The City is currently spearheading a significant master plan of the neighborhoods and ecosystems that flank the six miles of the Allegheny River stretching from the Convention Center to Highland Park. Development priorities, neighborhood standards, quality of life decisions, environmental values, job creation and transportation planning will all be in play throughout the Strip, Lawrenceville, Morningside and Highland Park communities. One project that got a jump start on many of these same challenges is in our own backyard, the mile long valley that runs from Hampton Street to the River, Heth's Run. On Wednesday evening, September 9, the project will be introduced to the Advisory Committee of the Allegheny Vision Master Plan at the Zoo's Education Building. Residents of Highland Park and Morningside are also quite welcome to attend. A presentation will take place at 6PM, followed by a trip down the Zoo escalator to Heth's Run and a walk out to Ice Cream Station Zebra for ice cream and a view of the Allegheny River. Below are excerpts from an article I wrote for the December, 2003 Highland Park Newsletter that outlined the issues as seen from that date. While there have been changes and milestones passed over the past six years in the schedule and details of the work, the "big idea" of the Heth's Run opportunity has remained much the same as presented below. Dave Hance, President Highland Park Community Development Corporation "Most of us know Heth's Run as the location of the Zoo's parking lot, and for what used to be there, the City's Dept. of Public Works storage yard. Once a year, we'd haul our old Christmas tree "down there", or, perhaps, we'd walk down the path below the King Estate, past the remains of the burned-out cars, to view out at the asphalt plain that caps the Run's upper reaches. Once a dramatic feature of the East End landscape, Heth's Run is now a wasteland. That may be about to change. After decades of neglect, Heth's Run is suddenly the focus of significant new interest: * PennDOT is moving toward the replacement of the once-beautiful, but now buried and deteriorated bridge at Allegheny River Boulevard; * The City has abandoned its dumping grounds at the upper portion of the Run; * Green soccer fields will soon replace some of the gray asphalt; * The Pittsburgh Zoo is planning to upgrade its "front door" parking lot and entry drive; * A riverfront trail is planned along the south bank of the Allegheny River; and * The new Highland Park Master Plan has highlighted the potential of the Run to make fundamentally exciting new connections between neighborhoods, the Park, the Zoo, and the River. If coordinated properly, all of these efforts can be combined to create a whole that is far greater than the sum of their parts. Heth's Run can be reinvented in the process, and our City and our neighborhood stand to gain greatly. Years of neglect and environmental abuse can be undone in the process. The Highland Park Community Club and CDC, along with the Morningside Area Community Council, and the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, are leading the charge for a comprehensive design process to seize this one time opportunity to create a new Heth's Run. We are pleased to be working closely with the Mayor and City Planning, the Riverlife Task Force, and the Zoo to create the "new Heth's Run." <<Picture (Device Independent Bitmap)>> This message is sent by Perkins Eastman Architects, PC, and/or its Affiliates, and is intended exclusively for the persons to which it is addressed. This communication may contain information that is privileged or confidential. If you are not the named addressee, you are not authorized to read, print, retain, copy or disseminate any part of this message.
