Hazelwood: A forgotten neighborhood

Theresa Nagy, 26, of Hazelwood is giving the area where she has lived her whole life only about five more years until she calls it quits and moves.

“This area is really sad and it has gone down hill tremendously,” said Nagy. “It has had rough patches like this before and has bounced back.”

In the past decade Hazelwood has gone through many hardships.  Hazelwood lost the LTV Coke Factory, Gladstone middle school, community pool, and its original Carnegie Libraries. Each still stands – but empty.

The Carnegie Library, which moved to Second Avenue in 2004, has become a critical piece to the Hazelwood Community, residents said. Library trustees planned to close the building in 2010, but have given it a reprieve of at least a year.

Still, the biggest absence remains the LTV Coke Factory, which closed in 1998 and left more than 750 people unemployed.  In 1999 Sun Coke tried to start a new coke factory but Pittsburgh voted against it.

“When it left, it seemed that everything else did too,” Nagy said.

The 140 acre factory land still sits abandoned along the Monongahela River.  The area is now owned by Almono Corporation, which is teamed with McCune, Heinz, Mellon, and Benedum.

Anything that happens to that area would have to go through the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh.

Jim Richter, of a community group called the Hazelwood Initiative, says that residents hope that with that space they can have mixed-income housing, commercial space, retail space and a recreation area.

Since 1990, the population of Hazelwood has dropped from 6,456 to approximately 5,306 in 2009.  The only spot still thriving on the heavily used Second Avenue is the relocated Carnegie Library. It is surrounded by abandoned buildings and deserted roads.

The Hazelwood community pool was closed almost five years ago and after it closed Doug Shields, president of City Council at the time, organized a shuttle system to take people from Hazelwood to the Oakland pool.

Mary Ann McHarg, manager of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Hazelwood branch and resident of Penn Hills, said she is still waiting for changes to happen for Hazelwood.

“I have been here for 11 years and haven’t seen anything done yet and I don’t see anything coming into Hazelwood,” McHarg said.

McHarg said she believes that the reason Hazelwood is struggling is people’s fear of the neighborhood.

“It’s a fear of drugs, fear of guns, and fear of violence,” said McHarg. “I don’t believe that this neighborhood has more than any other neighborhood.”

McHarg and Nagy said the area needs change – and the sooner the better.

“We need a school here first thing, need more stores to help the community, and a legitimate grocery for people to shop,” said McHarg.

The last grocer in Hazelwood was Demperio’s on Second Avenue but has closed, like most of the small businesses in Hazelwood.

“Theft is the reason these businesses here keep closing,” Nagy said. “They can’t afford to stay open if they can’t keep stuff on the shelves.”

There are also no schools in Hazelwood anymore after the closing of Gladstone middle school.  Most of the children in Hazelwood have to go to Pittsburgh Mifflin School.

McHarg is hoping that Hazelwood will soon get a charter school to the area but, Pittsburgh Public School Board will not allow the purchase of the former Burgwin Elementary building.

The Hazelwood Initiative, a non-profit group that began in 1994 under Murphy, has been directed toward the redevelopment of Hazelwood. Mom & pop stores are huge pieces for Hazelwood’s future, Richter said.

“We need small businesses to come back here,” he said. “We don’t want commercial places. We need convenient places to go. We also need things like a gas station, bike trails, and dedicated transport to get from Hazelwood to downtown and Oakland.”

By Doug Andiorio, Point Park News Service.