The "ghetto" (I hate that term)

Today was a good day for stair climbing. The clouds were blocking the sun from searing my pasty skin and the temperature was right around 70. It was a bit balmy but Spring has sprung. The smell of gardenia is in the air.



I went to Beltzhoover today after making excuses for so long. You see, this particular neighborhood is purportedly the worst in the city. Lowest housing values, highest crime, it smells funny...it does. (probably because of all the rotting trash and abandonment) Beltzhoover was this place that I never imagined setting foot in. Why would I? It was blown out of proportion in my mind however. Naturally, things are never as bad as you make them out to be. In reality the place was quite charming. The housing stock was similar to the rest of the city as far as architecture and design albeit I'd say there was perhaps a 50% vacancy rate. The homes that were still inhabited seemed well-maintained and there were people around sitting on front porches and doing yard work. A promising amount of home renovation seemed to be taking place. I counted three construction projects going on. There is new housing too. While other neighborhoods get all the credit for rebounding and revitalizing, Beltzhoover has a harder row to hoe. It's got a lot more to bounce back from. So perhaps the renaissance will just be a slower, subtler process here. We shall see.


As far as steps are concerned, I encountered too many that were just demolished or too overgrown to count. Many of the steps in Beltzhoover are extremely old brick steps that the city has probably never maintained. Before I go to a place, I scour old maps for locations of steps and plan out a good walk to cover efficiently, as many as possible. Well Beltzhoover's steps were not easily covered. One set in particular, Montooth Way, which cuts through four or five blocks, barely existed. I found myself trudging through grass and mud more than anything hoping to find remnants. I did find some steps but I felt inclined not to count them. Instead I highlighted them on the map with red indicating they should not be traveled.





From Beltzhoover I walked to neighboring Allentown. Allentown was along the now defunct Brown line trolley. There are many storefronts and a lot of vitality along Warrington Ave. Allentown has charm in spades. Architectural detail out the wazoo. Views to kill. It's a shame it hasn't been able to really gain much recognition. Still, it seems stable enough.



All in all, I did 563 new steps today. I realized I haven't been keeping track of how many sets of steps I have found so today I counted. Officially, I have found 414. Sheesh, right? Apparently I need to find another 298 although I think Bob Regan (author of "The Steps of Pittsburgh: Portrait of a City") must have been counting differently. I believe he counts each set separately if it is bisected by a road. Like Eleanor St. in the South Side Slopes for instance. It goes for nearly 6 or 7 blocks but I only counted the whole shebang as one set. What I am really trying to say is that I think that I have at least located a vast majority of the sets of steps. I still have yet to walk less than half. Bob has the number at 44,000 and I have logged 23,100 or so. Yay me. Not much further to go, my pets.

Back on the horse but the horse isn't really going anywhere.

I think I've said it before once or twice but finishing this second half of the steps is going to be a bitch.

I am hovering around the half way point. Yesterday I was out for about an hour and was only able to accomplish 38 new steps. Usually I could do 700 or more in an afternoon. I am super out of shape too.

Good news is the Google has come up with a new mapping system which will make compiling my data much simpler. I have started organizing by neighborhood and will soon have links to each individual map instead of the jumbled mess you see on the margin to the right presently. So that's exciting for me.

I have been eating super healthy and have not been smoking because, guess what, I am completing this project this summer dammit. If I ever want to write this guidebook, I have to first finish documenting. One "step" at a time (raucous laughter) oh puns.

So on a different note, I have a qualm. It has to do with Brookline and Overbrook; Two neighborhoods that border the Blue line trolley. While walking steps along route 51 it became clear to me that the Port authority had no idea what they were doing when they built the t extension and bus way. The South bank stop for the bus way and the T is very stupid. I'll explain. In order to reach this stop from Brookline, you must descend city steps from Brookline Blvd, then go under a tunnel and cross the street to the bus way stop. Cool, the T is right above you but there is no access to it...oh. Dumb. You could theoretically ride the bus 200 feet to the T stop...You're not allowed to walk...dumb. Also what's even dumber is that there are two stops so close together!!! Why wouldn't they just be combined!!!! Why doesn't the T run along the bus way????!?! Why does it have its own separate track?!?! It's so inefficient?!?!! Ok, I'll stop with the excessive punctuation.

Onto The McNeilly stop. Wow is this thing over-invested. There is virtually no pedestrian access from Brookline unless you have a death wish walking through that rail tunnel from McNeilly. I have done this countless times. The issue with both stops is that there is a freight line in the way. How to get pedestrians over train tracks has long stumped city planners, no wait...it hasn't. Tunnels! Or cheaper yet, bridges. Or even cheaper. just have a protected cross walk. the protected cross walk could be problematic if a train is coming and you're trying to catch a trolley on time. understood. but these specific stops both beg for better solutions.

The good with the bad

I was super pumped about today because the weather is perfect for step climbing; 60 and sunny. I had it all planned out where I was going to go and everything. Then yesterday I started getting those damned weird chest pains again. Needless to say, I stayed in. It hurts when I breathe. It hurts when I do anything and I was not about to go testing the limits of my cardiovascular system. So since I'm convinced it's either an ulcer or GERD. I am doing everything I can to heal faster. The worst part is that if it's an ulcer or the like, I cannot take pain medicine. I have to just deal. I hate to sound like I'm complaining all the time but there is literally no other outlet for my bitching so deal with it. I have to pretend I am happy at work all day and I have to try really hard to be nice to people when behind the fake smile I am just wanting to smush peoples faces till their eyeballs pop out. I would have stayed on the couch. I went to bed at 7:30 last night, slept for 18 hours. Well, I woke up intermittently to pee, drink water, whine to Nate, etc. But I felt the best when I was lying down, on my side, with my left arm over my head. Every other position was agony. I kept waking up because my right wrist kept falling asleep. MISERABLE!!! So that's me complaining about it. I'll stop now.

