SparkleDragon’s Magical Emporium is a place in Beechview where witches, heathens, pagans and locals can meet to find incense, books and other items of the occult.
Beechview Points of Pride
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Joyce Crock, a self-described witch, envisioned her Broadway Avenue business to be a meeting place where people who feel like they don’t belong in so-called “normal” places could build a community when she opened it in 2015.
“I feel that my place is really important to the pagan community,” Crock said. “We have a lot of LGBTQ+ people in the pagan community and they don’t always feel comfortable everywhere. I’ve had people of color come in and tell me how welcome they feel cause I’m not judgmental. That was a real slap of awakening.”
Crock said that many of the businesses around her have seen dwindling customers. And while she welcomes anyone into her store, as of late she said she too has been struggling to attract them.
“I’ve been in business for so long and I’ve never made a profit,” added Crock, who also sells the work of local artists, on consignment. “I don’t know how I’m still open, I really don’t. Some people are so supportive of the shop. I get a lot of people who come in just to talk. I almost run a little mental health clinic.”
Beechview’s business district hasn’t fully recovered from a massive fraud scandal in the early aughts even as it is buoyed by an influx of new residents, many of whom are Latino. Business owners are hoping the neighborhood’s accessibility and growing immigrant population will solidify the turnaround.
“The business district was decimated. The Latino influx helped revive the community after everything happened with Bernardo Katz,” said Charlene Saner, a Beechview resident, referring to a developer who bought numerous properties, promising to invest in the area with the help of city Urban Redevelopment Authority funding.
Instead, Katz absconded from the country, drawing federal charges of wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy and leaving debt that tied up many of the commercial properties he bought in Beechview. According to reports, Katz owned 80% of Beechview’s business district and promised a $2.6 million revitalization.
Businesses catering to the Latino population have helped to fill the vacuum.
The area is home to numerous Latino-owned eateries as well as a grocery store and barbershop. The Pittsburgh Hispanic Development Corporation, headquartered on Broadway, houses a business incubator that’s promoting Latino entrepreneurs in the South Hills and across the region.
Guillermo Velazquez, executive director of the development group, said that his organization works with everyone but specializes in helping Latino people looking to start businesses.
“It is good for Beechview because they’re incubating here and they have a business address with us during the incubation period,” Velazquez said. “There’s activity, and people come here for meetings. We increase the traffic in a positive way to Beechview.”
Velazquez said that since the organization began in 2018 they have helped more than 126 businesses open up in the region, at least one of which is in Beechview.
People celebrate the Pittsburgh Hispanic Development Corporation entrepreneurship program graduation at the organization’s fundraiser on Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023, in Beechview. The business incubator helped entrepreneurs starting companies from restaurants and importing to construction and salon services. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/PublicSource) 
People celebrate the Pittsburgh Hispanic Development Corporation entrepreneurship program graduation at the organization’s fundraiser on Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023, in Beechview. The business incubator helped entrepreneurs starting companies from restaurants and importing to construction and salon services. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/PublicSource) 
People celebrate the Pittsburgh Hispanic Development Corporation entrepreneurship program graduation at the organization’s fundraiser on Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023, in Beechview. The business incubator helped entrepreneurs starting companies from restaurants and importing to construction and salon services. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/PublicSource) 
People celebrate the Pittsburgh Hispanic Development Corporation entrepreneurship program graduation at the organization’s fundraiser on Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023, in Beechview. The business incubator helped entrepreneurs starting companies from restaurants and importing to construction and salon services. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/PublicSource)
He said that he hopes Beechview’s business offerings will continue to grow and bring with them a variety of industries like technology and research. Eventually, he thinks the neighborhood would benefit from an annual festival on Broadway.
“Who knows what it would have looked like without that [Latino] influx,” said Saner, who also works for City Councilor Anthony Coghill. Some of Broadway’s immigrant pioneers struggled. “The businesses that spearheaded all of that are no longer there. But they left a really powerful legacy. They encouraged other Latinos to come to the area.”
