The short version of this legislation
- It creates the East Carson Street Improvement District, run by a new Pennsylvania nonprofit — East Carson Street District Management, Inc.
- It raises about $500,000 a year, assessed on commercial properties inside the boundary (see the map).
- Your share is based on linear feet of street frontage of your commercial property — not on rent, square footage, or income.
- Residential and nonprofit-owned properties are exempt — they pay nothing and they have no control of the nonprofit.
- The money will not be used to duplicate services that the city already does.
- The board presents a budget to Council every October. The budget included in the legislation is an example only. It will be reviewed and revised based on input from the newly elected board of directors after the legislation becomes law.
- When passed, this law will end five years from January 1, 2027, unless commercial property owners in the district choose to renew it.
This legislation will be voted on by the City Council. Commercial property owners in the proposed business district who support the legislation do not need to do anything.
We urge you to talk with your fellow commercial property owners in the district and refer them to this website, so that they are making their decision based on facts. There is a process, outlined in the legislation, for those who oppose it.
Straight answers
The three questions asked the most.
Is this just a second tax, aka “double taxation”?
No. Your regular property taxes go into a citywide pool that gets spread across 90 city neighborhoods. This is a separate, local fund that by law cannot be touched by the city government and cannot be spent on normal government operations.
It is money raised in the East Carson Street Business District that must be spent on the East Carson Street Business District.
Will the city cut back street sweeping, garbage collection or police patrolling because of this?
The ordinance is explicit that this district's revenues fund services in addition to what the city provides — the fund cannot be used for essential government services the City of Pittsburgh already delivers. The fund buys extra care and services on top of the baseline, not a replacement for it.
Please note: the cleaning schedules you may have seen in the leaflets are examples of what the board could choose to fund, not commitments already made.
Is that first-year budget locked in forever?
No, and this is the one that confuses most people. The first-year numbers in the legislation being proposed are examples of how the money could be spent, based on a survey of commercial property owners.
A real, itemized budget has to be built, reviewed and voted on by the board of local owners every single year, and presented to Council each October.
If the board spends it on services or programs in year one that aren't successful, the owners on the board change it in year two. And the whole thing ends in five years unless it is deliberately renewed by commercial property owners in the business district and City Council.
The program areas
What the fund from this legislation can be spent on.
The board, made up of local commercial property owners, decides how the fund is spent. Some possible ideas:
Public space & maintenance
Graffiti and sticker removal, sidewalk cleaning and weed removal, seasonal lighting, planters and wayfinding.
Branding & image
A campaign to reintroduce the South Side to the region's customers, and to push back on the corridor's reputation with facts.
Storefront activation
Recruiting daytime retail into vacant spaces, window displays and pop-ups in empty storefronts, and on-call help for brokers and owners trying to lease.
Events & marketing
Programming and promotions that bring foot traffic onto the street during the day and evening. Marketing the business district to change perceptions and compete with other neighborhoods.
The staff, which is the point
Someone whose entire job is this district — writing the grant applications the South Side has been unable to apply for, planning events and promotions to draw customers to the district, and advocating for an owner who has a problem.
The boundary