I have to agree with the run down part. When we travel, it’s the one thing we notice upon our return. The trip from the airport on the parkway isn’t bad as long as you don’t go past the “new” 79 interchange, the one that was planned 40 years ago.
While I don’t live within the city of Pittsburgh, I still call it home. Despite the problems with this region, and those problems are numerous, it’s still not a bad place to raise a family. Family members who, like you, joined the mass exodus of the 70s, enjoy the return to their home.
Danny’s in South Park (yeah, I know it’s officially in Bethel Park) has been a gathering spot since the days of my youth. I also agree that the hoagies there are the best anywhere.
It all seems so incredibly narrow now. The streets were designed for horses. I lived in Brookline, up on Milan Ave, and went to Ressi and South Catholic. It’s not too bad up on Milan still, but not nearly as nice as I remembered it.
We also lived on Berkshire (behind the fire station) for a while, and that looks pretty run down these days, at least compared to the wide streets and newer neighborhoods of where I’ve lived since. My Grandma would hardly recognize the place, and she’d be very disappointed with the citizens who populate her old neighborhood. There’s so much tidying up that is never done... sigh.
And re: Danny’s Hoagies..... DROOL!!!! :) My whole family has been addicted to them since the 1960’s, when we’d drive out there and order hoagies, and then eat them while sitting in our car watching the movie on the drive-in next door (sort of like going to a silent movie). I’ve actually walked in and ordered a dozen large hoagies, uncooked, with the fixings on the side, to take back to California with me. :)