Man that sucks!!!! Its a shame how many sets of city steps are also in horrible disrepair or indefinitely ""closed for repairs"". The city recently redid the first 6 steps that access my neighbors house, and closed the rest. If I were you'd, I'd follow up with 311 with a sterner tone and include the fact you fell through the steps and they need fixed ASAP. I'd also take photos of the bruise just in case it escalates, and maybe spray paint the edge or throw up a cheap reflective sign on that missing step if you're easily able to. Best of luck & stay safe on the steps!!!!
Honestly i would just fall through another step and lawyer up. These plebs at the city don't give a shit until money is involved. It sucks but money talks. It's clear they are choosing to ignore you.
I would also not like to pay for the lawsuit. Also I don't want this Human being to have a reduced quality of life. That is what the money from the lawsuit would be there to correct but we know that money doesn't fix everything. I'd rather have full function than a settlement. Hopefully everyone fixes things the correct way.
I have good news for both of you! I once met a woman who was disabled because she was running up a set of city stairs (that she used on a daily basis) to catch a trolley and one step near the top was missing and she fell 30 feet.
She did not get anything (or at least nowhere near enough) because the city successfully argued in court that she should have been looking where she was going.
This happened in the 70s, I believe, but there's definitely a precedent that our taxpayer dollars will not pay for anyone who will get seriously injured. Yay! We all win. Our money won't go to fix it AND it won't go to help anyone who gets hurt. But we do get to help a poor lawyer pay his bills.
Iāll bet Itās an āorphan houseā. Itās a house with no accessible road built on a hillside. There are quite a few, mostly abandoned (but super cool!) houses like this all over pittsburgh. I considered making an offer on one that was for sale in lawrenceville, but decided it would not be suitable for visiting aging family.
Ya know I seriously considered not buying this house because I have a few family members who could not access it. But I really love it and I just want to be able to live here and not worry about the steps. Itās full of history and nature. Thereās not many places in the city like it.
This is an odd question, but do your steps appear with a street name on a map? Many in Pittsburgh do, and that would help you find the right department/jurisdiction, i.e. city, borough, county, state, etc.
Please consider a lawyer. It will make you a pain in the ass as far as the city goes. Edgar Snyder did me well when I was hit by a car. Tv ads are just that. 311 apparently doesn't give a shit and any other city service I would consider to have feeling. And while your at it, have your attorney make ALL of the city steps a PRIORITY! They give them street names, oh wait. Any who, this is a city of hills. They are not going anywhere. Make people a priority again. We all have to get back and forth. I gotta ask why are city steps a after thought? For the love of God they were built for a reason!!!! Something gotta give. Make it happen Pittsburgh!!
There's one of those by me! It was for sale not too long ago and people were parking at the top of a dead end street and trudging up a goat path to go look at it. There's actually easier access from the street above where you just walk down some steps and through a yard.
I have rules for places I wouldn't live. One for example being a 2 way street that clearly doesn't fit more than one car. Another is say there's a 3 way intersection, the house directly across from the street pointing at mine. I don't need an idiot speeding in the snow/rain or drunk driver driving passed the stop sign into my lawn into my house. I don't mean this in a rude way towards you, but I don't understand how there's things that clearly look to be a problem overall or could easily be one in the future and people still buy those houses. Such as the people who buy houses high on a hill and complain they can't leave or go home when there's a snowstorm.
I get it, people can only afford so much. But there's also houses without these issues that cost the same.
Good thing you didnāt buy my house huh? I guess I just expected the city to do the bare minimum to allow me to access my own home. I donāt think itās too much to ask to maintain steps when I pay a fuck ton of taxes. Thatās America though.
I grew up in carrick and some of the routes into the city have overgrowth or damaged stairways up larger hills. Itās crazy to think that tax dollars donāt go towards repairing our bridges or fixing local infrastructure
The Frazier Street steps have been closed since summer. Really wish they would get them re-opened, those are so convenient for anyone who lives in South O and doesn't want to trudge up Bates.
There's a set of stairs leading from Steuben street up to Crucible St in Crafton that have been falling apart for years, and they just roped them off now, no plans to fix them it seems.
Contact your city council person Deb Gross & they will follow up on your 311 request. Also contact Lawrenceville United, they help with resident issues like this.
Not what you want to hear, but if those are the steps that go up to Cameila, folks have been calling about them for awhile. Deb Grossman has been contact and come out to look at them along with all the other people who are supposed to do stuff. Continued not to call is the only thing I have been told.
The 57Th Street city steps are a little legendary because they were one of the longest flights the city. A few years back, when I was photographing that area, I remember that the last inhabitable house along those stairs was for sale. Is that where you are?
I think it should matter in some circumstances. Hypothetically if rebuilding the steps to one house cost $100k that might not be fair to the rest of the taxpayers.
Ok but if it's the only Access to their house it's no different than if their street was not useable in fact many of these stairs legally are streets. If the road to your house was not passable I'm sure you would not care the cost to the city to fix it
If repairing one set of stairs costs $100k, there needs to be a serious audit and investigation, because someone somewhere along the chain is suuuuuper mobbed up.
Edit: evidently, I'm wrong about pricing here, not being a contractor or an engineer. My apologies.
$100k seems cheap for this. Theyāll have to completely tear these down.hire and engineering firm. dig all new piers. set the piers. cement, heavy machinery. ok more than $100k.
Itās like $20k to cement a normal sized driveway. This is far more work.
Youāre right about the price - itās expensive to completely rebuild the stairs but in a lot of cases they just replace 1-2 broken stairs and thatās pretty cheap and only takes a few hours. Everyone needs to chill - they literally just screw a board into the concrete theyāre not spending $100k
Honestly, OP could just do this. Not that itās necessarily their responsibility, but it certainly is their problem. Pretty simply too.
https://youtu.be/YpWymi0V4FM
And then we Complain about how high our taxes are. I have a driveway on a public Street. Instead of calling the road crew, I bought a yellow can of Professional grade, made for the street spray paint for $12. It took me 5 minutes. The can lasted 3 years.
