I didn’t grow up under a roller coaster, like Woody Allen’s character Alvy Singer in the movie Annie Hall, but I did grow up very close to one. I grew up in West View, the home of West View Amusement Park. I was a kid in the 1960’s and 1970’s, right before the park went into decline and closed. But even in its waning days,
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From Poorhouse To Golfer’s Paradise: The Transformation of Woodville All that remains is a makeshift cemetery. The graves are abandoned, smothered by weeds and brush in summer, and buried by snow during winter. Tucked away in transitional space between one of Pittsburgh’s most upscale housing developments and the commercial/industrial area that supports it, there is one major gravestone, marking and commemorating the institution for what
Read the Full Article →The most striking aspect of the Flight 93 Memorial is how isolated and hauntingly quiet the crash site is. The stillness almost has a physical presence. Located 60 miles southeast of Pittsburgh in Stonycreek Township, near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the memorial is an easy day trip from the city, and one that packs a profound emotional experience. The memorial is 20 miles from Exit 110, the
Read the Full Article →I’ve always enjoyed my neighborhood. A few years ago, I began to notice many improvements within the area, and realized that the Brighton Heights Citizens Federation was largely behind them. The BHCF has impacted Brighton Heights in the same way that other good civic organizations have added value to the neighborhoods they represent. I decided to attend one of their monthly meetings to show my
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There is a lot about Pittsburgh, PA, that no one would guess is true. Who could imagine that a city in southwestern Pennsylvania would be such a key to the waterways of the nation? Or that Pittsburgh is home to the oldest cable car operation, even predating San Francisco’s famous cable cars? Yet both of these pieces of Pittsburgh trivia are true! Pittsburgh holds the
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