Jun 30 2009
Guest Walkabout: Dory Adams
Meet Dory Adams, whose writing below appears on her blog "In This Light" at www.doryadams.com. (The photo was taken by Kevin Scanlon, her husband.)
A reader in California e-mailed the following comment about Pittsburgh in response to my initial posts: "It seems the stories in such a place are right on the surface, not distracted by the charminess of a place like the Bay Area." That's a pretty astute observation, and I especially liked her coinage of "charminess" to imply a negative connotation - charm as a veneer that can be misleading.
The topography of Pittsburgh is that of steep hills and river valleys, and it is this landscape which attracted the industrialists and the workers who settled here. While Pittsburgh has evolved into a high tech white-collar city over the past several decades, there is a blue-collar down-to-earth sensibility that remains deeply ingrained in the people who live here. That tenacity is symbolized by the homes that cling to the hillsides above the three rivers.
Pittsburgh's hillside houses are not the "Painted Lady" Victorian row houses that cover the hills of San Francisco, or the cute and colorful "Little Boxes" on the slopes of that city's southern peninsula. Our hillsides are more rugged and untamed, with hillside houses rising vertical and defiant, jutting up amid lush greenery, precipitous on the steep slopes and atop the crests. I didn't always see their beauty, which may be an acquired appreciation. It's an unexpected beauty, suddenly noticed when the morning light slants a certain way to sharply define the rooflines and angles, or when last rays of a sunset cast a golden glow reflected by the windows.
From the East End to the West End, the South Side Slopes to the North Side, Pittsburgh's neighborhoods are defined and divided by hills and rivers. We don't have a touristy and famous Lombard Street curving past stately homes, but we do have Rialto Street which steeply plummets with no curves straight down the side of Troy Hill and is as thrilling a ride as in any amusement park. There are grand and stately homes here, too, as well as genteel neighborhoods and gated communities, and there are even sections of Grandview Avenue on Mount Washington which remind me very much of San Francisco.
It seems I'm fated to always compare these two cities, loving each of them in different ways. But I've long ago claimed Pittsburgh as home. It's a city with a rich literary history, an active writing and artistic community, and a visually interesting landscape. One of my favorite writers here, Chuck Kinder, wryly describes Pittsburgh as the "Paris of the Appalachians." Now that sounds like just my kind of town.
Jun 29 2009
One afternoon last fall, after visiting the new Carnegie Library branch at Centre and Kirkpatrick in the Hill, I looked down the street and saw "R. COOK" on the side of the old store.
I had visited Robert Cook there several times, starting in 1995 when I wrote the weekly "Walkabout" column in the printed Post-Gazette. My first visit was to get comments about the Million Man March from him and the guys who hung out at his used-stuff shop.
I made subsequent visits because I liked Mr. Cook. He was charming and funny and had a radiant smile.
That day last fall, I started getting worried as I approached the storefront. Nobody was hanging around. I feared the worst before I even got in the door. It was an orderly office. The man at the desk was Ron Scott, president of RS Supply LLC, a janitorial supplies company. Mr. Cook had sold him the building, he said.
"But he's just out there," he said, pointing out the window. "In his truck."
I hurried out to the truck and popped up at the passenger side window. Mr. Cook looked around and his eyes popped and he smiled that smile and opened the door for me to get in. We sat and talked and remembered past visits. I told him this was the year I probably needed to retire my rusty old Brinkman smoker and was ready to buy one of his. He makes them out of 55-gallon metal drums he gets from a food distributor.
"I don't have a phone, but you can call Ron," he said.
Over the weekend, a friend drove me out to pick up the smoker. It was sitting on the sidewalk, propped open on its pedestal and I could see Mr. Cook's legs hanging out the passenger side of his truck as we pulled up.
He's 81 now, and looking great.
Mr. Scott bought the building from him in the fall of 2006, but Mr. Cook is attached to the place. He returns most days, parking on the street and turning out his smokers on the sidewalk.
