Pittsburgh Friendliness: Hoax! (California: neighborhoods, high school, dangerous)

[Craziaskowboi]

Originally Posted by brimcmike

So, Pittsburghers are apparently insular and provincial, because they know nothing else than what happens here, repeat unflattering second-hand narratives of other places, and don't know how good they actually have it.

Insular and provincial? I've been to 34 states and four other countries in my lifetime, and I still think you're full of ****.

[brimcmike]

Again, I think that people are confusing living in suburbs with living in the city itself.

I have never for my safety had to continually look over my right shoulder when entering or while in a crosswalk with a walk signal, much less stop while walking in a crosswalk for a car running the crosswalk.

I didn't say rude service. I said poorer-than-average service. It may be done with a smile, and meant in the nicest way, it's still slow, and often with an expectation that I should know their job, or know what they know about somewhere they live or something they do all the time. To wit, giving directions referencing a landmark that is not there anymore.

[UKyank]

Hung up on pedestrian matters much? Seems a really odd way of judging people. Off the top of my head places I've been in the past year where you take your life into your own hands crossing the street: Bali, Italy, Egypt - I should thus conclude that the people in those places are rude , but alas I actually interacted substantially with them & found them all quite pleasant rather then being an introvert complaining behind a keyboard

[Evergrey]

Usually when you have to preface your post with "I'm not trolling"... you're trolling.

[brimcmike]

Originally Posted by UKyank

Hung up on pedestrian matters much? Seems a really odd way of judging people. Off the top of my head places I've been in the past year where you take your life into your own hands crossing the street: Bali, Italy, Egypt - I should thus conclude that the people in those places are rude , but alas I actually interacted substantially with them & found them all quite pleasant rather then being an introvert complaining behind a keyboard

Actually, no. I'm hung up on my physical safety. I am questioning an unquestioned narrative of local friendliness.

Great job Cairo, er, I mean, Denpasar, er, I mean, Pittsburgh.
You offer comparisons to places I don't think Pittsburgh would aspire to, and where I would not want to live anyway. So, I don't get your point. However, it does seem to square-up as similar sucking 3rd-world behavior, when and where a power-differential exists abuse it, when face-to-face then act pleasantly. I'm saying it's unnecessary and chicken****.

This near-normative behavior erratically impedes my ability to get around and go about my business, and jeopardizes my safety. I walked all over Manhattan, a place with real traffic congestion. When it was time for me to walk I could walk. When I shouldn't walk, I actually shouldn't walk. Fair enough.

Here, my crossing time is 1st infringed by the Pittsburgh left, then I'm crossing and I have to stop because a driver or 2 is cutting me off, so, now the light is changing and I'm halfway across.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by brimcmike

I didn't say rude service. I said poorer-than-average service. It may be done with a smile, and meant in the nicest way, it's still slow, and often with an expectation that I should know their job, or know what they know about somewhere they live or something they do all the time.

In the twelve years since I moved back here, I remember very few instances of rude or poorer-than-average service. One was at Mineo's Pizza, where a guy behind the counter didn't want to sell me the last bottle of cold San Pellegrino. The other time was...

...well, I can't think of anything else at the moment. Maybe it's the fact that I don't expect clerks' worlds to come to a standstill every time I walk into a retail establishment. I have two friends (one now ex) whose behavior is much more "I am the center of every universe I enter." I made one an ex-friend when I was actually asked by a waiter if I wouldn't mind sitting in another section if I ever came in with that friend again. I actually ended up dumping both the friend (it wasn't the first time) and the restaurant.

But in reading your diatribes against the citizens of Pittsburgh and Boston, I have the feeling you're a lot more like my two friends than you are like me (oh, and BTW, each of them loves to extrapolate like mad to create generalities, too).

[brimcmike]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

Usually when you have to preface your post with "I'm not trolling"... you're trolling.

Well, actually no. I'm here calmly responding. I think that what I'm raising is an issue. I have not observed it to this degree anywhere else.

Like littering. If someone from somewhere else points out that people in a place litter and it's comparatively noticeable and unflattering. I guess one way to respond is with an automatic, "No we don't!" and then you can keep on littering like you always have and keep your trash. Great.

Why wouldn't people want to improve the character of the place where they live. When I hear or read something like what I posted, I first try it on for size and watch what goes on around me. Maybe I just never noticed before, and then maybe I can choose not to do a certain, unnecessary, problematic behavior myself.

Why would people want to ignore or suppress data that questions the story people tell each other. Is the story and the status quo more important than how it actually pans out?

If so, then maybe I don't actually want to stay when it comes to it.

I guess that's how self-selection processes work themselves out. Maybe PGH will get more of the same type of people and it will get to stay the same forever. Great.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by brimcmike

Like littering. If someone from somewhere else points out that people in a place litter and it's comparatively noticeable and unflattering. I guess one way to respond is with an automatic, "No we don't!" and then you can keep on littering like you always have and keep your trash. Great.

Sockpuppet bets, anyone?

[ebyrnes]

Pittsburghers pride themselves on their friendliness, and I think that it is genuine. We may be bad drivers, but I don't equate that with not being a friendly person. I've only lived in Philly and Raleigh, but I really don't think that Pittsburgh is much worse than either of those places. My theory of why we may be bad drivers - the terrain here doesn't make it easy or quick to get from one place to another, so drivers get antsy. I am not making excuses for unsafe driving!

OP, I think that you are getting so much flack because we do not equate being a decent driver with being friendly.

[brimcmike]

Originally Posted by jay5835

In the twelve years since I moved back here, I remember very few instances of rude or poorer-than-average service. One was at Mineo's Pizza, where a guy behind the counter didn't want to sell me the last bottle of cold San Pellegrino. The other time was...

...well, I can't think of anything else at the moment. Maybe it's the fact that I don't expect clerks' worlds to come to a standstill every time I walk into a retail establishment. I have two friends (one now ex) whose behavior is much more "I am the center of every universe I enter." I made one an ex-friend when I was actually asked by a waiter if I wouldn't mind sitting in another section if I ever came in with that friend again. I actually ended up dumping both the friend (it wasn't the first time) and the restaurant.

But in reading your diatribes against the citizens of Pittsburgh and Boston, I have the feeling you're a lot more like the two entitled guys I spoke of above than you are like me (oh, and each of them loves to extrapolate like mad to create generalities, too).

Nicely ad hominem.

Whew, you can now ignore what I said because you don't like me or my style.

I am not against citizens anywhere. I think that the self-congratulations on all this friendliness doesn't square with how people drive with respect to pedestrians. What exactly would be the harm in not running crosswalks with pedestrians who have "the right-of-way" in them?

You're entitled to ask no questions and enforce the status quo. Alternatively, I ask why do people do anomalous, problematic, and usually dangerous-to-transplants things where I am. I think my Boston diatribe you refer to was about how people walk down the street in the street when there's a sidewalk. Some Bostonians made fun of the point. There were actually other people, usually other transplants, who agreed that it happens, and that it was problematic and resulted in some close calls.

As for clerks hopping-to when a paying customer comes in, wants or needs something, well, I kinda think the reason why they're working there is for money, and actually a little sliver of the money that I, and ultimately what all customers choose to spend there. I always thought it was self-interested to put some effort into customer service when in a customer-service job. So, if acting like you work somewhere is too much to ask for a clerk, and it hurts business, then maybe their job could go away. Maybe not in Pittsburgh.