There are four different ways in which this greater capacity might be realized.
In the first place, a new street might be cut through north of Penn Avenue. Smallman Street, from Twenty-first to Thirty-sixth Street, already forms a good sized piece of such a thoroughfare. Pike Street would be its normal extension in town to Eleventh Street, but, like Try Street near Second Avenue, it has been surrendered to the Pennsylvania Railroad for a connecting line and spur tracks. Furthermore, it is very narrow (not over 40 feet) and is difficult to widen on account of the many industrial plants abutting thereon. The connections from such a thoroughfare with Penn Avenue, Liberty Avenue and Butler Street at one end, and with the down town thoroughfares at the other, are quite indirect; and they could be improved only at great expense.
The only other place for a new thoroughfare is along Spring Alley, between Penn and Liberty Avenues. As this whole block is only 220 feet wide, including the alley, it is obvious that a broad avenue through the middle of it would leave the abutting property in very uneconomical shape.
As a modification of this plan, the widening of Spring Alley entirely on the south side was considered. As this would leave lots 40 feet or less in depth between the new street and Liberty Avenue, it would mean the practical destruction of the half-block from Spring Alley to Liberty Avenue. The remaining strip could be taken as a central parking space in a wide boulevard thoroughfare, extending from Spring Alley to the railroad; or Liberty Avenue could be abandoned, and the space, left between the new street and the railroad, could be used for warehouses or for business wanting direct railroad connections; or it might be sold in whole or in part to the Pennsylvania Railroad, for additional track space. It is obvious that each of these plans cuts up the property undesirably: the first is not only costly but is extravagantly wasteful of land in a region where available land is strictly limited and should therefore be put to its most efficient use: and the other plans both involve an entire redistribution of the land south of the new street. They could hardly be executed without powers of "excess condemnation" for which constitutional authority is lacking.
A third plan would be to widen Liberty Avenue on the north side. There is no special difficulty in the way of this scheme, and it could certainly be more easily carried out, and at less cost, than any of the Spring Alley plans. Merely as a traffic way between two points, Liberty Avenue widened would be perfectly satisfactory, but several incidental considerations must be borne in mind. First, the lots on the north side of the street would be cut at least to 70 and probably to 50 feet, neither of which is a desirable depth for lots on a main thoroughfare; and second, the street would have business frontage on one side only. The latter is an uneconomic arrangement from the point of view both of the real estate owner and of the City, and the street would be much less agreeable than if it were separated from the railroad.
The fourth plan would be to widen Penn Avenue. This street is now 60 feet in width, and most of the lots on each side are 100 feet deep, except for several blocks on the north side where they are about 120 feet. The street is built up solidly on both sides, but scarcely any of the buildings are new or costly. The property values are almost uniformly a little higher than on Liberty Avenue. If Penn Avenue were widened 10 feet on each side, making an 80-foot thoroughfare, the abutting lots would still be 90 feet or over in depth; and if the street were made 100 feet wide, the lots would still be 80 feet deep. Though it might cost somewhat more to widen Penn Avenue than Liberty Avenue, it is evident that the abutting property would be left in far better shape, and the benefit to be had from increased frontage value would be much greater.
After due consideration of each of the above plans, bearing in mind the cost, the difficulty of carrying it out, and the value of the result, both as an important main thoroughfare artery and as a local improvement, it is recommended that Penn Avenue be widened to 100 feet. If the widening is to be accomplished by the gradual process,[10] that is by merely establishing the new building lines at the present time, and by paying damages only when new buildings are set back to this line, the widening should probably be made on both sides: for in this way the minimum set-back will be required for individual new developments and the lots will be left of a good depth on both sides of the street. But if the widening is all to be made at once, it will be less costly to make it entirely on the south side. In either case, the lots remaining will be none too deep, and it is suggested that ultimately Spring Alley may be abandoned and the opportunity furnished for deep lots for warehouses and similar purposes, fronting on a large thoroughfare and having direct railroad connections over Liberty Avenue in the rear.
Forbes Street Artery
The other eastward thoroughfare system lies south of the Hill District. From Soho eastward there are two main branches to the system: on the one hand are Forbes Street and Fifth Avenue, leading through Oakland to Bellefield, Shadyside, East Liberty, Squirrel Hill, and all points east; on the other hand is a possible and much-needed thoroughfare reaching Greenfield, Hazelwood, Glenwood, and Hays, and from there, by branches and extensions, connecting to Homestead, Duquesne, McKeesport, and points up the Monongahela and Youghiogheny Rivers, as well as to the country south in Baldwin, Mifflin, Snowden, and Jefferson townships.