The barrel has a hinged opening that lets smoke escape out the top. The grill is two pieces of heavy netted metal. Unlike my Brinkman, on which I could cook three chicken breasts or four pork chops at a time, this baby will accommodate a whole rack of ribs and a bouquet of shish-ka-bobs with room for corn-on-the-cob.
"Put your charcoal in a stainless steel sink you can lift out," Mr. Cook told me. "Charcoal will burn through the barrell over time."
My friend and I lingered. Mr. Cook gave us more of a run-down about his life than I had ever gotten during visits to his shop, when his friends were hanging out and the talk deflected what was personal.
Mr. Cook had worked construction in the steel mills much of his life. He has an artificial hip. The junk store had been a way for him to keep busy in his retirement. He and his wife , Celia, raised four kids, all of whom left the area. One is an engineer for Boeing, a graduate of Carnegie-Mellon University. The parrot Mr. Cook used to keep in his store - Pretty Bird - is still alive.
He told us how he and his wife had gone to Atlanta to live a few years ago. They built a ranch house, thinking it was a good retirement move.
"I made it six months and came back," he said. "My wife sold the house.
"I'm a person of the street," he said, laughing. "When people used to ask where I was, my wife would say, ‘He's down on the street.' "
Mr. Scott lets him store the metal drums behind the building and takes his calls and lets him use the electricity.
"He sold me this building, and I'm grateful for that because it makes it easier for me to do my business," said Mr. Scott. "I had been running it out of my home.
"He's a good guy, a nice guy, and for a man who's 81 to be healthy enough to get out and do work he like is a great thing. it was an easy decision for me."
I
Jun 29 2009
Mount Washington has been establishiung the city's fifth great park for several years, but it has a cumbersome name: Grand View Scenic Byway Park.
An emerald ring around Mount Washington and Duquesne Heightrs, incorporating all the more formal parks and playgrounds throughout, the Grand View makes use of the steep hillside with a long-term plan to rid it of invasive species and grade the native plantings to grow up without obstructing the view.
The overseer of this green project, the Mount Washington Community Development Corp., is inviting all people of the city of Pittsburgh to send in their ideas of a new name.
The MWCDC writes:
"Anyone with a creative mind and an interest in participating in the greater Pittsburgh community can vote on a selection of park names or submit a park name for consideration by visiting http://www.visitpittsburgh.com/name‐that‐park.
"Everyone who enters this contest will be eligible for the grand prize. The winner (selected at random) will be given a complimentary dinner for two at Monterey Bay Fish Grotto on Mount Washington as well as overnight accommodations at the Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel with breakfast in the morning. Voting has begun at the VisitPittsburgh site on the best suggestions thus far, but submissions will still be accepted until the end of August. Paper ballots will be available shortly as well."
A five-episode film series, "The Grand View Scenic Byway Park: One Wild Urban Adventure," will be shown in the Department of Parks and Recreation's "Cinema in the Parks" this summer.
Visit http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/parks/html/cinema_in_the_park_and_cinema_.html.
You can also watch the films online at: http://www.youtube.com/view_playlist?p=E4B14D28E69134AB
Also visit http://www.mwcdc.org for more about the neighborhood's CDC.
Jun 25 2009
Pittsburgh United took its Nothside campaign on a bus tour through the neighborhoods this afternoon, linking blighted conditions and episodes of violence to lack of opportunity for good jobs.
The coalition of 46 organizations is seeking a community benefits agreement with Continental Real Estate, the developer of a Hyatt Hotel and entertainment complex on the North Shore. Continental has not met with leaders of the campaign. (You can find out more about the campaign at www.youtube.com/pghunited.)
About 75 people rode two school buses through California-Kirkbride, Manchester, the North Shore and the Central Northside. They included Councilwoman-elect Natalia Rudiak of District 4, Councilman Bill Peduto of District 8 and representatives of organizations such as Just Harvest, the Pittsburgh Interfaith Action Network and Northside Fair Housing Coalition.
