Welcome to Pittsburgh..... I guess ??? (California, Denver: movies, college, living)

[Awesomo.2000]

I went for a walk last night, and found yet more roads that I never knew before. I ended up walking them, and ended up somewhere that I have been all the time. Now I learned yet another route on how to get there.

That is what I love about Pittsburgh. I lived in a city that was nothing but Perpendicular and Parallel streets. It was boring.

[juliempdx]

Things have improved for us but I honestly hate driving in this city. It takes forever to go anywhere even if it is 3 miles. I'm looking into buying a gps and since I last posted I have learned never go on the parkway during a steelers game. Spent two hours sitting there even though the game had already started. No wreck nothing just sitting there. Now the real battle is making some friends.

[subdivisions]

Originally Posted by juliempdx

Things have improved for us but I honestly hate driving in this city. It takes forever to go anywhere even if it is 3 miles. I'm looking into buying a gps and since I last posted I have learned never go on the parkway during a steelers game. Spent two hours sitting there even though the game had already started. No wreck nothing just sitting there. Now the real battle is making some friends.

I've lived here for 5 years and I still hate driving in this city. It's the worst thing about Pittsburgh, in my opinion.

But I love a lot of other things about the city.

[lifepgh2op]

Originally Posted by juliempdx

Things have improved for us but I honestly hate driving in this city. It takes forever to go anywhere even if it is 3 miles. I'm looking into buying a gps and since I last posted I have learned never go on the parkway during a steelers game. Spent two hours sitting there even though the game had already started. No wreck nothing just sitting there. Now the real battle is making some friends.

Glad to hear things are improving for you. Try not to let the driving get you down. The best advice besides the GPS is to pay attention to the Post-Gazette (Joe Grata articles) about construction and activities and road closures. I'll never understand why so many people put themselves on the Parkway East last weekend when they clearly said it was going to be closed (ended up taking them 2-3 hrs to get from Downtown to Monroeville) Frustrated Drivers: Outbound Parkway East Goes Nowhere - Pittsburgh Traffic News Story - WTAE Pittsburgh

[creepsinc]

Driving here beats driving in Seattle by a, um, mile. I-5 is ALWAYS gridlocked in one direction or the other, or both. Also, going east to west or vice versa in that city is far worse than anything in Pittsburgh. That pretty much covers all directions.

[juliempdx]

I wasn't stuck out there this past weekend it was on a thursday night at 7:00p.m. I think it was the first home game of the season for the steelers and I was trying to go to the north shore area. What a nightmare. I think my biggest pet peeve at this point is that people are friendly but they don't understand what it means to be new in town.

My co-workers mock me because I am from Oregon and they ask me questions like is there even a million people in the state of Oregon or my favorite was "you must be enjoying all of the day light because you guys don't get much day light in Oregon it's kind of like Alaska isn't it". To me this is just being plain rude and ignorant. I don't walk around asking people where are all the steel mills. Also the frequent question is why the hell did you move to Pittsburgh? Just had to rant eventually it will get better.

[creepsinc]

Originally Posted by juliempdx

Also the frequent question is why the hell did you move to Pittsburgh?

I get that all the time too, usually from natives (in-town) or people who have never been here (out of town). It's just self-deprecation. In time, you'll probably realize how much better that is than the smugness of the West Coast.

[lifepgh2op]

Originally Posted by juliempdx

I wasn't stuck out there this past weekend it was on a thursday night at 7:00p.m. I think it was the first home game of the season for the steelers and I was trying to go to the north shore area. What a nightmare.

Oh no, I wasn't saying that you were on the Parkway East last weekend...I was just saying that one of the mistakes people seem to make is not paying attention to warnings of construction or traffic which just causes more traffic headaches because people pile on those roads anyway. It's a pain to have to look ahead for things like that but that way if you know they're happening you can plan alternate routes.

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by juliempdx

I wasn't stuck out there this past weekend it was on a thursday night at 7:00p.m. I think it was the first home game of the season for the steelers and I was trying to go to the north shore area. What a nightmare. I think my biggest pet peeve at this point is that people are friendly but they don't understand what it means to be new in town.

My co-workers mock me because I am from Oregon and they ask me questions like is there even a million people in the state of Oregon or my favorite was "you must be enjoying all of the day light because you guys don't get much day light in Oregon it's kind of like Alaska isn't it". To me this is just being plain rude and ignorant. I don't walk around asking people where are all the steel mills. Also the frequent question is why the hell did you move to Pittsburgh? Just had to rant eventually it will get better.

I probably shouldn't touch this with a ten foot pole, but I have heard the above in bold from other people, too.

As for the remarks about Oregon, chalk it up to ignorance, of those people, not all Pittsburghers, mind you. There is an "eastern orientation" that is pervasive, too. When Sarah Palin was chosen, my brother, in Moon Twp said "Governor of Alaska?" in a tone that indicated he doesn't think Alaska is as worthy a state, as say, Pennsylvania. My dad used to refer to LBJ as "that cowboy". Some of my relatives back east think we live in the "Wild West" and we all hunt for our food, heat our homes with wood, ski sto work, etc. When I told my mother my bf (now husband) was from Nebraska, she said "Oh good grief", as if he were from outer space.

[sketchbooks]

Originally Posted by juliempdx

I think my biggest pet peeve at this point is that people are friendly but they don't understand what it means to be new in town.

My co-workers mock me because I am from Oregon and they ask me questions like is there even a million people in the state of Oregon or my favorite was "you must be enjoying all of the day light because you guys don't get much day light in Oregon it's kind of like Alaska isn't it". To me this is just being plain rude and ignorant. I don't walk around asking people where are all the steel mills. Also the frequent question is why the hell did you move to Pittsburgh? Just had to rant eventually it will get better.

You should have seen people's reactions when I said all of my relatives live in different states. There are families here who all live within blocks of one another. The long-distance relatives live in the South Hills. (This is said with a tinge of envy- it would be awesome to have a bunch of cousins in one neighborhood.)

Even better: my daughter was playing with a girl down the street. They were both about 10 years old at the time. When dd said "I'm from Oregon" the girl said- in a very serious tone- "well, I'm from the United States."

Ignorance about the northwest isn't limited to people here, though. Lots of eastern folks think Oregon is entirely wet and covered in trees, Portland is right on the coast, and that there are no mountain ranges between the Rockies and the ocean. Of course I know Portlanders who think I live on the "east coast" and have no clear idea where Maryland and Delaware are. And both sides think that Iowa and Nebraska are pancake-flat all the way across and that Virginia and West Virginia are one state.

/geography digression

Eventually it will get better, you're right. Part of it is you getting used to your new home, part of it is that Pittsburgh is slowly changing (I just hope that all of the good parts stay!) Trust me, it's already better here than it was six years ago.