Ira Goldstein on Lessons in Redevelopment Without Displacement from Pittsburgh’s Hazelwood Neighborhood: An RVP Speaker Spotlight

Can investment happen without displacing the people who’ve weathered a neighborhood’s most challenging years? At the 2026 Reclaiming Vacant Properties conference, join Ira Goldstein, Principal at IJG Urban Advisors, LLC, for a breakout session looking at Pittsburgh’s Hazelwood neighborhood. You’ll get a case study into what it looks like when redevelopment is done with intentionality, and what made Hazelwood’s investment work without triggering the displacement so many communities fear.

We asked Ira a few questions to give you a preview of the session, Lessons in Redevelopment Without Displacement from Pittsburgh’s Hazelwood Neighborhood, and why he’s looking forward to RVP 2026.

What first got you interested in the work of community revitalization?

I have lived my entire life in the City of Philadelphia but have had the opportunity to work in places around the country such as Camden, Baltimore, Detroit, Jackson, St. Louis, to name a few. As I traveled through the neighborhoods of these cities, you could see how the vacant properties, deteriorating infrastructure, and visual reminders of a neighborhood’s past adversely impact the residents who remained. And as I worked with local government officials and non-profit leaders, you could hear how a lack of information frustrated their efforts to design strategies and invest in a most impactful way. Addressing this lack of information, and what to do with that information, was something I felt I could support.

Why does your session topic matter right now—both for you and for the people who will be in the room? What’s happening in communities today that makes this session feel urgent?

Our session is important now because, all too often, plans to invest in communities are met with resistance based of the fear that investment will inevitably displace the existing residents. The fear of displacement triggered by investment is real and rooted in history, but that cannot be a reason not to invest in underinvested neighborhoods; the alternative cannot be further decline. Our multi-method research focused on the Hazelwood neighborhood of Pittsburgh shows that investment done with intentionality around avoiding displacement can achieve its goal. We believe that many things contributed to the lack of displacement in Hazelwood, but The Heinz Endowments’ philanthropic and intellectual support for site control of land and buildings, and inclusion of authentic voices and perspectives of community members in plans for the future are key elements of success.

What made you want to be a part of RVP this year?

I have had the privilege of participating in RVP conferences in the past, and I have found them to be constructive gatherings of thoughtful practitioners and policymakers, sharing knowledge, experience, and offering mutual support. Our field over the last few years has suffered from many things—a housing crisis and the macroeconomic drivers, constant threats to federal support and regressive policies around housing subsidies and fair housing, to name a few—and I thought this would be a good moment to share some objective, fact-based good news with my colleagues!

Want to hear more? Join us at the Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference this September 22–25, 2026 in Pittsburgh. Check out Lessons in Redevelopment Without Displacement from Pittsburgh’s Hazelwood Neighborhood and dozens of other sessions on every stage of the revitalization cycle.

Register for RVP 2026 »

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Cover Photo: Hazelwood, seen over the railway tracks in 2013, by Thomas Alan. Used under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 (https://flic.kr/p/fBU3rk).