On the bus I rode, WIll Thompkins, a lifelong North Sider, served as guide. He pointed out where young people have been shot and killed, the Manchester pool that has been closed for years and institutions that do positive work with youth.
Janice Parks, leader of the Young Men and Women's African-American Heritage Association, said that, as "an older baby-boomer," she grew up and her parents raised her believing that "we would do better than they did. But how many of us are picking up slack for what our working children cannot do?"
"They are already working their butts off and they can't get to first. That's not a realistic way to ask our children to live," she said. "We need to get real about requiring those who get subsidized land and development deals with tax payer money to give back so that our children can" have a decent quality of life.
Asia Howell, a young mother of an 18-month-old, said she would have to live with an aunt or in a shelter if not for the subsidized housing she has in the Central Northside. "That's the reality," she said. "I can't pay market rent.
"I am working on my master's degree at Pitt," she said. "I want to be an English teacher. People think that young black girls who live in these houses don't want to do anything, but that's a stigma."
"And there are a lot of people like her" in subsidized housing, said Ronell Guy, executive director of the Northside Fair Housing Coalition, which co-manages 345 subsidized homes in several North Side neighborhoods. "We are trying to grow the market from the inside out so people can build their capacity," maintain a checking account and other life skills that many who have been mired in poverty have never learned.
"The response to losing good industrial jobs in Pittsburgh is [for the
city] to give rich people millions of dollars to build things where
people work for minimum wage," said Gabe Morgan, co-chair of Pittsburgh
United and the state director of the Service Employees International
Union.
Sam Williamson, the Western Pennsylvania director for the Service Employees International Union, described Continental's acquisition of land for $8 a square foot as a give-away. "We are not going to rest until we get a community benefits agreement for the North Side."
Jun 25 2009
Recently, Central North Side residents concerned about several shootings in recent months met with Zone 1 Comander RaShall Brackney in the basement of the Allegheny Unitarian Church on North Avenue.
One of her comments, that the police would respond with "zero tolerance" against jay waking and "all moving violations and any parking violation that constitutes a public safety hazard" has sparked a week-long debate on a Northside on-line chatsite.
The meeting was about fatal shootings; many residents think the commander's "zero tolerance" decision was punitive because they were complaining that police have been ineffectual in keeping drug activity and violence from some of their streets.
Up and down the neighborhood, cars regularly park facing north and south, east and west on both sides of the street. If you're coming northound up your street and there's one parking space - on the left - you take it.
Every once in a great while, some people get tickets. It's considered a safety hazard because if you're parked the wrong way you have to pull out in the wrong lane. However, wrecks in this situation are rare because every street is straight and you can see oncoming cars in the side-view mirror.
Some residents are siding with the commander's zero tolerance stand, saying they have no problem parking the right way and that maybe some suspects in bigger crimes will get snared by parking illegally. Others say that the time police spend ticketing parked cars is a derisive response to the neighborhood's worries, a waste of time and, according to one resident, "feckless."
Two neighbors among the many had this recent exchange. (I got permission from one to use his name and await permission from the other; if it comes, I will supply the name):
While I wasn't at the MWSS meeting with Brackney, I actually agree with her. The issue isn't whether ticketing parked cars stops gun violence, rather the issue is whether we put up with lawlessness in general in our neighborhood. While there are certainly critics (aren't there for everything?), the "broken window theory" has a lot of support and hard evidence to support its effectiveness. One of the guiding principles in New York was that turnstile jumpers in the subway were significantly more likely to either a) be in the act of another crime; and/or b) be more likely to commit future crimes. By arresting turnstile jumpers the police established a system and sense of order in the subway. That was then carried out into the neighborhoods. Stopping petty criminals early and often and setting standards for a law abiding society was the goal. It worked - NYC saw a significant and rapid drop in crime. Debating whether or not the drop in crime was happening in other Cities certainly does not stop crime - implementing plans and procedures may. That is the point. If it doesn't work, try something else. Maybe some of those illegally parked cars belong to people with outstanding warrants? Maybe applying the law across the board provides the justification to then take harder measures? Who knows?
