PEOPLE PASS ALONG SMITHFIELD STREET BY THE OLD KAUFMAN’S CLOCK ON SMITHFIELD STREET IN DECEMBER 2024. | PHOTO BY STEPHANIE STRASBURG/PUBLICSOURCE

Downtown Pittsburgh’s streets are cleaner, they’re safer and Clean Team staff, hospitality ambassadors, police and public works staff are more visible.

What still needs to be done to improve Downtown’s public environment? Better management of homelessness, panhandling and loitering and behavior of children and teens.

These are the results of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership’s 2024 Satisfaction Survey of more than 1,300 people that show steady progress over the last three years on several fronts to make the city more welcoming.

The annual Downtown Pittsburgh Satisfaction Survey, conducted since 2022 in this version, aims to gain insights into the public’s experience and perceptions of Downtown. Respondents were asked to gauge the cleanliness and safety of the neighborhood, the effectiveness of PDP’s work and their opinion on Downtown’s recovery from the pandemic and its trajectory into the future. It was released on the eve of the PDP’s annual meeting on Wednesday and comes a month after the partnership released a three-year strategic vision plan to transform Downtown.

Among highlights of the survey:

• Thirty-five percent of respondents rated the Golden Triangle as “much cleaner” than other areas of the city; that was up 7% from the 2023 survey. Fifteen percent rated Downtown as less clean, which was half of the negative views cast in 2022.
• Besides litter, respondents said the three biggest problems that most detracted from the appearance of sidewalks in Downtown were personal Items left by people sleeping on sidewalks, biohazards (urine and such) and overflowing  trash cans. These remained consistent over the three years of this survey.
• For safety, 61% said they “always felt safe” or “feel safe most of the time” when Downtown. That is a 7% increase from 2023 and 17% increase from 2022. “The numbers still indicate room for improvement, as those reporting ‘occasionally feeling unsafe’ remain a sizable percentage at 27%,” according to the report.
• The three situations or conditions that make them feel most unsafe included: “panhandlers, mentally ill or addicted individuals who confront pedestrians” (64%); “people sleeping on the sidewalks and in doorways” (37%); and “‘groups of people loitering” (36%)
• The PDP has dispatched a fleet of on-street service staff — Clean Team members and hospitality ambassadors — and those are having an impact. The survey showed that on-street staff visibility was high in 2024, which also included visibility of police and public works employees.
• More than 62% of respondents reported seeing these folks “every time” or “most of the time” they are Downtown during the day (the same as in 2023), and 39% during the evening (a 6% increase from 2023 and 14% increase from  2022)
• PDP’s events and programming in parks and public spaces and its streetscape efforts — such as  outdoor dining, planters and public artwork — received high marks. Approximately 60% of respondents reported both of these efforts as having a “significant impact,” and fewer than 10% viewed them as having “minimal to no impact.”
• Ninety percent of respondents said sidewalk cleaning and pressure washing had either a significant impact or modest impact on improving Downtown. Graffiti removal and interaction with hospitality ambassadors each received 80% positive impact ratings.

The report concluded: “Findings from the 2024 Downtown Pittsburgh Satisfaction Survey showed significant improvements in overall sentiment toward Downtown, as well as effectiveness of PDP’s efforts.”