Nearly every U.S. city is wrestling with the same uncomfortable problem: how do you revive downtown foot traffic and resuscitate local businesses when everyone's working from home?
With the pressure of the NFL Draft upon them, Pittsburgh tried a bold solution. The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership rolled out a rent abatement program that pays up to half a small business’s monthly rent — capped at $2,000 a month for the first year — for tenants willing to set up in a vacant storefront and sign a multi-year lease.
Their original goal was they were trying to fill 20 storefronts. They got such a ridiculous outpouring that they're like, hmm, okay, maybe we can raise that number.
Megan Harris, City Cast Pittsburgh Host
So far the program has helped fill space with names like Origin Story Coffee and Confleurrti flower shop, part of a broader push that saw 28 new street-level retailers open downtown over the past year, alongside an $85 million investment in public spaces like Market Square and Point State Park.
The harder question is whether subsidizing rent produces a downtown that thrives on its own now that the NFL cameras have packed up. David Plotz sits down with City Cast Pittsburgh host Megan Harris to dig into why downtown hollowed out, what kinds of businesses the program is actually attracting, and what other revitalization plans are quietly in the works. It’s exactly the kind of local solution that other cities could learn from — the type of project that “Your City Could Be Better” was created to spotlight.
Listen now to find out whether Pittsburgh’s bet is one your city should be making, too.
What is the ‘Your City Could Be Better’ Podcast?
Cities are great. But they could be better! That’s why every Friday, City Cast CEO David Plotz sits down with local insiders from across the City Cast podcast network, to talk through what their cities are doing right and sometimes wrong, the weird things they’re trying, and the surprising successes — so that we can all learn how to make our cities a little bit better.
Listen to “Your City Could Be Better” on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
