[PRCo] Re: Pittsburgh___Today

[Bob Dietrich]

Is it time to reopen the Carson Street Shuttle discussion?  Other cities are
connecting their entertainment/cultural areas with "trolleys" with good
success.  Operating a car or two between Station Square and the J&L Mill
seems to me to make sense. Or dream big and go all the way to the Waterfront
in Homestead. 

I know at least Derrick would ride it.

:-)  Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
[mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org] On Behalf Of Fred
Schneider
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 1:02 PM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Pittsburgh___Today

You've got that right about Houston.   The last time time I time I  
was there was on a Saturday evening and the only place on the light  
rail car where I could ride was shoe-horned into the motorman's cab  
(with permission, of course, and with the boss with us).   The  
motorman on that trip was the oldest motorman running cars in  
Houston.   Earlier in his career he had had an executive position  
with the Early Action Program in Pittsburgh.   His name:   Carle  
Salley.   He is now retired and living in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Derrick Brashear is now living in the Carson Street area and one of  
his reasons for moving there was the wide choice of restaurants.    
Can you imagine just how busy the 50 cars might be in the evenings  
today if they were still running?   And the Sarah Street horse car?

On Jan 10, 2007, at 10:45 AM, aprochek at aol.com wrote:

> Your welcome.  I forgot to mention that while downtown may be a  
> ghostown, we went through carson street on the south side sunday  
> morning at 1:30 AM  and you would have thought it was noon saturday  
> with all the people out.  Downtowns are hit and miss, they dry up  
> from time to time.  Houston was desolate after 5 until around  
> 1999-99.  Now it is THE place to go after hours.  The Astros and  
> Rockets sports facilities helped, but they were built during the  
> wave, they didn't cause it.
>
> Regards
> Alex
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: mtoytrain at bellsouth.net
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Sent: Tue, 9 Jan 2007 5:37 PM
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Pittsburgh___Today
>
> Alex
> Thanks for the "good" report on the BURG!      Most major cities  
> have lost their
> "Downtowns" so that isn't such a  big thing.    Pittsburgh is a  
> beautiful city
> and the view from Mt. Washington can hardly be beat by any city in  
> the country.
> If I were to retire from Florida back to Pittsburgh it would be out in
> the Bethel Park area where I could ride the T to downtown to Heinz  
> Field and the
> baseball stadium.
> The suburbans areas or Pittsburgh are tops, and the ethnic  
> restaurants all over
> the place can't be beat!   So long live the BURG!
>
> Jerry M
>>
>> From: aprochek at aol.com
>> Date: 2007/01/09 Tue PM 06:30:38 EST
>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Pittsburgh___Today
>>
>> the wife and I went back to Pittsburgh for a week last October and  
>> loved every
> minute of it.  I discovered Point Breeze (don't know why I just  
> discovered it, I
> lived in Shadyside for 5 years and as far as I can tell, point  
> breeze was there
> at that time too).  Coffee shops, slate roof houses, hills, brick  
> roads, trees
> turning fall colors, nearby pubs, several nearby colleges... just  
> about
> everything I don't get here in Houston.  The problem is I can't  
> afford anything
> decent in Point Breeze and certainly not in Squirrel Hill, and I  
> make about 4x
> the average income.  So I don't know how rock bottom it really is.   
> I will say
> that my friend in LA who lives in an equivalent neighborhood about  
> 5 miles
> southeast of Westwood had to pay at least 3x as much for his  
> equivalent house,
> not including earthquake insurance.  He gets an ocean but he also  
> gets circa
> 1950 Pittsburgh smog.
>>
>> Amd Holy crap what happened to Shadyside near East Liberty?  When  
>> i was there
> it was a pit, now its got a Whole Foods, several art galleries, and  
> a great
> French restaurant.  I half expected Frasier Crane to walk by.  I  
> told a couple
> Carnegie Mellon kids we met at dinner to enjoy all this while they  
> could,
> because you never know when your job is going to send you to a flat  
> featureless
> generic humid hellhole like Houston.
>>
>> we walked through Schenley park, down in the ravine by the  
>> reservoir.  hiking
> back upstream it was really hard to tell you were surrounded by the  
> city and was
> pretty much just a walk in the woods.  Same thing can be done in  
> Frick and
> Highland park.
>>
>> I was also google earthing Pittsburgh today and discovered Ben  
>> Avon Heights.
> Again never knew it was there.  Looked terrific from the air.
>>
>> about the only thing keeping me from making it a retirement place  
>> is the
> weather - after 15 years in Houston I don't think I can take winter  
> anymore - or
> at least the long dreary build up to spring, though it looks like  
> global warming
> might be taking care of that problem if this winter is any indication.
>>
>> now back to streetcars...... the good news is that Pittsburgh is  
>> broke, so the
> tracks in Chestnut street should still be there.  I am convinced  
> the only reason
> they survived from the time the line closed ('64?) is because the  
> city kept
> running out of money by the time they got to that street.  About a  
> year ago I
> was looking for some loop on the north side - don't remember which  
> - troy hill
> or the nearby line - and I found it in a parking lot but they were  
> tearing up
> the steet, exposing the original track, and hauling it out.
>>
>> Regards
>> Alex
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: joshuad at cs.cmu.edu
>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>> Sent: Tue, 9 Jan 2007 4:26 PM
>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Pittsburgh___Today
>>
>>
>> Jim Holland wrote:
>>> The following is from a person in New York State who has strong  
>>> ties to
>> Pittsburgh and is looking fo
>> r a retirement location;  I have sent info from this individual  
>> before.
>> This is dated  --  Mello
>> n comments reveal that:::::::
>>>
>>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>
>>> However, with the population down to 350,000 now and the endless  
>>> strip
>> developments up
>>> in the north,
>>> the city in my opinion now is doomed....  High tech and robot  
>>> technology,
> are
>> the big
>>> things out in O akland, but this is now the only area with any  
>>> life in the
>> city...
>>> Forbes and Murray is now downtown,
>>> but has no connection with the city....
>>
>> That's nonsense.  Squirrel Hill and Oakland are *in* the city; how  
>> can
>> they have no connection to it?  What they have no connection to is  
>> those
>> "endless strip developments up in the north", thank goodness.
>>
>>>  Of course, nobody would ever build a subway out
>>> to Oakland, nor would they make proper use of the spine line to  
>>> bring
> transit
>> into
>>> Oakland the back way....
>>
>> Well, last I checked, Oakland had plenty of transit.  Just not any  
>> *rail*
>> transit.  I'd have loved an East End subway too, but the fact is  
>> that the
>> current level of transit service in Oakland is remarkably good.
>>
>> IMO, Squirrel Hill is one of the best places to live in the whole  
>> country.
>> Homewood would probably be one of the worst.  They're both the  
>> city.  Why
>> does your friend want to judge Pittsburgh only on its failures?
>>
>> And "rock bottom" real estate?  It's affordable compared to much  
>> of the
>> country but I don't think it seemed "rock bottom" to a friend of  
>> mine who
>> bought a house in Highland Park last year.  (BTW, he's not from  
>> Pittsburgh.
>> Funny how actually living in Pittsburgh for a few years can change  
>> one's
>> perspective.)
>>
>> Best,
>> -j.
>> _____________________________________________________________________ 
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