New study: Downtown Pittsburgh would be improved by more restrooms, lights, cameras

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Downtown Pittsburgh is filled with various sights, sounds, and smells. Some are better than others.

Now, there is a new push to clean up Downtown’s alleys.

Seventy-two percent of people surveyed in a recent study believe the alleys Downtown are an issue, citing trash and smell as the biggest contributors. That same study is now looking to bag some of those concerns.

A new study by Point Park University researchers called Taking Out the Trash examines how addressing waste pileups in downtown alleyways could improve the quality of life for people visiting, working, and living in the area.

“Not even the scare factor, it’s the dirt factor. I don’t want to walk there,” says Mary Tannenbaum.

The study was launched to assist the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership with its work to beautify the alleyways by coming up with a long-term solution that addresses trash pileups.

“I think just making it pleasing to the eye, colorful, and just clean,” suggests Wilkinsburg’s Shania Day.

Researchers were able to identify 18 recommendations across four categories. They include: installing alley lights and cameras, requiring businesses to have dumpsters that lock, and more public restrooms to prevent people from relieving themselves in the alleys.

“People have to do what they have to do, and there’s no place to do it,” David Tannenbaum said. “If you’re just leisurely walking downtown, getting air, there isn’t a place that you can just go into and use the restroom.”

The study also suggests more adopt-an-alley initiatives, stricter enforcement for dumpster placement, and even a city code to have dumpsters moved inside buildings as opposed to outside in plain view.

Among people surveyed, safety in the alleyways seemed to be their biggest concern overall.

The study suggests cleaner, brighter alleys have a direct impact on reducing crime, making them less appealing to would-be criminals.