Why are Pittsburghers so geocentric? (Philadelphia: insurance, buy, school)

[sealie]

Anyway, vis the Twin Cities, it's sort of stacking the deck. Wider streets, smaller river, flatter, grid layout (where the cities join, anyway), and fewer choke points between the cities. And no tunnels. People generally don't mind driving across the river. Older people may think of themselves more as St Paulites and stick to their own city, but the younger ones and especially the transplants aren't like that.

I will confess that too many decisions on going to the southside or north hills involve the mental calculation of when I'll be on the Parkway, and rush hour here lasts about two hours too long. If I were still a proselytizing urbanite I would conclude that we really need subway lines to everywhere, since improving the parkway to modern standards would just encourage people to drive on it.

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by BarqCider

that's funny, because for the most part ppl in va head towards dc, or areas near dc for fun times. but Maryland? nope, I didn't feel like driving over the American legion bridge and I dislike 270 lol.

personally, I don't see the need for me to go to the north hills area, penn hills or any other place but downtown and east end. I have everything I need within this "city" and such ( I use it loosely, since in my view the east end should be half city, half suburb)

And since I lived in Cranberry growing up -- we never saw the need to go to the East End. We spent our time in North Hills and downtown. We also went to my aunt's (in reality first cousin, twice removed) in Mount Washington five or six times a year.

But I think our family was different. It seemed to me if someone I knew had to be in a car for more than 15 minutes it was like a road trip. My parents were from Bedford County and Maryland, and we would drive there every month to visit. (There was a place we stopped at in the mountains-- it was a water pipe with fresh great water.... we always stopped there for a good cold drink), and we visited downtown several times a year, too. When I told my friends about it, to them, visiting the city was like visiting Oz. I never got that.

[speagles84]

Originally Posted by jay5835

He'd lose it, though, for "conjunctions" instead of "contractions."

Damn auto correct! I had that and it changed it! Ugh.

[gg]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

While I expected many "this happens everywhere" responses in regards to not wanting to travel all around, what hasn't been addressed yet is negative attitudes that Pittsburghers have of people who only live a few miles away. The idea of [the people that live here] are [negative stereotype] is really disturbing. To me I haven't seen it to the level that it exists here, it's really taken to the extreme.

I think what you have to realize is, as much as you want other places to be very different, they aren't. People are people and most don't want to go very far to enjoy. Why would anyone? There are neighborhoods all over the world. Most people stay pretty close to home because they can. If you have a drink, you certainly don't want to go far. The more you travel the more time it takes. It is just the way it is everywhere Aqua. You move to Boston or wherever it is the same deal. Sorry to burst your bubble.

[Goodjules]

Originally Posted by charisb

I think it is human nature. People are like this everywhere I have ever lived. I don't think it is worse where than other places. When I lived in New York there were people who wouldn't leave their general neighborhood, and they had all of these outdated and erroneous ideas about other boroughs.

I agree. People are like this everywhere. It was true when I lived in the Bay Area. City dwellers who rarely venture outside city limits. People in the burbs who refused to deal with the traffic going into the city or were afraid of the city.

[BarqCider]

born and raised in the suburbs of DC, I hated going to DC even on a weekend. At times, even till this day, traffic on weekends is WORSE than weekdays. I never found a need to hit dc, even if its a 20 minute drive (on nice easy driving days). Again, everything I needed was found outside the city itself and found no need to go there unless it was for a special reason

[Buckeye Burgher]

Originally Posted by hinsey86

ITA. Many people have very skewed views of segregation in the South. I lived in far more integrated neighborhoods in the South than in the North.

As far as original topic this was something new for me when I moved here. Heck I arrived in Pittsburgh just 7 years ago. Within a few years I had more knowledge of the area than many of my husbands family members who had lived their lives here. (Although the twenty and thirty somethings are more adventurous) Even now they think we moved out of state instead of just 50 minutes away. In my youth and adulthood in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina we went everywhere. I do believe we had more reasons to explore though...not many self contained neighborhoods.

I think beyond racial segregation, cities like Pittsburgh (and, I have heard, Milwaukee) developed with very intense ethnic segregation. Very defined and distinct Irish neighborhoods, Italian neighborhoods,
Polish neighborhoods, etc. Those groups tended to hang together around ethnic identities and resist
outsiders. I remember as a kid hearing some of my old Irish relatives toss around the most awful
slurs about Poles and Italians....and no doubt they were doing the same to us.

A good example was where I grew up, we had two funeral homes....the Irish one and the Italian one.
If you died and you were Irish, you were buried from Parlor A. If you were Italian, Parlor B. I remember my great uncle died, and he had had some sort of falling out with the owner of the Irish funeral home.
It was something of a neighborhood scandal when he was laid out across the street at the Italian place.

I never heard my old Irish relatives throw out the "N" word, but if they had, no doubt they would not have regarded that any differently than the slurs they routinely used on Poles and Italians.

[captainmidnight]

I grew up around Greensburg and people I have talked to from there think I am crazy that I like working Downtown. They go Downtown maybe two or three times a year and think that is a crazy and awful place to work and deal with the traffic and buses and they seem to pity me. I have worked in Monroeville and Robinson and hated those places.

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Originally Posted by bmantz65

They go Downtown maybe two or three times a year

My father got called for jury duty a few months ago and he went downtown for the first time in 6 years. So hey, those Greensburg people aren't doing that bad in comparison!

[SorryIMovedBack]

Originally Posted by Buckeye Burgher

I think beyond racial segregation, cities like Pittsburgh (and, I have heard, Milwaukee) developed with very intense ethnic segregation. Very defined and distinct Irish neighborhoods, Italian neighborhoods,
Polish neighborhoods, etc. Those groups tended to hang together around ethnic identities and resist
outsiders. I remember as a kid hearing some of my old Irish relatives toss around the most awful
slurs about Poles and Italians....and no doubt they were doing the same to us.

...

I think ethnic segregation plays a huge part. Many immigrants didn't arrive here until 1st half of the 20th Century and that's really not all that long ago. People tend to stick with their own culture in western PA, overall, not just Pittsburgh. One of my Catholic acquaintances says that his parents (WWII gen) say that the Catholic churches would actively discourage other ethnic groups from attending. There were Irish, Polish, Croatian, Hungarian, Byzentine, etc., all kinds of ethnic Catholic churches. He says his parents told him that if they went to confession at some other nationality's church they were likely to receive a far worse penance from that priest, compared to going to their own nationality's church.

Much outward migration and little inward migration, too. Cities with a lot of transplants have a more social vibe, imo. Towns with a lot of people who lived their their entire lives there feel small-town, to me.