10 things I hate about Pittsburgh! (Lebanon, Oakland: theatre, to move, pollution)

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by PittNorth

The fact that the region's largest employers are UPMC and the universities in Oakland and you can't get a bus from 90% of the countys neighborhoods that isn't first routed through the northside and/or downtown and requires a transfer there tells you all you need to know about who's calling the shots and why the system continues to decline in ridership and revenue.

There are still many more people commuting to Downtown than Oakland (and note that UPMC has located its HQ Downtown), but I think you are right that Oakland is underserved by direct, relatively rapid public transit.

However, I don't think that is primarily the product of a conspiracy, but more a problem of topography and a lack of capital funding. Oakland is in a challenging location, surrounded on most sides by hills, cliffs, ravines, and a river, and the one relatively flat path into Oakland (from the east) is heavily built up. Accordingly, getting rapid public transit directly into Oakland is going to require a significant capital investment, and while people have been trying for a long time to secure that investment, so far they haven't been able to.

Of course you can get a little conspiratorial here if you like--for example, it is certainly the case that a coalition of elected officials with their political bases located outside the City killed the Spine Line project, which would have provided a T line straight to Oakland, in favor of the North Shore Connector. Still, even the money spent on the NSC wouldn't have been enough to build the Spine Line.

I might note that the gondola proposal I presented in another thread was designed to address these issues, and in later phases I would propose to continue to expand that gondola system in an Oakland-centric fashion. That was all based on the premises above: that Oakland is underserved by rapid, direct public transit, but that topography would make providing that service with conventional technologies extremely expensive, and thus a technology that can handle such topographic challenges at a considerably lower expense, such as urban gondolas, may be the solution.

[BrianTH]

By the way, my favorite proxy for conspicuous consumption is car choice. If you walk around Squirrel Hill, Point Breeze, and (particularly) Regent Square, you will see a few relatively expensive, relatively new cars. But you will also see lots of economy cars, lots of pretty old cars, and many that are both. Having seen many places where the new-Mercedes-to-old-Honda-Civic ratio is far higher, I'd have to question the notion that these neighborhoods are the paradigm of conspicuous consumption.

[wmkeast52]

No culture??? Are you freakin' kidding me? Pittsburgh was rated as the number one arts destination in the country for 2009. My daughter, who has a doctorial degree in trumpet, readily admits that the arts scene in Pittsburgh is well regarded among musicians. I don't want to state the obvious but I guess I'll have to. There is the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Ballet, Pittsburgh Opera, Civic Light Opera and a host of theater performances throughout the year. I was in the Cultural District one night last September and the place was hopping. There was the Gallery Crawl going on as well as several performances in the theater and a hockey game at the Arena. What do you want????? If you're looking for nightlife beyond that then go to Carson St. Downtown dead....it's not during the day. At the height of the business day the streets are crowded with people. Retail isn't what it use to be but it's way better than most cities and improving. Either you don't get out much or you make comments and have no idea of what you're talking about.

[PittNorth]

Originally Posted by Drover

You lived in a very different Point Breeze than I did.

Funny story; while living there I had this conversation with this woman (one of many similar over the years) that began with her extolling her own virtuousness for installing CFL bulbs in her house. When I pointed out what a superficial and utterly meaningless a gesture it was for a woman living with her husband and one small child in a 6 bedroom, 3 story colonial home with dual high capacity central air systems, which consumed approximately 6 times the energy to heat in the winter as the modest suburban multi-level we were in the process of buying, while a large SUV which was driven by her husband daily to Cranberry daily so that she could crow about living in Squirrel Hill "North of Forbes" and how she could walk where she wanted (ie shop, eat out and consume rapturously) when she wasn't taking one of her three or four plane trips over seas to vacation and visit family ...

Her eyes glazed over, she had a most confused on her face to point I'm sure I saw "does not compute" bars on her eyes and an organic lingonberry flown in from Scandinavia fall out of her ear, tilted her head curiously for a moment and when the smoke cleared promptly went back to patting herself on the back for what a champion of green causes she was and how that made her a good person.

It's a perfect description of Point Breeze/Sq Hill/Regent Square and its residents even if those who insist that it's the hip, trendy place to be don't recognize these traits in themselves.

