North Side = Pittsburgh's wild wild west

[CaptainObvious]

This is interesting. I visit every neighborhood in the city on at least a monthly basis (I do homecare) and everytime I say I'm headed to the North Side everyone at work says "Ohhhh my, be careful!". I've never run across a section of the North Side that I felt was that horrible honestly...I am much more inclined to be worried rolling into Knox, St. Clair Village, Brushton, and the like. I could be oblivious...no doubt. My view of what is dangerous has certainly been jaded over the years while taking blood pressures in crack houses or rolling into Northview Heights with a police escort. Where exactly, as in street names, is the degradation taking place? What happened to the War Streets being the next gentrified wonderful up-and-coming place to be?

And as an aside...who the hell would spend $300k for a house, as an earlier poster mentioned, in amongst this mess?

Cap

[Johnland]

Originally Posted by Bazzwell

C'mon up and take a poll. Of course they'll say we need more programs, more money, more this and more that. No county anywhere in this country would say less if you held the offer out there.

But Fayette County's ills are older than I'll bet anyone here on this forum. I've worked in or around Fayette most of my 49 years, born in Brownsville. Over the years I had the pleasure of meeting some of the old-time bigwigs before they passed on. Here's some things you might not know....

The politicians of old are one of the main reasons the county developed a little...behind, everyone else. They held it back on purpose for reasons an outsider who doesn't have a grasp on the history of the area might not get.

After WW2, Ford was seriously looking into building a manufacturing plant in the Fairchance area. This would have provided hundreds of good paying union jobs. They received no encouragement from county officials at all and dropped the idea.

When I-70 was being developed, the plan was to take it through Washington County then into Fayette County to the Maryland border. County officials pulled all the stops to keep it from coming through. Ever wonder why it instead runs through Westmoreland and then picks up again at Breezewood? Fayette County politicians of old.

This comes from several folks independent of each other who were in a position to know. The fear was that by opening up the county to outside development the death bell would sound for low wages paid a near captive audience. Companies would have to compete on a local level for workers or worse yet, a regional level if the highways opened up.

By the time the old factories and mines closed down, it was too late. There was nothing to replace the lost jobs. Ever since then Fayette's been a few steps behind for too many reasons to go into here. Probably always will be bless it's little heart.

I love maps and road atlases. I've always thought I-70 was rather strange the way it hooks up with I-76 for a stretch and then splits off again further west. I just read somewhere about the old Fayette political mindset that caused that deviation from the logical, and now you are reiterating the same thing. Interesting.

[CaptainObvious]

Originally Posted by Johnland

I love maps and road atlases. I've always thought I-70 was rather strange the way it hooks up with I-76 for a stretch and then splits off again further west. I just read somewhere about the old Fayette political mindset that caused that deviation from the logical, and now you are reiterating the same thing. Interesting.

Not sure how that one relates either.