh Renaissance, and the renewal surrounding advanced technology and education. Each era had been viewed from ballparks unique to that time. The evolving home of the Pirates encapsulates the city’s attempts at reinvention and the powerful pull of being considered a major league city.

Baseball came of age during the industrial revolution, but its roots are anchored in the rural cemetery and parks movements of the early Nineteenth Century. Increasingly dense urban centers created chaotic spaces and health concerns. Cemeteries located next to neighborhood churches were overcrowded and blamed for disease outbreaks [1]. To combat these negative aspects of early city life, cemeteries on the urban edge began to be developed in the 1830s. Mount Auburn, on the outskirts of Boston, was the first of this new wave, built where the city can still be seen but the visitor is engulfed in nature [2]. New York and Philadelphia followed close behind, with Allegheny Cemetery outside of Pittsburgh opening by 1842 [3]. Henry Bellows, in 1831, declared that rural cemeteries “are not for the dead. They are for the living [2].” Quickly these cemeteries became tourist destinations in their own right, used for carriage rides and leisurely strolls, but no active recreation was to be allowed. The distance to reach these cemeteries also came into question, leading city leaders to consider ways to provide this open space within the city itself. The parks movement sought to address these concerns by focusing on urban parks within reach of the wider masses. Central Park in New York is, perhaps, the most well known of this era with its emphasis on passive recreation and leisure. Much to the chagrin of working class individuals, active recreation and organized sports were forbidden within these parks [4]. The clamor for open space had not succeeded in providing opportunities for all people, but a park in Pittsburgh would soon combine the two desires in a unique way. In 1889, Mary Schenley would donate 300 acres of her family’s estate to the city of Pittsburgh in order to form Schenley Park in the rapidly growing Oakland neighborhood [5]. Twenty years later the park would welcome a new tenant; the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Allegheny Cemetery

Carnegie Library

Homestead Steel

Liberty and Fifth Aves

The Gilded Age, in which Schenley had made her donation, would see a diverging world within Pittsburgh, as the city would be engulfed in smoke and pollution while those who profited off of this pollution would begin a tradition of philanthropy matched by few other cities. By 1865 Pittsburgh was producing 40 percent of the iron ore in the United States. Fire and smoke from the plants filled the air. A reporter for the Atlantic Monthly in 1866 would describe the view of Pittsburgh as if “looking over into hell with the lid taken off [6].” Soon steel took the place of iron ore as the top manufacturing product of the region as Andrew Carnegie rose to prominence. Carnegie Steel, from 1888-1900, produced 30 percent of the steel in the U.S., which was equivalent to 80 percent of the entire output of England during this time [6]. Pittsburgh’s population exploded due in large part to this ever expanding industrial powerhouse that had been built. From 1870 to 1910, the city grew from 139,256 to 533,905, providing a constant flow of workers for plants [7]. Pollution from these plants was so heavy that the city was required to run street lamps during the day [8]. Yet, these industries created incredible wealth for those in charge. Andrew Carnegie would sell his steel empire to J.P. Morgan for just under $500 million, which would overwhelmingly be spent on the creation of museums, libraries, music halls, and the founding of Carnegie Tech. Over $25 million would be spent on his Pittsburgh library which anchored his investments in the Oakland neighborhood [9]. Carnegie saw his investments in the cultural center of Oakland as a way to “civilize” the common man, as he famously did not pay high wages as he felt he would spend the money more wisely. The local papers exalted Carnegie for his investments, but the working class remained skeptical of these acts. As a whole, workers became more invested in a new form of consumer driven recreational activities, namely watching a baseball game [7]. During this time, the Pittsburgh Pirates had been playing at Exhibition Park, a rundown ballpark on the banks of the Allegheny River, which flooded often. While upper class patrons attended games along with their working class counterparts, women were a rare site as they were not fond of its Northside neighborhood. Barney Dreyfuss, the owner of the Pirates, knew that baseball could become a higher class institution and sought the help of Franklin Nicola, a real estate agent in Oakland. Dreyfuss recognized the important developments happening within Oakland at the hand of Carnegie and wanted the Pirates to become part of this new cultural center. Through Nicola, Dreyfuss and Carnegie worked together to purchase a seven acre piece of Schenley Park, bringing the Pirates closer to their new home [5].

