Pittsburgh ambience (California, Hamburg: crime, living, fence)

[dugdogmaster]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

The city as a whole is too filled with unique things for me to try to characterize it, so I will instead write just a little bit about Regent Square, my neighborhood.

Regent Square itself is a charming little urban neighborhood, a throwback to the streetcar suburb days--sidewalks and frontporches, a mix of housing from many different decades, a nice little commercial area largely free from chains, and so on. But what really makes it unique is its location in a corner of Frick Park.

Basically, you are walking through this charming little neighborhood, and then suddenly the street you are on comes to an end. Before you is ravine filled with trees. You find a little trail and it starts winding its way down into the ravine. When you get to the bottom you suddenly get a bit of a sense of the scale of the Park--but you still don't really know until you spend hours wandering the trails and climbing the hills, maybe spotting some deer along the way . . . .

So that intimate and practically borderless relationship between a nice little urban neighborhood and this huge urban wilderness park, all about 10 minutes from Downtown, is what makes Regent Square so unique to me.

Ditto, I love that there's so much wild life and "wilderness" right in the heart of the city. You don't get that in many cities.

[ExPit]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

The city as a whole is too filled with unique things for me to try to characterize it, so I will instead write just a little bit about Regent Square, my neighborhood.

Regent Square itself is a charming little urban neighborhood, a throwback to the streetcar suburb days--sidewalks and frontporches, a mix of housing from many different decades, a nice little commercial area largely free from chains, and so on. But what really makes it unique is its location in a corner of Frick Park.

Basically, you are walking through this charming little neighborhood, and then suddenly the street you are on comes to an end. Before you is ravine filled with trees. You find a little trail and it starts winding its way down into the ravine. When you get to the bottom you suddenly get a bit of a sense of the scale of the Park--but you still don't really know until you spend hours wandering the trails and climbing the hills, maybe spotting some deer along the way . . . .

So that intimate and practically borderless relationship between a nice little urban neighborhood and this huge urban wilderness park, all about 10 minutes from Downtown, is what makes Regent Square so unique to me.

Great Brian! I know that area well and it is so Pittsburgh, close to what Michael Chabon in one of his books set in Pittsburgh describes as, "Half industrial, half aboriginal."

You mentioned "deer", which is something I'd forgotten. When I was growing up there you could go a whole childhood and young adulthood, as I did, without seeing a deer in the city limits. And I haven't witnessed it myself, but what I'm told is that because of construction outside of the city, deer are being forced into town, so much so that I read where Mt. Lebanon, hardly a rural area, now has such a problem controlling its deer population that they have a "culling" program underway, which allows residents, (or is it only township officials) to kill them on designated days, is this true?

[ExPit]

Originally Posted by Canarian

I was told that Pittsburgh is second to Venice for cities with most bridges. I thought that this was an interesting comparison. The bridges of Pittsburgh are definitely amazing. They frame the city core very nicely.

I knew Pittsburgh had alot, compared to other American cities, but I didn't know it would rate with Venice on that score; course, I'm sure that's where the comparison ends. I'd never seen it that way, but you're right, the bridges do frame the city. Thanks.

[ExPit]

Originally Posted by Agbor

I would say the Golden Triangle

Downtown is great, always was great, always was my favorite thing about the city growing up. It's so compact it's almost like a toy. You can circle the whole town on foot without breaking a sweat. Be interested to see how it shapes up after this last round of renovation; is it Renaissance III or IV by now? I know there are new buildings going in, PNC, Piatt, a new Hilton on Grant, I was sorry to hear that that mega-complex on 7th and the Allegheny River fell through, but maybe that's only temporary. My first job as a kid was selling papers on the corner of Forbes and Smithfield.

[creepsinc]

Originally Posted by ExPit

I knew Pittsburgh had alot, compared to other American cities, but I didn't know it would rate with Venice on that score; course, I'm sure that's where the comparison ends. I'd never seen it that way, but you're right, the bridges do frame the city. Thanks.

I was told on the Just Ducky tour recently that Pittsburgh has 440 bridges and Venice has 436. Also, for what it's worth, all of Venice's bridges are pedestrian.

As for deer, I've seen them several times outside of Riverview Park (where I can count on seeing at least one every time), on the side of Marshall Avenue and running between the two cemeteries on Brighton Rd.

[dugdogmaster]

Originally Posted by creepsinc

I was told on the Just Ducky tour recently that Pittsburgh has 440 bridges and Venice has 436. Also, for what it's worth, all of Venice's bridges are pedestrian.

As for deer, I've seen them several times outside of Riverview Park (where I can count on seeing at least one every time), on the side of Marshall Avenue and running between the two cemeteries on Brighton Rd.

The cities with the most bridges in the world, in order of most to least, are Hamburg, Germany, Pittsburgh and Venice, Italy.

Edit: Just Ducky is wrong, Pittsburgh has 446 bridges

[dugdogmaster]

Great Pop City article about Pittsburgh's bridges
Pop City - The City of Bridges

[ExPit]

Originally Posted by dugdogmaster

Pittsburgh has 446 bridges

Is that within the city limits? County?

[dugdogmaster]

Originally Posted by ExPit

Is that within the city limits? County?

Within city limits. Throughout Allegheny County there are over a thousand

[creepsinc]

Originally Posted by dugdogmaster

The cities with the most bridges in the world, in order of most to least, are Hamburg, Germany, Pittsburgh and Venice, Italy.

Edit: Just Ducky is wrong, Pittsburgh has 446 bridges

That number was from memory...I think Venice has 440, then.

I didn't know about Hamburg.

Edit: from said Popcity article- "Last year, for example, attendees came from 47 states and 15 countries to Pittsburgh, the city now proven to have the world’s greatest number – and the greatest diversity – of bridges."

I see conflicting reports (still have never seen Hamburg), but I'm going to go with Popcity.