This program is part of WQED Pittsburgh History Series.

You know, Pittsburgh's blessed because we still have neighborhoods.

Pittsburgh has very nice neighborhoods.

To me, the neighborhoods are one of the most fascinating parts of the city of Pittsburgh.

Oh, you know, you often hear that Pittsburgh is a city of wonderful neighborhoods.

The great thing about Pittsburgh is people are willing to stay put.

Pittsburgh, you know, has a lot of places where people stay and stay and stay for generations.

I think that makes a good neighborhood.

Once you grow up here sometimes you just can't leave.

Well, we thought it might be interesting to wande around southwestern Pennsylvania looking at just a few places.

And not just city neighborhoods, but suburbs and surrounding towns too, although obviously we couldn't cover them all in an hour.

But we hope to consider some of the factors that make our communities special.

What makes a neighborhood are your neighbors?

I thin what makes a neighborhood work is how people are forced to interact with each other.

It's the people in it.

It's that's what makes it great.

Okay.

You have to have the people.

Then you got your churches, schools and your library.

It's the it's the mix.

And mingle.

It's the energy.

It's the familiar faces.

For me in Pittsburgh, it has a lot to do with sidewalks and front porches.

Well there's geographical boundaries.

I guess just a really heartfelt community spirit.

Some kind of distinctive, sometimes ethnic flavor of some kinds.

Some something distinctive about the neighborhood.

And I would say it's that feeling of connectedness and the feeling of we and being other centered.

When I first moved to Pittsburgh, I heard this term nebby, and I understood it was it was about being up in your neighbors business.

And really, I think that's what being a neighbor is.

Now it's changed a little bit.

You get new neighbors in and they go.

They don't stay like they did, but there's still a lot of old time neighbors here.

Well we decided to call this program.

It's the neighborhoods and the suburbs and the small cities and towns and all the surrounding hills and valleys that really make Pittsburgh.

Although that's an awfully long title, and we usually just shorten it to it's the neighborhoods.

But we thought we'd look at the history and the traditions and the unusual aspects of a few places around here.

We apologize if we don't get to your neighborhood, but we hope you'll watch anyway because you never know.

You may see one of you neighbors in a show like this, and these people take very good care of each other, and that's what it's all about.

And Pittsburgh, I think, is unique that way.

We have these little pockets of people that just love where they're at.

I'd never moved.

I just love it here.

Major funding for Its The Neighborhoods was provided by the Buhl Foundation serving Southwestern Pennsylvania since 1927.

Additional funding was provided by National City, with more branches in Pittsburgh neighborhoods than any other bank.

Okay, let's start in Bloomfield.

It's an old neighborhood to the east of downtown, on a plateau of sorts.

A bit of high, mostly level ground.

The main street through Bloomfield is Liberty Avenue.

This is one of those neighborhoods is still holding up.

We still have a lot of local businesses.

We have everything in this neighborhood.

Glass blowers, doctors, w have a little bit of everything.

Restaurant, restaurant, restaurant, a lot of beautiful restaurants.

It's a neighborhood.

Very rich in Italian tradition.

We have two beautiful churches, or Saint Joseph, which originally was a German church.

They actually the Germans settled here before the Italians.

Don't tell him I said that.

It was first a German Community.

And then it became an Italian And its been Italian since.

I never seen Bloomfield close off before.

Because I used to work at West Penn Hospital.

It's Italian day.

It's the third year of Italian Day.

It started out as a real Italian festival.

It's grown into a big thing.

Brings everybody together.

This way, people know what Bloomfield is all about.

There's no other better place to watch a Columbus Day parade than in Bloomfield.

The parade was marvelous.

It was wonderful.

It had a lot of, bands and floats, Italian floats.

And we had high school bands in the old floats, in the old boats that Christopher Columbus come over on.

And, Christopher Columbus discovered America, and he's our.

He's our man, so to speak.

It's not Columbus Day yet, but they wanted to incorporate it with the Little Italy.

We celebrate Columbus Day every day.

We had a combination of everything high schools, Italian singing.

I mean, it was amazing It was a two hours of a parade.

I was just one after another and dancing.

We even have people no Jamaican, like, Hawaiian dancers and would, Oh my God.

Naturally, you know, all the politicians are here, which is very important.

You know, it was just great.

We had everybody in that in that parade.

Everybody.

The Irish.

We even let the Irish in, you know what I mean?

If you want to get a good dose of Italian, this is the place to be.

And, Gina, My sister asked me to come down here because we're playing bocce ball.

My friends are playing bocce, so I'm here to cheer them up.

They have teams and they play with, you know, different teams and season.

You know, years ago, they used to do it for wine.

I come down to get Bruno's autograph.

He's a hero of mine.

Well, Bruno's, Bruno is a prett good friend of mine, and, he's he's here today, and he's, signing autograph for the people, and it was free the food on the avenue.

I mean, I get I get fatter just looking at it.

It's just terrific.

I'm right now making some Italian funnel cakes.

It's not, like what my mom would cook, but it's almost.

Look at that picture of him.

He even got black hair.

During the whole year.

I taste everybody's food right now.

I gotta, I gotta I gotta eat my sister's sausage because you'll get mad at me if I don't.

My sister Teresa.

We have to feed you.

We have to feed you.

You know, if you eat, we like you.

If you don't eat, we don't like you.

That's simple.

Keep it festive.

Keep it light.

Keep everybody happy.

I need this to get back in touch.

I was born and raised here, and I'm 80, 79 years old.

That' how long I'm here in Bloomfield.

I've been here 80 years.

But it was to me a wonderful thing growing up in Bloomfield.

The Italian, the Italian stores, the ethnic background, it was always something had made me.

I didn't leave, Im her on Taylor Street in Bloomfield So yes, I was from the lower part of Bloomfield and, I worked hard all my life, and now I got a piece of the pie.

You know, I got a piece of the American pie.

You know, today, everybody is Italian We were born in Santa Lizaveta, Sicily, and, my father was here first and called the family so we could have a better future.

And thi is where we've been since 1965.

I've been here since 1930.

I came from Italy.

This is my hometown And this is my place.

I'm going to die.

Hopefully, it brings us closer together.

Today I saw face I haven't seen for a long time.

