Pittsburgh restaurant serves food from countries at conflict with US (Scranton: apartment, rent)

[JimboPGH]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

So what will happen in ten years when Brookline Boulevard handles enough spillover of East End housing price refugees that it exchanges its laundromat for a "performing arts space"; its pizzeria for a "community engagement center"; its grocery store (didn't know it had one) for a vegan coffeehouse; its bakery for a comic books store; its pharmacy for an art gallery; its branch library for a gourmet dog biscuit store; etc.? Rent will rise even more, while the existing residents are able to walk to even LESS useful things.

I consider vegan coffee shops and performance arts spaces to be very useful. I would welcome both to the neighborhood (although cannon coffee is just a good mock chicken salad wrap away from already serving all those niches. And for the record, we have a comic book store.

As long as we can keep judgmental misanthropes out the neighborhood, we should be alright down here.

*Edit* PghYinzer beat me to it. #TEAMBROOKLINE

[sskink]

Originally Posted by JimboPGH

I consider vegan coffee shops and performance arts spaces to be very useful. I would welcome both to the neighborhood (although cannon coffee is just a good mock chicken salad wrap away from already serving all those niches. And for the record, we have a comic book store.

As long as we can keep judgmental misanthropes out the neighborhood, we should be alright down here.

*Edit* PghYinzer beat me to it. #TEAMBROOKLINE

If/when rents get high enough that Las Palmas has to move, you'll know it's time to bolt.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by PghYinzer

Also, what is wrong with a neighborhood having a performing arts space, or a community engagement center?

Those are fine as tertiary things, but why would you want to live in a neighborhood and pay inflated rent for being in walking distance to something you might use once per month to attend a meeting or an artisan workshop vs. something you'd use weekly (laundromat) or daily (market)? It just doesn't make sense to me. Brookline right now MIGHT just be the ideal Pittsburgh neighborhood---primary day-to-day businesses/services AND "fluff"---but if you all hype it up to the point where it becomes the next Shadyside in ten years you'll probably see that "useful" to "fluff" ratio on Brookline Boulevard change for the worse while your rents also go up---essentially lessening your "bang-for-your-buck" factor as you pay more and receive less.

I'd pay $1,000/month in rent to live within walking distance of ten storefronts that housed two different sit-down restaurants (maybe one Italian and one Pan-Asian Fusion); a laundromat; a market that carried all the staples and sundries; a library; a gym; a pizzeria; a bank; a coffeehouse; and a bar.

I wouldn't want to pay $1,000/month in rent to live within walking distance of ten storefronts that housed a vegan coffeehouse; record store; comic book store; gourmet dog biscuit store; bikram yoga studio; a place to learn how to do the polka once per month; cupcake store; fro-yo place; gallery showing how fur is murder; and a brunch-spot that charges you $15 for breakfast while you get to hear someone give a lecture promoting "white guilt". You wouldn't use most of those things other than occasionally as a hobby or recreational outlet, so why should you pay as much to live near those things as the USEFUL things?

The former is what drew me to Pittsburgh. The ongoing proliferation of the latter is what's going to make me move elsewhere in a decade. I didn't move to Pittsburgh to see it aspire to become the next Williamsburg, Brooklyn---a daily playground for children of the rich and the establishment of shallow businesses catering to their wallets. I moved here because I liked the brick sidewalks; historic architecture; mom-and-pop Italian eateries; hard-working yinzers who are brash but compassionate; fascinating skyline views; quirky little nooks and crannies; etc. I also PRIMARILY moved here to enjoy affordable rent on a working-class budget.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

The ongoing proliferation of the latter is what's going to make me move elsewhere in a decade.

Maybe you should try Scranton.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by sskink

To bring this thread back on track, it appears to me that Conflict Kitchen should just base a menu on whatever SCR is eating accompanied by literature on the unfair economic policies that are sending the East End to hell :-)


j/k SCR, you're a good soul. Cranky as hell, but good.

I'm just cranky because I loved Pittsburgh in 2009. In 2014 I like Pittsburgh. It seems like over the course of these past five years rents have skyrocketed, making it harder to afford a comfortable lifestyle here without working in excess of 40 hours per week; people have become more unfriendly and hurried (not to mention more pompous, as I've now been called "the help" TWICE); and I see more and more people moving here to "be a part of something" (a la Austin, Portland, Asheville, Williamsburg (Brooklyn), Boulder, etc.) instead of just appreciating Pittsburgh for what it is.

I don't want Pittsburgh to become Williamsburg or Portland. I want us to have SUBSTANCE. I don't want us to orient ourselves around trends and what's "hip" in pop culture at any given moment. I don't know how building more $1,600+/month 1-BR apartments is going to help Pittsburgh stay down-to-earth and not skew it in a more homogenized, commercialized, and "yuppified", if you will, direction.

There's a difference between wanting the region to clean up its act in terms of smoking, obesity, air pollution, and urban blight vs. wanting the region to shed its treasured historic ambiance to "compete" with other shallow, baseless cities.

[JimboPGH]

Originally Posted by sskink

If/when rents get high enough that Las Palmas has to move, you'll know it's time to bolt.

If they got replaced by a vegan Tex-Mex place, I'd never leave the neighborhood.

SCR, let me get this straight: you severely dislike obesity, but you also hate healthy diets that are "weird" and offend your sensibilities, and would rather eat incredibly unhealthy fast food... that leads to obesity.

Not every business is going to be something that appeals to you. Get over it.

[highlanderfil]

Oh, good, maybe I can finally get some Russian food in Pittsburgh...

[sskink]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

There's a difference between wanting the region to clean up its act in terms of smoking, obesity, air pollution, and urban blight vs. wanting the region to shed its treasured historic ambiance to "compete" with other shallow, baseless cities.

Alternatively, you and your partner could try those polka lessons you mentioned above. That's part and parcel of the area's Eastern Euro heritage. Maybe you could even convince Gooski's to have a polka night!

[Clark Park]

According to the article it says no place serves Cuban food in Pittsburgh. I find that hard to believe.

Cuban food is not that "exotic" and most of the largest cities in the US have Cuban restaurants - not just Miami, Tampa, Atlanta, Jersey City, New York or Houston. Here in Philly we have Mixto Restaurant for example which serves great Mojitos; but there are others as well, such as Alma de Cuba.

[TheYO]

Originally Posted by Clark Park

According to the article it says no place serves Cuban food in Pittsburgh. I find that hard to believe.

Cuban food is not that "exotic" and most of the largest cities in the US have Cuban restaurants - not just Miami, Tampa, Atlanta, Jersey City, New York or Houston. Here in Philly we have Mixto Restaurant for example which serves great Mojitos; but there are others as well, such as Alma de Cuba.

There's a place in Oakland that serves Cuban and Chinese food.

I think there's a Cuban place in Lawrenceville too