Forbes Field

Entrance to Forbes Field

Forbes Field/ Schenley Park

Dreyfuss’s decision to move the Pirates to Oakland resulted in a ballpark that would define an entire era of baseball and lift the sport to the level of a civic institution it remains at today. Early ballparks were often located on peripheral neighborhoods where land was cheap, allowing owners to buy up a large number of lots for a minimal price. Moving to Schenley Park saw the Pirates integrating into an established upper middle class neighborhood with natural views unlike any other park [4]. While not the first concrete and steel ballpark, coming just months after Shibe Park in Philadelphia, Dreyfuss built Forbes Field as the most innovative park up to that time with an aim to integrate it into the cultural center around him. Forbes Field’s exterior was built to complement the museums and library nearby, with arches and pillars producing a grand presence, reflecting the City Beautiful movement’s emphasis on architectural beauty as a way to improve urban conditions. Author Robert Trumpbour puts it as such, “Forbes Field was intentionally designed to be more upscale, with the hope that such a plan would not only attract the affluent, but the multitude of average citizens clinging to dreams of becoming rich [7].” Underground parking for automobiles, telephones, women’s bathrooms, and laundry machines to wash uniforms were just some of the unique touches of this modern stadium, which was to be expected in one of the most progressive cities in the country. Electric lights were also installed with the hopes of conducting night games in the future [7]. Even with these modern touches, many originally labeled this move as “Dreyfuss’s Folly,” due to the distance from downtown. It would be quickly proven that the ten minute trolley ride was no obstacle for fans [4]. Business leaders and working class citizens both flocked to the park, each seeing the game as a representation of their worlds and values. Business leaders saw baseball as a real time example of managerial hierarchy working towards a common goal. Meanwhile, workers saw baseball as exemplifying the importance of an individual’s craft [7]. With such a robust fanbase and a home at the cultural heart of the city, the team began to be seen as part of Pittsburgh. One newspaper covering the Pirates would proclaim, “Nothing advertises a city like a good baseball team [7].”

Pittsburgh’s civic pride was on an upswing internally, but external forces continually brought the economic fortunes of the city into question. In 1930, Harper’s Magazine published an article titled, “Is Pittsburgh Civilized?”, followed by a 1938 article in Forum titled, “Pittsburgh: What a City Shouldn’t Be [10].” The Pittsburgh Survey, a sociological look at the city in the first few decades of the Twentieth Century, concluded that, “never before has a great community applied what it had so meagerly to the rational purposes of human life [6].” Pittsburgh’s reputation relied heavily upon the steel industry which continually went through boom-and-bust cycles. Steel production plummeted during the 1930s, resulting in one-third of Pittsburgh residents being unemployed. Changes were needed and the corporate leaders of the city were first to act. In 1939, the Allegheny Conference on Community Development (ACCD) was founded by Richard King Mellon, heir to the Mellon banking fortune, and 24 top business leaders of the region, with the express aim of modernizing Pittsburgh. Howard Heinz, owner of the Heinz Corporation and member of ACCD, met Robert Moses at the 1939 New York World’s Fair and invited him back to the city to develop a plan to modernize the arterial roadways of the region. His final plan called for major boulevards to cut across the Lower Hill neighborhood, which was predominantly African-American. He described the neighborhood as a, “… slum that is no credit to Pittsburgh, and which has a depressing effect on available surrounding property [6].” Before the board could act on any recommendations World War II sparked the Pittsburgh economy, throwing the city into overdrive. The demand for steel put all revitalization plans on the back burner for the time being, but they would resurface before the war was over.

Composite of Planned Lower Hill Developments - 1965Source: Carnegie Mellon University — Composite of Planned Lower Hill Developments - 1965
Source: Carnegie Mellon University

More than a year before World War II would end, Pittsburgh leaders would be shaping what would become known as the Pittsburgh Renaissance. A 1944 article by the Wall Street Journal would rate Pittsburgh as a “Class D” city, signaling a bleak economic future. During this time period, downtown real estate values were dropping by over $10 million per year [11]. Two years later, the business community had a response. The 75th anniversary for the Kaufman’s department store was celebrated with a Pittsburgh in Progress exhibition that laid the groundwork for the Pittsburgh Renaissance, emphasizing solutions to the pollution crisis and addressing the fear that the city would lose its industrial base. ACCD followed up with their report, Pittsburgh: Challenge and Response, which argued the city needed large scale development and radical thinking, comparing it to the founding of the country nearly two centuries before [6]. While some of these civic plans would be spearheaded by the city, many more were privately funded and built. R.K. Mellon worked closely with Mayor Lawrence in order to achieve many of the initial goals, including reductions in air pollution and flooding issues. Mellon, as the largest stakeholder in the worst offending corporations, threatened to pull financial support from local companies that did not comply with the new mandates [10]. At the same time, ACCD returned to the plans laid out by Robert Moses, including the possibility of a multi-use sports stadium in the Lower Hill neighborhood. This plan was quickly removed from consideration after evaluating the sheer cost of relocating thousands residents. In its place, the 18,000 seat Civic Auditorium was built. While originally garnering favor among residents due to promises of expanded affordable housing in the neighborhood, support waned when those promises were not kept [6]. Over 8,000 residents were relocated along with the demolition of 1,300 buildings and 413 businesses [10]. ACCD also looked to lure corporations to Pittsburgh. Equitable Life Insurance Society, out of New York, agreed to relocate to Pittsburgh as part of its revitalization efforts. Eleven buildings were initially promised around The Point, the tip of downtown where three rivers converge, but only three would be built due to low occupancy rates. Equitable would describe Pittsburgh as a city who’s “appetite exceeds its digestion [10].” This desire to be a bigger city would factor into the fear of losing the Pirates as the landscape of baseball shifted while the Renaissance was in full swing.

As suburban growth accelerated and westward expansion continued, Major League Baseball began to see a shake up take place that would rattle cities who have grown to see their baseball teams as permanent fixtures in their community. Five teams would leave their home cities to expand westward [5]. At the same time, the league began expanding in 1960 to accommodate more teams and to put pressure on older teams to improve their ballpark facilities [12]. Sunbelt cities were actively pursuing existing franchises, promising larger stadiums built with public funding. New York, having lost two of its three teams, also began exploring attracting the Cincinnati Reds along with the Pirates, until they were awarded a new franchise with the Mets in 1962 [11]. A general feeling settled in for legacy cities, best summed up by author Aaron Cowan, that the, “…loss of a professional sports franchise amounted to a tacit admission that a city was dying [11].”