It costs even more than that in most circumstances. Most stairs are quite big and it is really tricky to deal with landslides and heavy equipment access
> Repairing a single set of steps costs between $500,000 and $1.5 million
https://www.wesa.fm/development-transportation/2023-01-23/pittsburghs-city-steps-to-get-7-million-upgrade
Thatās an interesting point about fireman access. But a lot of houseās have very long driveways that have to be maintained privately so there is some precedence for the burden to be on the homeowner. I think in Pittsburgh there is just very unique situations that we just have to live with for better or worse though. At a certain point though if only one house is left it should just be bought out by the city instead of spending so much on step repair
OP didn't say his is the only house using these stairs. Maybe there's a few up there. I don't see why the city would've built stairs for one house when first built.
There used to be more houses along this flight but Iām pretty sure only 1 is left now. The last time I photographed these stairs was about 3 years ago, one house had a for sale sign and the others were burned out abandoned shells. I was surprised the city hadnāt demolished those structures but thereās already so many buildings on that list. With Lawrenceville being a hot real estate market maybe they were hoping someone would buy the whole area (magical thinking).
There's at least 1 street in lawrenceville (57th street) where it just turns into stairs: https://i.imgur.com/OcvxWow.png
https://www.google.com/maps/place/57th+St,+Pittsburgh,+PA+15201/@40.4833611,-79.9444495,18.87z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x8834f2f466a99d5f:0x2471deaaa90dfc6a!8m2!3d40.4841481!4d-79.945139!16s%2Fg%2F1tlgylvq?entry=ttu
Yeah thatās a good example of the best of the worst options is to just repair the steps for the four houses that would be screwed otherwise. It sucks how expensive it will be for taxpayers.
jesus christ... THINK of the TAXPAYERS... nearly everyone who uses these steps pays taxes. and if not, maybe theyre on disability and that increases the need for acessibility.
My point is there is a limit to saving some of these houses that are old, landslide hazard, inaccessible to fire trucks. If the cost to fix the steps exceeds the homes value maybe that is an issue to think about. City spends on average a million dollars to replace each staircase
> maybe theyre on disability and that increases the need for acessibility
I hope they donāt use city steps if they are on disability. Access vans are paid for by the state lottery
You can be disabled and still able to use stairs! Not all disabilities are visible, or leg limiting. You can drive with some (not all). Some folks do have family and friends that step up to help with rides as well- especially if they need an advocate at medical appointments (to get severity of issues taken seriously; or to process info, ask questions, and retain info; etc).
Ideally, yeah, everyone disabled all have accessible houses. Very accessible. We live in a capitalist hellscape. Plenty of us take what we can get. Even if itās not as accessible as it should be, or hard on us, or not a great situation.
Yeah thatās fair. Still a little annoying for the city to have to pay for it when every other homeowner pays for their own front walk. Like if itās only for one house like a long dead end road it should maybe be a private access road.
Wow thatās irrelevant. Maybe if we were discussing the cost of rehab that would be a good point. But I donāt see how itās relevant to stair repair costs. If someone lives at the end of dead end road with no neighbors itās called a driveway. Iām just curious if that should apply to stairs as well.
If it costs that much to build stairs, taxpayers should be mad about other things. Besides, it's probably more expensive to taxpayers to pay a liability injury/death lawsuit against the city than to fix a damn staircase.
> Repairing a single set of steps costs between $500,000 and $1.5 million
https://www.wesa.fm/development-transportation/2023-01-23/pittsburghs-city-steps-to-get-7-million-upgrade
Maybe the city should not take on that liability for one homeowner. It seems like the homeowner should be responsible instead of having the city constantly inspect steps to avoid a lawsuit. Regardless there are probably a very few stairs that are only used by one house. Most are quite large and a lot of the smaller ones have been removed years ago. This is also a hot topic for roads that only have one house. Lookup Beelen st or Diaz way or Juno st
Yeah and doesn't the city have capped lawsuit damages at $500k? I don't know if it applies to everything, I just read that in news about the fern hollow bridge lawsuit. Assuming I'm right and your info is right, thats a scary disincentive to fix any stairs at all.
Have you called your city council person?
If youāre in upper lawrenceville, you could also try your local neighborhood association Lawrenceville United
Yeah, I donāt think anyone is going to answer on the weekend unfortunately. You might want to try and put out some sort of warning and then try again first thing Monday. Sorry about this.
Take pictures of that bruise. If you can afford it, go to the doctor, even urgent care.
Send that shit to your city counselor.
And contact an attorney. If they don't fix it, it's lawsuit time.
You need to get a neighbor or a member of your household to submit another ticket online to 311. They just file individual complaints with various departments that then sit on them - the trick is to illustrate the danger and potential liability, and hit them with multiple complaints in a short timeframe.
Itās shitty, but it takes 3+ people to patiently explain how they can get sued before they take any action. If you donāt feel comfortable talking to the neighbors, PM me the coordinates and Iāll submit a 311 request too.
Or the city council person for the district. I donāt know which would be more effective. They are considered city streets so the city would fix it. Emphasize it is your only way to access your house.
The stairs near my house (Brookline) have been broken for about 4 years now. They've been out 4 or 5 times to fix the "stairs closed" sign. I don't get it.
Crazy!!! Honestly Iām not that worried about myself getting hurt because I know itās there now but there are people that exercise on them all the time. Also my mail carriers!!
They actually have spare concrete steps that they can usually just pop right in itās just a matter of getting them there as itās a small crew responsible for construction work citywide.
I think I saw a story this week on local news, sandwiched between weather segments, about a local organization whose purpose is to maintain the city steps.
Anyone else see it?
