While a resident of Boston would instinctively attach his geographic identity to that of the surrounding six-state New England region, here in the Power of 32’s largest metropolis one would probably be out of luck trying to find a soul that describes his/her home as an "Appalachian city". Although Pittsburgh has always felt unfairly maligned by outdated stereotypes or confined to the margins of the mega-metropolitan regions along the East Coast and the Great Lakes (heck, it has even felt marginalized within its own state), there is great reluctance to be seen as the hub of a region that has struggled with its own image problems. How things are changing, and the one who should be credited for rallying Pittsburgh to accept its own “Appalachian-ness” is Post-Gazette scribe, Brian O'Neill, courtesy of his recent book, "The Paris of Appalachia."

There will be those who resist embracing our obvious geographic identity because of the negative mental image gallery associated with the name “Appalachia”. Mr. O’Neill points out that while Pittsburghers would be all in for being called the “Paris of the Rockies”, the Appalachian mountain chain isn’t devoid of considerable appeal either. Let us reference Boston again; no one in that city is wringing their hands over being linked to the Appalachians, as it is the headquarters city of Appalachian Mountain Club hiking/outdoors organization. The “Appalachian” label is so well regarded by Bostonian society that the AMC main offices are located in that city’s most celebrated and respected neighborhood and the acropolis of its civic establishment - Beacon Hill. The cover of Mr. O’Neill’s popular book (even with a hazy image of an impressionistic painting adorning its face) demonstrates that the Appalachians are a glorious landscape and the reason we have the most spectacular site for a major American city east of the Rocky Mountains.

Much has been made about the obstacles of making Pittsburgh a sought-after destination, one of the hurdles being the lack of a universally accepted first day attraction. Back to the O’Neill cover- the first day, second day, or everyday attraction is right before your eyes: the fact that we Power of 32ers have built our regional man-made environment upon a terrain of linear bluffs and serpentine waterways. Where else in the eastern half of our nation can one say that about? A drab, unremarkable Australian industrial city during the 1950’s used to be referred to as the “Big Smoke”; only when that city began to craft a man-made environment that was equal to its deepwater harbor situation did Sydney become one of the world’s most beloved cities.

The metropolis formerly known as “The Smoky City” is going about a similar awakening, and not just with new landmarks like the Great Allegheny Passage or the thoughtfully designed and built riverwalks in the city center. There is a new appreciation for its highland slopes, where long forgotten neighborhoods of terraces race to hilltops crowned by the domes and spires named for patron saints of immigrant communities. The South Side Slopes neighborhood hosts the annual “Step Trek” up and down that quarter’s steep “paper” staircase streets. And just a few weekends ago a community organization in the Troy Hill neighborhood, an old Germanic hilltop village right in the foreground of Mr. O’Neill’s cover, had a small arts organization, known as “Colorize Pittsburgh”, paint a large swath of infrastructure that is a necessity in a highland region - the retaining wall. The glorious end result of their labors is what you see at the top and it provides a lesson to Pittsburghshire and all of the Power of 32 realm, and that is: without apology, embrace who we are as Appalachians…create a built environment that deserves its splendid setting…and exalt our diagonals!

Brian O’Neill, The Paris of Appalachia: Pittsburgh in the Twenty-First Century. Carnegie-Mellon University Press. ISBN: 978-0-88748-509-1

Photo, top/left: City of Pittsburgh’s Troy Hill neighborhood, Troy Hill Road at Goettmann Street “The Paris of Appalachia”
Source: “Colorize Pittsburgh” group’s facebook page

Troy Hill community organization, on the web: http://troyhill.wordpress.com/
“Colorize Pittsburgh”, on facebook, https://www.facebook.com/#!/ColorizePittsburgh?sk=info