Not only were the Pirates, and Pittsburgh as a whole, fighting the demographic shift to the south and west, but also how progress was being defined in the Oakland neighborhood. In 1958, the University of Pittsburgh purchased the land beneath Forbes Field and began renting the ballpark to the Pirates. Their initial agreement for four years would eventually grow into twelve as the Pirates struggled to find a new home [5]. As the Renaissance kicked into high gear, the University took a leading role as it looked to establish itself as a national leader in emerging technologies. With limited developable land in Oakland, Forbes Field offered the best opportunity to expand [11]. The original plan for Forbes Field included converting the ballpark into affordable housing or into a mix-use pavilion, but the ballpark would come down in the end to make room for dormitories. The University also sought to create a research park, named Panther Hollow, that would be also be used by Carnegie Mellon University, formerly Carnegie Tech, but it would never be built. Oakland would continue to see itself grow as the educational and cultural hub of the city, with expansions to art museums and the construction of the WQED PBS station, where “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” would be filmed [6]. This left the Pirates with few choices moving forward.

Three Rivers Stadiums

Three Rivers Interior

Three Rivers Stadium

Talks of a multi-purpose sports stadium in Pittsburgh had been around since the 1950s as a way to maintain the presence of baseball and football within the city and attract newly suburbanized families back to the city. As part of the early stages of the Pittsburgh Renaissance a tract of land on the Northside just across the Allegheny River from downtown was eyed as a potential site for the stadium. As the 1960s rolled on this site became increasingly likely for a new stadium. Before construction could begin, the 84 acre site was cleared [6]. Old warehouses and defunct railroad tracks were removed, along with the relocation of 63 residents. Clearance was paid for by $14 million in federal urban renewal funds along with $5.5 million from both the city and county. Three Rivers Stadium, as it would be known, would be paid for through $40 million in 40 year city bonds, along with a 40 year lease agreement with both the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Pittsburgh Steelers [11]. An original design for the stadium called for a horseshoe design opening up to the downtown skyline [6]. After estimates came back $12 million over budget, the city opted for an enclosed oval that was easier to engineer. By closing the circle the stadium would act as a barrier between the fans and the city, creating a controlled space within the urban core that many at the time saw as desirable [11]. Suburbanites envisioned the city as a dangerous place, leading the team owners and city officials to pursue a stadium that would reduce any amount of time these visitors would need to spend in the urban core. A key aspect of this design was direct connections to the highway that would lead into the parking lots that surrounded the stadium. Although pedestrian connections were originally considered, they were never implemented as part of the project [11]. The end result was a stadium devoid of any personality or connection to the city, essentially creating a suburban friendly space within the urban environment at the expense of city residents.

Three Rivers Stadium opened 1970 near the end of the Pittsburgh Renaissance and remained one of the most visible failures of the time period. While downtown Pittsburgh and the Oakland neighborhood saw rejuvenation and life brought back to them, the neighborhoods just outside of downtown saw a mixed response. Over 3,700 buildings were razed, displacing over 1,500 businesses. The Point was transformed into a popular state park. Over 22,000 jobs relocated to newly built office towers around the Point after the $118 million project was completed, only $600,000 of which were public funds [10]. The national press heralded the Pittsburgh Renaissance as a success, often showcasing glamor shots of the gleaming new buildings, many of which showcased new construction techniques. They often overlooked many of the nuances in how the community perceived these changes. The Pittsburgh Courier, a prominent local newspaper in the African-American community, originally championed many of the changes, including the efforts in the Lower Hill neighborhood. The praise quickly changed to critique and outrage as promises continued to fall through on creating affordable housing as part of these efforts [6]. Jane Jacobs famously critiqued the city’s efforts as erasing chaos and character to replace it with monotony [6]. While only a small piece of the urban renewal effort in Pittsburgh, the sameness and monotony of Three Rivers Stadium would often be critiqued, even by players. Richie Hebner, a former third basemen for the Pirates, once remarked, “I stand at the plate in Philadelphia and I don’t honestly know whether I’m in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, St. Louis or Philly. They all look alike [11].”

