VI - North LibertyMost residents, if asked to identify the city's second downtown, would immediately point to North Liberty. This neighborhood, which sits on an area of relatively flat land between the industrial lowlands, and residential highlands serves as meeting point for many of the main transit arteries of the city, and a central hub for the surrounding neighborhoods, both upper and lower class.
Here, expensive boutiques share storefronts with common shops, and people of all financial means shop side-by-side in the bustling business district, while sharing street cars to their jobs and homes.
This is a far cry from what you would have seen just a century ago. In the 1850's, most of this land was taken up by the cow pastures that give it it's name ("Liberty" being an old term for a plot of commonly-held grazing land). As small village existed at a cross roads in the area. This began to change, however, when two of those cross roads were turned into turnpikes, and the sleepy area outside of the city controlled access within. Inns and small stores popped up at the junction, followed by homes, department stores, and other developments. The turnpikes were dissolved in 1899, but by then the small village was a booming center of commerce; which was then annexed by the city in 1908 (still a sore spot with some of the old time residents).
This history of late development has lent to the neighborhood's wide, sweeping streets, and relatively uncongested appearance.
St. George Parish, a beautiful, ornate church, rivaling the Cathedral itself, is a symbol of the community and source of local pride.
A few of the cities great financial and industrial kings own significant estates in the neighborhood, but for the most part, much of the housing is densely packed, though decidedly upper-scale row housing for the merchants who own businesses in the area.
Like much of the city, North Liberty was damaged during the war. And though recovery was swift, the opportunity given by newly available land, the slow advance of urban decay, and the designs of urban planners leave the future of this neighborhood uncertain.
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On a side note, I based this neighborhood almost entire off of the neighborhood of East Liberty in Pittsburgh, which is a couple blocks from my apartment and was itself a victim of urban renewal,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Liberty_%28Pittsburgh%29