Stanley Lowe, center, deliberates to board members of Manchester Neighbors during a meeting held at his house in Manchester, on Thursday, November 7, 2024. (Photo by Michael Swensen/PublicSource)
A Ferris-wheel-topped development would cast a long shadow on a historic, majority-Black neighborhood — one that so far lacks the kind of community organization that could bring resident concerns to Pittsburgh’s decision makers.
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More than 50 people, mostly Black, gathered on the 6th floor of the Comfort Inn in Deutschtown on Oct. 29, with a panoramic view of the city’s skyline and the evening light falling on the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.
It was a beautiful backdrop to an often blunt conversation ahead of a City Planning Commission hearing and possible vote scheduled for Nov. 12. That’s when Esplanade, a proposed $740 million development topped by a Ferris wheel, is set for a public hearing and potential vote. It would sit in Chateau, next to Manchester, Pittsburgh’s largest majority-Black historic neighborhood.
Stanley Lowe, a former housing and planning official for Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy’s administration, paced the center of the conference room.
Lowe, 74, alternated between strained whispers and preacher-like shouts regarding the enormity of the task confronting the six-month-old nonprofit Manchester Neighbors in its attempt to chart its community’s destiny in the face of Esplanade. The Manchester resident and advisor to the neighbors group scanned the room with tired, bleary eyes as he teased out the implications of Esplanade — and the rules of the game.
At the heart of neighbors’ concern is this question: Who gets to represent its interests when a big company comes along and makes a move that could affect the character and economics of the neighborhood for generations?
“In Pittsburgh,” Lowe said, “you have to be what’s called an RCO — Registered Community Organization. [The Department of] City Planning will recognize your community organization. Your [RCO] then has the ability to be in discussions with the developers. Everyone with me so far?”
There was a murmur of assent throughout the packed room.
“Manchester does not have an RCO at all,” he said. Manchester Neighbors had applied to take on the role.
Since the mid-1960s, the neighborhood’s public face has been the nonprofit Manchester Citizens Corporation, which had not taken on the role of RCO. As such, MCC lacks the official power to compel developers to explain their plans to the community — though Esplanade’s developer says it has “primarily worked with the community” through MCC.
Because it lists no meeting schedule on its website or Facebook page, some residents feel disconnected from MCC. And because MCC’s longtime executive director, LaShawn Burton-Faulk, chairs the City Planning Commission, some wonder how the neighborhood’s interests will be represented before that panel.
Burton-Faulk wrote in an email to PublicSource that she stayed out of the room during two Planning Commission briefings on Esplanade, and will not participate in the process on Tuesday, because to do so would be “highly unethical.”
Lowe said he and several members of Manchester Neighbors recently met with Pittsburgh Council President R. Daniel Lavelle, whose district includes Manchester.
Roberta Bowra, a health care worker at Allegheny Health Network and the vice president of Manchester Neighbors, described the meeting.
“We told him that we have been waiting for a year to become a registered RCO,” Bowra said. “The councilman is the only one who can sign the papers for us to become an RCO.”
Bowra then passed out copies of a brief letter dated Oct. 24, on Lavelle’s official stationery, that said, in part: “Letter of Support, Manchester Neighbors — RCO Certification.”
The group, though, had yet to hear back from the Department of City Planning that it was the officially recognized RCO for Manchester.
“I really can’t tell how long the process of approval will take,” Lavelle told PublicSource on Nov. 7. “It may take a month or two.”
The department said Manchester Neighbors’ application is “currently incomplete,” but that planners will be reaching out soon to advise the group on how to finish the process.
Meanwhile, last week, the city approved an RCO application from another organization, the Manchester Chateau Partnership Alliance. In response to questions from PublicSource, Burton-Faulk indicated that the alliance includes MCC and six other organizations, adding that “information has not been released publicly nor has there been a kickoff meeting with the city.”
With just weeks before the Planning Commission hearing, there was little time left to figure out who would speak for Manchester before Esplanade rolled toward approval.
Before the plans are greenlit, said Lowe, Manchester should demand a professional community impact study and negotiate a community benefits package and plan that takes current homeowners and renters in Manchester seriously.
