The Beginning

Born and raised in a low-income, complicated home in Pittsburgh’s Carrick and Brookline neighborhoods, Nick Cotter started The Pittsburgh Neighborhood Project to educate Pittsburghers, and the public at large, on the causes and consequences of persistent racial and economic segregation and deindustrialization, in addition to exploring the beauty and uniqueness of each of Pittsburgh’s 90 neighborhoods. You can read more on why Nick started The Pittsburgh Neighborhood Project here or listen here.

In addition to The Pittsburgh Neighborhood Project, Nick works in “research to practice” for local government, where he does work in community violence reduction, affordable housing policy, poverty reduction and neighborhood effects. He is a graduate of Wheeling Jesuit University and the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon. Prior to working for the county, Nick was an AmeriCorps VISTA in Pittsburgh and then a caseworker for a local nonprofit. The views expressed via The Pittsburgh Neighborhood Project are Nick’s alone and may not represent those of his current or former employers.

Racial and Economic Segregation in Neighborhoods

A wide array of research show that the sort of neighborhoods we and our parents grow up in matter in shaping our long-term outcomes. However, there are large racial and economic disparities regarding who grows up in low-poverty, well resourced, opportunity rich neighborhoods and who doesn’t, especially for low-income Black families who disproportionately grow up in high poverty, under resourced, opportunity poor neighborhoods.

Our neighborhoods were segregated by design. While each city in the United States has its own history, and early and ongoing immigration patterns connected to industry, economic opportunity and transit shape the demographics and culture of neighborhoods, the spatial concentration of poverty and need in our cities tend to result from structural racism and classism in the form of: decades of discriminatory housing, lending, and land use policy; suburbanization and white flight following World War Two; highway construction through and urban renewal in our central cities; outmigration and the massive impact of deindustrialization and economic restructuring on cities in the Rustbelt and Northeast; the additional instability resulting from policies that did not address public health issues through a public health lens, such as mass incarceration and the War on Drugs; and through the demolition of Public Housing and its displacement of low-income residents to other low-income neighborhoods. Public Housing tended to be intentionally segregated to begin with and did not receive adequate funding for capital needs, but could have been set up for success.

In addition to all this aforementioned history (all of which caused or reinforced persistent segregation and the concentration of poverty and need), there is still ample evidence of racism in housing and lending markets to this day.

The Mission

The Pittsburgh Neighborhood Project explores the consequences of this discriminatory history and deindustrialization via a street by street exploration of Pittsburgh’s 90 neighborhoods, while also focusing on the people, institutions and topographies that make up our 90 neighborhoods. Neighborhoods, their conditions and their assets can be explored through Neighborhood Profiles, Interactive Maps, and Essays and Reports.

Through education and exposure, the ultimate goal of The Pittsburgh Neighborhood Project is to inspire residents, practitioners and policy makers to come together and address the causes and consequences of segregation, deindustrialization, and disinvestment by bringing attention and equitable investment, policies and programs to our neighborhoods and people who have been left behind. Residents of our higher need communities should ALWAYS be part of decision making processes to address the challenges they experience in their neighborhoods, or in broader investment decisions.

In addition to policies and programs that address the needs of low- to moderate-income individuals directly (through cash transfer, the social safety and service provision), The Pittsburgh Neighborhood Project believes we need place-conscious interventions that better allow low- to moderate-income residents of higher need neighborhoods to make moves to lower need neighborhoods (by expanding affordable housing options in lower need neighborhoods). AND by DIRECTLY addressing the challenges of higher need neighborhoods so residents don’t have to move if they do not want to, whether those challenges be public health issues like community violence, lack of affordable housing, exposure to point pollutants, blight and anything and everything beyond or in-between.

Tours

For those wanting a more hands on experience, the Pittsburgh Neighborhood Project also does walking and driving tours of Pittsburgh, for 1-4 individuals at a time who want a more hands on experience in getting to know the City of Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods. Given time constraints and potential demand, we cannot promise we can make a tour work, but reach out and we will see if we can set something up.