"Cinnamon and sugary And softly spoken lies You never know just how you look Through other people's eyes." - Gibby Hanes

[BrianTH]

And as we all know, anecdotes are always a reliable means by which to draw sweeping conclusions.

By the way, there are a bunch of modest-sized homes in those neighborhoods. Even--gasp!--apartments.

Edit: Oh, and of course every home in the North Hills is a tiny, well-insulated shack. And you will never, ever, see an SUV.

[Urban_HillBilly]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

And as we all know, anecdotes are always a reliable means by which to draw sweeping conclusions.

By the way, there are a bunch of modest-sized homes in those neighborhoods. Even--gasp!--apartments.

Edit: Oh, and of course every home in the North Hills is a tiny, well-insulated shack. And you will never, ever, see an SUV.

Majority of the homes within my area of South Squirrel Hill are duplexes, large or small apartment buildings, or modest houses. But this NorthPitt guy has his head to far up his ass to notice that 60% of us South Squirrel Hillians live in one of these and don't have to judge people like himself.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Urban_HillBilly

Majority of the homes within my area of South Squirrel Hill are duplexes, large or small apartment buildings, or modest houses.

One of the things I like about this general area is there is a real mix of housing, which allows for people at all different stages of life, of different means, and so on to live in the same neighborhoods.

Of course there are some specific sections where that is less true, but even then they are often using the same commercial districts, same parks, even--gasp!--the same buses.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by PittNorth

Funny story; while living there I had this conversation with this woman (one of many similar over the years) that began with her extolling her own virtuousness for installing CFL bulbs in her house. When I pointed out what a superficial and utterly meaningless a gesture it was for a woman living with her husband and one small child in a 6 bedroom, 3 story colonial home with dual high capacity central air systems, which consumed approximately 6 times the energy to heat in the winter as the modest suburban multi-level we were in the process of buying, while a large SUV which was driven by her husband daily to Cranberry daily so that she could crow about living in Squirrel Hill "North of Forbes" and how she could walk where she wanted (ie shop, eat out and consume rapturously) when she wasn't taking one of her three or four plane trips over seas to vacation and visit family ...

Her eyes glazed over, she had a most confused on her face to point I'm sure I saw "does not compute" bars on her eyes and an organic lingonberry flown in from Scandinavia fall out of her ear, tilted her head curiously for a moment and when the smoke cleared promptly went back to patting herself on the back for what a champion of green causes she was and how that made her a good person.

It's a perfect description of Point Breeze/Sq Hill/Regent Square and its residents even if those who insist that it's the hip, trendy place to be don't recognize these traits in themselves.

"Cinnamon and sugary And softly spoken lies You never know just how you look Through other people's eyes." - Gibby Hanes

Funny story: I never met anyone anywhere in Pittsburgh like that.

You lived in a very different Point Breeze than I did -- I'm guessing because there might well have been one particular resident whose acquaintance I thankfully never made, sucking up all the smugness energy in the neighborhood.

[waitingone]

I can't write ten things, but after 10 years of living in a southern county and traveling all over the region I have come to the conclusion that it is a very isolated city in which most of the residents have lived here for generations, and do not like change of any kind. Many small municipalities make it difficult to afford police, and schools. They have not consolidated government into county wide agencies.In other words, there are social issues. Pittsburgh is surrounded by VERY POOR rural counties.

The next biggest problem is the rocky,hilly, uncooperative landscape that makes it impossible to widen roads, build new roads, or manage the endless tree lined areas and many creeks between things. It must have been extremely hard to settle here !

[waitingone]

I agree with you. Its a decent city, but culturally >>>I am not seeing it. The PSO is wonderful, but I have a story about the art scene:

I was accepted into Artscape in Baltimore City for 4 years in a row back in the nineties. It is a huge arts festival that they say draws a million people to the city. The city closes off streets and traffic is unbearable for residents for the entire weekend.

ok>>> My first year here I went down to the famous Three Rivers Arts Festival on a sunday at 11 am. I parked easily 2 blocks from the artists booths. There was no crowd, no lines, no food vendors to speak of, although I did purchase a deep fried oreo ( no line). I walked through point state park and it was virtually empty. I am so glad I checked it out before paying $400 or so bucks to be a part of it. Needless to say I left with the impression that it was an arts-dead city.