Embracing the city of bridges
Full of character and culture, Pittsburgh is one heck of a town
PITTSBURGH— One somewhat crazy image from here remains etched in my mind.
Following the fifth inning at the Pirates baseball game I attended, racing mascots dressed up as perogies tear around the bases, providing “entertainment” for the hometown crowd.
Just beyond the outfield is Pittsburgh’s cityscape, complete with the Aztec-gold coloured Andy Warhol and Roberto Clemente Bridges that cross the Allegheny River.
Back home, I deliberately watch baseball highlights with the faint hope of seeing that iconic city view again. Poll after poll calls it the “most livable city in the U.S.”
It’s sometimes hard to pinpoint why a new destination tickles our fancy.
I am not a huge sports fan, but that Pirates game really made an impression. To begin with, the taxi driver from the airport to my hotel waited while I checked in, so as to take me to the ball game — the last leg, free. PNP Park is universally acknowledged as the most beautiful in the majors, with every seat a winner.
(Even standing room, which I forked out $17 for, is worth it.)
In the ballpark restaurant (where I could sit, for free), I expressed interest in the pulled pork perogi stacker sandwich, and a local brought out his cellphone to show me other Pittsburgh delicacies.
This town has its own Pierogi festival every fall.
At the end of the game, kids lined up and have a chance to run the bases. A real nice touch.
In September, Porter Airlines started daily, direct flights from Toronto to Pittsburgh.
There is something very homespun, very human about this town. And, they have some of the best sports franchises of all time: the Pirates, the Penguins and the Steelers.
The city retains the unpretentious spirit that it has been developing since the late 1700s, when it was a frontier town, long before the development of the West and Midwest.
At the same time that it developed its massive steel industry, Pittsburgh was a busy commercial area, the focal point of three major rivers (the Ohio, Allegheny and Monongahela) and the countless railway lines.
Thankfully, most of the 441bridges from that era are still operating and, in and of themselves, constitute a major landmark.
Being in a coal-rich region, the Pittsburgh area attracted immigrants from across Europe at the turn of the century, mainly from Eastern Europe, Germany and Italy.
The coal and steel industries were important enough that immigrant groups stayed for generations, creating strong, multicultural neighbourhoods.
A real pride in one’s area and one’s city took hold. An excellent example was the Run (or the Four Mile Run), the area for Ruthenians, where native Andy Warhol practiced drawing while delivering vegetables for his uncle.
Loyalty to one’s neighbourhood, to one’s city — and to one’s sports teams — really came to mean something. Apparently, the huge number of Steeler bars across the U.S. is due to displaced Pittsburghers, forced to shift cities, but not their sport loyalties.
Due to the largesse of Pittsburgh’s well-known philanthropists (the Frick, Carnegie, Mellon and Heinz families made fortunes here), the area is surprisingly well served by the arts.
The downtown, miraculously preserved in a kind of1930s to1950s time warp, is a real joy.
Cultural events abound, and street art is in good health. Louise Bourgeois’s Eye Benches are an example of public art set in the very active entertainment district, which is full of art galleries, live theatre and some of the city’s top restaurants. You can walk from downtown to the placement of old forts, Pitt and Duquesne (where it all began), and to the Strip neighbourhood, a crucible of today’s modern multicultural city. It’s an easy walk across the beautiful steel bridges to the baseball and football stadiums.
Since the steel industries required access to the river, the city is spread out, and biking is the natural way to get around.
In the days of steel production, the pollution was so bad, street lamps were left lit during daytime and office workers brought two white shirts to work. Steel factory workers were often covered in the infamous blue dust of the area.
Across the Monongahela River is the Pump House, notorious for the Homestead workers’ uprising of1892 where Pinkerton guards shot into the crowds of striking workers. From that area, you can cycle seven days straight south along old railway lines, ending up in Washington, D.C.