Strip District business owners concerned about new proposal to change a main road

PITTSBURGH — Business owners are pushing the city to change its construction plans in the Strip District.

Penn Avenue in the Strip District is lined with parking on both sides and two-lane traffic. It is filled with businesses and the City of Pittsburgh has put forward a proposal to change Penn Avenue to one lane and add a designated bike lane. Business owners say this would hurt their sales.

Kyle Houghtelin has worked at Penn Avenue Fish Market for more than a decade and said the restaurant, like many small businesses in the Strip District, relies on two things: foot traffic and deliveries. He says the new proposal could hurt both of those.

“We do get a lot of deliveries. These deliveries consist of box trucks to actual freight trucks, UPS, FedEx trucks, so with one restricted lane, it’s going to get tied up,” said Hougtelin.

According to the city, the Penn Avenue Rightsizing project plans to reconfigure Penn Avenue between 31st Street and 22nd Street by creating a single lane road with a dedicated bike lane, while maintaining parking on both sides of the street.

The goal of the project is to improve roadway safety and calm traffic but business owners said that the road is already safe during the day. They argued that the majority of accidents happen at night and are the result of a lack of speed enforcement.

Jim Cohen, the owner of Yinzers has said he and other members of the Strip District Association are now asking the city to provide them with other options that will not hurt their bottom line.

“Give us some other alternatives besides shutting the road down. Try some speed bumps, try some stop signs, try anything besides closing a major artery into the Strip District,” said Cohen.

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