Longtime businesses ride ups and downs of East Liberty gentrification
In January, a sign went up on the front door of Bat’s Barber Shop in East Liberty: As of March 4, prices would rise for services like a haircut and a face trim.
“We pray that you understand the need to increase our prices as the cost to operate our business has increased,” the sign said.
Like other longtime business owners in East Liberty, Kevin “Bat” Andrews is hoping to survive dramatic changes in the neighborhood.
At the turn of the century, East Liberty was reportedly the richest suburb in America, according to East Liberty Development, Inc. The neighborhood boomed until the late 1950s and 1960s, when an urban renewal project demolished blocks of houses and businesses in hopes of creating a more suburban feel. The project largely failed, and the next couple of decades the neighborhood turned largely African-American and developed a reputation as a highcrime area. In the past decade or so, outside investment has returned to East Liberty, with the area now teeming with new restaurants and housing.
Bat’s Barber Shop opened on Penn Avenue almost exactly 15 years ago, at the time entering a lively, though far from glamorous, commercial corridor. It is now surrounded largely by vacancies, with a few other older businesses and — across the street — trendy recent arrivals such as Warby Parker and Bonobos.
Along with the new neighbors, such as the Ace Hotel, Target and
the Eastside Bond apartments, have come rent increases, particularly so this year, said Mr. Andrews, as a steady stream of customers arrive even on a freezing February morning. “I know business is business, but we’re in good standing,” he said. “We shouldn’t be priced out. I’m not an eyesore.”
The debate about gentrification in East Liberty has drawn no shortage of attention, from protests and lawsuits over residents displaced from the Penn Plaza Apartments to a discussion last year on Anthony Bourdain’s “Parts Unknown” show on CNN about Pittsburgh. But much of the conversation has centered on longtime residents being displaced, and not longtime businesses.
Rafiq Brookins, whose father opened Jamil’s Global Village on Penn Avenue 25 years ago, stands in the shop and points across the street, rattling off the names of businesses that have recently left, such as Ace Athletic and the Global Food Market Jamaican grocery. “We’re trying our best to stay here, but it’s definitely not an easy thing to do,” he said, “especially when you don’t own the building.”
Developers say they want the old businesses to survive along with the new ones. “That’s what everyone loves about Pittsburgh and loves about East Liberty — you have various types of businesses that have long roots and a long history,” said Jonathan Kamin, attorney for LG Realty, which is developing the former Penn Plaza site. “There are certainly rising rents in the area, but I still think that it’s competitive to attract a mix of national and local tenants.”
He believes the gentrification in the area is a net positive for longtime businesses, bringing new traffic and vibrancy.
Mr. Andrews is optimistic about some of the changes — although not the new metered parking on Penn Avenue — and does think that he may have some new customers. But he also has lost customers who have been priced out of the area. One of his former customers had been a tenant at the Penn Plazabuilding for 40 years, he said, and ended up leaving the Pittsburgh area altogetherafter she had to move.
At Mo Gear, a clothing store that has been in East Liberty for 15 years, gentrification hasn’t brought any new customers, said owner Todd Levine. But while some of his customers have left the area, many are loyal enough to drive or bus back in to shop. Mr. Levine also owns the part of the former G.C. Murphy building that houses his shop, he said, so he is insulated from some of the rent increases facing other business owners. The biggest threat to his business is not gentrification in East Liberty, he said, but a shift in consumers toward buying clothes on the internet.
For Mr. Brookins, internet purchases also cut into sales of his store’s Africa-focused merchandise, such as natural hair and body products, jewelry and clothing. But gentrification is undoubtedly a challenge as well.
“The environment has definitely changed. The kind of potential customer has changed,” he said. “We serve a predominantly AfricanAmerican clientele and they’ve been forced out of the area.”
About 940 African-American residents left East Liberty between 2007 and 2015, according to a study by Numeritics, a Pittsburgh consulting firm. About 70 percent of that population loss resulted from people leaving uninhabitable or foreclosed properties, said the study, with the remaining population leaving because of rising market forces.
Given the challenges facing his and other businesses, Mr. Brookins would like to see the city step in. “I would like to see some assistance from the city to businesses that have been here a very long time,” he said.
Rashad Byrdsong, founder and CEO of the Community Empowerment Association, would like to see a commission set up involving nonprofits, government officials and financial stakeholders to deal with the fallout from gentrification in the East End. “What will be the benefit of gentrification on East Liberty?” he asked. “It looks good, but where was the investment in the black population in this area?”