New and old.

And you got to have these things.

So people come out o their homes, they see neighbors.

I mean, I've, I've seen guys here.

I see, you know, 40 years ago I went to school with and we also went to school together.

We all went to all went to school.

Andrew, Bolsnair, Arsenal, and Schenley We can tell you a lot about Bloomfield.

I think that neighborhoods need more of this to bring each other together.

It's a potluck of every nation here.

It's like a stew of nation.

And that' what makes Bloomfield special.

Well, that sense that your neighborhood is special may be a crucial part of its success.

One afternoon w went to talk about neighborhoods with Alan Irvin, who teaches urban sociology at Pitt.

When we think of cities, we think of, you know, the big map but looking down from on high.

But when we actually experience them, we're not doing that.

We experience it at ground level, you know, bits and pieces of the city.

And a neighborhood that really works, that really comes together.

It's one where there is some central tie.

It's more than just a group of houses, but there's something that ties it together, gives it a particular feel that this piece of the city is different from all others.

Of course, one of the big things we have here in Pittsburgh is most of our neighborhoods have a central business district, a street that runs through where there's stores and there's a bakery, the library, the bookstore, whatever that are.

The central piece in the neighborhood is structured around it.

So where does our friendly neigh Well, I live in Squirrel Hills and I love it.

And one of the things I love about it is the fact that it is neighborhood where you can walk.

There's so much going on.

And most days Alan walks with his daughter.

Every morning we walk to the bus stop and every afternoon we walk home.

To some extent, every city is a city of of neighborhoods, but Pittsburg is definitely somewhat unique.

In particular, the stability of the neighborhoods.

Bloomfield has been the Italian and German neighborhood since it was created.

Polish Hill has been Polish Squirrel Hill has been a major Jewish neighborhood since the 20s and 30s.

So we're an older manufacturing cit and manufacturing is declining.

So it's not pulling in the ways of immigrants it did 100 years ago.

So yeah, there's not a whole lot of new groups coming in to displace people.

So people stay put.

Well, even if we stay put, we often have to deal with the geography and topography of western Pennsylvania.

On many mornings in Squirrel Hill, you may see this guy, Bob Regan, leaving the neighborhood on his bike.

He's written a book titled The Steps of Pittsburgh.

Using some information he gathered as a computer map maker.

He offered to show us some favorite city steps.

First in Oakland, just off Bates Street.

Many of these old stairs have been around so long they're officially city streets.

Well, Frazier Street, which is these steps and it's a legal street.

It's one of the busiest, steps in South Oakland.

And it comes to an intersection with Romeo Street.

Here is Romeo Street coming down.

So you're standing at the intersection of two legal street that are both flights of steps.

And one way you can tell they'r streets is by the street sign.

There's 400 sets of steps in Pittsburgh that are legal streets.

When I started this, the city did not know where all the steps were.

Now, I say that that there was no formal mapping or database contained all the steps.

In each of the six public works divisions, There was undoubtedly an old timer that knew where the steps were, because they salt them in the winter.

They do cut them in the summer, but they didn't know where they all were.

And so when we finished it and I did the mapping in a computer program we gave the city that data set.

No one can really agree on the number of neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, but let's say there are 92.

66 have steps in them.

In the early days, the prime land for industry in the mills was on the low land along the river edge, and the people lived up on the hillsides.

And the steps were in fac the city's first transit system.

And so you really, feel a sense of history?

I think when you're walking in this, there are 712 different sets of steps.

The longest set of steps is Ray Avenue in Brookline, and it's 376 steps.

Well over on the north side.

Bob took us to Homer Street t see these Diana Street stairs.

I think Diana Street intrigues me, because if you look at any road map of Pittsburgh, it shows Diana Street intersecting Homer Street, which it does.

It's just that these flights of steps are Diana Street, which is far more conventional.

When you get to the top.

While we were there, we met Joy Wolfe, who uses the steps.

I love them, I walk them every day.

I get to the stor every day I come down the steps and I walk back up and steps.

Theyre my steps.

The only bad thing, the hillsides falling down.

So you've really got to watch, you know.

Saving the steps may be helped by civic groups in the neighborhoods with steps Over on the south side slopes, Beverly Bojio is presiden of the Neighborhood association.

We have the highest concentration of city steps in the entire city.

And, you know, they were buil mostly before there were cars.

So a lot of the streets are very, very narrow.

And that was the way that folk got to work, and to the store.

That part of the slopes, thats the slopes.

Like I say, my grandfather, he was 90 Sometimes I couldn' catch him coming up these steps.

And one Sunday every year you know, the South Side Slopes neighborhood Association has Steptreck It's not an athletic event.

I mean, it's a good, healthy walk.

I call it a vertical party, a celebration of the steps.

If you want to see the optional course.

That's right You want to go up to the right.

Joe Balaban is vice presiden of the neighborhood association.

What we do is we take what is like a maze.

All these steps just lea different places on their own.

You could never make sense of it.

What we do at the Steptrek Is we connect the dots, if you will.

We do both routes.

They have a black route and gold route, and we do them both.

We try and mix sidewalks and streets with the steps.

So it's not a torturous climb, but but usually it takes about a hour for everybody to complete one side of the course or the other.

But this is this event is an invitation to get up into the hillside and negotiate and go places.

Maybe you wouldn' even want to go.

You wouldn't.

You didn't know if it lead anywhere or if it was safe.

But the fact is, it's a very safe neighborhood.

It's a good neighborhood.

Its a chanc to get out in the air and to see Pittsburgh from another angl and just to have a great time.

While the kids like it, it's the second year.

It's Avas second year, and she's two.

We do it because it's fun.

We get to see neighborhoods.

I've always wanted to see the slopes, and I've never gotten to do it before.

Well, it's good exercise because I don't get as much as I should, so I dig it.

Plus, it's nice seeing, you know, all the different parts of both the flats and the slopes.

And can you imagine having been a person who was a worker down in a mill down there?

And every single day you pack up your bag and down the steps you go.

And then at the end of the day, when you're worn out completely and you've got to come up, Used to walk down sometimes walk up for lunch.

But I could get on and steps running, pulled on to the bar to actually slide down.

I could be down there in 4 or 5 minutes I'd be at the bottom.

