Pittsburgh, continued

I met this gentleman, Bobby, while waiting for the bus into town one morning (/afternoon). He has what appears to be muscular dystrophy and is wheelchair-bound, but still takes the bus downtown whenever he can, mostly to spend time in the parks around the city. He was born in Millvale, a suburb to the northeast of Pittsburgh with a very small-town feel, and has lived there all his life, he told me proudly. When the conversation turned to what had brought me briefly to his corner of the world, I tossed out my standard explanation - "mainly, I just needed a change." It was only in retrospect that I realized the slight absurdity of offering this reason to this particular individual, who evidently has not ever felt such a need in his life.

Anyway. A few more things about Pittsburgh.

The cool thing about a city on a peninsula is that it comes to a point, literally, and the cool thing about Pittsburgh is that they've taken their point and made it into a park. Where other cities might have corporations vying to pay top dollar and put their logo in such a prominent spot, this city features a very tall, very cool fountain. It's meant to represent the tendency of Pittsburghers to overcome obstacles (such as being located in the middle of nowhere), and currently bears only a slightly unfortunate resemblance to an erupting vat of Pepto-Bismol, having been colored pink in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month.

The crablike thing in the background is Heinz Field, ground zero for the religion fanaticism surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers.

I'm not sure why I decided that cheapo flip-flops would be the best footwear for roaming through the entire city of Pittsburgh. I'm just surprised that there is any black left on these, given how much was transferred to the soles of my feet.

Other cool features of the park:

a large grassy area (well, a pretty standard park feature, I suppose);

a bridge that was just opened to celebrate Pittsburgh's 250th anniversary;

and the Fort Pitt Block House, the oldest building in Pittsburgh and the only remaining element of the original British fort.

Did I mention that there's food?

The steak stromboli - mozzarella cheese and chunks of steak wrapped and baked in pizza dough, topped with mushrooms and parmesan. A cornucopia of deliciousness.


And, oh, glorious, the Primanti Brothers' sandwich: that is a "cheesesteak" - with, yes, French fries and a vinegar-based cole slaw on top. Amazing enough to merit an endorsement from Jon Stewart.

But I digress.


I really like how in touch Pittsburgh seems to be with its...let's see - aqueosity. Wateriness. Whatever. You'd think that a city at the juncture of three rivers would consider that to be more than enough water, but they apparently don't. In addition to the fountain in Point State Park, this is what lies beneath their convention center:

There's a couple of lanes of one-way traffic on each side of that, but otherwise it is entirely a love song to water. And although you might not expect it, given that the city is already surrounded by water, it's refreshing and wonderful in ways that the placid rivers can't be. There's nothing like the sound and smell of rushing, falling water to counteract the sense-dulling of urban life.

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Tuesday I ventured out to the Strip District on the northern side of the peninsula, having misunderstood it to be a funky, bohemian type of area. While it wasn't what you might be inferring from the name, it was something of a ghetto, so I decided to make my way over to the Oakland area on the southern side, which is home to the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon, and several hospitals - in short, more my sort of area.

Problem was, the maps I had were not the most comprehensive things in the world, and it turns out that a GPS unit is not so good for plotting out walking directions, seeing as it has little to no appreciation for the limits of physical endurance. I'm pretty sure it gave me the route by way of Tucson - and, lest we forget, I'm still wearing those cheap plastic flip-flops. I think I managed about two or three miles, all told, before the blisters finally got to me.

Fortunately, GPS is surprisingly good for outwitting city buses that elect not to post route maps or announce stops (in hopes of absconding with helpless tourists? Why else would you do this?). In fact, watching the bus you're on follow a route plotted on a small console feels a bit like playing the most boring driving video game in the world.

I did finally make it:

The Cathedral of Learning at Pitt - a pretty ostentatious thing, if you ask me - the second tallest academic building in the world and the structure that One PPG Place was modelled after.

The view from nearly the top, including downtown Pittsburgh in the second photo.

Part of the ground floor, which, yes, did feel as much like Gasson as that picture suggests.

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That's pretty much all I've got on Pittsburgh. Tomorrow I'll be spending pretty much the entire day in Chicago, but I'll try to get another update up PDQ.