KurtWerks East is officially for sale. Kelly did a terrific job getting it ready to market. I'll take the credit (and blame) for the exterior, but Kelly gets all the credit for the fine job on the interior. Don't mind all the exclamation points in the listing.
Posted by Kurt Wall at 19:26 2008-03-10 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
Driving in Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh)
...or, "You can't get there from here."
Driving in Pittsburgh is an exercise in aggravation. Southwestern Pennsylvania is an area of hills and valleys connected by thin veneers of poorly maintained asphalt and concrete. Then there's the whole fundamental lack of rationality, rhyme, and reason in the naming and layout of the streets. An example will prove the point.
My borough (answering the question "What's a borough?" is a rant for another day) is situated at the south end of Route 51. "Route 51" is a nice, simple, clean name for a road. But Pittsburgh's traffic engineers and city planners have hopelessly complicated what should be an uncomplicated affair, the name of a road. At our end of Route 51, it is also known as Clairton Boulevard. Closer in to Pittsburgh, at a point known to no one save The Almighty, the name changes to Sawmill Run Boulevard. Further up Route 51, the name changes again (or back) to plain vanilla Route 51. It makes no sense to me.
The occasion for this rant is having to describe to my father how to get to the Hillman Cancer Center in Shadyside. He was told, "It's across the street from Shadyside Hospital." That was perhaps interesting information, but useless to him because he's unfamiliar with the area. Never mind that "Shadyside Hospital" is actually "UPMC Shadyside." The latter point bears on the tendency of Pittsburghers to give directions in terms of landmarks that no longer exist (yet another rant for another day). But, I digress.
Giving him directions for traveling from our house to Hillman and back home was not a viable option. Pittsburgh natives and long-time residents might understand "Take 885 across the Glenfield Bridge; turn right to Swinburne; take the Swinburne Bridge into Oakland; then follow Forbes Avenue until you get through Oakland and can cut over to Center Avenue."
Not surprisingly, newcomers lack familiarity with Pittsburgh's landmarks, the maze of back roads and side streets, and alternative routes on which to fall back when the "established" routes are blocked by the inevitable road construction. Sure, I could have given him directions, but the way that road names change here, combined with the manner in which a street will apparently come to an end only to resume several blocks later, makes the directions more like suggestions or recommendations. Ultimately, it was easier to show him how to get to Hillman by driving over and back.
No, unless you have knowledge of the Pittsburgh area genetically imprinted, you can't get there from here, regardless of where "here" and "there" are.
Posted by Kurt Wall at 10:30 2007-11-09 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)