Group says Pittsburgh downtown safety ’declining’

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A nonprofit arts organization is raising the alarm over what the chief executive calls a “declining level of public safety” in an area of downtown Pittsburgh that is being redeveloped.

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has focused for decades on the economic and cultural development of a once-seedy 14-square-block section of the city’s downtown area.

But the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that CEO Kevin McMahon says in a letter to Mayor Bill Peduto that “alarming” recent problems – such as a July 4 shooting that wounded two people – threaten “to undo the reputation and the achievements created” over the past 35 years.

Peduto, in a statement, said city homicides have been down every year since 2014 and the latest statistics show a 3% drop this year in violent and property crimes.