12 ms·

Pittsburgh is an awesome town. Very underrated. Lots of friendly people, great food, thriving business, and a lot more culture than you’d think.

adsims2001 4y ago
And it has affordable housing! The population is about half of its peak, so there is more housing than needed, the opposite of many places in the U.S.
DonHopkins 4y ago
I used to live in Shadyside on Gettysburgh Street in Pittsburg when I worked at CMU in the early 90's. (Yay CMU Common Lisp!) It really tweaked my OCD that Pittsburgh is spelled with an h, but Gettysburg isn't. Half the time when writing my address I'd get them both wrong. I just did now, but googled and corrected it, but I didn't have google back then, so I just had to wing it. There was a cute little bohemian cafe near a park in Shadyside with back yard garden seating. Apparently whoever owned the cafe had inherited or otherwise come into a copious supply of used bowling balls. So they used them to make tables, chairs, fences, and weird artwork and decorations, whole and cut apart, some with extra holes drilled, some metal rods through them. Lots and lots of bowling balls, artistically arranged. The darnedest thing. I'll never forget it, but I can't tell if I totally confabulated it or not. (Like how I can vividly recall that episode of the Muppet Show guest staring Bob Dylan and the Band, where they played Too Much of Nothin' with all the hippie and monster muppets: as far as I can tell it never happened, but I still will never forget it.) Has anybody else ever seen such a thing, around '92-93 or so? Was there an old bowling ball factory nearby?
- kens 4y ago
  > Pittsburgh is spelled with an h, but Gettysburg isn't. There's some interesting history behind this, which I learned on a tour. The US Board on Geographic Names standardized place names in 1891 by dropping the h from places ending in "burgh". However, residents of Pittsburgh didn't like this change and lobbied for the original spelling, which was restored in 1911. So that's why you have Pittsburg CA and Pittsburgh PA.
- jolancer 4y ago
  I never went to that bowling ball place but that sounds like 90s Pittsburgh to me. It was a very odd place. I think because rent for apartments and business was so incredibly cheap after the 80s that it attracted quite a cast of characters and many strange businesses. I still like visiting but the city doesn't feel as "artsy" as what I remember. Starbucks replacing the Beehive is the feel to me.
pilingual 4y ago
If people want to learn more about Pittsburgh, there is nothing better than the Rick Sebak documentaries: https://www.wqed.org/watch/pittsburgh-history-series/flying-bridge-nowhere-fqwlth https://www.wqed.org/watch/pittsburgh-history-series/flying-...
Schiphol 4y ago
It also has what's arguably the best philosophy of science department in the world https://www.hps.pitt.edu/ https://www.hps.pitt.edu/
jvm___ 4y ago
And a great children's museum and science center.
bm0 4y ago
Plugging https://arcane.city/ https://arcane.city/ for the music scene

adsims2001 4y ago

And it has affordable housing! The population is about half of its peak, so there is more housing than needed, the opposite of many places in the U.S.

DonHopkins 4y ago

I used to live in Shadyside on Gettysburgh Street in Pittsburg when I worked at CMU in the early 90's. (Yay CMU Common Lisp!) It really tweaked my OCD that Pittsburgh is spelled with an h, but Gettysburg isn't. Half the time when writing my address I'd get them both wrong. I just did now, but googled and corrected it, but I didn't have google back then, so I just had to wing it. There was a cute little bohemian cafe near a park in Shadyside with back yard garden seating. Apparently whoever owned the cafe had inherited or otherwise come into a copious supply of used bowling balls. So they used them to make tables, chairs, fences, and weird artwork and decorations, whole and cut apart, some with extra holes drilled, some metal rods through them. Lots and lots of bowling balls, artistically arranged. The darnedest thing. I'll never forget it, but I can't tell if I totally confabulated it or not. (Like how I can vividly recall that episode of the Muppet Show guest staring Bob Dylan and the Band, where they played Too Much of Nothin' with all the hippie and monster muppets: as far as I can tell it never happened, but I still will never forget it.) Has anybody else ever seen such a thing, around '92-93 or so? Was there an old bowling ball factory nearby?

kens 4y ago
> Pittsburgh is spelled with an h, but Gettysburg isn't. There's some interesting history behind this, which I learned on a tour. The US Board on Geographic Names standardized place names in 1891 by dropping the h from places ending in "burgh". However, residents of Pittsburgh didn't like this change and lobbied for the original spelling, which was restored in 1911. So that's why you have Pittsburg CA and Pittsburgh PA.
jolancer 4y ago
I never went to that bowling ball place but that sounds like 90s Pittsburgh to me. It was a very odd place. I think because rent for apartments and business was so incredibly cheap after the 80s that it attracted quite a cast of characters and many strange businesses. I still like visiting but the city doesn't feel as "artsy" as what I remember. Starbucks replacing the Beehive is the feel to me.

pilingual 4y ago

If people want to learn more about Pittsburgh, there is nothing better than the Rick Sebak documentaries: https://www.wqed.org/watch/pittsburgh-history-series/flying-bridge-nowhere-fqwlth https://www.wqed.org/watch/pittsburgh-history-series/flying-...

Schiphol 4y ago

It also has what's arguably the best philosophy of science department in the world https://www.hps.pitt.edu/ https://www.hps.pitt.edu/

jvm___ 4y ago

And a great children's museum and science center.

bm0 4y ago

Plugging https://arcane.city/ https://arcane.city/ for the music scene