Abandonment, White Flight, and Suburbanization in Pittsburgh.

Abandonment, White Flight, and Suburbanization in Pittsburgh. The Hill District and Fox Chapel case study.

Much like other wealthy suburbs in the United States, FC is racially segregated, “In 2024, there were 17.4 times more White (Non-Hispanic) residents (4.57k people) in Fox Chapel (FC), PA than any other race or ethnicity” (Data USA 2; n.d.). Furthermore, 93.3% of households in FC pay over $3k in taxes, compared to 48.9% in the United States overall. And 91.1% of the housing units in FC were occupied by their owner, compared to Pittsburgh’s overall of 70.5% (Data USA 3; n.d.). Evidently, FC is home to a wealthy, homeowning class of people at higher rates than the rest of Pittsburgh. However, FC is not an exception in Pittsburgh’s suburbs. There exist nine large, disproportionately white neighborhoods where, in 2023, median household income was over $100,000 (Cotter 3; 2019, Lott 3; 2023).

Why are these statistics the way they are? To answer this question, this paper will follow two districts in the Pittsburgh area. The first will be the Hill district, once a bustling multicultural district, and how it became one of the poorest neighborhoods in the Pittsburgh area today (Damewood 4; 2011). The second will be that of FC, a wealthy white suburb which seemingly grew out of nowhere in the 1960s (World Population Review 2; n.d.). Through a comparison between these two neighborhoods, a clear link between modern day segregation and the institutional practices in the 1900s will be formed.

Let us first examine the downfall of the Hill district. Indeed, this downfall mirrors well the struggles of the better known South Bronx. Originally, the Hill District was considered a melting pot of immigrants in the United States. There were major flows of immigrants from Western Europe, and later Eastern Europe and the Middle East from the 1820s to the 1920s (Scott 2; 2004). Like how the South Bronx was a melting pot in the 1940s, between the 1920s and 1950s, the Hill District consisted of 25 nationalities, including Black, Italian, Jewish, German, Irish, Syrian, Lebanese, Arab, Polish, and Chinese migrants (Hildebran and Vazquez; 2019, Scott 2; 2004). However, this would not last long. Mirroring the South Bronx, the Hill district was obliterated from urban renewal practices and white migrants were institutionally subsidized through government subsidies to exit the Hill district and move into the suburbs of Pittsburgh (Hildebran and Vazquez; 2019).

Pittsburgh leaders utilized the 1949 American Housing Act to clear out “slums” with federal dollars. Along with some private dollars, Pittsburgh demolished 95 acres in the Hill district for a $14 million arena (Childress 3; n.d.). This eventually began in 1955, where over 8,000 residents and 400 businesses were displaced. Furthermore, between 1950 and 1990, the Hill District lost 71% of its residents, which amounted to more than 38,000 people (Kiddle 5; n.d.). Now, the Hill district is 54% African American, far from its historic multicultural self (McAuley Ministries 4; 2020).

Where did all of those residents go? Well, the answer lies in suburbs like FC. First founded in 1934, by 1940, FC had 1,080­ residents: 967 were white, 20 were Black, and 93 were foreign born (Rotenstein 3; 2024). FC would proceed to grow rapidly when the Hill district was displaced from urban renewal. From 1940 to 1970, FC went from 1,080 residents to about 4.7 thousand (World Population Review 2; n.d.). The white displaced residents in the Hill district, and others like it, went to suburbs like FC (Childress 2; n.d.).

At first glance, this seems impossible. How did working class Whites move to wealthy suburbs like FC? Why didn’t Black Americans also? The first question’s answer, like most suburbanization in America, lies in the Federal Housing Association (FHA). Indeed, the FHA subsidized white flight: mortgages were only granted to those moving to safe white neighborhoods (Gotham; 2000). In addition, the GI Bill was implemented, offering cheap mortgages to white veterans (Lawrence 1; 2022). What this meant was that poorer whites could afford to move to these expensive suburbs due to subsidized mortgages allowed only in white neighborhoods (Aalbers; 2014).

Black Americans were unable to do the same due to racially restrictive covenants, legal restrictions, and hostile treatment. FC began as a “sundown town,” which meant that the community was intentionally all white enforced by systematic exclusion and threats of violence (Rotenstein 1; 2024, Schaefer 1283; 2008). To accomplish this, FC used a unique approach to exclude Black Americans. “Instead of categorically excluding Black people, however, deeds there specified that builders could only construct expensive single-family homes approved by an architectural review board“ (Rotenstein 2; 2024). These were racially restrictive covenants through using deeds, in which the architectural review board would reject plans proposed by Black Americans (Gotham; 2000). This resulted in Black Americans from being unable to live in FC, and thus, systematically excluded.

Beyond the racially restrictive covenants, the GI Bill was also a major entrepreneur of racial disparities. While the GI bill was a major factor in facilitating the greatest expansion of the American middle class in history, this offer was not extended to Black veterans (Lawrence 1; 2022). More precisely, banks simply would not give Black Americans mortgages despite veteran status (4). Unlike displaced poor White Americans, poor Black Americans simply weren’t financially able to move to these suburbs.

The treatment that these Black Americans received was also poor. Rotenstein notes the “hostile environment [a black man’s] family moved into. A neighbor called him a “monkey” and other names while waiting for the school bus” (6; 2024). Another notes that “This stuff is [on] automatic pilot,” he says. “You don’t really have to do anything. You don’t have to pass any ordinances, you don’t have to have those exclusive covenants. You just don’t have to do anything” (8).

Now, have things improved at all? Unfortunately not. Only 1.1% of FC is Black and the Hill district is still impoverished (Rotenstein 2024; Damewood 2011). The reason for this is racial wealth disparity. Homeownership is a primary method of building wealth (Imagine 2050; n.d.). As this paper has explored, Black Americans were systematically excluded from this wealth. They were unable to purchase homes in wealthier neighborhoods, and their existing neighborhoods were destroyed and devalued from urban renewal. Even the homes they were able to obtain are devalued based on their race (Rothwell and Perry; 2022). Furthermore, these exclusionary practices from the past still continue today, simply coated with a different texture.

There are two major examples of this. The first is strict zoning laws. FC, in a majority of its areas, requires a minimum of 1 to 3 acres to pass zoning laws (FC Borough; n.d.). For zoning practices, even a 1 acre minimum is considered to be exclusionary, maintaining the historical wealth inequalities and creating segregated wealthy neighborhoods (McDuffy; 2023). This zoning is effectively modern day redlining, maintaining segregated communities even today (Kahlenberg; 2021). The other concept is municipal fragmentation. Indeed, FC is its own municipality, meaning that it has its own government, receives its own taxes, and distributes its wealth to its citizens and education (Divittorio; 2025). The result is that the wealth that FC has, remains concentrated, and is not distributed to poorer communities through the rest of the Pittsburgh area.

Well, why does this all matter? Simply, these inequalities and continued inequalities result in the modern statistics in which the Hill District is still impoverished, and wealthy white suburbs of the past are wealthy white suburbs of the now. Due to massive urban renewal projects, locations such as the Hill district were abandoned. White migrants would flee with government subsidies to the suburbs and use racially restrictive covenants, violent treatment, and legal discrimination to prevent Black Americans from moving to these districts. This resulted in Black Americans unable to tap into the housing market where white Americans hold 80 years of wealth. Suburbs such as FC then hoard property taxes, providing a quality education and healthy communities, while simultaneously denying funds to impoverished areas, leaving them in dangerous, unhealthy neighborhoods and lacking in resources for upward mobility. These practices still continue today, keeping FC wealthy and white, and the Hill district impoverished and black.

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