Pittsburgh's Ethnic Mosaic

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In post-industrial Pittsburgh, strong ethnic neighborhoods serve as a living archive of the city's urban life and make up the heart of this metropolitan region's history and its culture. Pittsburgh's modern accomplishments in the high tech and medical industries, the renaissance of its downtown and the cleanup of its streets, air and waterways have given the city a new reputation for innovation and enabled it to leave its smoky legacy far behind.

And yet Pittsburgh maintains a balance between its big-city aspirations and village charms. Writing in the New Yorker, Brendan Gill observed, "If Pittsburgh were situated somewhere in the heart of Europe, tourists would eagerly journey hundreds of miles out of their way to visit it."

Pittsburgh's skyline still makes a dramatic first impression with its tall, sleek buildings pushed shoulder to shoulder with historic churches and proud old structures. Homes come in as many forms as the ethnic groups who built the city, from sturdy brick structures spread out across the flat river lands, to white, wood-frame homes tacked against the green hills, and contemporary condominiums and apartments hugging the mountain ridges. In every direction and as far as the eye can see lie an array of neighborhoods - 88 in the city of Pittsburgh alone.

Visitors can get a quick orientation by standing in Point State Park at the tip of Downtown. Pittsburgh's neighborhoods move away from the city center in four directions: toward the North and South Side, and toward the East and West End. Both the North Side and South Side are divided further into the "flats" (lowlands) and the "slopes" (hillside).

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