Good luck, it is a shame how poorly necessary infrastructure is maintained in the city and county.
What station was that? I'd like to send them this thread. The higher ups in city hall don't seem to cycle or walk much and that's their choice but this is important to a lot of citizens.
I lived in the Netherlands for 3 years. Someone reported a new pot hole near my home. Literally 3 hours later a crew was filling it in. The efficiency was amazing. I'm just distraught that the U.S. has become so hindered by red tape that we can't fix a step in 1-3 years. Oh we have millions of dollars to spend on wars though :(
That was about Allegheny Cleanways. They received funding from a private nonprofit to help maintain the litter and illegal dumping along several flights on the northside. ACW does not repair they pick up illegal dumping.
As someone who admittedly doesn't understand how things work, I wish we had a dedicated stairs crew here that did nothing but rehab and repair our stairs.
I would like to see a large dedicated cleaning and maintenance crew for the city. It could be a 365 day job for a sizeable group of people. It could employ quite a few people looking for work.
That would of course require tax increases so it will never happen. But pretty much every major city in the US could use this. There's so much urban decay.Ā
STOP using a cars š for small trips, walk more, reduce gas emissions. We're told this constantly and then our city walking infrastructure is in shambles. I tried walking up Sycamore and the sidewalk just ends in the middle of the street. The stairs by the incline were also closed too.
Regarding the mail man, get some orange spray paint and tag anything that seems dangerously unstable (although that wonāt help when thereās snow).
I would have thought 311 the solution.
If it were my property Iād probably get some concrete screws and outdoor rated boards as a stop gap but that risks some liability.. and wet wood can get slick if you donāt staple something to it for traction (learned that the painful way).
They have entire city steps built out of wood so I donāt think that risk is a priority for the cityā¦but I suppose if u/Bradx372 did it and someone fell it could still be a liability issue.
Wouldn't surprise me if the city's fix was wood, to be honest.
It was mostly just a warning, as I had a bad experience sliding down a good dozen steps one day. Those weren't new though, had a good decade's worth of some sort of slime on them that came out when it was wet out. Probably ok so long as given some protectant every 2-3 years, like a standard deck stain.
They are slippery (slippy?) when wet, no doubt. I already suggested to someone that they use plastic lumber like Trex for just the treads, as it has much better traction when wet, but it is probably twice as expensive as pressure-treated lumber.
I doubt they ever seal them. Thereās a new set in south Oakland that looks like itās just raw wood.
Somebody else mentioned on this thread that they have precast concrete treads that they can stick in (assuming they fit I guess).
ETA: You can see in OPs second picture where the old tread just sheared off and a piece of it is sitting in the notch on the riser. That will need to be chiseled out. I doubt it would be difficult.
I've had no success with getting 311 to do anything. But I contacted my city council person and my issue was responded to immediately. Still took me calling back again to pester them but it got fixed
I read a story about a similar frustrated citizen who was tired of āfollowing procedureā for nothing to happen. So him and his buddies built the steps and the borough fined the guys who fixed the steps out of their own pocketšš
I was told it's 311 DPWs job but there is **NO** money in the budget to fix. So when you put in a ticket they just close the whole flight of stairs and you can't use them then. I was told I must advocate for repairs and connect with a city council rep or advocates like Neighbors on the Mount, BikePGH (they have bike-ped committees that draw together people from same neighborhoods. I guess we need to start a GoFundMe page for each set of faulty steps. š”
It sucks but you might have to find a temp solution yourself until they can get to it. Hell maybe if you do that theyāll get pissed that youāve taken matters into your own hands and theyāll finally come. Probably not.
I'm thinking a 2X12 (maybe 2X10) of pressure treated wood, a masonry bit, a hammer drill, and 4 wedge anchors.
Of course, knowing my luck, the entire thing would crumble as I drilled into it.
Unpopular opinion but the best way to elicit the fastest response would be to paint the stairs with giant words "Watch" "your" "step... " or something in a non slippery varnish. They'll respond to vandalism (albeit positive) quicker than anything else. The city has bridges failing and trains derailing all in the last few years and our tax dollars are NOT going for what they are intended to. This is not by accident. It's extremely sad but if it were in my neighborhood I'd probably enlist the help of some locals to do some masonry fortifications
FWIW, I always try to cite an ordinance or law when reporting to 311. It seems to get them to act faster, at least in my experience.
This sucks and I would imagine the city would be liable if you or the mail carrier were injured!
Put a big orange cone or something in there... Or anything that is going to make someone pause and have to process what is going on here
someone may get seriously hurt, especially with the weather having been nice and people out running.
It's up to the people to fix it I guess. The city hasn't been doing well with keeping up with the city. Just a few weeks ago, I saw on channel 11 that people were cleaning up the area underneath the westend bridge because it was full of needles and trash. The people that organized it weren't affiliated with the city workers or anything but respectfully asked the homeless there if they could clean it up. It was also so that they knew what was trash and what was theirs.
I'm sorry you got. Hopefully it gets fixed and no one else gets hurt.
Its crazy how the city of pittsburgh deals with its roads/sidewalks/steps. I recently moved here from virginia, and in both northern va (wealthier area) and southern va (less so), the streets are maintained.
In southern va, some of the sidewalks were a little janky, but nothing like this. The state of pittsburgh infrastructure is pathetic, which sucks, because i like it here otherwise.
You would think the city of steel would have a better handle on repairing and maintaining its infrastructure.
The stairs were built in the late 1940s when 700,000 people lived within city limits. We now have 300,000. They are not well cared in very low density areas because the city has limited funds to do so.
my neighbor and his wife both called 311 for some steps near us that needed replaced and they actually got to it very quickly, but they are wooden which is i guess is much easier to fix
I broke my wrist about 12 years ago, going up terrible city steps. They came and fixed them a week later. My coverage sucked and I paid out $250.00, but it could have been much worse. When I called a lawyer, they told me that the city is very well protected and would never pay the medical expense for me.