A monumental shift in ballpark design would soon coincide with a shift in the collective perception of cities. The SkyDome in Toronto, completed in 1989, would mark the end of an era defined by “futuristic” concrete coliseums and domes. As the era ended, a new one quietly began in Buffalo, New York where a ballpark with a more classic feel would be introduced in 1988. Pilot Field sat within the downtown Buffalo grid instead of surrounding itself with parking lots. Arches along the outside mimicked the iron work of classic ballparks and the size of the park fit its space within the neighborhood. While the attempt to draw a Major League team to the city failed, the groundbreaking nature of the ballpark would inspire a new era of planning [4]. At the same time Buffalo was attempting to attract a team, Baltimore was looking to save their own. In 1984 the Baltimore Colts fled to Indianapolis when a promised multi-use sports stadium continually fell through. Edward Bennett Williams, the owner of the Baltimore Orioles, leveraged the fear of losing both professional franchises to pressure the state into supporting a new stadium. Having grown up in Pittsburgh, Williams understood the failures of the Three Rivers Stadium design compared to the successes of Forbes Field. He forced the state to abandon the idea of a multi-use stadium, which they hoped would attract a new football team, in favor of a baseball specific facility in the heart of the city. Camden Yards, located on an old rail bed, would soon become the new standard the ballparks were measured against [4]. Baseball teams were looking to return to their urban roots and reintegrate into the urban fabric. The idea that a new neighborhood ballpark could become part of the life of a city again, where, “…even persons who were not rich could live well,” instead of the newly outdated notion of safety within suburbia [13]. Essentially, the movement back to the city would allow the game to grow its fan base and support within the region. Although the planning in this era of ballparks was a vast improvement over the last, it would be marked by these forms of pressure campaigns seen in Baltimore. Congress understood the pressures that cities were under to provide stadiums for their professional sports teams and hoped to curb that pressure in 1986. By closing a tax exemption, Congress capped a city’s ability to use revenues and lease payments to pay back tax-free bonds for stadiums at less than 10 percent, which would mean a city would need to raise taxes to pay for 90 percent of the cost. The assumption was that cities would never agree to such terms [14]. With another expansion to the Major Leagues in 1990, a building boom driven by municipal financing soon followed. Over the course of the next twenty years, the average stadium age would drop from 31.8 years to 20.9 years, signaling a willingness of cities, including Pittsburgh, to fund these large scale projects [12].

PNC Park from Above

PNC Park Entrance

PNC Park and Heinz Field

After the flurry of development during the Pittsburgh Renaissance, the city found itself looking to embrace its new, smaller size and stitch back together the neighborhoods that made it unique. By the early 1990s, the failures of Three Rivers Stadium were evident. Residents and fans often complained about the lack of accessibility, even though its highway connections were meant to make accessibility its main selling point to the suburban crowds. In between the 1991 and 1992 seasons, Mayor Sophie Masloff announced a plan to build a new baseball specific park, just twenty years after Three Rivers had opened its doors. This was all but an admission that the plans of the past had failed to address the needs of the city and its teams [5]. It was also an admission of the reality of Major League Baseball. The Pirates, as part of their 1996 sale, were required by the league to build a new ballpark or risk having the franchise moved [4]. Pittsburgh had seen its urban population drop from over 677,000 in 1950 to just over 300,000, while maintaining a stagnant metropolitan population of around 2.4 million [15]. Other cities had been growing quickly and were angling to land a major league team to cement their new status. The Pirates and Steelers were both in positions to be lost, prompting the city to act. The State of Pennsylvania granted the Pittsburgh region permission to vote on a tax increase to fund two stadiums, which would be built in the parking lots of Three Rivers. The vote failed spectacularly, with over 68 percent of residents voting it down, including 58 percent of city residents [16]. Residents were not willing to spend public funds on these stadiums, yet they also overwhelmingly acknowledged viewing these teams as integral to the civic pride of the city [16]. Pushing forward with plans to preserve Pittsburgh’s status as a major league city, the Allegheny Regional Asset District (RAD) agreed to put up $13 million per year to pay off the bonds for Three Rivers Stadium as well as the demolition costs. The Pirates and the Steelers both agreed to putting up the funds for a significant portion of the development, along with attracting local business leaders to invest. By 1999, the State of Pennsylvania approved additional funding for both stadiums in Pittsburgh, along with two stadiums in Philadelphia [16]. While Three Rivers Stadium seemed desolate and separated from the city, PNC Park would become an integral part of its surroundings. Building off city planning efforts from the 1980s and 1990s, the ballpark would include park space along the riverfront and pedestrian access on all sides. The Roberto Clemente Bridge, named after one of the Pirates’ most famous players, is often converted into a pedestrian only bridge directly connecting downtown Pittsburgh with PNC Park, similar to how original plans for Three Rivers had envisioned. Built with a capacity of around 38,000, the ballpark is one of the smallest parks in use today. The smaller capacity allowed the stadium to be built with two decks instead of three, creating a smaller profile more reminiscent of Forbes Field, and fitting with the Northside neighborhood it resides within. Architectural references to the city around it, including the use of Kasota stone and exposed steel, give the ballpark a feel of civic importance and unity that was lost with the concrete of Three Rivers [4]. PNC Park quickly became considered one of the greatest ballparks in baseball and a true asset for the city. In 2003, Jim Caple of ESPN remarked, “Ray Kinsella [Field of Dreams] was wrong. Baseball heaven isn’t in Iowa. It’s in Pittsburgh, along the banks of the Allegheny River [4].”

Baseball was not the only aspect of civic life being rewoven into the urban fabric of Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, beginning in 1984, has worked to reimagine a number of old theaters located in the old Red Light District. Directly across the river from PNC Park, the Cultural District has grown to include theaters for the Pittsburgh Symphony and Opera, modern dance groups, Broadway musicals, and more avant garde productions. Benefitting from many of the philanthropic organizations that have sustained cultural touchstones throughout the city, the Cultural District has been able to diversify its offerings to an extent many similar size cities are unable to [17]. Outside of the Cultural District, old mill sites have been transformed into retail and design centers, as well as museums. The Pittsburgh Technology Center converted an industrial site from 1849 into a tech research center where Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh have teamed up. And adjacent to the newly built stadiums resides the largest art museum dedicated to a single artist in the country, the Andy Warhol Museum [18]. Art, technology, and sports have woven themselves into Pittsburgh, much in the same way they once had over a century ago, creating links to the neighborhoods and history around them.