Now you get a good vie and you can see all the way to Squirrel Hill Tunnel from here.

There are great views everywhere, but sometimes they're tucked behind houses.

But if you go up on this sid of the staircase where it gets really high, it's probably the best view of the city that there is.

Every town is trying to differentiate itself, something unique something to attract tourists.

At the same time, there's a move by many municipalities to try and preserve sources of cultural heritage.

Well, Pittsburgh two for one special with the steps.

And they'r they're a rich cultural history.

Oh neighborhoods do often want to show off.

And many organize house tours every year, including Lawrenceville where Kitty.

Julian is on the hospitality House tour committee.

What we're doing is opening up 13 houses in the neighborhood that, the resident have offered to put on the tour so that anyone who comes on the tour can be nebby and peek around and get excited about the possibility of living in Lawrenceville.

Our first stop was on Main Street at the Kimberly and Hartlidge house.

That's Ben and Francine's house, and Ben and Francine has been working really hard to take out the layers of paneling and drop ceilings and other stuff that owners put in to reveal the the bones of the house.

There was a lot of potential because of the architectural details and the height of the ceilings, and everything was very, poor man's elegant kind of a place.

We've cleaned and renovate every room, painted every room.

Refinished all the floors.

In many ways, I think that we love the house now because we've done everything we possibly could to make it our own.

We're pretty sure it was built in the 1890s.

We have pictures on display today.

We have pictures from before, from right before we bought the house, and then we have pictures fro during the renovation projects.

And then the after obviously is you're there, you're in the room.

It's obviously a lot of work to get ready for the public parading through your house.

Why would you do it?

For me personally, I hear a lot of people in other neighborhoods say, oh, Lawrenceville.

It's horrible down there, and they've never been here, and they don't realize how beautiful it is here.

So part of me wants to really put that out there and let people know that this is a really nice place.

Well, our next stop was o Carnegie Street at the not yet fixed up Greek Revival mansion that used to be the Slovenian club for many years.

Keith Cochran, who's playing Stephen Foster music on his accordion with flutist Rachel Rue, is an architect who plans to put his office in this building.

It's a house that was built in 1830 for, Doctor Maurey.

Most of the house in Lawrenceville are Victorian, which means there was, you know, much more, lavish detail.

This house is very simple.

The detail here is very simple.

The center hall of this house is reminiscent of Monticello.

It has a it has a decorated arch with these carved oak leaves and acorns and a key stone motif, sort of in the center, out of carved wood.

Visitors can wander throughout the house, including up the narrow steps to the third floor.

Keith has obvious affection for the place.

This is one of the typical rooms on the second floor, and, it's just an example of the size of these rooms.

The the height of the ceiling, the, size of the windows, which allo so much light to come in here.

Some of the more interesting details here are these six over two, wood paneled doors.

These are the original doors from 1830.

Oh, there's too much for just one day, but we have to se what everybody was talking about at the home of Jason and Darian Lewandowski on Fisk Street.

The entire house is open.

So, you know, any anywhere.

You're welcome to probably the the the dining room, I would think in the pool room are the big ones.

My office yes is pretty nice.

Everybody who came in that I talked to you said something about it being open.

You know, the fact that it was a big open space.

So, And everyone said something about the banister, and even though we don't have the stairs finished you know, it's still carpeted.

But people really comment about the banister, which is all original.

This house was built in 1856.

So the history of the place really intrigued me.

Darian and Jason moved to Pittsburgh in 2002 and lived in an apartment just up the street.

Howd they luck into this place?

I used to walk by this house all the time, and I would look up a the windows and the architecture and just say, God, I love that house.

So, one day I knocked on the door and I just said, you know, I love your house.

My husband and I are in th market, you know, and he said, you're not going to believe this, but my mother and I just decided to sell the house last night, and that's how we found it.

And now the whole neighborhood is happy to see the place open for the tour.

You know, we're doing our best to try to try to network and meet the people in the neighborhood and, and, get some new friends.

I like to joke that Lawrenceville isnt really a neighborhood.

It's really a cult.

We absolutely love it.

Yeah, it's a great community to live in.

We have a lot of empty housing stock in this neighborhood.

Lots of gorgeous old houses that are empty.

Come and be our neighbors.

We'd love to have them.

Of course, you know, people around Pittsburgh often develop affection for the houses around them.

Maggie Oberst invited u to come and see where she lives.

I've been walking this neighborhood for years, with my kids.

Now that my two oldest daughters are in school.

I mostly walk with Liam now and lately, he mostly walks me.

He doesn't like to sit in a stroller too much.

This neighborhood is in the city.

And what you might call the near North Hills, right by Riverview Park, also home to the Alleghen Observatory that lends its name to this part of town.

It's Observatory Hill.

I mean, like, it's a hilly little area.

And, it seems like there' so many of those neighborhoods in Pittsburgh that are carved out of hillsides and, it's a really cool neighborhood because it's it's has a lot of diversity in the architecture.

And the types of people that live here.

There's some really interesting people here.

Often the walk will take Maggie and Liam out to Perryville Avenue, past the houses known as Judges Row.

I guess there was, either one or several judges that used to live there.

And the houses are just huge, huge mansions, and they're in various stages of renovation.

Well, Maggie and her famil have renovated their house too right on Marshall Avenue.

My husband, renovates houses sort of as a side job.

He works with theaters, and he actually bought our house to, resell.

And I helped him clean it out.

And then after I put so much effort into it I'm like, don't sell this house.

I really want to live here.

It's a really cool plac to to live and raise a family.

We're going to sit right over here.

Yeah, well, since then, Maggie has learned a lot about the history of her house, from Tom Snaymen, who used to live down the street.

And he's been coming by, several times a year for the last ten years to just kind of check and se how we're doing with everything.

And you have a double lot here, and you're probably the only one in Marshall Field that has a double lot.

You are one and two.

And, these are pictures of your house, and they were taken somewhere within the period, I would say, 1945 to 1950.

And this was the Upper North Side.

Many people referred to it as Nob Hill.

They never referred to it.

Observatory Hill, that's a new name within, I'd say the past 30 years.

40 years.

Well, whatever you call it, it seems to be the kind of neighborhood Pittsburghers appreciate.

