City View

Today I made time for steps. Yes, MADE TIME FOR...I hate that phrase. It reminds me of Julia Roberts in "Eat, Pray, Love". I have never actually seen that movie nor have I read the book. All I picture, in fact, is Julia Roberts with that damn spoon in her damn mouth...

"...Today, I am going to make time for my yoplait and make time for myself...I am going to eat this, pray about it, and love it. me time..." I mean, what is she really doing but looking horribly orally fixated. Now, I like to eat, I don't pray, and love is like all other 4 letter words... When you "make time for yourself" you're being an idiot. Savor that activia, Jamie Lee. ALL time is yours, Dummy. Whose else is it?

So ANYWAY...I went to this ghetto-ass neighborhood today to walk steps. I tried going there a while ago but practically got chased away with torches because I don't eat squirrels nor do I have sex with members of my family. (maybe they just smelled the "gay" on me; I don't know.) I just felt uneasy and unwelcome. Only in Pittsburgh will you find back woods hill people living mere yards away from some of the most technologically advanced and cultured people in the world. It's very dynamic to say the least.

Spring Hill/City View. It's technically one neighborhood, folks. Why? Because after literally half of these respective neighborhoods' voting populations decided to hightail it out to Cranberry during the housing boom/bubble in the 1980s, they had to beg/plead to keep their delegation. The only way to do that was to join forces. A merger if you will.

Now I can say from experience that these two completely different, distinct neighborhoods have only a border to share in common. City View by name alone calls to mind a nice part of town with, duh, a good view of the city... and...well...yep. The view is pretty great. IRONICALLY this is also the shittier of the two. While there 5 or 6 really nice houses in City View they are completely isolated from the rest of the neighborhood by topography. There are 5 or 6 beautiful examples of Victorian splendiferousness with yards and gardens and security cameras and all that shit. Then, there are some 50 or so boarded up row houses and a ton of trash lying around, crumbling retaining walls, burnt out buildings, groundhogs, overgrown underbrush, rust, and general decay. It's just silly.

Then Spring Hill appears around the corner. They don't have the view because dumb Troy Hill is in the way, but wow, it's stable, populated, well kept, and full of interesting twists and turns, nice homes, it's airy and clean...I don't get it really. Welcome to Pittsburgh...