First Day of Spring

Although the weather hasn't been entirely reflective of this, it's Spring now. I get excited at this time of year obviously. It's near impossible to do steps in the snow. I celebrated the first day of the season in Carrick with some city steps. I did 600 new ones breaking through my half-way point. It felt glorious. This time I took my dog, Skip, with me. He's a rescue dog and has a bum leg. Perhaps I should have thought twice before subjecting him to urban mountain climbing. The poor guy got tuckered out and by the end of my excursion I thought I might have to carry him. At first he was pulling me up the hills, though. He seemed like he had a good time overall but I don't think he'll be doing this with me ever again. Carrick, like many neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, is full of dogs. I can't tell you how many times I lost track of my counting because Skip decided to go ape-shit over another canine. He's just a fluffy little white dog. Who does he think he is fooling? Oh well.

Carrick is a strange bird. It borders Mount Oliver and Brentwood; A terrible neighborhood and a wonderful neighborhood (both of which aren't part of Pittsburgh). So as you can imagine, its housing stock reflects this. There are some beautiful, stately, old homes but mostly you'll find the Pittsburgh bungalow style that is so common in the South Hills. The main commercial corridor is Brownsville road. The businesses along the Brownsville seem a bit desolate. The traffic is plentiful but the parking is not. It's a common problem in this city. The older business districts were conceptualized before the advent of the automobile. As a result, cars just pass through to Brentwood Towne Centre (does the spelling of this make you want to vomit like it does me?) A newer development filled with corporate box stores. Carrick is a nice neighborhood overall and new investment is coming to bolster the business district, I hear. There is a great old dairy processing plant; the only surviving dairy in the city. It's called Colteryahn. I still don't know how to say it. The area surrounding the plant is slated for redevelopment and revitalization. It sounds exciting. We shall see.

tour company

I have been thinking about turning my knowledge about the city steps into a tour company. I'd have special themed excursions throughout the city such as, photography, history, urban exploration, food, and exercise. There would be a nominal fee to join a tour, a portion of which would go to a project benefiting the city steps such as art installation, upkeep, etc. I think it would work and I think it would be totally fun. I am taking the time this winter to organize specific tour routes and will be posting them soon.

hibernation phase

I have been having weird chest pains the last few days. All the sources I checked told me to seek medical attention. So i did. Had a chest x-ray, a EKG, blood work, EVERYTHING. They found nothing wrong. I can't breathe, my left shoulder hurts intensely, and my heart will race from time to time especially when the pain gets worse. At times the pain is debilitating. I get dizzy and feel as though I might pass out. So since the professionals could find no reason for my intense chest pain, I decided to scour the internet my damn self. I stumbled upon a message board with literally hundreds of people with the same ailment. All my age, men and women alike, all describing the same symptoms. Not on clear diagnosis. Most people cited having GERD which is a funny word for acid reflux disease. Really? What I'd like to know is how a pain in my shoulder is acid reflux but OK whatever. So I'll try taking pepcid ac and limit my acidic food intake which is as follows.

No coffee...I don't care if "no coffee" is the keys to my survival, not doing it.
no milk- ok
no wheat- that's fine
no blueberries- really? (*Livestrong.com so this must be a big lie)
no pickled foods- I'm trying no to cry over this.
no meat just fish I can live with that.
No shellfish- WHY?
no fried food...wait, what?
no FRENCH FRIES- no, please God, no!
(i basically live on french fries and beer)
NO BEER!!!!
GAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
Etc., etc., etc...

so apparently my life is over.

I analyzed what I have been eating over the last week and it all falls under the no no list. So maybe that's it. Maybe I can easily cure myself.

I will try anything to feel better at this point. I have been so fatigued therefore I sleep for 12-16 hours a night. I wake up with intense bouts of pain and am having vivid nightmares. When I am awake, I am pretty much in constant pain. Each time i breathe in I can feel it stab in my lung. My shoulder has just been a dull aching constant pain. If I'm lying down it feels like a charlie horse. All of this has been intensifying over the last 3 days.

I think it's high time for another juice fast. It's easier to limit yourself to one thing than having to cut out a million other things. If it is a gastrointestinal problem, that would be the fastest road to healing.

Tonight I hosted open mic. I honestly forgot how amazing the talent is in my humble neighborhood. Another more important finding is that I am finally out of my depression. Today was a great day. But perhaps the most important, rather, pertinent finding was a photograph print that Rosemary, a regular to the coffee shop and friend, gave to me. I found that behind the sound equipment while cleaning up. It's of a set of city steps from the 1950s. An old wooden set was being replaced with the new concrete steps. There the two sets sit next to one another. the old and the new. sharing a brief moment before the old wooden steps get demolished. It's a beautiful picture. it makes us think of the ever-changing, ever improving mentality we have. Evolve. Those concrete steps still exist today, weathered and overgrown. Worn out. they were once new. Will they be replaced? No. we've found ways of getting around them. We've forgotten them but we have not done away with them. There is no progress to be made on that path. Instead, we let them crumble on their own.