The city of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership announced Envision Downtown on Thursday, a public-private partnership that aims to create more “complete streets” downtown. That means a better experience for pedestrians, improved transportation and better use of land.
Jeremy Waldrup, CEO of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, said the initiative will start with leaders who are downtown stakeholders, such as major employers, the philanthropic sector and academic leaders developing a comprehensive task list of what they want to see done and then implementing these new strategies. Within months, some changes will be made.
“We want the streets of downtown to be safer," Waldrup said. "We want to create more public spaces, we want to be the best stewards that we possibly can of our existing public spaces so that they are well-programmed and dynamic places that people where people will want to be from around the region.”
Some of the efforts will involve looking at how people come in and out of downtown, whether it be by bike, car or bus.
Downtown Pittsburgh has had over $3.2 billion of investment in the last eight years. Another $2.8 billion are planned.
“I think kind of testing these policies out and seeing them work in real time makes perfect sense for downtown to be the home for an initiative like this,” Waldrup said.