Roberto ClementeSource: Zinn Education Program — Roberto Clemente
Source: Zinn Education Program

Even with this new focus on neighborhood planning and urban development, these institutions’ physical presence alone does not help correct the issues of the city’s past. Currently over 13 percent of Allegheny County residents live below the poverty line, with one-third living near it. Communities of color, single-parent households, and youth are often the most impacted [19]. The large philanthropic interests of the city’s corporate leaders have looked to address many of these lingering issues that have resulted from past urban planning efforts. The Pittsburgh Pirates have begun a multitude of charities, nestled under the banner of Pirates Charities, that focus on childhood well being, nutrition, and physical health [20]. The Roberto Clemente Foundation, run by the family of the former Pirates player, has focused on addressing long-term poverty and aid for natural disaster recovery, primarily within Pittsburgh and Caribbean nations. The team and these organizations, as of late, have adopted a stance best summed up by Roberto Clemente: “If you have an opportunity to accomplish something that will make things better for someone coming behind you, and you don’t do that, you are wasting your time on this earth [21].”

Pittsburgh’s evolution from industrial powerhouse through deindustrialization and suburbanization to a progressive mid-size city today has been showcased on a national stage through the ballparks of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Forbes Field showcased the modernization and civic minded nature of the early Twentieth Century. Three Rivers Stadium looked to create a controlled space within the urban center to appeal to suburbanites fleeing the city. And PNC Park embraced a smaller scale city that wanted to balance its past with the future, which includes making amends for the past and current injustices experienced by the community it seeks to be a part of. Baseball may not be the perfect analogy for America, but the ballparks that house the teams continue to represent the duality of American desires; rural pastures and industrial might.

[1] Patricia J. Finney. “Landscape Architecture and the ‘Rural’ Cemetery Movement.” Center for Research Libraries. https://www.crl.edu/focus/article/8246

[2] Bender, Thomas. “The ‘Rural’ Cemetery Movement: Urban Travail and the Appeal of Nature.” The New England Quarterly (June 1974): 196-211 https://blogs.stockton.edu/nature/files/2011/09/Bender-The-Rural-Cemetery-Movement.pdf

[3] Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. “1833-1875: Rural Cemetery Movement.” Accessed October 5, 2019. http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/cemetery-preservation/development/1833-1875.html

[4] Goldberger, Paul. Ballpark: Baseball in the American City. New York. Alfred A. Knopf, 2019.

[5] Bonk, Daniel L. “Ballpark Figures: The Story of Forbes Field.” Pittsburgh History (Summer 1993), 52-70

[6] Grimley, Chris, Kubo, Michael, Samahy, Rami el. Imagining the Modern: Architecture and Urbanism of the Pittsburgh Renaissance. Pittsburgh. The Monacelli Press, 2019.

[7] Tumpbour, Robert. “Forbes Field and the Progressive Era.” In Forbes Field: Essays and Memories of the Pirates' Historic Ballpark, 1909-1971. Edited by David Cicotello and Angelo J. Louisa, 25-35. McFarland and Company, Incorporated Publishers, 2007.

[8] Byrnes, Mark. “What Pittsburgh Looked Like When It Decided It Had A Pollution Problem.” City Lab. June 5, 2012. https://www.citylab.com/design/2012/06/what-pittsburgh-looked-when-it-decided-it-had-pollution-problem/2185/

[9] Dietrich II, William S.. “Andrew Carnegie: The Black and the White.” Pittsburgh Quarterly , Summer 2007 https://pittsburghquarterly.com/pq-people-opinion/pq-history/item/359-andrew-carnegie-black-white.html

[10] Fitzpatrick, Dan. “The Story of Urban Renewal.” The Post-Gazette , May 21, 2000. http://old.post-gazette.com/businessnews/20000521eastliberty1.asp

[11] Cowan, Aaron. “A Whole New Ball Game: Sports Stadiums and Urban Renewal in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis, 1950-1970.” Ohio Valley History, Fall 2005. http://library.cincymuseum.org/topics/b/files/baseball/ovh-v05-n3-who-063.pdf

[12] J-Doug. “Stadium Boom Amounts to Fountain of Youth for MLB Parks.” SB Nation. January 4, 2011. https://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2011/1/4/1912546/stadium-boom-amounts-to-fountain-of-y outh-for-mlb-parks

[13] Bess, Philip. “The Grace of Neighborhood Ballparks: The Guidelines for Urban Baseball After the Era of Cheap Petroleum.” 2008 Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University: 28-39. https://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/75225.pdf

[14] Paulas, Rick. “Sports Stadiums Are a Bad Deal for Cities.” The Atlantic. November 21, 2018. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/11/sports-stadiums-can-be-bad-cities/5763 34/

[15] Benfield, Ken. “Where Pittsburgh Has the Sunbelt Beat.” City Lab. February 2, 2012. https://www.citylab.com/life/2012/02/where-pittsburgh-has-sun-belt-beat/1158/

