The fall of a great American city: The societal and political decay that has upended Pittsburgh
PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania — It’s 10:30 a.m. on a Thursday morning and a homeless man is curled up against the decorative angled brick below the archways of the large pane windows that line the office building known as the Fort Pitt Commons.
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Some days the Pittsburgh Renewal truck will pull up to unload a crew to clean up the feces and needles. Today was one of those days; the crew is an effort by Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, a private nonprofit civic organization formed by local business owners to clean up the city’s decay.
In short, they are treating the symptom of a disease the city refuses to address.
The problem isn’t isolated; it is everywhere in the core of the city. The homeless problem is also far from harmless: Less than two weeks ago, just a couple of blocks from here, Larry Gilmore and his wife Shalawrae had just gotten married and were celebrating their honeymoon at the Even Hotel along Forbes Avenue when the groom was viciously assaulted by a homeless man. The man came at Larry from behind at an elevator, put him in a chokehold, banged his head on the floor, then returned several times to kick and stomp him as he took several items, including his pants.
Court documents show Gilmore was hospitalized with a head injury and was intubated, and listed in critical condition.
