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Old 10-16-2014, 09:35 AM
 
6,356 posts, read 5,003,394 times
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My #6 for "what I hate about Pittsburgh" - too many vehicles. It's ugly to see a streetscape with so many cars parked there. I don't mean a place like Carson Street, where people come and go. In a beautiful and yet modest residential area, lush with trees, hedges, and grass that we all take for granted....there are ugly metal boxes. so in effect, its not a STREET, but a parking lot that allows people to drive through.

most cities are probably like that, though.
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Old 10-16-2014, 09:42 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh
7,541 posts, read 10,197,310 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by szug-bot View Post
My #6 for "what I hate about Pittsburgh" - too many vehicles. It's ugly to see a streetscape with so many cars parked there. I don't mean a place like Carson Street, where people come and go. In a beautiful and yet modest residential area, lush with trees, hedges, and grass that we all take for granted....there are ugly metal boxes. so in effect, its not a STREET, but a parking lot that allows people to drive through.

most cities are probably like that, though.


Most places in Pittsburgh were built up before there was a need for as much parking, many areas were built up even before the boom in automobile culture in the 1920's.


It would be surprising if it was otherwise.


.
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Old 10-16-2014, 10:39 AM
 
10 posts, read 11,193 times
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Originally Posted by PghYinzer View Post
I guess one would classify Boston as a desperate city, or is there some sort of clause for Boston that exempts it? How about New York? Philadelphia?
The cities you mention are big sports towns, for sure, but they have so much more going on that it doesn't feel so overwhelming. Pittsburgh is small, and the Steelers loom depressingly large here.
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Old 10-16-2014, 11:10 AM
 
Location: Crafton via San Francisco
3,463 posts, read 4,620,626 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam View Post
Most places in Pittsburgh were built up before there was a need for as much parking, many areas were built up even before the boom in automobile culture in the 1920's.


It would be surprising if it was otherwise.


.
San Francisco is a younger city, but most of it was built before cars were commonplace. The entire city is the worst parking nightmare you can imagine in Pittsburgh. Parking is difficult everywhere. At least in Pittsburgh there are still many neighborhoods where parking is not a huge problem. But like any older city, you will have street parking everywhere.
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Old 10-16-2014, 11:19 AM
 
Location: The canyon (with my pistols and knife)
14,169 posts, read 22,579,875 times
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Originally Posted by sskink View Post
I would venture to guess that outside of Green Bay, Pittsburgh is the most football-centric of all American metros.
Dallas says "hi." Who cares that the Mavericks won the NBA Finals in 2011, or that the Rangers went to the World Series in 2010 and 2011? How 'bout dem Cowboys?

I took a road trip to Texas back in 2008, and my friend and I stopped at three shopping malls while we were there: one in Dallas and two in Houston. In all three cases, we could not find a general sports fan apparel store; all we could find were stores that sold Cowboys gear, and nothing but Cowboys gear.

It's also worth noting that the morning show guys on 960 The Ref here in Athens started their show today by discussing college football even though the big national sports story is the Kansas City Royals going to the World Series.
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Old 10-16-2014, 12:16 PM
 
Location: Stanton Heights
778 posts, read 834,363 times
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Originally Posted by joekalasky View Post
The cities you mention are big sports towns, for sure, but they have so much more going on that it doesn't feel so overwhelming. Pittsburgh is small, and the Steelers loom depressingly large here.
I've lived here for 37 years and neither I nor most of the people I know give a crap about the Steelers, or sports in general. But if people care about their sports teams, who cares? It's not like they cancel the museum being open if there's a game. In fact, the only reason I ever keep tabs on when games are is so I can take advantage of smaller crowds at various cultural institutions or for errand-running.
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Old 10-16-2014, 12:32 PM
 
Location: ɥbɹnqsʇʇıd
4,599 posts, read 6,683,232 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by theta_sigma View Post
In fact, the only reason I ever keep tabs on when games are is so I can take advantage of smaller crowds at various cultural institutions or for errand-running.
I do this too! It's like having a free pass to the city for a few hours.