If we establish our neighborhood as a place the crime is not tolerated, whether that is littering, illegal parking or selling drugs, it will have a positive effect. However, if every time a crime is committed we say, "Hey crime happens in Mt. Lebanon," then we aren't solving anything, we are merely justifying everything. I think the goal should be to make crime unacceptable, whatever type of crime that may be. Last year before the CNNC elections, a gentleman yelled and screamed at me that "if these people don't like the gun shots, if they don't want gun shots they should move to the suburbs." That attitude my friends is ruinous for a community. Bullets flying by is not nostalgic or cool. Gun shots are unacceptable in Mt. Lebanon and they should be unacceptable here. Do people in the North Side deserve anything less? No, they do not. Likewise, all petty crime is unacceptable in Mt. Lebanon and should be unacceptable here. When WE start to change our attitudes about our neighborhood we can expect others to change theirs.
This from David Shlapak, a resident who has done "some digging around to inform myself" on the issue:
The alleged success of "broken windows" in New York has come under a lot of fire, and not of the innocuous "nobody's perfect" kind to which you allude; more of the "There's really not much evidence that it accomplished anything" kind." Crime rates in New York began dropping precipitously under Dinkins, several years before Bratton and Guiliani began clamping down on squeegee men and turnstile jumpers. The overall reduction in crime rates in New York during its "broken windows" era basically mirrored the deep secular downward trend in crime rates across the country in the 1990s, a drop resulting from a variety of powerful socioeconomic and demographic factors and trends. As one University of Chicago law professor who's studied the issue puts it, "'There's no good evidence that disorder causes crime [or] that broken windows policing reduces serious crime in a neighborhood." But Bratton and Guiliani are nothing if not relentless and marvelously skilled self-promoters, and the national fixation with New York afforded them a brilliant spotlight in which to strut their supposed success, turning it into one of the most problematic of urban legends.
Our problem here is not that kids take to selling drugs and violent crime because they see others getting away with jaywalking or parking improperly. They do it because they see other people getting away with selling drugs and violent crime. More than "getting away with"; being respected and seen as successful on account of it. And the situation is not helped by the fact that a lot of these kids likely can't credibly envision any other future for themselves that amounts to anything.
The way to catch a shark is not to sweep up the minnows. The way to get the shark is to go after the damn shark.
A response to that was "We're going to need a bigger boat."
Walkabout welcomes your comments.
Jun 24 2009
The Hill District's first supermarket in at least 25 years is set to break ground in several months on the Downtown side of the Triangle Shops complex, between Dinwiddie and Heldman Streets on Centre Avenue.
Architect Ralph Murovich said the 31,000 square-foot full-service market will comply with the U.S. Green Building Council's silver LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards. The building will have a partial green roof to hide the heating and cooling equipment, to catch storm water and provide insulation, he said.
I couldn't get any calls back today from neighborhood representatives, but at meetings in the Hill for years, people have been aggitating for a full service grocery store. From the start, developers and planners of this project brought the neighborhood along. The first meeting was at the Hill House, across the street from the site. At early meetings, the neighborhood rejected Aldi's because it seemed cut-rate and they weren't going to settle. The Hill District's Consensus Group made sure the neighborhood is getting what it wants and needs.
The Hill House Economic Development Corp. and Pittsburgh Economic and Industrial Development Corp., an arm of the Urban Redevelopment Authority have been negotiating with the Kuhn's chain, although a lease has not been signed yet.
The store and a row of retail shops adjacent to it will stretch to Heldman Street and consume a lot that is currently vacant and overgrown.
It will have a parking lot entrance and a Centre Avenue entrance because many shoppers will be walking
"The plans are looking really good," said Mr. Murovich.
