Segregation and Disinvestment in Pittsburgh

Segregation and Disinvestment in Pittsburgh

In the Industrial Revolution, robber barons Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick were responsible for extreme pollution in Pittsburgh’s air and river with their steel and bituminous coal production (James and Rittman 773; 1922). Statistics show that the annual production from the Pittsburgh Seam alone was over 100,000,000 tons of bituminous coal (772). Then, when oil was discovered in 1859, Pittsburgh built 58 refineries by 1867 (773). This along with Carnegie’s ever pumping steel mills, created an environment in which Pittsburgh’s air was full of soot and its river full of chemicals (Hurdle 5; 2022, Hedin 1; 2023). Why is this important? Well beyond simply the harmful effects of pollution as of itself, this pollution also created extreme segregation in Pittsburgh, even referred to by some as “America’s apartheid city” (Dickinson 1; 2021). This would also be one of the most significant factors attributed to the city with a housing crisis with 20,000 vacant houses (Wolfson 1; 2025).

To begin, let’s examine how this racial segregation occurred. In the 2nd Industrial Revolution, due to Pittsburgh’s reputation as the “City of Steel,” there were many job opportunities available (Olalere 4; 2024). Along with that, due to Pittsburgh’s proximity to the Mason-Dixon line, Pittsburgh was a popular location for freed slaves in the late 1800s (Rotenstein; n.d.). Indeed, Pittsburgh was a popular migration city, and ended up growing from 50,000 residents in 1860 to 500,000 in 1910 (Olalere 4; 2024). However, the pollution was terrible, and privileged wealthier groups moved to cleaner high elevation areas in Pittsburgh (Banzhaf et al. 5; 2024). With the use of racially restrictive covenants and exclusionary zoning, wealthy white Pittsburghers concentrated racial minorities near heavily polluted locations in the center of the city (Gotham; 2000, Rotenstein; n.d.). Thus, minorities were subject to living near the industrial zones and the chemically harmful rivers while breathing in toxic fumes. This occurred while white, privileged Pittsburgh residents moved to higher elevation neighborhoods such as Squirrel Hill and early suburbs (Rotenstein; n.d.). Much like other cities, there were “redlining maps” which depicted the different locations of Pittsburgh through ratings with green, blue, yellow, and red, further solidifying the desirable and undesirable locations to live (Rotenstein; n.d., Aalbers; 2014). Black dominated areas such as Area D10 were typically near the industrial centers in the city. These people were effectively “illegitimate” inhabitants, who were dehumanized due to “white supremacist underpinnings of [the] American empire” (Rosas 402; 2006). This coupled with Pittsburgh’s urban renewal plan which displaced approximately 1,600 Black households, led to what is now considered “America’s apartheid city” (Fullilove 2; 2016).

What about in the modern day? Unfortunately, many of the same issues persist. When observing modern day maps and comparing them to those during this industrial era, the redlined neighborhoods look largely similar (Catapult 3; 2025). Indeed, due to decades-long systems of housing discrimination, forcing poor residents into segregated public housing enclaves, “The dire health outcomes linked to poverty between whites and Blacks, a trademark of apartheid, are some of the worst in the country” (Dickinson 4; 2021). This data indeed reflects the idea that “redlined” areas are significantly more likely to deal with health issues than “greenlined” neighborhoods, and Pittsburgh is one of the worst (Hoffman; n.d.). Let’s further observe modern day health risks for historically redlined communities in Pittsburgh. The pollution map by the Breath Project shows similar lines, in which historically black communities are still most affected by black carbon and nitrogen dioxide (Breathe Project; n.d.). These historical inequities also result in extreme asthmatic symptoms even today in Black populations in Pittsburgh (Schuyler and Wenzel 39; 2022). In addition, Black populations are still getting more criminalized as well. In 2019, Black people were only 23.2% of the Pittsburgh population, but were 43.6% of those stopped by police in traffic stops, 71.4% of frisks, 69% of warrantless search and seizures, and 63% of all arrests in Pittsburgh (Prabhu 1; 2020). Children were treated even more disproportionately, with Black children involved in 83% of warrantless search and seizures from ages 11–18 and 100% of warrantless search and seizures under 10 years old. Much like in Oakland, there exists hypercriminalization of Black civilians in Pittsburgh, even for children (Ramirez; 2020). So, when comparing Pittsburgh in the 1900s to Pittsburgh today, most of the issues largely remain the same.