Huddle gone, engagement promised
The Huddle restaurant on Broadway was in operation for 47 years, run by the politically influential Wagner family, before shutting down this summer.
The neighborhood is “completely different now and it’s also a completely different world,” said Peter Wagner, 78, who ran the business. “We have to move on.”
He said the neighborhood has “all gone to hell because of code enforcement. … Code enforcement officers refuse to enforce code rules that are on the books. There’s a lot of absentee landlords in this area.”
As a result, the once-strong housing stock has deteriorated, he said.
“Today you see overgrown lots and boarded-up windows and you see people just don’t take care of their properties and in most cases it’s absentee landlords and if you don’t ride them and come down on them you can’t win in a community,” Wagner said.
Pittsburgh has three environment enforcement officers who are each responsible for 30 neighborhoods, according to city spokesperson Olga George. Since September, the inspector covering Beechview has written 191 criminal complaints, of which 24 went to district court.
“The team philosophy is educate, investigate and [as a] last resort litigate,” George said. Code officers “speak with residents directly or via letters when a violation takes place. Sometimes, when they go for an inspection, the violation has already been cleared.”
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Wagner said he has been trying to find a buyer for his restaurant but so far hasn’t found anyone he was satisfied with, though he’s shown it to potential buyers from Maryland and New Jersey.
Some business district properties haven’t found buyers.
A former Katz property on Broadway Avenue was recently demolished by the city.
“It’s bittersweet because there’s this gaping hole in the business district. And now there’s going to be a methodical plan for what may go there,” Saner said. “We don’t want no more monopolies. No more one person owning multiple properties. With community engagement now, everybody will have a strong voice.”
Saner said that community engagement is stronger because of the neighborhood’s history with bad investors like Katz.
“Because of [Katz], more community groups emerged as a way of preventing this kind of thing from happening again,” she said. “And we’re stronger now for that.”
Signs of promise
A former Katz property on the corner where Beechview Avenue merges into Broadway Avenue is now a Dollar Eagle.
On the other end of the business district sits Slice on Broadway, a pizzeria that has expanded into six locations across the city. Owner Rico Lunardi said he opened the business in 2010 after returning from Philadelphia with a business degree.
“Pizza is a big deal here,” Lunardi said, noting that the area boasts legendary pizza joints like Fiori’s Pizzaria and Badamos. “There’s a lot of competition.”
Despite the saucy competition, Lunardi said his business did well and “took off” after winning some local awards. He attributed the businesses success to high quality ingredients and the regional novelty of selling pizza by the slice.
“There’s a Pittsburgh style of making pizza and we’re not that,” he said. “Pittsburgh pizza has a thicker crust, sweeter sauce and way more cheese. We’re a little different and there weren’t as many options for pizza by the slice when we started.”
Lunardi said that he hopes to be able to franchise his business.
“This neighborhood is great but it’s had its ups and downs,” he said, referring to Katz’s failure. “We thought we’d get more development here but that’s not the case.”
He said that the above-ground trolley, known as the T, holds the possibility for the area to attract more people looking to commute into and out of the city.
Crock also said that the public transportation access can help revitalize the neighborhood.
“I want to see Beechview grow and become vibrant as it should be. We have the advantage of the T line right here,” she said. “I hope to see Beechview become a city [neighborhood] like Lawrenceville or Bloomfield, without the gentrification.”
Guillermo Velazquez, who was interviewed for this story, serves on the PublicSource Board of Directors.
Eric Jankiewicz is PublicSource’s economic development reporter, and can be reached at ericj@publicsource.org or on Twitter @ericjankiewicz.
This story was fact-checked by Ladimir Garcia.
Translation by Zulma Michaca, a bilingual professional living in Riverside County, Calif., with family ties in Pittsburgh. She can be reached at z.michaca123@gmail.com.