Centre Avenue is looking really good. The New Granada theater has a veil over it; restoration has begun at that historic site. Possibly an outdoor cafe will sit across Heldman from new townhouses. Pedestrian traffic is more multi-cultural than it has been in years. A new Carnegie Library branch is just a few blocks east. And the overall scene benefits greatly from having the Hill House as an anchor.
Soon, Hill residents won't have to take a bus to buy greens, tomatoes, corn and all the other wholesome foods that other neighborhoods take for granted. We at Walkabout are big fans of the Hill and hope lots of other goodies follow..
Jun 23 2009
Brent D. Ryan writes about the trend toward cohousing and increasingly heterogenous urban clusters in the article "The Once and Future Neighborhood" in ArchitectureBoston's spring edition. http://www.architectureboston.com/ (The site is now displaying the summer edition, in which there's a fascinating article headlined "Radical Urbanism: The Case for Mom and Pop.")
An assistant professor of urban planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Ryan discusses the concept of neighborhood and the different things it means to people.
"One person's neighborhood may or may not be another's, depending on lifestyle, abilities, age, income level or interests. Yet... everyone recognizes a small, friendly park surrounded by houses as a neighborhood space and a corner store is a neighborhood place..."
To know the boundaries, you only have to ask the residents... and you will get a different definition from each. The one certainty is that people "feel a fierce attachment to their local piece of the urban fabric," he writes.
Those of us who are sewn into urban neighborhoods know about that ferocity. We know it can breed fatal turf wars and happy stoop parties.
The New Urbanist trend of people returning to the city for close to a decade has brought mixed-use design to almost every new development, which means a mix of retail, entertainment and housing and a mix of low, middle and high-income housing. The maturing of such heterogeniety ultimately will eclipse blight, gun-slinging and gentrification.
Recognizing that we are dependent on each other, especially as America swerves toward less conspicuous consumption and thrift, the subtrend of co-housing is a return to how people used to live. Back in the day, new immigrants lived above the store they operated and took in even newer immigrants to help them learn English and get on their feet. The newcomers usually moved to quarters nearby and the families would continue to support each other.
The movement of creative types into lofts in urban cores suggests that people recognize their need to be near their work, services and support -- social, emotional and tangible. Lifestyle centers such as Southside Works suggest this, too.
Co-housing is the next step - where people sorta kinda live together. Social and kitchen space might be shared, bringing people closer together to share child care, rides to the store, skills, tools and other support.
He writes that this model:
"represents a tiny minority of residential construction, yet also offers perhaps the clearest sign that renewing the concept of the neighborhood has less to do with its stylistic or locational characteristics than a reimagined understanding of the interaction between society and space."
Cohousing is a model to promote economic stability for underemployed families that has been tried most successfully as "entrepreneurial housing" in San Diego and Oakland, Cal., he writes.
Walkabout wants to know if anyone has built, is building or is exploring the possibility of building a co-housing model in Pittsburgh. Let me know at djones@post-gazette.com or post a comment.
Jun 22 2009
A man driving a delivery truck stopped at the Quick Stop convenience store across the street from the Pittsburgh Brewing Co. yesterday.
He declined to comment on the record about the brewery leaving for Latrobe, but he offered this, as an Iron City drinker for 22 years: "I'll be drinkin' Yuenglings. It's a good beer that just got better."
His beef was with the public way many workers found out that the brewery will be closing, he said. But others are bitter about being forsaken.
You never get used to rejection. Every one feels like the first kick in the teeth. Pittsburgh's had its share of being left, but Iron City is iconic. It was first brewed when Abraham Lincoln was president. We were iron before we were steel. "Iron" is a symbol of immutability. What's an iron-clad rule if not one that can't be changed? A tyrant runs his country with an iron fist.
