While I love the Shops at Beverly, Uptown is the heart of our community. It’s where we show up for Final Friday concerts, farmers markets and community celebrations. It’s where you run into your neighbor grabbing coffee or eating dinner. And like any heart, if Uptown isn’t healthy, the rest of us feel it.
So I want to provide an update on Activate Uptown, which grew out of our Vibrant Uptown streetscape work. The new sidewalks, lighting, and planters along Washington Road made a real difference in how our main street looks and feels. But we realized we weren’t done. We still had work to do in our public spaces, the places between the buildings, the plazas, portals and pathways.
After getting more than 1,300 responses from our community survey and working with Pashek+MTR, we’ve identified four areas that need attention: Clocktower Plaza; the stairway connecting Washington Road to the T station (we call it the Portal); Parse Way and Clearview Common.
Phase one focuses on Clocktower Plaza and the Portal. We’ve put $200,000 from our most recent budget toward getting this started. In 2026, expect to see shade structures, improved bike access with runnels on the stairs, public art, and theatrical lighting that makes these spaces actually work for people. We’re also fixing the light rail interface so it feels like the entrance it should be, instead of an afterthought.
Later phases will tackle Parse Way — right now it’s underutilized space behind Washington Road, but it could be a real connection between the T station and the businesses around it. Then we’ll get to the bigger challenge: Clearview Common, which is going to take serious investment to become what it could be.
If we were to execute on everything respondents requested, the entire project would cost around $9 million. Right now we’re still in conceptual stages, refining costs and working through what each space actually needs.
Some may wonder why we spend money on shade structures, lighting and public art, but the reason is that when it comes to the place we call home, aesthetics aren’t a luxury. They’re fundamental to how a place works and how people feel about where they live.
When public spaces are attractive, well-maintained and thoughtfully designed, people use them. They stick around. They bring their families. They support the businesses. They feel good about their community. And when enough people feel that way, they grow more attached to their town and develop a greater sense of pride for the place they call home. These things matter.
As municipal officials, one of our goals is to create environments that bring people together and make the experience of living here better. We want to facilitate people using public transportation, visiting local shops and restaurants, meeting neighbors and being outside in the public realm.
Uptown is vital to Mt. Lebanon’s health. But to really serve its purpose, it needs to function better, look better and do a better job connecting people. That’s what Activate Uptown is about.
We’ve got a lot of planning ahead and plenty of decisions to make. We will share more as the project develops, and we hope that residents stay involved. This is your community and these are your public spaces. Your input matters.