What is the URA?
The URA was incorporated in 1946 as one of the first redevelopment authorities in Pennsylvania.
The authority falls under the jurisdiction of the City of Pittsburgh, and the sitting mayor approves its board of directors. The city contributes annual funding, currently at a level of $7.1 million in 2019; the city’s contribution includes federal funds, according to the city’s 2019 Capital Budget.
In its early years, the URA helped spur the Pittsburgh Renaissance under the leadership of Mayor David Lawrence, the authority’s first chairman.
Standing in contrast to the pollution-ridden city dirtied from a century of industrial manufacturing, the URA’s first large-scale project was the creation of the Gateway Center office complex around Point State Park. The Gateway Center complex was considered the country’s first privately financed downtown redevelopment project organized by a public agency.
Transitioning into the 1950s and 1960s, the URA focused on rehabilitating old structures and building new ones, according to a 2016 interview with Bob Pease by the Carnegie Museum of Art. Pease served as the URA’s executive director from 1958 to 1968. Some redevelopment efforts drew harsh criticism, including neighborhood demolition in 1956 to build the Civic Arena, which displaced thousands of residents from the Lower Hill District. The majority black neighborhood also included Italian, Jewish and Eastern European residents. A 1953 survey from the URA referenced by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said the 1,885 families inhabiting the neighborhood were not given financial relocation assistance, and many were pushed to nearby neighborhoods according to their race, increasing segregation.
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https://www.publicsource.org/pittsburgh-urban-redevelopment-authority-explained/
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