Failed Mon-Oakland Connector project laid to rest in mock funeral

Activists and community members gathered Sunday afternoon on the west side of Schenley Park for a not-so-solemn funeral to ceremoniously “bury” the failed Mon-Oakland Connector shuttle road project and celebrate community-led development in its place.

The project, which went through several iterations since first being proposed in 2015, aimed to connect Oakland to Hazelwood Green using autonomous shuttles. Residents fought against the plan, saying it ignored the needs of the communities it would impact the most and that the money could be used for more efficient and equitable public transportation improvements.

“We built a coalition of people that said, ‘No, this is our money and we should be using this money to do things that we need for our communities,’” said Pittsburgh Councilor Barb Warwick, a resident of Greenfield’s Four Mile Run neighborhood who opposed the Mon-Oakland Connector since its inception.

“When you are coming up with solutions … you start with the people who need those solutions the most. You start with the solutions that are going to help the most people. You don’t find a solution like an autonomous shuttle road that you would like to build and then try to fit it to the community,” she said.

Mayor Ed Gainey announced the end of the Mon-Oakland Connector shuttle program in February 2022.

“As we seek to improve mobility throughout our city, we will focus on investing in transportation justice-oriented projects to increase connectivity,” the mayor said in a statement at the time. “Today’s announcement is an important step forward in meeting that goal, and I am thankful to all of the city’s partners for their thoughtful and dedicated work on this project.”

Pittsburghers for Public Transit, in partnership with the Junction Coalition, P.O.O.R.L.A.W., and GH-CARED, organized the Sunday event to celebrate their victory in stopping the project and to continue building neighborhood relationships. Led by a New Orleans-style funeral march featuring the Eagleburger Band, attendees marched from the Panther Hollow parking lot in Oakland through Schenley Park to Four Mile Run Park, where the celebration ended with a community-building picnic.