PITTSBURGH Long read but I liked it!! > > JOSH NOEL/CHICAGO TRIBUNE January, 2014 > > Ive never been to a city that loves itself more than Pittsburgh. > > This is not a criticism. After three days, I also loved Pittsburgh, a > quaint, pretty city with interesting people doing interesting things, and > a healthy dash of Old World, working-class charm. > > But — and this is where Pittsburgh won me over — it is not a city > impressed with itself. > > New York, San Francisco and Portland, Ore., are wonderful cities that > cant resist preening when passing mirrors to remind themselves just how > wonderful they are. Pittsburgh is a wonderful city that doesnt even see > the mirror. It just turns to its buddies and says, Hey, yinz guys, lets > go have a beer. > > (Yinz guys is Pittsburgh speak for you people — a dialectical Northern > equivalent to yall.) > > Steeped in spirit and flavor, Pittsburgh can lay claim to being one of our > nations most underrated cities, with a beauty as breathtaking as it is > obvious. The drive from Pittsburgh International Airport follows an > unspectacular 20 miles of rolling-hills suburbia along Interstate Highway > 376 and then, after a brief trip through the Fort Pitt Tunnel — bam! — > there is Pittsburgh. > > Situated on a peninsula jutting into an intersection of rivers, the city > of 305,000 is gemlike, surrounded by bluffs and bright yellow bridges > streaming into its heart. As you emerge from the tunnel, you feel youve > never seen a more majestic little city: old but familiar, with swooping, > curving lines, lushly green (in summer) and cut, as all great cities > should be, by a river or two (or in this case, three). > > Visiting is the only way to understand the sentiment famously expressed in > The New Yorker in 1989, when it ranked Pittsburgh among the worlds most > beautiful cities, alongside Paris and St. Petersburg, Russia. > > If Pittsburgh were situated somewhere in the heart of Europe, tourists > would eagerly journey hundreds of miles out of their way to visit it, the > magazine said. > > Though Pittsburgh is forever associated with steelmaking, its heavy > industry days are largely gone; the air is cleaner, and the steel mills > have become museums, bike trails and green space. The city has embraced > food, drink and art while long-quiet neighborhoods have been infused with > fresh bustle. The fascinating downtown — a strange but appealing mix of > architecture built up through the decades — sports fresh touches of its > own, like the dim, marble-barred gastropub Meat and Potatoes, which I > checked out on a Thursday evening with a couple of natives. > > This is pretty classy for Pittsburgh, said Lisa Sredzienski with a touch > of gratitude and amusement as we sipped East Coast craft beer and munched > mushroom-truffle flatbread. > > But she wasnt complaining. > > A social and culinary invigoration is afoot in her city. On Butler Street, > in the Lawrenceville neighborhood, theres Franktuary, a gourmet hot dog > place whose offerings include wild-caught salmon sausages and four kinds > of poutine. Continue heading up Butler and youll find a guitar shop where a > gentleman makes repairs in the window for the passing world to see; La > Gourmandine, a French bakery where I scored a macaroon sandwich stuffed > with litchi mousse and raspberries; and 720 Music, a hip hodgepodge > smelling of fresh coffee grounds with records and T-shirts for sale along > the walls. How do you describe this? I asked. A record store meets > coffee shop meets clothes store meets alternative bookstore? Something > that exists nowhere else, said the barista. > > After a day of walking through Lawrenceville, I felt the same way about > that neighborhood. > > Even while embracing a 21st-century version of itself, Pittsburgh has > firmly retained a proud, blue-collar sense of its history. It relishes the > concept of the yinzer — based on the term yinz guys — which simply > equates to someone from Pittsburgh. Youll see plenty of yinzer bumper > stickers, buttons and even baby onesies. Search for the Internet comedy > Pittsburgh Dad, and, even if the humor might be debatable, the idea of > the yinzer will be clear. > > One distinct characteristic of yinzers is their love of sports. As one > local who had previously lived in New York and Austin, Texas, observed, he > had never resided anyplace where even the hipsters were sports fans. Being > a Steelers fan in Pittsburgh goes without saying. > > The civic dedication to sports makes a visit to PNC Park a must even for > people with a fleeting (or nonexistent) interest in baseball. The park was > incorporated so beautifully into the city — whose skyline looms over > center field — that it feels as if it were dropped into Legoland. > > Pittsburgh is full of must-dos, including the Duquesne Incline, an > inclined-plane railroad that opened in 1877 and offers a creaky $2.50 > wood-and-steel ride overlooking the city, and a Saturday stroll through > the Strip District, a seven-block stretch of Penn Avenue that dazzles with > ethnic food and local characters. Italian, Polish and Korean food > purveyors are clustered with shops that seem to sell nothing but Steelers, > Penguins > and Pirates gear, and as you walk you pass one woman offering a dozen > salsas and another with a dozen soaps. Its the UN of shopping and food. > > Pittsburgh boasts more neighborhoods (a whopping 90) and pockets worth > visiting than can be detailed here. Yet strangely, the commonly held image > of the city largely continues to be washed-out casualty of the Rust > Belt. > Pittsburgh knows it. And, just as when it passes the mirror, it doesnt > much care. > > People say, You want to bad-mouth Pittsburgh? Go ahead, said Jeff > Gordon, owner of Who New? Retro Mod Decor, a shop of 50s couches and 70s > telephones in Lawrenceville. Its a well-kept secret — we have a good > thing going on. >
Posted on: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 12:07:09 +0000