One of the worst and most desolate hoods in the greater PGH area. Not very well known because it's been on the decline since at least the early 1980s and very few people still live there. It's even more violent and blighted than McKeesport, but on a smaller scale. People get targeted for literally no reason at all, nothing to even rob or take from them except their suffering.
Most remaining houses go for sheriff sale because properties are worth so little there now that sellers struggle to find a buyer at
practically any price. $50k would be a fairly nice older house near Kennywood for instance.
Half the lots have been
demolished or are rotting apart, although some old timers do take good care of their homes and deserve respect for hangin on the best they can. A few churches and businesses are still
operational too and decently taken care of.
Some of us still remember the parades down the avenue, our nice older black neighbors (shout out to Mr. Ed!), getting a pizza from Mario's, beautiful summer mornings at the
top of the hill, and the sense that this area used to really be something. It's also the kind of area that could become really beautiful and desirable again if some company were to just dump IDK
like a billion dollars' worth of investments into rehabilitating the area and give actual opportunities to the people who live there.
Sadly this is one of those places that for a long time has been super inexpensive for good reasons.
At least McKeesport has its own schools with a wild
football team, some parks, stores, services, and some parts of it are
better than others. There's no "better" part of Duquesne, even the areas near
Kennywood / West Mifflin, it just feels like a wasteland.