It matters not to the average guy that corporate headquarters will remain. It would be great for the 51 workers to be retained to work at the former-Rolling Rock brewery, but a pull-out is a pull-out. To the brewery, it's a business decision, but to most of us, it hurts to hear good-bye.
Tim Hickman, PBC's president, said the factory on Liberty Avenue in Lawrenceville is antequated and would have to be completely retrofitted to run a modern can line. He said Iron City is a regional brand and that Latrobe is just "down the street."
Regional it is. I remember as a kid in north-central West Virginia watching the Iron City commercials that came on between televised innings of Pirates games. One catchy jingle, which, if memory serves, was paired with an ad showing an attractive group of friends running around with a football and laughing, went like this:
"Drink, drink the beer drinker's beer,
"Iron City Beer, the beer drinker's beer,
"Beer after beer after beer after beer,
"Beer after beer after Iron City Beer."
Whether or not you like Iron City, it's an iconic brand, as Pittsburgh as the Pirates, Primanti's sandwiches, Myron Cope and a polka band.
In fact, in the vestibule of the PBC offices, a room of carved-wood on the stairs, walls and ceiling, a mural shows all those icons and more: Andy Warhol, August Wilson, two of Pittsburgh's bridges, a steel mill, a Ferris wheel, Arnold Palmer (the Latrobe connection) swinging a golf club, Roberto Clemente swinging a bat, a riverboat, a trolley, Sophie Masloff, fireworks above the skyline and Bill Mazeroski rounding third and some guy handing him a can of Iron City. Andrew Carnegie is sitting with a can of Iron City resting on his knee.
And a sign on the mural reads "We Built this City - Iron City Beer."
Jim Nied has owned Nied's Hotel, a tavern on Butler Street, for 32 years and is the third generation owner.
"I've got a tear in my beer over these guys leaving," he said. (The company has six or seven days of production left after cleaning out the bottle shop, which flooded after last week's rain.) "I can remember my dad getting a plaque in 1983 for serving Iron City for 50 years.
"They supported our neighborhood pretty good, donating to many events, including staff and beer.
"I think it will be a detriment to our city's identity not to have it here. What do you think they sell at Steeler Nation bars in different cities? Iron City.
"We were strictly an Iron City bar in regards to signage," he said. Asked if that will change, he said, "Yes. I was turning down offers and promotions from Coors and other brands. Iron City will still be a prominent brand here, but I thought it was time for me to think of my own horizons a little bit."
Jun 22 2009
Before I launched "City Walkabout" in January, I scouted the city's coffeehouses to find not just great ambience but a personality of regulars. My goal was to meet with these regulars weekly, get to know them and establish their voice on my log as commentators on life in their neighborhood and life in general.
Looking for a tableful of amenable regulars, I started out favoring Amani in Deutschtown because it is close to where I live, I love the look and feel of the place and I'm fond of Terra Jones, the owner. She opened at the end of 2006 on Foreland Street.
I spent some time in Perk Me Up in Lawrenceville. Helen McMullen opened it on Butler Street in 2005; her pastries alone would have made it a great (selfish) choice.
Several other coffeehouses had their strengths and weaknesses, but it was at Tazza d'Oro in Highland Park where I found the amenable group of regulars.
On Friday night, owner Amy Enrico threw a 10th anniversary party at the Highland Avenue "third place" for what turned out to be more than 100 people.
People flocked in, from single hipsters to whole families and oldsters, forming a line out the door to fill plates of foods from other local businesses that Amy is always generous to acknowledge and support. It reminded me of a family reunion.
Amy conceded that Tazza d'Oro was her vision but said her support "and my staff are phenomenal. No one could do this without such great people. It has been an emotional week" in celebration of 10 years in business.