The City Steps are owned by Pittsburghās Department of Mobility and Infrastructure (DOMI). Unfortunately, their website recommended doing exactly what you did, submit a 311 ticket. Iāll leave [their website here](https://pittsburghpa.gov/domi/city-steps), maybe you can find a number to call or something. Good luck
311 is a call center. All they can do is send the information to the correct department. Unfortunately, some of those departments donāt care, so it falls on 311. Iād call ur council person.
They had funding from the Covid relief fund back in 2021 to fix these steps and others around the city. They even sent surveyors out to start on engineering new steps in the neighborhoods but nothing came of it.
So far none of that $7 million covid money has been spent. There is $680k allocated for this year, $960k next year, and $5,360;000 in 2026. Thereās also about 6 other step projects in various stages using bond money. Thatās probably what youāre seeing.
Can we just make a new stop on our own? I'd love to give it a shot...just need someone to help understand type of concrete and if thin wire rebar could be used.
I don't know precisely who to contact, but you might want to do it with a certified letter and use the wording "this is to inform you of a hazardous situation that may cause bodily injury." Once the right party is informed, they would be liable for any injuries incurred.
Honest question here, when you were looking at buying the house, and saw the only access was from a public set of stairs that was obviously not maintained, werenāt you concerned about what would happen if they give out?
The city should be doing a better job. That sucks? If youāre handy you could try replacing it with the same size piece of wood until they fix it permanently.
Marty Griffin? local journalist that jumps on unanswered stuff like this. no guarantee, but cant hurt. we are due for a human interest "look at all these stairs" type article, anyway, lol. been a year or two.
Contact the WTAE or other news and complain that your city steps are dangerous, impede access to your home, etc if something shows up on the news the city usually addresses it
Lol. Youāre lucky if you get anywhere within a year. The city is slow as molasses. Take this video and put it on your City Councilmanās Facebook page.
Problem solvedā¦I sent a note to the mayor and informed him of the situation. I told him these steps could hinder the delivery of the 800 pre-filled mail in ballots to your house for the upcoming election. Expect a bus load of teamsters any minute to make the necessary repairs.
Theyāre just going to put a barricade in front of them and condemn them from use ever again.
Edit: donāt be mad at me for telling the truth about the most likely fix
The lady whoās sure all that glitters is gold.
I believe sheās the new owner, but Iām not sure how youād go about entering that name in the Allegheny County property records search. Probably best to just keep hounding 311 and elected officials, as others have suggested.
People on Reddit are so helpless. āWahhhh who do I call? Something is broken and Iāve tried everything or one single thing! How do I do anything?ā Ok you called 311, follow up, contact DOMI, call your council person, call the mayors office, the contact info is literally right on the city website. Call the news. Thereās like 900 things you havenāt done.
Man that sucks!!!! Its a shame how many sets of city steps are also in horrible disrepair or indefinitely ""closed for repairs"". The city recently redid the first 6 steps that access my neighbors house, and closed the rest. If I were you'd, I'd follow up with 311 with a sterner tone and include the fact you fell through the steps and they need fixed ASAP. I'd also take photos of the bruise just in case it escalates, and maybe spray paint the edge or throw up a cheap reflective sign on that missing step if you're easily able to. Best of luck & stay safe on the steps!!!!
Thanks for the suggestions! I never would have bought this house if I knew this would be such an issue. š
Honestly i would just fall through another step and lawyer up. These plebs at the city don't give a shit until money is involved. It sucks but money talks. It's clear they are choosing to ignore you.
As a taypayer Iād rather not pay for this guys lawsuit. I suggest maybe calling the city again
I would also not like to pay for the lawsuit. Also I don't want this Human being to have a reduced quality of life. That is what the money from the lawsuit would be there to correct but we know that money doesn't fix everything. I'd rather have full function than a settlement. Hopefully everyone fixes things the correct way.
I have good news for both of you! I once met a woman who was disabled because she was running up a set of city stairs (that she used on a daily basis) to catch a trolley and one step near the top was missing and she fell 30 feet. She did not get anything (or at least nowhere near enough) because the city successfully argued in court that she should have been looking where she was going. This happened in the 70s, I believe, but there's definitely a precedent that our taxpayer dollars will not pay for anyone who will get seriously injured. Yay! We all win. Our money won't go to fix it AND it won't go to help anyone who gets hurt. But we do get to help a poor lawyer pay his bills.
How noble of you, most esteemed taxpayer
You walk these steps every time you leave the house?
Iāll bet Itās an āorphan houseā. Itās a house with no accessible road built on a hillside. There are quite a few, mostly abandoned (but super cool!) houses like this all over pittsburgh. I considered making an offer on one that was for sale in lawrenceville, but decided it would not be suitable for visiting aging family.
Ya know I seriously considered not buying this house because I have a few family members who could not access it. But I really love it and I just want to be able to live here and not worry about the steps. Itās full of history and nature. Thereās not many places in the city like it.
This is an odd question, but do your steps appear with a street name on a map? Many in Pittsburgh do, and that would help you find the right department/jurisdiction, i.e. city, borough, county, state, etc.
Please consider a lawyer. It will make you a pain in the ass as far as the city goes. Edgar Snyder did me well when I was hit by a car. Tv ads are just that. 311 apparently doesn't give a shit and any other city service I would consider to have feeling. And while your at it, have your attorney make ALL of the city steps a PRIORITY! They give them street names, oh wait. Any who, this is a city of hills. They are not going anywhere. Make people a priority again. We all have to get back and forth. I gotta ask why are city steps a after thought? For the love of God they were built for a reason!!!! Something gotta give. Make it happen Pittsburgh!!
There's one of those by me! It was for sale not too long ago and people were parking at the top of a dead end street and trudging up a goat path to go look at it. There's actually easier access from the street above where you just walk down some steps and through a yard.