The secret to me is that there is just such a great variety of houses.

There's a lot of green space, there's a lot of curves and hills and flowers.

I mean, who wouldn't like it, Oh, folks in western Pennsylvania have learned to like a wide variety of styles of neighborhoods.

In Westmoreland County on a hill above New Kensington, there's an odd collection of what you might call suburban row houses.

These buildings are known as Aluminum City Terrace or affectionately, just the Terrace.

There are 250 apartments up here in the association.

If you notice the way this is laid out, it's, it's on a sort of like a peninsula of land.

You come in one direction, you can leave the other direction, but it's kind of isolated.

It's a row of apartments, eight apartments or six apartments.

And, they all look alike.

We all look alike.

But everybody's different on the inside.

The buildings help the way they are.

There's a closeness, but they're a part.

But they're close.

There's a community here.

We moved in here in 1942.

My parents moved in here like I was three months, four months old.

And that was in 1943.

I was born right here in the terrace in number 60, about five houses dow from the one I'm in right now.

We moved in here in 1957.

I moved in with my parents.

My parents moved up here in 1959, June of 59.

My grandmother lived here till the day she died.

I lived here probably 15 out of my 16 years.

We're kind of our own little world up here.

We have a board of directors, which meets once a month, and we go over all the business of the association and what problems are going on and how to take care of them, and what improvements we want to do.

The basic structures of Aluminum City Terrace were designed by tw very important German architects from the Bauhaus school, Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer.

In 1941 they laid out the 31 buildings of this experiment in moder living as part of a huge federal government housing project During World War Two.

Workers at the nearby Alcoa plant and other defense industries needed cheap, convenient places to live, but he designed it in such a way that you get as far as the winter time.

You get the maximum heat, in the summertime, you got the maximum shade way.

He rotated all the buildings around here.

At first, many local people hated the building designs, calling them chicken coops, but then the people who moved in loved them and they became phenomenally popular.

So after the war, by 1948, they were going to go on a process of ripping this place down and revert back the government.

So a bunch of people got together up here, and what they did was purchase this place so it became a co-op.

It was an innovative arrangement that seemed to make families happy.

Residents became members who pay a monthly fee that covers gas and water and taxes and all the collective bills of the community.

The upkeep, everything's, you know, don by the maintenance department.

No charge to the member to have anything fixed.

It's kind of interesting that you have a home, but you have somebody who comes in and fixes appliances for you, so to speak.

And the the price of the rent is so cheap that they can't live cheaper anywhere.

The low cost of living here means that there's always been a long list of people waiting to get in to this unexpectedly charming neighborhood.

And it's the best of both worlds, living in a city and living in the country.

I mean, if you don't want to live in the city, just turn around, go out the other door and you're in the country.

It's open.

You're not confined to a little space, even though it might look like that, because your house is right next to one another.

It's not like that.

You know you have room to roam here.

But there's long been some confusion about which is the front and which is the back of these buildings.

Okay.

This is actually the front of the of the building, with the backyard being on the other side.

This is the back.

It's the back, but it's more like the front.

I consider this being the backyard facing the woods while my front yard is, you know, on the othe side.

To the back, the backyard.

So that's it's your back.

And, everybody, most everybody uses back doors.

We love it here.

It's a real sense of community, of belonging.

Well, we live in a great row where we have a lot of friends and neighbors.

I mean, I've come to our aid at a moment's notice.

My my next door neighbors, they heard me, the night that my father had a heart attack, heard me jump down the steps.

I didn't even get to their house.

They were already out the back door.

I saw, Mr.

Kotarski coming out the front door, not the back door to help.

And, that's 4:00 in the morning.

It was pretty good, you know?

You know, it sounds like a cliche, but that's.

It is.

I mean, it's jus a wonderful place to be.

Quiet.

You know, you're your own little city up here.

It's it's a it' a great neighborhood to live in.

Well, the careful planning of a neighborhood is not a forgotten art.

We asked real estate developer Mark Schneider, who's president of the Rubinoff Company, to talk to us abou the beautiful little community that's been such a success on the island now called Washington's Landing.

Of course, it used to be called Herrs Island.

The first time I came over here.

If you if you recall from the histor books, this the back end was a rendering plant where they took the nasty byproducts of meat processing, and they burnt them into bone meal and a fly as dump, the city's garbage dump, and in the center with the old stockyard.

So it was really very heavily industrial, had a lot of rail on it and a lot of old infrastructure.

And, anyway, the idea was to really take advantage of all of the water, the exposure to the water that this island had and to try to build on it an to create a mixed use place.

So.

So they did it.

The Rubinoff folks, along with public and private partners, figured out ways to solv the problems of this old island.

And they created a new neighborhood in the process.

To me, I mean, there's lots of different types of communities, and people define communities and neighborhoods in different ways.

To me, connectivit is that you have the ability to meet your neighbors if you want to, and yet you have privacy if you want to.

And it has great public places like the overlooks on the park here where you can gather and enjoy the views.

And it has, the right feel to it has the right detail, and it's going to appreciate in value and you have some sense of long term ownership and tha it's going to be here forever.

I think what's funny is people think this was always here.

After proving that they could convert a wretched place into something nice and attractive, the Rubinoff Company and its cohorts got involved with the planning and building of a bigger new neighborhood on the edge of Squirrel Hill.

It's called Somerset at Frick Park and Somerset, actually, somebody, from Agnew Moore Smith found out that the original settlement in Squirrel Hill was called Somerset, spelled that way.

And so we thought that this is kind of back to the future.

So we we kind of stole that from the history books.

It didn't come out of some focus group.

It's a it's a real thing.

Well, this real thing i situated on acres of usable land created with three feet of topsoil, placed over a mountain of old steelmaking residue that most people thought would never be good for anything.

Well, most people in Pittsburgh remember it as that moonscape that they saw before they went through the Squirrel Hill tunnels.

But essentially it's, you know, the one of the world's largest slag piles.

It's about 200ft.

They started dumping slag in the in the Nine Mile Run Valley in 1920 and stopped in 1980.

And again working using the development project kind of to drive the resolution of a lot of issues.

The mayor and the URA working with us.

