Cheap rent and a walkable business district sold Nathan Mallory on opening a coffee shop on Brookline Boulevard.
The Titusville native had looked at opening his store in Bakery Square in Larimer, but decided that Brookline, his home for the past five years, needed it more.
"The more and more you get involved with the inner-workings of a grassroots movement like what we're trying to do here in Brookline and you get to meet these people, you ask what you can do to help," said Mallory, 30. "How can I help and create progress?"
No one seems to know the reason for the recent surge in businesses along Brookline Boulevard. But of the half-dozen vacant storefronts a year ago, just two remain.
"I always thought of Brookline as pizza and politics, but it's absolutely wonderful that we have business owners revitalizing the neighborhood," said City Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak, whose district includes the neighborhood of about 14,000 people.
Last year, Rudiak and Patrick Reilly, one of her opponents in the council race, set up campaign offices in vacant storefronts on Brookline Boulevard, where business owners say rent ranges from $400 to $1,000 a month. Now those stores are occupied by Vinnie's Pretzel Shoppe and Las Palmas Mexican butcher and grocer.
"I think people want to get back to shopping locally and Brookline is a traditional American business district," said Jeremiah Dugan, president of the South Pittsburgh Development Corp.
By next year, residents will see the results of a $5 million, 15-year effort to refurbish the boulevard, which includes new streetlights, landscaping and the reopening of a senior living facility run by the Housing Authority of Pittsburgh.
Corey Watjkovic, 29, recently bought a house a few blocks away from the business district. He said the neighborhood's suburban feel and quiet atmosphere drew him from Oakland.
"I never want to leave the city but the noise and congestion of Oakland got to be too much," Watjkovic said. "I had some friends who moved to Brookline and I really liked it."
Business owners have learned that locals prefer small shops to the big-box stores.
A line formed outside Vinnie's Pretzel Shoppe on Aug. 14, the day it opened.
"I was amazed. I couldn't believe it," said owner Mike "Vinnie" Vona, a Philadelphia native. "But that's why we moved here. My wife grew up in Dormont. People here look out for one another."
That was the case when city officials told the four brothers who own Las Palmas that they needed a special permit to cook outside. Mallory called Rudiak who helped co-owners Jose, Gabriel, Francisco and Luis Berumen settle the matter.
"It was resolved because of the people of Brookline," Jose Berumen said.
Rudiak said she learned while door-knocking for her campaign last fall that some newer Brookline neighbors had been priced out of the East End. The average price of a home in Brookline is about $80,000, census figures show.
"During my campaign I heard a lot of people tell me they had no idea that all of this existed here," she said.
Although Brookline is the second most-populated city neighborhood, Dugan said it's always been a hidden secret.
"But I think people are starting to discover that Brookline is a really nice place to live and do business," he said. "We have a solid stock of houses, a solid stock of people. It's just a solid middle-class neighborhood."