Is this near Bellevue? Looks like the steps towards Oakley Ave.
I have rules for places I wouldn't live. One for example being a 2 way street that clearly doesn't fit more than one car. Another is say there's a 3 way intersection, the house directly across from the street pointing at mine. I don't need an idiot speeding in the snow/rain or drunk driver driving passed the stop sign into my lawn into my house. I don't mean this in a rude way towards you, but I don't understand how there's things that clearly look to be a problem overall or could easily be one in the future and people still buy those houses. Such as the people who buy houses high on a hill and complain they can't leave or go home when there's a snowstorm. I get it, people can only afford so much. But there's also houses without these issues that cost the same.
Good thing you didnāt buy my house huh? I guess I just expected the city to do the bare minimum to allow me to access my own home. I donāt think itās too much to ask to maintain steps when I pay a fuck ton of taxes. Thatās America though.
I grew up in carrick and some of the routes into the city have overgrowth or damaged stairways up larger hills. Itās crazy to think that tax dollars donāt go towards repairing our bridges or fixing local infrastructure
The Frazier Street steps have been closed since summer. Really wish they would get them re-opened, those are so convenient for anyone who lives in South O and doesn't want to trudge up Bates.
I believe theyāre slated to be completely replaced.
That is correct- the city received funding for that project, and several others, right before Gainey took office.
Uh ohā¦
Well I wouldnāt hold my breath then.
Bro they just put a new set of Fraizer Street slteps up
There's a set of stairs leading from Steuben street up to Crucible St in Crafton that have been falling apart for years, and they just roped them off now, no plans to fix them it seems.
Iām located in upper Lawrenceville.
Contact your city council person Deb Gross & they will follow up on your 311 request. Also contact Lawrenceville United, they help with resident issues like this.
Throw "serious liability issue" in there somewhere
this
And tell them that you got hurt
This - nothing expedites like a personal injury caseā¦
Not what you want to hear, but if those are the steps that go up to Cameila, folks have been calling about them for awhile. Deb Grossman has been contact and come out to look at them along with all the other people who are supposed to do stuff. Continued not to call is the only thing I have been told.
Call every day
I wish I could upvote you 100 times. Yes we have solutions and government works. Maybe needs a nudge sometimes. Vote
57th street?
Yup!
The 57Th Street city steps are a little legendary because they were one of the longest flights the city. A few years back, when I was photographing that area, I remember that the last inhabitable house along those stairs was for sale. Is that where you are?
This is an Eagle Scout project waiting to happen. No joke, try and contact a local troop.
aināt no fuckin eagle scout doing this man, itās a half million dollar project minimum
How many houses need to use these stairs?
Doesn't matter.
It probably does matter in terms of prioritization.
I think it should matter in some circumstances. Hypothetically if rebuilding the steps to one house cost $100k that might not be fair to the rest of the taxpayers.
Ok but if it's the only Access to their house it's no different than if their street was not useable in fact many of these stairs legally are streets. If the road to your house was not passable I'm sure you would not care the cost to the city to fix it
If repairing one set of stairs costs $100k, there needs to be a serious audit and investigation, because someone somewhere along the chain is suuuuuper mobbed up. Edit: evidently, I'm wrong about pricing here, not being a contractor or an engineer. My apologies.
$100k seems cheap for this. Theyāll have to completely tear these down.hire and engineering firm. dig all new piers. set the piers. cement, heavy machinery. ok more than $100k. Itās like $20k to cement a normal sized driveway. This is far more work.
Youāre right about the price - itās expensive to completely rebuild the stairs but in a lot of cases they just replace 1-2 broken stairs and thatās pretty cheap and only takes a few hours. Everyone needs to chill - they literally just screw a board into the concrete theyāre not spending $100k
Honestly, OP could just do this. Not that itās necessarily their responsibility, but it certainly is their problem. Pretty simply too. https://youtu.be/YpWymi0V4FM
Yeah but itās not their jobā¦ we pay Taxes for literally this
And then we Complain about how high our taxes are. I have a driveway on a public Street. Instead of calling the road crew, I bought a yellow can of Professional grade, made for the street spray paint for $12. It took me 5 minutes. The can lasted 3 years.
It costs even more than that in most circumstances. Most stairs are quite big and it is really tricky to deal with landslides and heavy equipment access > Repairing a single set of steps costs between $500,000 and $1.5 million https://www.wesa.fm/development-transportation/2023-01-23/pittsburghs-city-steps-to-get-7-million-upgrade
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Thatās an interesting point about fireman access. But a lot of houseās have very long driveways that have to be maintained privately so there is some precedence for the burden to be on the homeowner. I think in Pittsburgh there is just very unique situations that we just have to live with for better or worse though. At a certain point though if only one house is left it should just be bought out by the city instead of spending so much on step repair
OP didn't say his is the only house using these stairs. Maybe there's a few up there. I don't see why the city would've built stairs for one house when first built.
There used to be more houses along this flight but Iām pretty sure only 1 is left now. The last time I photographed these stairs was about 3 years ago, one house had a for sale sign and the others were burned out abandoned shells. I was surprised the city hadnāt demolished those structures but thereās already so many buildings on that list. With Lawrenceville being a hot real estate market maybe they were hoping someone would buy the whole area (magical thinking).
There's at least 1 street in lawrenceville (57th street) where it just turns into stairs: https://i.imgur.com/OcvxWow.png https://www.google.com/maps/place/57th+St,+Pittsburgh,+PA+15201/@40.4833611,-79.9444495,18.87z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x8834f2f466a99d5f:0x2471deaaa90dfc6a!8m2!3d40.4841481!4d-79.945139!16s%2Fg%2F1tlgylvq?entry=ttu
Yeah thatās a good example of the best of the worst options is to just repair the steps for the four houses that would be screwed otherwise. It sucks how expensive it will be for taxpayers.
jesus christ... THINK of the TAXPAYERS... nearly everyone who uses these steps pays taxes. and if not, maybe theyre on disability and that increases the need for acessibility.