[16] Groothuis, Peter A., Johnson, Bruce K., Whitehead, John C.. “Public Funding of Professional Sports Stadiums: Public Choice or Civic Pride.” Eastern Economic Journal vol. 30, no. 4, Fall 2004: 515-526

[17] Tierney, John. “How the Arts Drove Pittsburgh’s Revitalization.” The Atlantic. December 11, 2014. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/12/how-the-cultural-arts-drove-pittsburghs-re vitalization/383627/

[18] Smith, Caitlin. “Pittsburgh, City of Renewal.” The Atlantic . September 2009. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/09/pittsburgh-city-of-renewal/307700/

[19] Pittsburgh Foundation, The. “Poverty In Our Region.” Accessed October 5, 2019 https://pittsburghfoundation.org/poverty-in-region

[20] Major League Baseball. “Pirates Charities,” Pittsburgh Pirates. Accessed November 25, 2019. https://www.mlb.com/pirates/community/pirates-charities

[21] Roberto Clemente Foundation“Roberto Clemente Foundation Community Outreach,” Accessed November 25, 2019. https://robertoclementefoundation.com/community-outreach-2/

What Going to the Ballpark Means to Me

October 16, 2019

Increasingly it feels as though society has become more isolated. Often we blame phones and social media, but those don’t necessarily have to isolate us. In the right context they can be used to bring us together and keep us involved with those that matter to us. Another usual talking point is the decreasing importance of organized religion in much of the country. While I don’t believe the specific religion is important, I do believe there is something about having a set aside time to be with others that you don’t work with and are not related to. Religion is not the only thing that brings people together, but in some ways it is the most apt comparison to how I feel about going to a ballgame.

Growing up, every family trip revolved around a baseball game. Pittsburgh, Toronto, New York, Cleveland, all great cities to visit and all have a major league baseball team. Two things were guaranteed on a family trip: church on Sunday and a baseball game Friday or Saturday, sometimes both. I wasn’t always the most interested in the game but I still loved the atmosphere at the big stadiums in these cities I always wanted to go to.

PNC Park

Yankee Stadium

Citi Field

Dodgers Stadium

This past year was the first time I had invested in season tickets for the Syracuse Mets (previously the Chiefs), but over the last decade or so I’ve attended more and more games each season. While I was raised in a family that loved baseball, it took going to games with two of my closest friends, Rebecca and Terry, in high school to revive my interest in the game. We’d borrow extra tickets from Rebecca’s parents, who had season tickets, and sit amongst their usual seat neighbors in section 207. At first it was just an excuse to hang out outside on a summer night, but quickly became something I just plain loved to do.

An article from The Athletic described baseball as a sport that you come back to as you get older. Some people stay with the game their entire life, others drift away and return, but almost always to the team of their childhood. That is something unique to baseball over most other sports; the dedication to a team and a place, not a big name player (which is often the case in the NBA and, at times, soccer). But there is a reason that you come back to baseball, and it may be that communal experience that, to me, is unlike other sports.

Over the last season in Syracuse I became one of those fans at a majority of games and began to recognize many of the same faces day after day. You don’t know them, but at the same time it’s nice to know they are there with the same spirit you have for the team. The GM wanders the stands and greets fans, often stopping to talk as he gets to know you more. Baseball has a pace that lets you wander the stadium and see people that you didn’t come to the game with but know they are there. While the game is the central focus, the social atmosphere adds to the experience and is part of why we think of our memories of coming to the ballpark with such fondness. These are the moments that remind me of church and the feeling of being part of a community.

This community continues online with local fan pages that post photos of kids and families at the ballpark and organized events to root for the team. In some ways, this fanbase feels more intimate because it’s for a minor league team in a smaller stadium. It lets the fans feel more connected to the game and to each other. These are some of the reasons I have focused so much on how to improve the area around NBT Bank Stadium as I feel the community of fans and neighbors deserve a place that reflects the communal aspect of the game of baseball. But these same feelings can be felt at major league stadiums, which is why fans make journeys to see their favorite teams play and why so many people wear baseball caps of those teams.

I may not consider myself to be a very religious person, but I do believe the ballpark is a special place that can help provide that sense of belonging that religion has in the past. How people find community does not matter, as long as they feel as though they belong. For me that is how I feel when I’m at the ballpark.

I-81 near the Syracuse Regional Transportation Center, December 2018

Think Big About Syracuse In Winter - The Salt City Games

February 2, 2019

One of the things I hear most often from people who have moved out of Syracuse, or even from those who live there, is that there isn’t anything to do. They say that’s especially true in the winter months when everyone is hunkered down, only venturing out for the occasional SU basketball game or a Syracuse Crunch hockey game. While I disagree with Governor Cuomo that the main reason people move away from New York is the cold weather, I do think there is something to that.

We’ve let the narrative of people suffering through the long, cold winter months define what Syracuse is. Beyond Syracuse University, the first thing people think of when they hear “Syracuse” is cold and snow. We let that become a negative thought that helps push people away from the city and from the region as a whole. But does our long winter with feet upon feet of snow have to be a bad thing? Or is there a way that we can rebrand ourselves and embrace what makes us unique: the snowiest big city (population over 100,000) in the United States.

