City No. 13: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, or, “The land of the dinosaur!”

Our Honeymoon, or, How We Got to the Midwest One Interview at a Time:  The Northeast Cities According to Me, the One Who Wanders the Cities While Peter Completes the Interviews
 
Disclaimer: This should by no means be used as a real resource to the northwestern cities.  While I am an observant person, I have no background in city development, nor do I have expertise on the cultural or historical background on these cities.  For the most part, I am reviewing these cities based on my personal preferences, as we will be moving to one of these cities in the spring.  And, if you are hoping for a lot of artwork (as this is my art blog), sorry to say, but you will be sadly disappointed if you continue to read this blog in the upcoming two months.  Apart from my photographs of the cities, I doubt I’ll get to very many art and craft projects.

Found this in a bathroom in Pittsburgh.  Thought it was hilarious, and of course, needed to share.

Pittsburgh skyline at night.  Amazing!  This is literally what you see as you enter the city.  Photo from http://www.wallmonkeys.com/blog/?p=16

So, I love dinosaurs.  Just something hat I happen to love, I’m a nerd like that.  I happen to love Jurassic Park I, II, AND III, just because they all have dinosaurs in them.  Judge me.  Fine.  I’m ok with that—dinosaurs are AWESOME!  Anyway, when I heard that the Carnegie Museum of Natural History had the largest collection of dinosaur skeletons in the country, I was (obviously) thrilled.  And it was AWESOME!  They had three T-Rexes (one was a female juvenile named Jane—the most complete juvenile skeleton in the world), many long necked Brontosaurus-types (I don’t think Brontosauruses actually are a real species anymore, are they?  They found out they had made up a species out of a combination of bones?), and the largest collection of skulls from the Triceratops family that I’ve ever seen.  So cool.

But enough about the dinosaurs.  You want to hear about Pittsburgh, don’t you?  Well, first off, I must compliment Pittsburgh on its opening act:  The dismount from the highway.  We had been driving for hours.  HOURS, as we had driven directly from Boston to Pittsburgh—a ten-hour drive!  And road weary as we were, we were still incredibly anxious to finally get to Pittsburgh.  But even as we were seeing exit signs for downtown Pittsburgh, there was still no city to be seen.  We kept driving up the hill (picture a small mountain), and under a tunnel, and still no city—just residential homes and a few industrial businesses that were not very impressive to look at.  And then we drove around a little hill, and there it was!  Shimmering in all of its glory, a rather large city!  Skyscrapers and all!  A complete city had been hidden from our sight during our entire drive “into the city” and the final presentation after the buildup was unbelievable.  Pittsburgh was awarded many extra points for that display.   

Despite all of the beauty that Pittsburgh’s downtown provided, the surrounding “boroughs” as they were called were in various stages of disrepair.  Once an incredibly wealthy city, the current state of it requires words like “urban renewal,” “gentrification,” and “up and coming” to describe it.  Much like Detroit (the upcoming city) but not to the same extent, Pittsburgh lost many of its inhabitants, and what has been left for the past decade has been vacant business buildings, boarded-up homes, gang and drug related crimes and homicides, hopelessness.  Until now.  Artists and small business owners have now been coming in for the past few years to make those abandoned buildings their own.  People are moving into neglected neighborhoods, and there is a loyalty and sense of pride that these people have for their city.  It was an amazing experience to see these people’s visions coming to life.  

Coca Café was a favorite, located in Lawrenceville.  They serve breakfast and brunch only, and it was easy to understand why they’ve made this their specialty.  The food was amazing, and the building itself gets amazing morning sunlight. 

We also had an opportunity to check out an art walk called “Unblurred” that takes place the first Friday of the month.  With most of the stops located on Penn. Ave. (an area that feels somewhat shady), it was interesting to see how warm and inviting all of the galleries were, and to see how different I felt about the area once we’d walked the whole thing.  En route, we found an amazing glass-works school, and a great café (that we made plans to eat at later, but never returned to.  Oops) called Quiet Storm. 

Pittsburgh is definitely one of my favorites thus far.  Creativity, beauty, and a sense of movement fill the air.  There are people living there that care, and who are working with each other to make it what they want it to be.  So inspiring.