Add a Strip station to the Strip District

Despite the Strip District’s complicated reputation as a commercial hub and traffic quagmire (“As Strip District’s produce terminal fills up, debate flares over retail mix,” Nov. 27), our city’s leaders in commerce and government have, for 40 years, ignored one of the neighborhood’s greatest assets: its proximity to the East Busway. Board a bus at any East Busway station and you will see many riders, from workers to students to patrons, going to or departing from East End businesses fortunate enough to be located near the busway’s East Liberty station.

Just as the busway facilitates East End commerce, it can do the same for the Strip District. Today, approximately 20 city blocks separate the East Busway’s Downtown and Polish Hill stations. These stations roughly bookend the Strip but do not constitute feasible access points. By comparison, just four blocks separate theWood Street and Gateway “T” stations in the Golden

Triangle.

The recent development in the Strip should incite urgency to add a corresponding station to the busway, which could be constructed just a few minutes’ walk or roll away from the neighborhood’s center. The Strip cannot realize its potential by providing access only to those able to afford a nearby luxury apartment or townhome, those sufficiently daring to drive into the neighborhood, or those riding a PRT bus that navigates Liberty Avenue.

Adding a Strip District Station would address some of the neighborhood’s enduring concerns, motor vehicle congestion and a lack of incidental foot traffic, while exploiting the present momentum of investment to benefit present generations of Pittsburghers and those to come. ROBERT HELWIG

Polish Hill