March 3, 2017 12:26 AM By David Highfield

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) Theres some disagreement over a plan to improve Liberty Avenue in Downtown Pittsburgh.

While some think a new proposal is exactly how to transform the street, others fear taking away parking will hurt businesses.

The current discussion includes widening sidewalks on Liberty, but eliminating some street parking in the 900 block, at least during the day.

That has David Abrams fired up.

Big sidewalks might be nice in Paris, but Pittsburgh is still a driving city. People still drive in Pittsburgh, he said.

Abrams owns the Army Navy store thats been in business for 73 years. Its survived a lot, but he wonders if it can survive less street parking.

Its definitely going to affect my business because theres no place to park on Liberty Avenue. Not everyone comes in on a bus, said Abrams.

He says a nearby parking lot and a garage are filled up during the day.

But not everyone shares his concerns. Eve Picker owns buildings on Liberty and sees a different problem.

The street is not working, said Picker. That block is not working. I have a store front Id really love to fill with a caf, and I think people are really turned off by the congestion and the bus noise.

The plan to widen the sidewalks and perhaps even allow outdoor caf seating is an effort by a group called Envision Downtown to duplicate whats happened in Market Square.

But Executive Director Sean Luther says the idea is to adjust the plan for businesses and people who use Liberty. He also says street parking would not disappear entirely.

The plan that were work-shopping tonight preserves most of the parking spaces for night and weekends, and then were looking at the space during the day and saying, Whats the maximum benefit to the business owners and people who are trying to enjoy Liberty?'

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Envision Downtown met with building and business owners Thursday night, and plans to reach out to others for their input, including bus riders who wait at stops along Liberty Avenue.

John Norton lives in the 900 block of Liberty and is excited by the prospect of a new plan: I think its great. I think were really lucky that weve got really great designers paying attention to our block.

Envision Downtown wants to point out that this is a process. The plan is to release more details to the public next week.

You may have seen David at the anchor desk or reporting in the field, but he actually began behind the scenes at KDKA. David got his start at KDKA as a writer in 1991 before being promoted to a newscast producer. It wasnt long, though, before he...

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Debate Heats Up Over Plans To Improve Liberty Avenue Downtown - CBS Pittsburgh / KDKA