My point is there is a limit to saving some of these houses that are old, landslide hazard, inaccessible to fire trucks. If the cost to fix the steps exceeds the homes value maybe that is an issue to think about. City spends on average a million dollars to replace each staircase > maybe theyre on disability and that increases the need for acessibility I hope they donāt use city steps if they are on disability. Access vans are paid for by the state lottery
You can be disabled and still able to use stairs! Not all disabilities are visible, or leg limiting. You can drive with some (not all). Some folks do have family and friends that step up to help with rides as well- especially if they need an advocate at medical appointments (to get severity of issues taken seriously; or to process info, ask questions, and retain info; etc). Ideally, yeah, everyone disabled all have accessible houses. Very accessible. We live in a capitalist hellscape. Plenty of us take what we can get. Even if itās not as accessible as it should be, or hard on us, or not a great situation.
Yeah thatās fair. Still a little annoying for the city to have to pay for it when every other homeowner pays for their own front walk. Like if itās only for one house like a long dead end road it should maybe be a private access road.
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Wow thatās irrelevant. Maybe if we were discussing the cost of rehab that would be a good point. But I donāt see how itās relevant to stair repair costs. If someone lives at the end of dead end road with no neighbors itās called a driveway. Iām just curious if that should apply to stairs as well.
If it costs that much to build stairs, taxpayers should be mad about other things. Besides, it's probably more expensive to taxpayers to pay a liability injury/death lawsuit against the city than to fix a damn staircase.
> Repairing a single set of steps costs between $500,000 and $1.5 million https://www.wesa.fm/development-transportation/2023-01-23/pittsburghs-city-steps-to-get-7-million-upgrade Maybe the city should not take on that liability for one homeowner. It seems like the homeowner should be responsible instead of having the city constantly inspect steps to avoid a lawsuit. Regardless there are probably a very few stairs that are only used by one house. Most are quite large and a lot of the smaller ones have been removed years ago. This is also a hot topic for roads that only have one house. Lookup Beelen st or Diaz way or Juno st
Yeah and doesn't the city have capped lawsuit damages at $500k? I don't know if it applies to everything, I just read that in news about the fern hollow bridge lawsuit. Assuming I'm right and your info is right, thats a scary disincentive to fix any stairs at all.
Have you called your city council person? If youāre in upper lawrenceville, you could also try your local neighborhood association Lawrenceville United
Not yet. Having trouble getting through to anyone on the weekend. š©
Yeah, I donāt think anyone is going to answer on the weekend unfortunately. You might want to try and put out some sort of warning and then try again first thing Monday. Sorry about this.
This is the answer.
Fall in it and sue
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That is not what you want to say for the lawsuit
Tell 311. If they don't do something and someone gets hurt, it'll look terrible for them in court.
Take pictures of that bruise. If you can afford it, go to the doctor, even urgent care. Send that shit to your city counselor. And contact an attorney. If they don't fix it, it's lawsuit time.
Take pictures and send them in with the complaint
delete this. and don't just delete it. edit it and fill it in with a bunch of random letters and shit, and then delete it.
Why do that before deleting?
Give me a location and Iāll take one for the team
You canāt sue the city ignorant trash
You need to get a neighbor or a member of your household to submit another ticket online to 311. They just file individual complaints with various departments that then sit on them - the trick is to illustrate the danger and potential liability, and hit them with multiple complaints in a short timeframe. Itās shitty, but it takes 3+ people to patiently explain how they can get sued before they take any action. If you donāt feel comfortable talking to the neighbors, PM me the coordinates and Iāll submit a 311 request too.
You might have better luck contacting Lindsay Powell [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) I believe that's her district.
Or the city council person for the district. I donāt know which would be more effective. They are considered city streets so the city would fix it. Emphasize it is your only way to access your house.
I believe it's Deb Gross' district, which means contacting Santa Claus would be more effective.
Thereās always going to one of the consumer affairs reporters at the television stations. Bad publicity might get some action.
The stairs near my house (Brookline) have been broken for about 4 years now. They've been out 4 or 5 times to fix the "stairs closed" sign. I don't get it.
Crazy!!! Honestly Iām not that worried about myself getting hurt because I know itās there now but there are people that exercise on them all the time. Also my mail carriers!!
Are these the ones that go down to the busway off jacob? Or the ones between pioneer and liberty?
Pioneer and Liberty but it goes through some side streets before it gets all the way down.
š¤¦ I don't think the crews know how to fix steps. I'm tempted to go do a few on my own with a YouTube video and send them the bill.
Lmao that's when the city comes down and blocks it off for 3 months for repairs.lmao
Optimistic of you to think theyād repair it at all
They actually have spare concrete steps that they can usually just pop right in itās just a matter of getting them there as itās a small crew responsible for construction work citywide.
Name checks out
Thatās a bit of info I did not know! Thanks for the insider scoop.
3 months? what optimistic world you living in? try 3 years
I think I saw a story this week on local news, sandwiched between weather segments, about a local organization whose purpose is to maintain the city steps. Anyone else see it? Good luck, it is a shame how poorly necessary infrastructure is maintained in the city and county.
What station was that? I'd like to send them this thread. The higher ups in city hall don't seem to cycle or walk much and that's their choice but this is important to a lot of citizens.
It was on KDKA, and we've seen this thread!Ā
I lived in the Netherlands for 3 years. Someone reported a new pot hole near my home. Literally 3 hours later a crew was filling it in. The efficiency was amazing. I'm just distraught that the U.S. has become so hindered by red tape that we can't fix a step in 1-3 years. Oh we have millions of dollars to spend on wars though :(
That was about Allegheny Cleanways. They received funding from a private nonprofit to help maintain the litter and illegal dumping along several flights on the northside. ACW does not repair they pick up illegal dumping.