I have people make fun of me for scheduling going out around Steeler games, but those jags have no idea what they're missing.
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Old 10-16-2014, 12:51 PM
 
Location: Pittsburgh
697 posts, read 773,390 times
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Originally Posted by Goodjules View Post
San Francisco is a younger city, but most of it was built before cars were commonplace. The entire city is the worst parking nightmare you can imagine in Pittsburgh. Parking is difficult everywhere. At least in Pittsburgh there are still many neighborhoods where parking is not a huge problem. But like any older city, you will have street parking everywhere.
True. When you have to write down which park you crossed to park your car, or how many streets over it is, that is a parking nightmare. My friend nearly missed her own graduation because they couldn't remember where they parked because it's rarely the same place. I'm sure you remember the Danielle Steele parking "scandal" when she had 26 permits and the neighbors were in an uproar.
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Old 10-16-2014, 02:08 PM
 
1,781 posts, read 2,072,880 times
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Originally Posted by joekalasky View Post
Most of these complaints could apply to any medium sized city in America. But there are particular things that Pittsburgh does very, very badly. One of them is mass transit. Having lived in a series of 'rust belt' cities, I can tell you that the buses here are truly appalling: overcrowded, rarely on time during peak hours, and, yes, overpriced. Then there's the strangely hostile, 'chip on the shoulder' attitude of many long-time locals. This is partly justified by recent history; this is a city that had its heart ripped out along with its manufacturing base. Nonetheless, it often feels provincial and unfriendly to outsiders, especially those of us who - shock! - couldn't care less about football. Nothing bespeaks desperation in a town more than obsessive over-attachment to a sports team.

What's come to replace the old Pittsburgh is not much to boast about. Two good universities only go so far, as do good hospitals, especially given that these encourage a transient and unengaged younger population. This is no college town; there's none of the buzz and vibrancy that even Buffalo or parts of St. Louis have. What cultural energy there is is fatally diffused across too many different neighborhoods. I get the impression Pittsburgh is neither one thing or the other, and it suffers for it: it's neither a true midwestern city, with the close-knit warmth and Southern cultural influences that this often entails, but neither is it a sophisticated, cosmopolitan East Coast city. It falls between the cracks, and it ends up feeling exhausted and drab.
While your first paragraph had some merit, the second one removed all of it in a hurry. You have got to be kidding me with "no college town area". You obviously have no idea what that actually entails. Apparently 4 universities congregated into one neighborhood does not equal college town... give me a break!

Also, there are many vibrant areas of the city, have you even been here in the last 5 years? This has its benefits over a city that has one major concentrated area of activity, because of the diversity of cultures and environments that arises from the activity being spread out across unique areas.

You also state that the city is a combination of several regions and cultures, and is crappier because of it?! It's called variety and a blending of cultures. This is a GOOD thing. Something tells me you are not a fan of things being decentralized and having a mixture of identities. Well, since this is Pittsburgh's social and cultural scene in a nutshell, maybe this city is just not a good fit for your personality.
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Old 10-16-2014, 02:30 PM
 
10 posts, read 11,193 times
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Originally Posted by airwave09 View Post
While your first paragraph had some merit, the second one removed all of it in a hurry. You have got to be kidding me with "no college town area". You obviously have no idea what that actually entails. Apparently 4 universities congregated into one neighborhood does not equal college town... give me a break!

Also, there are many vibrant areas of the city, have you even been here in the last 5 years? This has its benefits over a city that has one major concentrated area of activity, because of the diversity of cultures and environments that arises from the activity being spread out across unique areas.

You also state that the city is a combination of several regions and cultures, and is crappier because of it?! It's called variety and a blending of cultures. This is a GOOD thing. Something tells me you are not a fan of things being decentralized and having a mixture of identities. Well, since this is Pittsburgh's social and cultural scene in a nutshell, maybe this city is just not a good fit for your personality.
Something tells me you've never lived in a real college town. The definition has little to do with how many universities/colleges there are in the area. It's more to do with how those universities color the surrounding town or city; how the collegiate culture helps give shape to the town or city as a whole. In Pittsburgh, there is little noticeable cultural effect of having the universities, beyond that it brings a young contingent to the city - who mostly leave after 4 years. By contrast, take a walk through University City in St. Louis or near the university in Buffalo. You'll see multiple used bookshops, cafes with poetry readings, political meetings taking place. In Pittsburgh, no such culture exists. That doesn't mean the universities don't organize great events, but the presence of those universities doesn't permeate the culture in the way it does in multiple other towns and cities in the US.
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