Got it going, kind of taking the best of Pittsburgh neighborhood and taking the best technology in house and and bringing them together and having a real mix of types, not just townhomes like Washington's Landing, but cottages and, estates.

We have a rental unit above a garage.

We've reintroduced the granny flat.

So a lot of things that that that made Pittsburgh, neighborhoods unique, you'll find here at Somerset with kind of the latest technology houses and the latest floor plans, lots of porches, very pedestrian order, great public spaces.

You know, people are coming from around the world.

I mean, the Princ Andu who came up here and just fell in love with it.

And it's getting bigger.

The second hundred houses are being built with a total of 700 new homes expected before it's done.

It does, however, seem so new and clean and perfect, but it's a bit like a movie set.

My aunt comes up here who you know, I lived with in Point Breeze and she now lives in Oakmont, and she has a sense of, I think what makes great places and great communities.

And she says, I don't like this.

It looks like The Truman Show.

I'm like, come on.

Like, it can't be nice if it's Pittsburgh, right?

Oh, when it comes to Pittsburgh neighborhoods, there are some nice ones, including Regent Square.

Regent square is like Wilkinsburg and Pittsburgh and Edgewood and Swissvale, so it's a little bit different.

But on the other hand, it's it is a neighborhoo and it's right next to the park.

Its kind of an old fashioned neighborhood with older homes, so they're all different.

So it's like that little cookie cutter thing.

Well, I think one of the things that makes Region Square Neighborhood is it was built in 1910.

There are porches there are sidewalks and there are alleys.

There's something left in this neighborhood that isn't lef that I can't find anywhere else.

Learned about it by accident.

We moved in 30 years ago.

And, and found no reason to leave.

I've lived here since 1946, so, there it.

The brick streets make it special too.

It's not just the sidewalks, it's the people sitting out.

It's the people being in your business.

It's the people calling me when I'm in Florida saying, hey, you're upstairs, windows open.

Do you want me to go in because it might rain.

We bought a house here in 89.

We outgrew that house and I wanted to stay in the neighborhood.

So I went around and tal to everybody about a big house.

Julie grew up in this house.

We've been in this neighborhood for, what, 30 years?

We have a bakery three blocks away and a movie theater three blocks away.

And I used both dry cleaner and I've used them for 15 years.

I've used a pizza place.

The great warning from the wise people who lived here a lot longer than us has never moved.

But once a year, usually in late August, there's lots of movement in Regent Square when the neighborhood becomes the site of a race.

The run around the square?

More probably around the square and down into Frick Park.

For several years now, Michelle McGary, who's a teacher in the Pittsburgh schools, has been coordinating what she calls a neighborhood extravaganza.

I love Regent Square.

I've moved in her 14 years ago, and, it says it's someplace special on this shirt and it is someplace special.

And the people are special.

We have over 200 volunteers that come out from this neighborhood.

Can you hear me in the back?

All my neighbors that live on Richmond get forced into helping.

We have Captain Kirk but I used to just run the race.

But then I enjoyed the race so muc that I got involved and became, I've been doing work in about 12 years with the race now.

The first race is a 1.5 mile fun run, and this is a run and a walk.

I was racing a little bit.

It's mainly for the kids.

I'm a really fast racer.

We also in that race have the dogs and people love to walk their dogs.

They don't run.

We have friendly on leash walking dogs, lots of musicians along the way.

And it's for those of u who arent great runners, it's, a good way to make it through.

On this day, I play guitar for the for the runners and the, the walkers and the dogs.

Well, Charlie, my dog and I, we both walked in a mile and a half race.

We didnt win the race.

We came in towards the end, bu we had a good time in the race.

And we actually made it to the finish line.

I'm going to take pictures of all the kids going by in the one miler.

And so I have to think of kinds of musi that sort of moves them along.

And then, we're going to drop the camera and go up to the, the big people race.

The second race is a 5K, 3.1 miles, and that is the more competitive race.

And usually we have numbers up around, 1000. for that, plus.

On your mark, set, run!

The first miles through the streets of Regent Square pretty flat.

Then the second mile is up and I mean up, up, up, up into, Frick Park and Fern hollow.

And then the third now is directly downhill.

It's a tough course.

It used to go right in front of my house.

It doesn't anymore.

We actually live in the north hills of Pittsburgh.

But this is one of the best races in the city.

And so we like to come out for.

I'm from, Beech Bottom, West Virginia.

I'm from the Hill district.

I just love running.

I found this high school, you know, I grew up in the North Hills area of Pittsburgh, but then I was out of the state for a while.

And when I came back I ran this race and I thought, this is a neighborhood I want to live in.

Everyone's cheering, even though if they don't kno you, they cheer, which is nice.

Absolutely.

The cobblestone bricks.

And that's where they come in, through the woods down to the beer.

Get out here early.

It's a good reason to have a beer before 10:00 in the morning, so that's a good thing.

The people that run this race say that we're one of the few races in the area that have a beer stand.

You got to be of age to have some, but we're glad to give it to you.

My time.

It was about 1920 or so.

First place in a 55 to 60 age group.

Same as last year.

Yeah, 25 minutes.

And this is not first.

It's second when it's 60 and over.

I'm very proud of it.

And I'm not goin to get more specific than that.

Well it's a way of bringing folks together.

You see your neighbors a couple of three times a year, but in this environment everybody's social, everybody's sweaty.

I think it, it just reinforces that Pittsburgh feeling is made up of a lot of small communities and, oh, I love this neighborhood.

I wouldn't mind living here at all.

I can't get Art out of Monroeville.

I've run races for about 30 years.

And this even though it's my neighborhood, it is also the most neighborhood like race I've ever run in.

And because it's it's where we live and we love it, I love it.

I love Regent Square.

Heres to the Square!

And some streets have their block parties.

Today Richmond Street is going to have their block party.

And we say Richmond, Richmond Rocks.

This is the annual, I'm not sure what we call it anymore.

We have, kids games and, then we transition into eating, which is always a good thing.

I think we started years ago with a table or two here and invited some next doo neighbors, and then others came by and said, what are you doing?

And we said, well, we don't know.

Or we've got a keg of beer here and we have food.

Join us.

And then and now we're to the point where we pass out fliers and, it's a scheduled time and we have games, so the kids look forward to it.