Lowe asked of Esplanade: “Is there anyone in this room who doesn’t think it’s gonna have an impact on the neighborhood?”
A neighborhood on the rise — and nervous
Three years ago, Piatt Companies, a Canonsburg-based real estate company then known as Millcraft Investments, announced its intention to invest nearly $500 million (now ballooned to $740 million) in a 15-acre, mixed-use development near the Rivers Casino. The site is now occupied by a stretch of industrial brownfields and dilapidated structures.
Chateau’s eastern neighbor, Manchester, has been a largely Black neighborhood since 1968, following a pattern of white flight spurred by Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. The neighborhood never experienced displacement on the scale of the Lower Hill District when the city developed the Civic Arena where hundreds once lived, worked and owned businesses. By contrast, Manchester has settled into a state of rust bucket placidity.
Most of the homes along its wide streets have retained handsome exteriors. Small and large trees dot well-swept sidewalks where working-class households, middle-class residents and young professionals pass each other and exchange pleasantries.
Now that the neighborhood’s street gangs have been largely eliminated, the children and heirs of those who stayed through the bad times are returning to the neighborhood to look after aging parents or to claim the homestead after they’ve passed on.
Manchester has become a hot real estate market. The median home price in Manchester is around $225,000, roughly equal to Pittsburgh as a whole. Far from being flattered by this, many of the residents gathered at Comfort Inn were nervous. Some have seen what happened to the residents of East Liberty when real estate and retail business interests moved in before the neighborhood had a chance to organize to protect itself from gentrification.
Other neighborhoods on the North Side and throughout the city have organized to impressive effect to protect the interests of residents.
When the Pittsburgh Penguins tore down the Civic Arena and began making plans for PPG Arena and an adjacent entertainment complex in what used to be the Lower Hill District, the community was ready. It had an organization, the Hill Community Development Corp., in place to negotiate community benefits this time around.
Taking a page from the residents of the Hill CDC, Manchester Neighbors applied for RCO certification as a prerequisite for sitting at the table with Piatt and municipal and civic players.
Burton-Faulk wrote that the MCC has “no official stance” on Manchester Neighbors’ bid to become an RCO.
Battle over a name
Lowe led MCC in the early 1980s and remained involved with the organization until 2011. After employment stints out of town, he returned to advise MCC in 2008-2009. At that time, he was instrumental in introducing Burton-Faulk to MCC, and many in the neighborhood characterize her as his right hand — for a time.
They’ve since become bitter foes, and their rivalry spilled into a court filing this month.
In a lawsuit filed Nov. 1, the Manchester Citizens Corp. accused Manchester Neighbors and Lowe of trying to steal MCC’s name and interfere with its efforts.
The complaint notes that MCC worked with the city to craft a comprehensive plan for Manchester and Chateau, and to develop housing.
It says that in 2017, Lowe attempted to trademark MCC’s name, but the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office did not approve it.
In 2022, Lowe filed with the state incorporation papers for an organization with the name Manchester Citizens Corporation. Though the name was registered with the state since 1970 in connection to the organization Burton-Faulk now leads, the Corporations Bureau now lists two entities with that name — the second with Lowe’s home as its address.
The complaint says that prior to the Oct. 29 meeting of Manchester Neighbors, MCC’s attorneys sent a warning letter to Lowe urging against “any defamatory statements” or claims that MCC no longer exists.
The lawsuit seeks an injunction against Lowe and Manchester Neighbors that would bar them from using MCC’s name or branding and “to cease and desist from stating that MCC is gone, defunct, dissolved or otherwise no longer operating.”
Lowe has not yet filed an answer.
As neighborhood leaders face off, Esplanade approaches.
Esplanade, Manchester and the Planning Commission
After years of relatively little news about the proposal, Esplanade emerged on the Planning Commission agenda on Oct. 15, when Piatt representatives detailed for that panel’s members their blueprint for a 19-story, 408-unit apartment building, parking garage and Ferris wheel. They pledged to reserve 20% of the residential units for households earning 80% of the area median income or less.
Two weeks later — and just hours before Manchester Neighbors met at Comfort Inn — Piatt’s team held a second briefing for the commission, highlighting the environmental benefits of converting a partly paved brownfield into a partly green, trailside housing-office-entertainment-hospitality district.
