Dear Neighbors, The link below (or text in the email) is an editorial by a Highland Park neighbor. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08061/861571-35.stm First Person: Return to Pittsborg What is it about this place? Saturday, March 01, 2008 By Gary Cravener, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette After moving back to Pittsburgh from New York two years ago, the question I'm asked most often is, "Why in the world would you come back here? Are you crazy?" Gary Cravener is art director for the University of Pittsburgh's Department of News and Magazines (cravener@pitt.edu). Once, I responded that I had missed Pittsburgh and knew that it offered a better quality of life. After a pause, my questioner shifted course and said, "You're absolutely right. It's why I never left. I actually love it here." Why do so many Pittsburghers undervalue their city, when they genuinely love living here? Why do so many of us leave, only to return? What is it about this place that creates such an intense connection? • In July 2001, beset by an odd midlife crisis, I decided to move to the big city and packed my bags for Manhattan. I quit my job, sold my house, said tearful goodbyes and bid farewell to the city I had loved for 30 years. My house sold in four days, which I took as a sign that I had made the right decision. It was meant to be, right? The moving van arrived to pick up my stuff on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. My euphoric expectations were suddenly replaced with dead space. My mother and others tried to convince me that this was an omen that I shouldn't leave. But days later I was on my way. After 11 hours of driving, dog in tow, I collapsed inside the front door of a friend's apartment in Brooklyn, where we would live for several months. I began exploring my new surroundings. The traffic, noise and activity I loved about New York were more subdued now. The 9/11 plume of black smoke created a pungent gray cloud that hung over Brooklyn like an otherworldly fog. I wondered if the once-vital energy of this great city would ever return. I rented office space on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan to begin my freelance graphic design business. After piecing together some office furniture, I was ready for business. Unfortunately, business was not ready for me. In post-9/11 New York, I waited just to get telephone and Internet access in hard-hit lower Manhattan. But, in time, everything worked out, and I eventually moved into Manhattan. I had arrived. • Months turned to years and the novelty began to wear off. My compulsion to see every Broadway show and patronize every restaurant waned. I became another jaded New Yorker. Most of my wardrobe was black, I was in therapy twice a week, I learned how to deal with cab drivers, navigate the subways and, begrudgingly, to shed the Pittsburgh "nice" factor. I grew accustomed to the loud and hectic pace. But still, for the most part, I was loving it. So why then did I still think, reminisce and immerse myself in everything Pittsburgh? In conversation, I still seemed to wear Pittsburgh on my sleeve. I wouldn't miss a Steelers game on TV or consider becoming a Jets fan. I read the Post-Gazette and stayed connected to the people, politics and weather of my former city. Why did my attention keep wandering back to Pittsburgh? Sitting in my small, very expensive apartment, sipping a cosmopolitan, I contemplated the answers. Pittsburgh offers many things difficult to duplicate in Manhattan: an affordable house, a yard for a dog, grass and trees, a place to park a car, an actual car, the ability to fashion a more comfortable and less stressful life. I thought about the physical beauty of Pittsburgh, with its unexpected vistas and the hills that surround, support and caress the houses sprinkled on their slopes. I missed the strange way the streets seem randomly dropped into place. I thought about the relationships one forms in Pittsburgh -- the kind that sustain themselves for decades -- and the neighbors with whom you could have impromptu drinks on back porches, content to sit and listen to the night. But, beyond all this, why had Pittsburgh become such a part of my DNA? Whatever the answer, I knew I needed to return. • I assured my therapist that I wasn't running from myself, but running back to it. The expatriate Pittsburghers in New York understood my desire to return. They too had considered it more than once. My native New York friends, without a clue, would remark, "I've never been to 'Pittsborg' " (pronouncing it as they do in "Auntie Mame"). I hear it's nice. I'll visit." New Yorkers are curious about the existence of life west of the Hudson. Driving back to Pittsburgh and emerging from the Squirrel Hill Tunnels, I felt elated at the possibilities of my old, new life. The lights on the South Side slopes glistened in the night and winked at me as if to say, "It's OK that you left, we knew you'd come back." The skyline appeared like the Emerald City, seeming much smaller now by comparison to New York, but so beautiful. I was home. • Just four months later, I'm sitting in my house on Jackson Street in Highland Park, sipping a cosmopolitan from the same glass, gazing out the window at the dark green hillside dotted with lights from neighboring houses. I'm awaiting the arrival of dinner guests and feeling confident about the future. I reflect on the pierogi party I attended recently. I am looking forward to the spring planting season, attending a Pirates game again and having that impromptu drink on the porch. I'm smiling as I hear my neighbors converse in Pittsburghese, and feeling good about making the right decision. I still don't have all the answers to explain the loyalty and sense of belonging Pittsburghers have, why they seem hesitant to embrace or appreciate their city, or why some leave, only to return. I do know that I have a renewed appreciation and a better understanding of my own connection with my old/new city, the city I never really left -- my Pittsborg. First published on March 1, 2008 at 12:00 am Ted Melnyk, MPPM MAREastminster Presbyterian Church250 N. Highland Ave.Pittsburgh, PA 15206work (412) 361-7788 ext 108wireless (412) 215-0010home (412) 361-0533 _________________________________________________________________ Helping your favorite cause is as easy as instant messaging. You IM, we give. http://im.live.com/Messenger/IM/Home/?source=text_hotmail_join