We play volleyball and, everybody just kind of gets together and meets one another.

And, there's always new faces.

And I just met, a perso across the street who moved here two weeks ag and met him and his four kids.

And, you know, we talked and he walked in and said, I feel so lucky to b in this neighborhood, you know?

And I said, you know, glad to have you, you know, that we have more kids for the sack race, but, you know, and so I think immediately, that gives you a sense.

So this is a cool place to live.

But, you know, there are lots of factors that contribute to the coolness of a place.

Many morning in the neighborhood of Homewood, you may see Denise Graham reading on her way to work.

She's the manager of the Homewood branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

The library is kind of the heart of a neighborhood.

This is this is the meetin place everybody comes and meets.

They come to return their books, and there's conversation over the desk, I loved it.

I come here, I get books, I get tapes, I get DVDs.

This is a wonderful place to be, a wonderful place to work.

I come here every day, every single day that its open.

I was born and raised in this neighborhood, and I came here as a child.

Just a lot of fun.

That's that's what I can remember about coming here.

I never thought that I'd ever work here.

This is my home library.

I grew up in Homewood about 5 or 6 blocks from here, so this was my library.

I was so excited when I could finally print my name on that application to get my library card.

I come because I like the librarians and I like the people.

I like how they remodeled it.

Originally built in 1910, this library did undergo a major renovation in 2003, and a few things changed.

When you come in the front door, there was a massive front desk.

The previous manager called it the battleship.

They cut the battleship in half.

Half of it now is our customer service desk.

And the other half you can notice the woo is the computer cafe over here.

The wood That was what jumped out at me.

The woodwork everywhere.

It was just like glowing.

You know, most of it' the old with the new same wood.

94 years old.

Oh, it's beautiful.

Yes, it's 200% better than what it was before.

And Denise offered to give us a tour starting up on the second floor.

This was the ballroom.

Now it's a meeting room.

There are so many groups, an I don't mean just from Homewood.

Outside groups that come.

The chess club, the jazz workshop, the Caribbean Book Club, the Holy Rosary School.

Bring their students here.

This was the caretaker's apartment, in here was the living room.

You'll notice we have the room set up as a computer lab, but we're lacking computers.

We're hoping to get grant money to fill these desks.

Back here was still apartment space.

You come in and you respect the building.

You respect the people that make, you know, the whole environment.

This is.

This was the caretakers dining room.

Now it's a staff lounge.

We come up here and have our breaks or have lunch through here is the kitchen.

You have to notice the woodwork in this kitchen.

You don't get workmanship like this anymore.

The last caretaker lived here until 1980.

I think it would be great to be right here on the job.

All you do is go upstairs, have your lunch.

Come on, back down.

Take care What you have to take care of.

Building is all yours.

I've also had people tell me that if we ever get rid of thes oak tables to give them a call.

You know, when I was a customer rather than the librarian.

Story hour was in the corner here.

Now is where we kee our children's videos and audio cassettes.

But this is where the librarian told stories.

I love this building.

Oh, lots of people, including Fred Rogers, have had an affection for this place.

This Homewood branch was featured several times as the neighborhood library in that great Pittsburgh locality known as Mister Rogers Neighborhood.

When Mister Rogers came here, the massive front desk was still here, and Joyce Broaddu was the librarian who dubbed it the battleship.

You two.

Hello, Mrs.

Broaddus, Mr.

Rogers, I'd like you know, my television neighbor.

Hello.

Mrs.

Joyce Broaddus.

Hello.

What?

He said, Mister Rogers Neighborhood,this is the neighborhood library?

Whoa.

This was the last library Andrew Carnegie built for the city of Pittsburgh.

And he lived in Homewood and had really good memories of Homewood.

And this was this was the largest.

He spent the most money on this building during the day with the adults.

It's a more quiet time.

They can work on the computers, they can study when the kids come in.

You know how kids are.

They burst through the door.

We're here.

You know, we're in the lower level of the library.

Down here is the piece de resistance to the renovation.

Let me turn the lights on.

This is the auditorium.

This room is very heavily used by the community.

We're like they say, the heart of the community.

That's the way I look at it.

The peopl like what the library has done, what they've done for the community.

And they're respondin by coming back to the library.

Thank you.

It's a good place to to hang out.

And actually a good place to hang out can be very important.

Smells good.

In Highland Park right on North Highland Avenue Amy Enrico opened a new place in 1999.

The place is called Enrico's Tazza d'Oro.

And in Italian Tazza d'Oro means cup of gold.

This is the gathering place for Highland Park.

Anybody would tell you that whose around here.

You see all your neighbor from the neighborhood in here, and you get to know them and you know, all different walks of life.

And it's just a nice, comfortable place.

I love the people here.

Met Amy when it was first opening.

Just driving by.

I come up when I'm in town, probably about every day.

I like the fact that it's small.

I like the people that work here.

And I love the Americanos.

Well, I love coffee, an I grew up in a small business.

My family owns a bakery in Jeanette, Enricos Bakery.

The coffee is delicious.

I mean, I've gotten so used to this coffee.

I don't even like to drink coffee at my own house.

I would put our coffee u against any coffee in the city.

I get the Highland Park decaf which sounds very uninteresting.

We use a small roaster in Olympia, Washington.

It's got a tiny little buzz, but not enough to make your night insane.

They roast in small batches.

They roast one day, we get it the next day.

So it's a 24 hour shipment, so it's fresh all the time.

First of all, I think we're all big snobs about it now, which is which is good because now we know what we want.

When we first started, we weren't the typical coffeehouse because we decided to serve food.

People come from all around to to have coffee and whatever little pastries that they have to sell.

The amount of pastries that we go through is pretty phenomenal.

But I think our sandwiches are terrific.

We use a lot of imported meats and cheeses and panini breads and the salads and the homemade soups.

I think the staff is pretty good too, but I might be biased.

And I also think it's about my employees that work here.

They're passionate about what they do and they love what they do.

It's funny if we if any of us have a day off or two, people are like, whered Petunia go, she's not here anymore?

And they're like, I'm lik no, she just gets the day off.

You know, people get a day off every once in a while.

I've gotten a lot of business from coming in here, I've gotten a lot of business from coming in here, as you see.