Now, let’s refer back to the housing crisis. How does Pittsburgh have 20,000 vacant houses in an affordable housing crisis? This is effectively because as noted before, redlining forced minorities out of prominent housing locations while urban renewal simultaneously destroyed existing housing in poorer, black dominated communities. This alone however is not enough to cause an affordable housing crisis. The reason that these historical inequities are exacerbated is because of the pollution itself. When looking at Pittsburgh pollution, “differential patterns between white movers and black movers yielded an estimated movement-generated gap of an additional 0.42 standard deviations [of soot]” (Banzhaf et al. 30; 2026). Indeed, of these 20,000 vacant housing units, approximately 15% of total Pittsburgh housing, thousands are unlivable and face foreclosure over code violations (Wolfson 4; 2025). These houses, far too damaged from the soot, were illegal to even rent out (The Pittsburgh Foundation 2; n.d.). Effectively, these houses, which were poisoned by the commodification of land for industry, were colonized by wealthy white men, creating a modern settler colonial hierarchy in Pittsburgh (Palmer; 2020).

What now? Well, fortunately things do seem to be taking a turn for the better. Police traffic stops have been intentionally decreasing in Pittsburgh’s communities of color (Sheehan 2; 2022). In addition, the Pittsburgh Land Bank has been attempting to transform unlivable property and revitalize communities (1; 2026). However, there still exists harsh opposition, and will need continuous support to promote further transformation in “America’s Apartheid City” (Sheehan 2; 2022).

References

Aalbers, M. B. (2014). Do maps make geography? Part 1: Redlining, planned shrinkage, and the places of decline.

Banzhaf, S., Mathews, W., & Walsh, R. (2024). Hell with the lid off: Racial segregation and environmental equity in America’s most polluted city. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4957404

Breathe Project. (n.d.). Pollution Map. https://breatheproject.org/pollution-map/

Dickinson, E. by J. (2021, February 22). Commentary: Pittsburgh is America’s apartheid city. Pittsburgh’s Public Source. https://www.publicsource.org/commentary-jerry-dickinson-pittsburgh-is-americas-apartheid-city/

Fullilove, M. (2016). Urban renewal and the production of inequalities. In Framing the Dialogue on Race and Ethnicity to Advance Health Equity: Proceedings of a Workshop. National Academies Press (US). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK395651/

Gotham, K. F. (2000). Urban space, restrictive covenants and the origins of racial residential segregation in a US city, 1900–50: 24.3. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.

Hedin, B. (2023, October 16). Historic and current water quality challenges in Pittsburgh: Acid mine drainage to combined sewer overflows. GSA Connects 2023 Meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2023AM/webprogram/Paper392287.html

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James, J. H., & Rittman, W. F. (1922). Pittsburgh as an industrial center. Journal of Industrial & Engineering Chemistry, 14(9), 772–774. https://doi.org/10.1021/ie50153a003

Lord, J. W., Rich. (2023, October 5). Arrests, stops, searches all dropped in Pittsburgh as officers dwindled, new police data says. Pittsburgh’s Public Source. https://www.publicsource.org/pittsburgh-police-data-arrests-traffic-stops-discipline-disparities/

Olalere, M. (2024, December 9). How Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania became America’s steel manufacturing powerhouse. Mann Supply. https://mannsupply.com/blogs/safety/pittsburgh-pennsylvania-a-steel-manufacturing-hub

Palmer, M. A. (2020). Rendering settler sovereign landscapes: Race and property in the Empire State. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 38(5), 793–810. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263775820922233

Prabhu, D. (2020, December 15). Alc releases report on apartheid policing in Pittsburgh, calls for defunding police to pre-peduto levels. Abolitionist Law Center. https://abolitionistlawcenter.org/2020/12/15/apartheid-policing-in-pgh/

Ramírez, M. M. (2020). City as borderland: Gentrification and the policing of black and latinx geographies in oakland. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 38(1), 147–166. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263775819843924

Rosas, G. (2006). The thickening borderlands: Diffused exceptionality and ‘immigrant’ social struggles during the ‘war on terror.’ Cultural Dynamics, 18(3), 335–349. https://doi.org/10.1177/0921374006071618

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Schuyler, A. J., & Wenzel, S. E. (2022). Historical redlining impacts contemporary environmental and asthma-related outcomes in black adults. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 206(7), 824–837. https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.202112-2707OC

Sheehan, A. (2022, May 11). Police traffic stops decreasing in Pittsburgh’s communities of color — CBS Pittsburgh. https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/police-traffic-stops-decreasing-in-pittsburghs-communities-of-color/

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Wolfson, C. (2025, December 22). How does Pittsburgh have 20,000 vacant homes — And a housing shortage? Pittsburgh’s Public Source. https://www.publicsource.org/pittsburgh-housing-shortage-population-decline-vacant-homes/