Pittsburgh police officers walk toward protesters as they block access to Carnegie Mellon University from Forbes Avenue in Oakland, Tuesday, July 15, 2025. Protesters showed up to protest President Donald Trump’s visit to an AI and energy summit led by Sen. David McCormick. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/Pittsburgh’s Public Source)

By Ember Duke, Pittsburgh’s Public Source

With a timeline crunch and contractual obligations, the City of Pittsburgh has decisions to make about a contentious “public safety training campus.” Amid concern about the project’s potential for encouraging police militarization, City Council deferred the project’s next steps until September. 

The delayed vote would authorize a contract with development firm Henningson, Durham and Richardson Inc. [HDR] to craft a preliminary master plan for a 168-acre parcel in the Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar neighborhood that used to house a Veterans Affairs hospital. The city’s long-term goal is a comprehensive training facility for firefighters, emergency medical services and police

The contract would pay HDR up to $1.8 million over two years using funds already allocated from the city’s capital budget. 

Council’s July decision to postpone the vote stems from:

• Concerns about HDR’s history, especially its gathering of intel about development critics
• The full cost — estimated at $84 million plus the master plan bill — and potential alternative uses for the funds and the land
• Whether the facility would be a “cop city” hive for aggressive policing.

(Click here to see the rest of the story.)

Ember Duke is a recent graduate of Duquesne University and one of 10 Pittsburgh Media Partnership summer interns.