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Increased public safety patrols in Downtown Pittsburgh this summer have sparked discussion about the city center’s perceived safety, and Market Square recently became the platform for that discussion.
Panelists gathered in the city center for NewsBreaks, led by the Center for Media Innovation at Point Park University. NewsBreaks are events that bring news issues to the stage, for the public to ask questions and participate.
Point Park University police officer Matthew Mays joined Britney Brinkman and José Garth to discuss the reality of safety Downtown. Brinkman and Garth co-founded End Street Harassment PGH, an advocacy project dedicated to raising awareness of street harassment and what to do about it.
While the public’s perception of Downtown may sometimes be bleak, the homicides in the city at large have dropped with 52 homicides reported in 2023, an almost 27% decrease from 2022 according to annual statistics from the City of Pittsburgh.
“I think the issues Downtown are the same issues that we have throughout the city, and as we go outside the city,” Garth said. “I strongly believe that if we build the infrastructure and the actual spaces and places for people to be the people we want them to be, then people will be those things.”
He pointed to the lack of third spaces for people, particularly those who are unhoused, to go when the weather is harsh or they need to use the bathroom without having to pay. He also noted that the city clears out homeless encampments, displacing unhoused people.
Homelessness, Mays said, is a symptom of larger issues such as substance use disorders and mental health crises. Garth, however, shared that his prior experience being unhoused was not a result of either but a result of it being “expensive to be alive in the city.”
Mays added that media coverage can play a large role in the perception of Downtown as an unsafe and crime-ridden place.
“It's shocking when you show an empty storefront, and you know, an unhoused population in front of it,” he said. “But there are positive events that are happening Downtown…whether that's the farmers market, whether that's the resources provided at The Red Door.”
Brinkman said that while street harassment does happen Downtown, it’s far from the only place in Pittsburgh where happens.
In her work at End Street Harassment PGH, she found that children going to school Downtown, particularly young girls, were often victims of harassment.
“They're less shocked by the one adult that's harassing them than they are by the group of adults who are ignoring it,” she said. “As those other adults, we can be people to say, ‘Let's stop this behavior from happening. Let's check in on people. Let's interrupt it. Be active bystanders.’”
One of the ways to be an active bystander is by using the five D’s of intervention: direct, distract, delegate, document, and delay.
A bystander can directly approach the harasser to intervene, cause a distraction such as pretending to know the victim of harassment or dropping something, delegate to someone better equipped to intervene, document it for the victim, or check in with the victim after the harassment.
Brinkman said that the responsibility falls on everyone to ensure Downtown is welcoming and safe for all people.
“I don't think people should feel unsafe, I don't think people should be afraid to come Downtown, but I think we should be actively talking about how do we come together?” she said. “We have the potential to build a really amazing, inclusive community, but that takes all of us doing that, and that takes us being willing to care about everybody's needs, not just the needs of some people.”
NewsBreaks are free to attend, and the next NewsBreaks discussion is scheduled from noon to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 18 at Market Square, with registration coming soon via Center for Media Innovation’s Eventbrite.
September will also bring the launch of the Next Generation Newsroom and Newsapalooza.
(photograph by Ethan Stoner for Next Generation Newsroom)
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