I come in and people say, what do you do?

I say, well, I paint and they say, well, do you have a car?

And I go, sure, I have a car.

And this place is, it's been wonderful.

I think our product is community.

Our product is connection.

Human connection.

You get a lot of good gossip down here, too.

Which is nice.

I come here, I meet girlfriend for lunch.

I never used to do that.

And it's a great plac to come and talk about proposals and do some sketches and things like that.

You know, you got to have places, a communal plac where people can get together.

And, you know, this i definitely one of those places.

Even we workers come here on our days off and hang out and drink coffee and sit here and talk to customers.

And it's just like a home away from home.

It has changed the whole complexion of the neighborhood and made so many things, made it a much warmer and intimate place where where friends gather, neighbors gather.

It's a big anchor for the neighborhood.

It's it's become a big thing.

Bigger than I can take credit for.

I think I'm an enriched because of the place, but I do have a place that I can come.

I think this place has reall brought the neighborhood around.

I don't know what it is.

It's Amy's put together a beautiful thing.

And, you know, beautiful things can be crucial factor in the makeup of a neighborhood.

Look at the beautiful Immaculate Heart of Mary church that sits in the middle of Father Raymond Colewikis neighborhood.

There were signs up all ove when you were coming into this area saying the “Witamy na polskiej gorce” We welcome you to Polish Hill.

Father Colewiki was born in this neighborhood an has officially retired here now, but he still helps out at the church where another priest, Father Joseph Warskinsky is now pastor here on Polish Hill.

People like it here because of the fact it's not only Polish but it's also close to the city, to their work and all.

That's what makes i a popular place for that regard.

Well, when I was a kid, this was called Herron Hill.

The name was change a number of years ago by my predecessor here.

He had that.

He asked the city to change it, to name it, Polish Hill.

Where most people would be of German, Polish background.

Probably 99.99% were Catholic.

And now it's it's quite a few Polish people here yet, but it's it's a very mixe neighborhood now, as a lot of, you know, other ethnic groups in here as well.

People would speak to you in Polish or in Germa and everybody in this district knew what they were talking about.

You know, a lot of the people because they're simple, honest, church loving people.

That's what I like about this neighborhood.

The best through their church means a lot to them.

Every Sunday I say mass in Polish for the people who still want to be able to have that connection, ethnic connection.

They came from Poland, where you had magnificent big churches, and their idea was to d the same thing in this country.

They built it with pennies and quarters.

They would work in the mill eight hours and come here and work here at the church to get it built.

People take pride in the church.

Nothing is too good for God's house.

When I had the opportunity to be able to say mass in the in the language of my forefathers, I just said that I was blessed by God to be able to do it.

For holiday, We had people that moved out of here.

They all come back for Christmas.

They all come back for Easter or something going on.

They all come back to the home church to be with their families.

The neighbors love it because again, that's continuing to be the mucilage that keeps them tied in with their parish because they remember this parish as a Polish ethnic parish.

Churches and other religious institutions obviously helped preserve the ethnic flavor of a neighborhood.

But, you know, food can do that, too.

There's a Polish deli right across the street fro the church called Alfred's Deli.

She's open on weekends, Friday through Sunday.

Everything in here in Poland, the lunch meat, the food, the candy, everything is from Poland.

Then we have Jerry's Marke right here to cross the street.

He has all kinds of food.

He's Polish too.

He belongs to the parish.

But his his is not particularly Polish.

It's a regular store.

And you can't really consider Pittsburgh neighborhoods without stopping in at leas one little neighborhood store.

So we heade for the part of McKeesport known as the 10th Ward, right at the confluence of th Mon River with the Youghiogheny Tim Zoscak grew u in this neighborhood.

Years ago, This is like it's a little community out here.

We had, before my time.

We had 13 other butcher shops like this, and we're the last one left.

Tim's family has run the store known as Zoscaks Market at the corner of Anne and Pacific since 1934.

It's something you just don't see anymore.

A little corner grocery store, a thing of the past.

I love the store.

It reminds me of where I grew up.

I've been coming down it for a while.

He has very good meat.

You know, I remember as a little boy working here, like Saturday morning when they come in for their orders.

It was all in Slovlak, you know, the the meats and others look at him like I had no idea what they were talking about.

I come six days a week, maybe over 60 years.

I guess once I was old enoug to cross the street some time.

I just like the atmosphere.

It's like nice little mom and pop store and everything is fresh and everybody is good to you.

And everybod that come to sit in here to shop are your neighbors.

They've been here for years.

I do the cash register the most, though.

That's what I like to do.

And I come here down any day.

I'm off school and Saturdays and we gather up and we help each other, like now.

I got a phone call.

She's ill.

She can't get to the store for what she needs.

She calls here.

It's on my way, so I'll pick up her paper.

So what she needs, they get their newspaper, they'll wait around.

They'll have their gab session every morning.

And the Daily News comes in about 11 to 12:00.

And a bunch of people come in around 1130 so they can buy the paper.

I have to have the daily news.

You cannot live without the Daily News.

And, my fresh bread I need bread.

My lunch meat or meat.

The biggest part of the business I think that brings people in is the meat.

I worked at AMP in a meat department, and and I guarantee you I never bought meat there.

I come for it' freshly ground over the years, I mean, I learned from my uncle, my mom, my uncle worked here.

He was he was more or less a butcher too.

And when I get ground meat and I tell him what I want, he takes it up and grinds it right in front of me so I know what I'm getting.

Peopl like the idea that they come in and it's not cotton wrapped and that that's cut fresh for them and they know it's going to last in the refrigerator if they're not going to cook it tonight.

We got ground meat.

We're going to make homemade burgers.

They're called the pub burgers for the Port View pub and homemade meatballs.

We serve meatball sandwiches.

I've worked for the city for quite a few years, and we've always stopped down here at lunchtime to grab hoagies or something.

And, the Zoscak Hoagie.

Best hoagie in town.

I mean, we make a hoagie a 12 inch Hoagie for $2.49.

They make them in the back Italian hoagie and close the pan.

I mean, I don't think there's anywhere else you could buy a hoagie that size at that price.

Made fresh by Ruth.

Because that's what everybod ask how Ruth get hired down here She's not family, but we slide one in there once in a while.

