if your not from Pittsburgh you never fit in? (West Mifflin: credit, employment)

[pcc09]

I have to agree that Pittsburgh has a wide variety of different people, and if you really wanted to, you could pretty easily find friends with similar interests to fit in with. Broad generalizations like the one made by the OP and especially the one from Agbor, who apparrently can't find anyone else who reads or listens to odd music, are juvenile, untrue, self-righteous, and elitist.

[Katiana]

I know people who have moved to Pittsburgh, including some relatives, who complained that everyone has family around and people aren't interested in expanding their circle of friends much.

[PghREA]

I came here many years ago from somewhere else and I have not had a problem "fitting in".

I think a lot depends on the newcomer's attitude and he willingness to "fit-in".

[Pitt Chick]

Originally Posted by PghREA

I think a lot depends on the newcomer's attitude and he willingness to "fit-in".

I have found that to be the case too...

[Katiana]

I don't think you can blame the newcomer in every case. My niece went there with the most positive of attitudes, and she felt she was never accepted in Wexford.

[zip95]

Originally Posted by Agbor

Well I AM from Pittsburgh(since first grade) and NEVER fit in..I seem to get along with people from larger cities NYC, Phila., Atlanta..Chicago..

The big issues are: always loved to read, never got into the standard sports,have an odd taste in music
and can't get into drinking binges..and have finished college..and had to deal with ghetto types and
"yinzers" and less educated people..close-minded people...ok thats my mini-rant..

Agbor, I almost always agree with you, but not this time... The metro has 2 million people so of course you fit in somewhere. Maybe bigger cities have more of "your type of people", but that's a different argument.

Basically, all you said was... Sharpsburgh and Homewood aren't for me... So I say move to the East Liberty Shadyside border or maybe Mexican Warstreets. There you can drink coffee, read, and listen to Turkish Folk music with open-minded smart people all day.

[Drover]

The only people I noticed who didn't fit in were Coasters who seemed to have an attitude problem about "downgrading" to lowly Pittsburgh. If you accept Pittsburgh for what it is and the people for who they are, you'll fit in fine. If you constantly remind others through word or deed that "back where I'm from we do things differently" then you'll probably soon find that people don't really want to hear it.

[Katiana]

It's not always the newcomers fault!

[Agbor]

Not to say everyone in Pittsburgh..just my experiences growing up..living up the street from the housing
projects and having a middle-class upbringing and having to go to public school with these kids...I caught flack because I lived in a house with 2 cars and professional parents...("he got money yo")...so they thought..Links, Jack and Jill Club.."Cosby Show" type background...been around "street" but not
from the "street"...

Did have a few friends in the projects and I would go down there and play...

When I say "ghetto-types" I mean loud-aggressive-chip-on-shoulder-name-calling-hostile-attitude..

(like the panhandler today)...or someone blasting house music was called gay for doing so by someone into hip-hop..
I have good friends from Homewood and Lawrenceville but I feel I fit in only up to a certain point...
The "ghetto" ones tease me "You like dat funny food and dat funny music" ( Whole Foods and House
Music)..."House yea?..I'll stick with my 50 Cent yo"...was invited out by "Sharpsburgh" types but they
want to see how fast they could drink each other under the table in a certain amount of time at the
tailgate party...I just sipped on bottled water and looked at them...so I feel I fit in only up to a
certain point...I just have different habits and interests thats all..

[nuwaver88]

I can identify with much of what Agbor is saying, although I am a bit older. I have always liked New Wave, which was referred to as "***" music by many back in the day. I am straight as an arrow, but the image and sound seemed to be threatening to WDVE heads and made them uneasy. Much of it was peer pressure on their part. They had seen the B52s and Blondie etc. on TV. It was nothing like their flannel shirts and jeans and Aerosmith and how they identified themselves. In NYC, the rockers started going to the East Village to clubs like CBGB's. Soon these former rock n' roll heads, like me, got their haircut and started wearing skinny ties and had albums by the Talking Heads and DEVO mixed in with Zeppelin and Boston. Pittsburgh did have a small scene aroud the universities in Oakland. In the late 70s and early 1980s, the Decade brought in many New Wave acts. The Electric Banana was another notable club that had a lot of punk/new wave acts. I just think that Pittsburgh is not, and has never been, a great New Wave city. I was in a bar last year in Daytona Beach that frequented by Bostonites. People were buying me drinks left and right because they loved the music that I was playing. I am sorry folks, but that does not happen in Pittsburgh. Why? Because the radio station that most people in this city seem to put on a pedestal, WDVE, does not play New Wave, hence, they do not know what I play, so no drinks come my way. They'll just say, "this sh** sucks." I really feel that they feel threatened just as I always have. I will say that I love everything else about Pittsburgh. If we could do something about the yinzer populace, this city could be more like a Boston. There are many Boston like elements. I do see signs of this changing. Lawrenceville, which was maybe the largest yinzer stronghold in the city, is becoming more artsy fartsy, and that is a very good thing.
It will take time, but eventually the yinzers will understand that they are the exception rather than the rule and "get ahta tawn."