Here's what she writes on her web site, http://www.tazzadoro.net/:
I began working on the business plan for Tazza D'Oro 12 years ago. One of the main components of the plan was to find an exceptional coffee roaster. At that time, I was traveling weekly for my job and would spend evenings and weekends tasting coffee and visiting roasters, including 2 places in Canada. After more than a year and a few months before our opening we had a few coffee roasters to pick from but not exceptional coffee roasters. While having lunch in the Farmer's Market in Olympia, a friend said have you "tried those guys". She was pointing to the Batdorf and Bronson Roastry just behind the market. I got up from the table and the rest of the story for the last 10 years you know.
In coming weeks, Walkabout will debut a new feature in which you will meet Amy, Phil, Rachel, Paula, Matt, Jane, Ross and others who join their conversations several mornings a week.
Happy 10th Taz'... and may all the other great coffee shops have such a tenure.
Jun 19 2009
Remember how horrible - and scary - the 31st Street bridge was a couple of years ago? Weeds growing up through the sidewalk. Rusting railings. Holes in the road bed.
It's a beautiful bridge today, the color of an Oklahoma winter sky, and it takes you past the former Pittsburgh Flat Roll Works, about eye-level with its vast industrial roof line. Those enormous metal barns with patches of rust and holes in the roof and deep dark spaces near the rivers are almost gone. They're both hideous and glorious, the places where Pittsburgh stored and manufactured much of its earlier life.
It's exciting to know that this one, at least, has new life.
At the end of the bridge, I make a left that could only be made in Pittsburgh - such a tight U-turn that the car had to fold in half... down a teensy road right up against the bridge ... past a handsome brick public works building... into the parking lot of Mogul Mind Studios.
I'd heard this place was going Hollywood and had to poke around for a look.
Just my luck, I catch John Yost before he has to leave for a meeting. Eager like a kid, he shows me around. The building I first entered is connected to another building by enormous doors that we now go through, into darkness and utter silence. He flips a switch and a loud several seconds of buzzing later, the place begins to dawn ever so slightly with light... so you can only sense how huge the space is.
"This is the third largest sound stage in the world," John says, just as the light reaches its peak. "I have the fourth largest as well."
John is the CEO and president of Mogul Mind, which is in the process of being as full-service as any Hollywood studio ever has been. He returned to his hometown six years ago after chapters in Germany and New York. He's an actor and producer with several multi-media companies; this 300,000-square-foot production park is intended for feature films, television shows and commercials.
The renovation is costing about $30 million. One of the bays will be used for shooting underwater scenes. John calls it "the rain room." Right now, the empty bay has "TANK" written in a painted outline.
He walks me through the set that Sony Pictures built for a TV pilot called "Fire in the Hole." It's mostly just a series of bare rooms; the filming is finished.
The fourth biggest sound stage doesn't look any smaller than the third. You could put all the houses on my street - and the street - inside it. The roof is so high - there are no ceilings, per se - that you could drive a golf ball (if you can drive a golf ball) without hitting a cross beam.
These giant buildings, or bays, all connect, but some are done and others still have gaps in the roof and weather on the floor below.
On the way out to look at the helipad, for which Mogul Mind just got FAA and city approval, John tells me not to worry about my footing "if you stay just left of my shoulder all the way to the door."
The faint light hints at stuff you could trip over, but when he opens the door to the outside, it turns out to have been a little water and some mud and a set of railroad tracks that come inside several feet before disappearing into the concrete floor.
Outside, a large gravel lot will be the helipad for now. John wants to eventually make a helipad on top of the old round pump house in the Allegheny River. An auxiliary mill building beyond the gravel lot will be the Fade to Black restaurant.
When the tow pound on the other side of the bridge support moves and a developer comes in and makes that expanse pretty and upscale, a film studio a few paces away will be perfectly located to cater to movie and TV stars.
As I drive back down that teensy road and make a right onto Butler Street, I think about all those guys who used to go to work in the sheet metal factory on all those days when Pittsburgh was gray, and I glance back at the blue bridge and imagine a movie star in the big tank battling an evil fish thing and all of us at the theater watching what looks like a real underwater scene and I am, once again, amazed at what people are pulling off in the ‘burgh.
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