The Downtown Pittsburgh I Recall

I was appalled and then saddened by your recent article, “Wake Up! Time to Save Downtown Pittsburgh.”  

I haven’t lived in Pittsburgh since 1970 when I completed my doctoral studies at Pitt, but I did grow up in the Pittsburgh area and it is a beloved city to me.  I grew up in the foundry town of Trafford and that probably sounds like a long way from downtown Pittsburgh.  It really wasn’t.  Trafford was the end of the eastern excursion of the streetcars — streetcars that carried us wherever we wanted to go and downtown was not far away.  My sister and I could buy a streetcar pass on Saturday morning and ride anywhere and everywhere those cars would take us — all weekend — all for 25 cents.

We made good use of those passes and would ride to Kennywood, or the Highland Park Zoo.  To a movie at the Lowe’s Penn or Stanley theater. Saturday was Kid’s Day at Forbes Field and the streetcar carried me to those right field stands where Roberto Clemente played, and we saw the ball game for free.  Many times we would ride to my grandparents on the North Side.  It took a couple of transfers to get there and frequently we spent a little time at the corner of Penn Avenue and Sixth Street waiting for the 18 Woods Run car to carry us over to the North Side and my beloved grandparents.  

My sister and I actually lived with them for one whole summer on Franklin Street on the north side.  I remember playing stickball on the street outside my grandparents.  I took pride in walking around the streets of the north side with my grandfather.  He had been a prize fighter in his younger days and everyone knew him.  He took me to a sporting goods store on Liberty Avenue and introduced me to Honus Wagner.  The Pittsburgh Press made him front page news in the Sports Section when he and my grandmother celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.  My sister and I were probably just beginning our teen years when we made downtown Pittsburgh our cup of tea.

Then I remembered a little earlier time when the family would make the trip downtown at Christmas time to see the store windows.  I stood in awe at the magnificent high buildings.  The windows of Gimbels, Hornes, and Kaufmanns were something to behold.  We all felt safe and comfortable as we walked the streets.  I remember a war bond drive parade with Hollywood models riding the back of convertibles.  Lucille Ball was one of them — not the big star she later became.  Ish Kabibble was one of the actors riding the convertibles.  He singled out my sister, who at the time wore bangs just as he did, and he made a gesture to her about his bangs and hers.  Pittsburgh was a wonderful place!

During my undergraduate years I taught electronics and math at Penn Technical Institute in East Liberty and we thought nothing of walking the streets after parking the car on a dark residential street.  Classes I taught were largely at night and when I became an assistant director I had to close up when classes finished.  There never was any fear or concern about being there.  I also was Assistant Seismologist at Pitt.  That job meant stopping at the seismic station — which was in the basement of the Cathedral of Learning — to change the seismic records every 24 hours, 7 days a week.  Again, I never was concerned — no matter what hour — of being on the streets in Oakland or in depths of the Cathedral.

My brother was part owner of Martel’s, and he sang and recorded with the Pittsburgh group called the Cary Ayers Trio.  My family goes a long way back in the Pittsburgh area.  Even though I no longer make my home in Pittsburgh, my roots run deep into the heart of the city.  

I have friends who live in the same community I now live in.  Both are former professors at Pitt.  They were thinking of planning a riverboat trip from Louisville to Pittsburgh but decided against it after reading your article.

It is my fervent hope that the city can get its act together and clean up the problems you have outlined in your article.  Pittsburgh has so much to offer, but everyone wants to enjoy it peacefully, and without drug scenes, and a multiplicity of homeless on the streets, or thugs threatening as you walk along.  Please keep up your campaign.  It will produce results, I’m sure.  Thank you for alerting the officials who need to take action.