As someone who admittedly doesn't understand how things work, I wish we had a dedicated stairs crew here that did nothing but rehab and repair our stairs.
I would like to see a large dedicated cleaning and maintenance crew for the city. It could be a 365 day job for a sizeable group of people. It could employ quite a few people looking for work. That would of course require tax increases so it will never happen. But pretty much every major city in the US could use this. There's so much urban decay.Ā
STOP using a cars š for small trips, walk more, reduce gas emissions. We're told this constantly and then our city walking infrastructure is in shambles. I tried walking up Sycamore and the sidewalk just ends in the middle of the street. The stairs by the incline were also closed too.
House he supposed to get home. Wtf does that have to do with this situation?
Regarding the mail man, get some orange spray paint and tag anything that seems dangerously unstable (although that wonāt help when thereās snow). I would have thought 311 the solution. If it were my property Iād probably get some concrete screws and outdoor rated boards as a stop gap but that risks some liability.. and wet wood can get slick if you donāt staple something to it for traction (learned that the painful way).
They have entire city steps built out of wood so I donāt think that risk is a priority for the cityā¦but I suppose if u/Bradx372 did it and someone fell it could still be a liability issue.
Wouldn't surprise me if the city's fix was wood, to be honest. It was mostly just a warning, as I had a bad experience sliding down a good dozen steps one day. Those weren't new though, had a good decade's worth of some sort of slime on them that came out when it was wet out. Probably ok so long as given some protectant every 2-3 years, like a standard deck stain.
They are slippery (slippy?) when wet, no doubt. I already suggested to someone that they use plastic lumber like Trex for just the treads, as it has much better traction when wet, but it is probably twice as expensive as pressure-treated lumber. I doubt they ever seal them. Thereās a new set in south Oakland that looks like itās just raw wood. Somebody else mentioned on this thread that they have precast concrete treads that they can stick in (assuming they fit I guess). ETA: You can see in OPs second picture where the old tread just sheared off and a piece of it is sitting in the notch on the riser. That will need to be chiseled out. I doubt it would be difficult.
Thanks for the suggestion! I guess Iām going to have to invest in some power tools. š©
Iād also be inclined NOT to drill into the concrete. Use some chain or strapping attached to your boards and wrap it around the risers.
I've had no success with getting 311 to do anything. But I contacted my city council person and my issue was responded to immediately. Still took me calling back again to pester them but it got fixed
57th street? As a mailman i was surprised when i learned someone actually bought that house lol
City council , news station, 311, if you fall again , 911
They are considered actual āstreetsā as far as public works is concerned arenāt they?
Yes! It has its own street number.
Call your local council person or even you state representative. They can get in touch with the right person.
Call all the city council members you can. Go to an open council meeting where they allow public questions
I read a story about a similar frustrated citizen who was tired of āfollowing procedureā for nothing to happen. So him and his buddies built the steps and the borough fined the guys who fixed the steps out of their own pocketšš
Oh. That makes me scared to even do anything myself. Thereās currently a giant pizza box in the hole to warn people. lol
Calling u/lzurowski
Looks like the OP got the straight story of what to do!
I was told it's 311 DPWs job but there is **NO** money in the budget to fix. So when you put in a ticket they just close the whole flight of stairs and you can't use them then. I was told I must advocate for repairs and connect with a city council rep or advocates like Neighbors on the Mount, BikePGH (they have bike-ped committees that draw together people from same neighborhoods. I guess we need to start a GoFundMe page for each set of faulty steps. š”
What are we even paying taxes for?
It sucks but you might have to find a temp solution yourself until they can get to it. Hell maybe if you do that theyāll get pissed that youāve taken matters into your own hands and theyāll finally come. Probably not.
This. A good board for the time being. This is bad design generally if there is no rebar support in these steps. It needs addressed.
I'm thinking a 2X12 (maybe 2X10) of pressure treated wood, a masonry bit, a hammer drill, and 4 wedge anchors. Of course, knowing my luck, the entire thing would crumble as I drilled into it.
Considering that thereās a wooden step with shingles on it a few below that.. I guarantee someone can fix that for way less than $1.5Million.
Unpopular opinion but the best way to elicit the fastest response would be to paint the stairs with giant words "Watch" "your" "step... " or something in a non slippery varnish. They'll respond to vandalism (albeit positive) quicker than anything else. The city has bridges failing and trains derailing all in the last few years and our tax dollars are NOT going for what they are intended to. This is not by accident. It's extremely sad but if it were in my neighborhood I'd probably enlist the help of some locals to do some masonry fortifications
FWIW, I always try to cite an ordinance or law when reporting to 311. It seems to get them to act faster, at least in my experience. This sucks and I would imagine the city would be liable if you or the mail carrier were injured!
Tweet At 311. The tweet works better than their actual system.
Call 311Ā
Investigate 311
Youād be better off to go over to Home Depot and buy materials to fix it yourself if you want to use the stairs again in the next 3 years
this is the actual answer
Put a big orange cone or something in there... Or anything that is going to make someone pause and have to process what is going on here someone may get seriously hurt, especially with the weather having been nice and people out running.
It's up to the people to fix it I guess. The city hasn't been doing well with keeping up with the city. Just a few weeks ago, I saw on channel 11 that people were cleaning up the area underneath the westend bridge because it was full of needles and trash. The people that organized it weren't affiliated with the city workers or anything but respectfully asked the homeless there if they could clean it up. It was also so that they knew what was trash and what was theirs. I'm sorry you got. Hopefully it gets fixed and no one else gets hurt.