Piatt has “met with countless community members and stakeholders throughout the process,” said Molly Onufer, the developer’s spokesperson, in an email response to questions. “In addition to meetings with and organized by Manchester Citizens Corporation, we have hosted numerous meetings over the years with individual neighborhood stakeholders, neighboring business, community organizations, and attend community events,” she added.
Burton-Faulk, in an email response to questions, wrote that MCC has not taken a position for or against the Esplanade plan. Nor does the organization have a position on the need for an impact study. She added that a community benefits agreement is not “off the table,” and added that MCC has laid out several “non-negotiable principles” including:
- The need for affordable, diverse, inclusive housing
- Accessible green spaces
- Jobs for local residents
- Connection to the neighborhood
- Sensitivity to Manchester’s historic character.
MCC, Burton-Faulk wrote, has contributed funds to studying the tax effects of the development. “This will help ensure that future revenue generated from the project will be allocated to important community priorities, such as affordable housing and other needs that the community will define over time.”
Concerns — but also revenue
In the middle is Lavelle, the council president who also sits on the Urban Redevelopment Authority board, which approves development subsidies and which sold some of the Esplanade site to Piatt in 2021.
The councilman last met with members of Manchester Neighbors on Oct. 24 and agreed to monthly meetings beginning in November. Deborah Blackwell, the chairperson of Manchester Neighbors, said she and members of the board are cautiously optimistic that they have Lavelle’s attention.
Lavelle acknowledged their skepticism in an interview with PublicSource, and said he is committed to addressing their concerns.
“Many of the residents who are at the table, I’ve known for many years. I know them, respect them and have worked alongside them,” Lavelle said. “I fully appreciate the concern they have for their community and their willingness to be engaged and involved.”
Lavelle said he shares Manchester Neighbors’ concerns about the ultimate impact of Esplanade on Manchester, and about affordable housing, government subsidies and other public financing tools necessary to make the plan work.
He said he believes it will generate $3 million to be used toward affordable housing efforts in the community, a priority the neighborhood group and the city share.
Esplanade is “an ambitious plan,” he said. “If it comes to fruition, we will be taking underutilized land and putting it back to a more productive use. Obviously, if that development happens, it’s good, fiscally, for the city.”
A raucous board meeting on the edge of Manchester
At a Nov. 7 evening meeting of the board of Manchester Neighbors held at Stanley Lowe’s home, 10 of the group’s 13 board members gathered around two long tables pulled together across the living and dining rooms to discuss strategy regarding Burton-Faulk’s lawsuit. It became a truly spirited verbal brawl.
As the smell of soul food in neatly arranged tin foil covered pans in the kitchen permeated the house, the group found itself at loggerheads regarding strategy going forward. In response to MCC’s lawsuit against Manchester Neighbors, they had agreed earlier in the day to surrender the rights to the name Manchester Citizens Corp. — a decision not universally popular in the group.
“We agreed to give them back the name because it really isn’t worth anything,” Lowe said.
“The name may be bad,” board member Terry Turk said, “but there’s 67 years of history behind it.” Turk and a faction of the board remained steadfastly against returning the name out of principal, but acquiesced to the majority position.
Lowe wanted to send a letter to Burton-Faulk questioning who on MCC’s board has authority to sue.
Most of the board wasn’t interested in sending a message. They just wanted to be registered as an RCO.
Clearly flustered, Lowe reluctantly dropped the idea of sending the letter. “You’re looking at 62 years of [community activist] experience,” he said, referring to his own involvement.
It was not the mic drop he seemed to expect it to be.
The group looked at him before continuing their discussion. “We’re not sending a letter,” Bowra said.
The board ended the evening without a full discussion of the last item on the agenda: The Planning Commission’s public hearing on Esplanade on Nov. 12. Lowe made sure everyone was loaded up with plates of soul food and sent everyone home for the evening. A strategy regarding the Esplanade would have to wait for another day.
Tony Norman is a freelance writer, longtime columnist and chair of the International Free Expression Project, and can be reached at [email protected].
This article first appeared on PublicSource and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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