Growing up in Syracuse, sledding was always my go-to winter activity. I was terrible, and still am, at ice skating, and I never quite got the hang of snowboarding or skiing. Yet here I was in a city that gets blanketed with ten feet of snow every year. Some of my friends picked up these sports and some ended up being great at them, but it was never a large number. Part of the reason might be because a lot of the winter sports require a financial investment up front; buy/rent the skates, buy/rent the skis, join ski club which may cost $200 that most families don’t have lying around. I bring this fact up because the city of Syracuse is home to many families who can’t afford to take up the winter sports, even though we’re in a prime location to not only take them up but excel at them.

This is my starting point and it will lead to an idea of how to celebrate winter throughout the city while shouting to the outside world that Syracuse is a winter destination that you need to experience.

Syracuse Northside, 2017

Franklin Square, 2018

Invest In Winter for Kids

While there are free skate nights at the rinks in Syracuse and plenty of hills to sled and snowboard down (if you have equipment), we need to invest in bringing kids into these sports. Unless you grow up in a family that has been involved with hockey, or skiing, or skating, you’re not likely to get involved with it yourself. Unlike basketball or soccer, you can’t just go up to the nearby park and start playing. There’s a learning curve that you need someone to reassure you about. This has resulted in hockey leagues being travel leagues, meaning it’s out of reach for anyone that doesn’t have the ability to commit to such a schedule.

Investing in programs in the city schools and other neighboring districts to introduce and encourage winter sports could open up a whole new world to some of these kids. Start at a young age, get them comfortable being on the ice, and watch kids with untapped athleticism embrace a new sport. Much like the donations of bikes to kids in need every summer, why not encourage donations of winter athletic gear? Lower the point of entry and provide the support needed to start a new sport.

Outside of sports, why not use the snow as part of our education system. Use the snow to teach architecture, engineering, physics, etc. Build igloos and other structures to tap into cultural education about how these structures have been used throughout history. Art classes could introduce ice sculpting along with more traditional forms of sculpture.

Creating this connection to the snow, connection to the cold, and connection to our environment as a whole will help to reshape our relationship with winter. It doesn’t need to be seen as the season of darkness. but instead we should embrace hygge (pronounced hue-guh), which is a Danish and Norwegian term about coziness and wellness especially in the colder months. It is in the spirit of hygge that we should not only get kids more involved with winter sports and crafts, but also create a full on celebration of the city during this time.

Syracuse has worked to create events in the winter, including the introduction of the New York State Winter Fair this year. While these festivals and events have done a lot to get people out and active, in some ways they aim too low. Winter shouldn’t just be about getting our residents out, but about introducing new reasons for travelers to come to town. With this I look to borrow the name of the Salt City Games from the Park Department’s summer event and repurpose it as almost a regional Olympic Winter Games. Before you say that this could never work (because I know many people will be thinking in that way) it’s worth exploring what exactly this could be. At least what I envision for it.

The Salt City Games

Syracuse would become the epicenter of winter sports and culture for two weekends in the winter. Not just downtown, but throughout the city and into the inner rings suburbs as we attract athletes and artists from across the region to compete.

Syracuse Crunch, 2018

Syracuse Crunch Fans, 2018

Hockey

One of the major draws would be a youth hockey tournament played across the city. Teams from neighboring cities and towns would join our local high school teams in a tournament that would culminate in an outdoor game at NBT Bank Stadium. On the same weekend as the final for the high school tournament would be games played by Syracuse University, SUNY Oswego, and RIT at the stadium, with the last game of the event being played by the Syracuse Crunch (ideally against either Rochester or Utica to bring in additional regional fans).

This would allow NBT Bank Stadium to thrive in the winter and promote businesses that line Hiawatha Blvd. to fans flocking to the games. The Crunch have repeatedly expressed interest in doing an outdoor game at the stadium, much as Rochester did at the Red Wings stadium years ago. While the Syracuse Chiefs originally balked at the idea recently, by including these other events and institutions in the discussion may put enough pressure on the Syracuse Mets to embrace the idea moving forward.

Cross Country Skiing

A signature event for the Salt City Games would be the 30km (about 18 miles) cross country skiing race. What would make this race dramatically different than other races in the sport would be its urban nature. By this I mean filling city streets with snow to allow the course to wind its way through different neighborhoods and straight through Downtown Syracuse before working its way out to NBT Bank Stadium for the finish line. Treating this event like an urban marathon will give it a unique appeal to athletes looking for a new, challenging event. At the same time showcasing the beauty of the city in winter.

Curling

Curling is one of those sports that’s often mocked by people who haven’t spent much time watching it. And yet every Winter Olympics it becomes a hot topic once again. With multiple curling clubs across Upstate New York this could become a vibrant event to attract new players. Similar to hockey, this would be a tournament format but will culminate in the semi finals and finals being played at the War Memorial.

Art and Culture Showcase

Much like Winterfest, this festival will also include ice sculpting, chili cook-offs, and any other cultural touchstone that can be incorporated. This is the part of the festival that is the most flexible and would hopefully include music and performances, both outside and inside. The city should be a constant ebb and flow of life, light, and music throughout these weekends.

Invest In Winter

Through these events and these investments we should be looking to change our perspective on winter and what it means for our city. There will always be people who look to travel to warmer climates during winter but there’s no reason we can’t catch the eye of plenty of people looking to embrace the snow.