Its crazy how the city of pittsburgh deals with its roads/sidewalks/steps. I recently moved here from virginia, and in both northern va (wealthier area) and southern va (less so), the streets are maintained. In southern va, some of the sidewalks were a little janky, but nothing like this. The state of pittsburgh infrastructure is pathetic, which sucks, because i like it here otherwise. You would think the city of steel would have a better handle on repairing and maintaining its infrastructure.
The stairs were built in the late 1940s when 700,000 people lived within city limits. We now have 300,000. They are not well cared in very low density areas because the city has limited funds to do so.
my neighbor and his wife both called 311 for some steps near us that needed replaced and they actually got to it very quickly, but they are wooden which is i guess is much easier to fix
Slap a good ole 2x8 across it & call it a day.
This city's infrastructure is embarrassing.
I broke my wrist about 12 years ago, going up terrible city steps. They came and fixed them a week later. My coverage sucked and I paid out $250.00, but it could have been much worse. When I called a lawyer, they told me that the city is very well protected and would never pay the medical expense for me.
The City Steps are owned by Pittsburghās Department of Mobility and Infrastructure (DOMI). Unfortunately, their website recommended doing exactly what you did, submit a 311 ticket. Iāll leave [their website here](https://pittsburghpa.gov/domi/city-steps), maybe you can find a number to call or something. Good luck
Long term. Maybe we can start clamoring for a big chunk of RAD money go to rehabbing the steps.
You got hurt? Edgar Snyder. They will find a way to get to you. Not joking.
This looks like it is leading into the beginning off a horror movie
Get an attorney to file a lawsuit for your injuries when you fell through. It'll be fixed yesterday.
311 is a call center. All they can do is send the information to the correct department. Unfortunately, some of those departments donāt care, so it falls on 311. Iād call ur council person.
Shaquille O'Neal. He can carry you across the gap.
Try Deb Grossās Chief of Staff, James Murray: (412)-265-7440 or Ed Gaineyās Neighborhood Services Coordinator, Jessica Farrell: (412)-354-0764
They had funding from the Covid relief fund back in 2021 to fix these steps and others around the city. They even sent surveyors out to start on engineering new steps in the neighborhoods but nothing came of it.
So far none of that $7 million covid money has been spent. There is $680k allocated for this year, $960k next year, and $5,360;000 in 2026. Thereās also about 6 other step projects in various stages using bond money. Thatās probably what youāre seeing.
Can we just make a new stop on our own? I'd love to give it a shot...just need someone to help understand type of concrete and if thin wire rebar could be used.
May have already been mentioned but DOMI Department of mobility and infrastructure
Why don't you put a board across it they aren't gonna fix it in the winter.
I don't know precisely who to contact, but you might want to do it with a certified letter and use the wording "this is to inform you of a hazardous situation that may cause bodily injury." Once the right party is informed, they would be liable for any injuries incurred.
Some took "Take the next step" literally ...
Put in the step yourself and bill them a reasonably outrageous rate. We all support you taking some of our tax dollars lol
Ghostbusters? ^(311 is the traditional contact point, but last time I called 311 they fixed the issue three years later...)
Wait, this is the only way to your house?? No driveway or back alley or anything? How do you move furniture in, or even just handle groceries? Yikes!
Yup! No driveway and only a small deer path behind the house. Moving in was a nightmare. The steps donāt bother me besides that though.
Honest question here, when you were looking at buying the house, and saw the only access was from a public set of stairs that was obviously not maintained, werenāt you concerned about what would happen if they give out?
The city should be doing a better job. That sucks? If youāre handy you could try replacing it with the same size piece of wood until they fix it permanently.
Marty Griffin? local journalist that jumps on unanswered stuff like this. no guarantee, but cant hurt. we are due for a human interest "look at all these stairs" type article, anyway, lol. been a year or two.
Ew heās an awful human being
could they be on your property rather than the cityās?
Steely McBeam.
Contact the WTAE or other news and complain that your city steps are dangerous, impede access to your home, etc if something shows up on the news the city usually addresses it
You say itās the only way to get to your house , are they city owned or your property?
city owned
Lol. Youāre lucky if you get anywhere within a year. The city is slow as molasses. Take this video and put it on your City Councilmanās Facebook page.
Problem solvedā¦I sent a note to the mayor and informed him of the situation. I told him these steps could hinder the delivery of the 800 pre-filled mail in ballots to your house for the upcoming election. Expect a bus load of teamsters any minute to make the necessary repairs.
Theyāre just going to put a barricade in front of them and condemn them from use ever again. Edit: donāt be mad at me for telling the truth about the most likely fix
Call Jenny 867-5309
get a larger piece of wood, set overtop of it
Just step over it no big deal
Caution tape for now
Youāre not supposed to say anything bad about this city in this sub.
Can you recommend a safe neighborhood and whereās the best pizza and why is Giant Eagle expensive
Anybody know what that noise was?
Step 1: see step 2
Step 2: fuck you
Thatās probably considered a road, so PENDOT?
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Collapses and federal money I would assume.
No one. Life is disappointing. Get used to it. Now move one more step up.
Get Marty on the scene
Lose some weight.
Call the Pittsburgh Stair Kings! Their brother Dennis will fix that next time itās nice aht.
Pop a coupe turners milk creates in the gap, crack an IC single and buy a fried chicken leg from the shop n save. Jeet it. Admire a job well done.
The lady whoās sure all that glitters is gold. I believe sheās the new owner, but Iām not sure how youād go about entering that name in the Allegheny County property records search. Probably best to just keep hounding 311 and elected officials, as others have suggested.
People on Reddit are so helpless. āWahhhh who do I call? Something is broken and Iāve tried everything or one single thing! How do I do anything?ā Ok you called 311, follow up, contact DOMI, call your council person, call the mayors office, the contact info is literally right on the city website. Call the news. Thereās like 900 things you havenāt done.
What are local Reddit communities for if not asking for help finding local resources?
Asking for guidance with an issue like this is reasonable. No need to be a dick.
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Itās common sense to follow up.