I love Facebook. I think it's an amazing site and it's crazy to me that I didn't sign up for it until after I graduated college, because when I was in college Geneva didn't have a Facebook page. The Internet changes so mind-bogglingly quick, it's just craziness. But that's not my point. Facebook has this great app right now called "Where I've Been" where you click on places you've lived in (red), visited (blue) and would like to visit (green). Here's my map:
But that's not my point either. I think that someone should (and I would if I was a bit more Internet savvy) create a "Where I've Been: Pittsburgh" edition with all its neighborhoods and towns and streets, because I think Pittsburgh is one of the most interesting cities or places to explore, anywhere. My family moved to Pittsburgh the summer before I started Kindergarten, and I consider it my home as much as anyone can call a place home. I love it here and though I love to travel, see new places, and may live in new places, Pittsburgh will always, always be where I come home to. But, no matter how much I drive around Pittsburgh and explore, there's always some new place to find. When I go somewhere in Pittsburgh, I seldom go exactly the same way twice, and that's not because I'm a bad driver or bad with directions, it's because that's the beauty of Pittsburgh.
If there ever is an un-planned city, I would have to think Pittsburgh would be it. Even if you wanted to plan a grid of some sort or anything that made sense, how could you? The topography throughly prohibits any such endeavor. And it pretty well prohibits any thorough exploration of the city and it's varied and unique neighborhoods, streets and towns. And there are a lot of them.
This is one of the many reasons I love it here. And these are just inside the city limits, where I've never lived. (Though, over the past year I have spent a lot more time exploring the city than I have in years past... I can thank Sam and Jo especially for that one.)
I have lived in Chippewa Township and in Beaver Falls on College Hill (both up in Beaver County), Moon Township, Franklin Park and in Wexford. My church where I've gone for years and now work is in Robinson. And despite this, or because of this, it's truly amazing to me that I can drive around the north and west suburbs (and Beaver County) and find so many places that have so much meaning to me. The place we sometimes got ice cream after little league games. The elementary school I went to. The other one I went to. The highway where I looked enviously at black Jettas when I was a kid starting to think about driving (I ended up with a blue one of course). The dentist office I've gone to since I was 8. This place where this happened. Or this time with these people or this person. It goes on and on and I realize this isn't unique to me and Pittsburgh. But in another way, it is.
If you're not from Pittsburgh or have never been here, it's probably hard to imagine or understand how Pittsburghers give and receive directions. Turn right where the store used to be, follow it to the end of the road, turn left, follow the road to the right down the hill, at the 6-way intersection take the 3rd right that goes back up the hill, and we're just past the old fire house that you can't see from the road. And once you get there that way, you can't go the same way back.
Most of you are from Pittsburgh and I'm preaching to the choir here... most of you probably understand it better than I do because your parents are from here, too, and your grandparents, and Pittsburgh and the rivers and streets and bridges and hills are more ingrained in your life than they'll ever be in mine. And that's awesome. But I'm thankful that I call Pittsburgh home, and while I can wish that Pittsburgh was like Chicago or DC or New York and had a great subway system or like Denver or somewhere that was a grid or like anywhere that I could actually ride my bike somewhere (that's on me for living in the suburbs) for now, me and my Jetta are used to the hills and winding shortcuts and confusing road signs and orange barrels that make up Pittsburgh, and all the crazy intersections and guesses and surprises that you need to encounter to make it from Point A to Point B.
As long as A and B are both in Western PA.
But that's not my point either. I think that someone should (and I would if I was a bit more Internet savvy) create a "Where I've Been: Pittsburgh" edition with all its neighborhoods and towns and streets, because I think Pittsburgh is one of the most interesting cities or places to explore, anywhere. My family moved to Pittsburgh the summer before I started Kindergarten, and I consider it my home as much as anyone can call a place home. I love it here and though I love to travel, see new places, and may live in new places, Pittsburgh will always, always be where I come home to. But, no matter how much I drive around Pittsburgh and explore, there's always some new place to find. When I go somewhere in Pittsburgh, I seldom go exactly the same way twice, and that's not because I'm a bad driver or bad with directions, it's because that's the beauty of Pittsburgh.
If there ever is an un-planned city, I would have to think Pittsburgh would be it. Even if you wanted to plan a grid of some sort or anything that made sense, how could you? The topography throughly prohibits any such endeavor. And it pretty well prohibits any thorough exploration of the city and it's varied and unique neighborhoods, streets and towns. And there are a lot of them.
This is one of the many reasons I love it here. And these are just inside the city limits, where I've never lived. (Though, over the past year I have spent a lot more time exploring the city than I have in years past... I can thank Sam and Jo especially for that one.)
I have lived in Chippewa Township and in Beaver Falls on College Hill (both up in Beaver County), Moon Township, Franklin Park and in Wexford. My church where I've gone for years and now work is in Robinson. And despite this, or because of this, it's truly amazing to me that I can drive around the north and west suburbs (and Beaver County) and find so many places that have so much meaning to me. The place we sometimes got ice cream after little league games. The elementary school I went to. The other one I went to. The highway where I looked enviously at black Jettas when I was a kid starting to think about driving (I ended up with a blue one of course). The dentist office I've gone to since I was 8. This place where this happened. Or this time with these people or this person. It goes on and on and I realize this isn't unique to me and Pittsburgh. But in another way, it is.
If you're not from Pittsburgh or have never been here, it's probably hard to imagine or understand how Pittsburghers give and receive directions. Turn right where the store used to be, follow it to the end of the road, turn left, follow the road to the right down the hill, at the 6-way intersection take the 3rd right that goes back up the hill, and we're just past the old fire house that you can't see from the road. And once you get there that way, you can't go the same way back.
Most of you are from Pittsburgh and I'm preaching to the choir here... most of you probably understand it better than I do because your parents are from here, too, and your grandparents, and Pittsburgh and the rivers and streets and bridges and hills are more ingrained in your life than they'll ever be in mine. And that's awesome. But I'm thankful that I call Pittsburgh home, and while I can wish that Pittsburgh was like Chicago or DC or New York and had a great subway system or like Denver or somewhere that was a grid or like anywhere that I could actually ride my bike somewhere (that's on me for living in the suburbs) for now, me and my Jetta are used to the hills and winding shortcuts and confusing road signs and orange barrels that make up Pittsburgh, and all the crazy intersections and guesses and surprises that you need to encounter to make it from Point A to Point B.
As long as A and B are both in Western PA.
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