Beyond these programs I still believe major bus stations should be outfitted with heating systems for patrons, and additional heating lamps throughout the city in high traffic areas. We shouldn’t fear going outside because of the cold. Through these heating spots you show residents and the world that we’re a city that cares and a city that embraces its lot in life. That’s a community people want to visit and live in.

While these aren’t your normal economic development ideas, I think we need to think bigger and think boldly about how we want the world to see us.

Grant Boulevard and the Heart of the Northside: Part Three - The Baseball Stadium

September 14, 2018

So far in this series I have focused on a very small section of Grant Blvd., from Darlington to Butternut. This has always been the core of my neighborhood, where everything happened on a day-to-day basis. But that is not the only part of Grant, and in reality its most important resident resides at the very end of the street: the baseball stadium.

Growing up on the Northside I was lucky to be so close to the stadium, and in recent years I’ve loved taking advantage of living so close to where I could stop by a game whenever I wanted. You start to see the same faces in the stands and make a connection to the team, to the point where you’re one of the few people to have a favourite Syracuse Chief (Irving Falu over the past few seasons). This stadium and this team create a community within the city. Sadly its physical placement has never allowed for that community to expand outside the gates.

The stadium is surrounded by its own massive parking lot, a refrigerated warehouse and its parking lot, and industrial wasteland. There are no sidewalks leading to the stadium, and even if there were you’d have to walk gingerly through a busy parking lot before getting to the actual stadium. Many people will see that parking lot as an asset, along with its close proximity to I-81 for quick entrances and exits, but both of these factors work together in isolating the stadium from its Northside community, where the team has played for over 80 years.

I include this as part of my Grant Blvd. series because Grant should act as the main entrance to the stadium area. Its the path I’ve always taken in and out and provides the greatest opportunity in reshaping this community. The corners of Grant and Hiawatha and Grant and Wolf provide a business corridor that should be expanded with mix-use facilities that grow towards the stadium.

With the Mets coming to town next season and a major stadium renovation being discussed, I think its important to look beyond just the stadium and see the potential that is there.

When I think of the truly great baseball stadiums I have been to, its hardly ever just about the stadium. The neighborhoods around these stadiums are filled with bars, restaurants, shops, and apartments. The neighborhood takes on a full on pride for the team, every bar broadcasting every game, becoming the home for fans even when the team is out of town. And this isn’t just true of stadiums in downtown areas, the Red Sox and Cubs are both in neighborhoods outside of their downtown areas, but the areas grew up around the stadiums. Or for a minor league comparison you can look to Rochester where their stadium is in the High Falls neighborhood outside of downtown, but in an area with a lot going on.

Our stadium will never be downtown. Let’s move past the arguments of the 1990s and focus on what is possible where the stadium sits and will continue to sit.

The first major change is the one most people will object to; we need to remove the massive parking lot in front of the stadium. This is crucial for the rest of my proposal. I do believe we need parking, but I think its worth investing in building two parking garages, one out behind right field where there is currently industrial wasteland, and the other across the street in the large parking lot in front of the refrigerated warehouse. These would not be massive, but they’d be assisted by newly created street parking.

NBT Bank Stadium today

Proposed street grid with zoning ideas

Where that parking lot stands would be converted into a street grid, extending Grant Blvd. right to the baseball stadium and opening up this land for development. Under the proposed Rezone Syracuse effort this area still remains zoned as industrial, which is a grave mistake. They should look to repurpose this land as mix-use development. There has already been a successful repurpose of an old warehouse just beyond the parking lot, proving that there is desire for modern apartments in the area. We should look to include some of that historic architecture into the other buildings in this newly formed grid. Take cues from the stadium and the neighborhood to make a cohesive environment, much like those that have been built up around Wrigley Field and Fenway.

This new development would become an anchor for the entire Northside, as not only Grant Blvd. but also North Salina St. lead to it, both streets being central business corridors for the neighborhood. This would bring the stadium into the neighborhood, becoming a focal point and gathering space. With additional park area within this new development there becomes opportunities to do pre-game festivals during the summer and keep people involved with the team during the winter. The annual Hot Stove dinner can be moved to a restaurant or bar right next door, ideally a bar that becomes to central hub for all things Syracuse sports; a bar that has every Chiefs and Crunch game playing on TV, as well as all of the SU sporting events.

The baseball stadium has been separated from its home neighborhood for too long, and its time that the Northside reclaims this land. With all of the assets this neighborhood has, it has sadly done a terrible job of connecting the people to them. With this grid, not only does the baseball stadium become more accessible, so does the Regional Market, our transportation hub, Destiny USA, and the new development around the Inner Harbor. We need to stop thinking of things in a vacuum, but instead envision how they all should connect to build upon each other.

The last bit of all of this is something I’ve talked about many times; revive and improve OnTrack. I’ve discussed this project idea before (I-81) so I won’t get into the nitty gritty of it, but its important to bring up. The idea of this rezoning and redevelopment would be to create a new central hub within the city, which would help create an increased demand for public transit. Allowing the public to have options to get around the city without a car is paramount to developing a city for the future. There is a want for walkable neighborhoods and freedom from car ownership, but the majority of our city has been gutted of these types of neighborhoods. This could be one of the catalysts to relaunch OnTrack and change how we interact with the city as a whole.

The vast empty land by the stadium.

What an urban neighborhood could begin to look like.