As far as I know.

You start, they start the hoagies when they open the business.

As far as I know.

I don't have any freezers, I don't I don't use anything frozen.

Like if you look around here is all coolers.

I mean, I don't want frozen meat.

I just you could get that anywhere.

So everything it's going to go into that sausage is all going to be fresh pork butt pork trimmings and pork loin Cant tell them what the secret ingredients are.

You know, he cares.

He talks to almost every customer comes in here all the time.

Yeah, it's a lot of older peopl down here.

I think rely on us.

I mean, you know, two weeks I'll be here.

71 years.

I was born on one street, married a fellow from another street, and we moved down to the third street.

My dad used to always tell him take care of the older people, because someday you're going to be old, too.

It's a nice store.

Nice little store.

You know, it's a shame that there's not a lot of these around.

There's only a few left.

But, for a little corner grocery store to survive 70 years in today's society, I thin it's a pretty wonderful thing.

I think my dad would be very proud.

It's the neighborhood.

Well, a neighborhood can feature new stuff as well as old.

And big new public art is becoming a popular way to celebrate local culture.

On this summer day, Jordan Monahan is working with his assistant Allison Zapata on a giant painting for two sides of the Novum Pharmaceutical Research Building in East Liberty.

The process is we prime it, then we grid it.

We just get to play with color.

Now, you know, that's what we what I like to do.

The coolest thing about it is the scale, the size.

Just the fact that it's so large.

This is just based on my experience.

You know, the colors convey my my feelings of this place.

His design is tremendous and also reflects the feeling and, the nature of the neighborhood of East Liberty, partly because he's lived on the cusp of East Liberty for the last yea and a half, so he knows it well, That's Morton Brown.

He's the program coordinator for this public art program sponsored by an organization called the Sprout Fund that connects artists and communities and funders for these new murals.

The Sprout fund's office is on Penn Avenue in Garfield, and Executive Directo Kathy Lewis says murals are just part of the fund's effort to help keep Pittsburgh young.

The public art program, really was sort of a natural extension of our mission, which was to improve the visual landscape of our community and to create works, in the public realm that would help to bring vitality to neighborhoods and communities.

These communities and these artists, they've been working for the last 4 or 5 months, actually, in this process and talking about what they want, talking about what they need, talking about, all different aspects of of wha could go on in this community.

Well, back in Squirrel Hill there's a new sprout Fund mural being painted on a sort of retaining wall at the back of a parking lot near the bottom of Murray Avenue We really got a really good wall, I mean, and it's a great location where people can see it from all different angles around.

So, the artist that work on that side, Leslie Ansley and Monique Luck, worked with us last year, and they're interesting because they're one of our only collaborative teams.

They split it up right down the middle.

One does the people and one does the landscapes.

They are always good with the community groups.

They had a committee, i Squirrel Hill that got together.

Did the JCC and I believe with the Squirrel Hill Coalition, we went around the neighborhood and we walked and we walked and we took pictures and we took pictures.

With my camera I can capture different things that I wouldn' have even thought about using.

So this pieces in this mura that I capture with the camera that I wasn't necessarily planning on using until we kind of looked at the pictures.

So just about everyone in the mural is someone from this neighborhood.

We had ideas of who we wanted, where, we wanted an older gentleman in that space, and we were working over here when we saw older gentleman at the BP, and Monique said, boy, he looks perfect.

Let's ask if we could take his picture.

So we took his picture at the last minute.

I guess it's like snapshots of Squirrel Hill, our interpretation of it.

In the summer of 2004, nine Sprout Fund murals are being created simultaneously In the Strip District.

Sandy Kessler Kaminsky and her assistant Kira Westfall are painting a huge T-shaped mural at the top of the Advertisers Associates Building.

That site was particularly dangerous because we're doing the top one third of a ten story building, and we have to use one of those swing stage devices.

It's kind of like one of those window washers that you've seen on the on the pulleys.

After a while, you get used to it.

You don't think much about it.

And then and in the mornings, it's just I mean, it's beautiful.

I don't I don't really have a fear of heights.

And we're pretty secure with all of the equipment.

It's wonderfu to learn this style of painting.

I've never painted anything this large before.

You can't get too big its never never too big.

I mean, my whole goa as an artist is to reach people in a positive way.

I think this one hopefully will reach not only just the strip district but the whole city of Pittsburgh, because I have.

There's people in my neighborhood that work downtown, and they can see i from their buildings, you know, and hopefully it'll entice them to come over here and maybe, you know, stand a little proude of what Pittsburgh has to offer.

At the end of the season, we dedicate the murals, and it's an opportunity to give the mural, back to the community where it's finished.

We celebrate it.

I wasn't real sure about it initially, but it really has turned out to be something that's great, and I think it's going to really enhance the community and be a focal point.

I think it's beautiful.

I think it's, very well done.

We wanted it to be used as a landmark instead of saying going to the big, giant, white, nondescript fortress on the corner, it's go to that building with a great mural, got the children on the bikes, and you've got the girl, blowing the bubbles and, the pigeons.

And it just to me, it' a reflection of the community.

I'm Valesia and thats me.

Im blowing bubbles.

I mean, there's a trickle down effect.

Obviously, as a business, we do better with the neighborhood, with this much spirit.

Young people having the freedom to create is going to, to break the ice a little bit and, you know, breathe some lif into this place again, you know?

Well, the life of a place can be a surprise.

And if you go off the parkway west toward the airport, there's a neighborhood along and around Cowan Road.

It's been full of surprises for a long time.

We're in Collier Township.

Our mailing address is Carnegie, PA.

People don't believe that there's actually a neighborhood back here.

I was born and raised here.

54 we moved into the house.

I moved here first.

No, I was here first.

You were here?

Yeah.

You were.

You were here first.

Yeah.

Hi neighbor, I've been here since 1956.

Our family moved here in 1959.

Our club is down to Hi Neighbor Club, and it's great.

You just walk out your door and say hi, neighbor.

And that's what it's been.

But this is a super group of ladies.

We meet once a month.

Okay?

Meeting was held at Evelyn Kenny's house.

That got started in January of 1958.

It's fun.

It's companionship.

But a lady up the stree there started it, Molly Speicher to get us all together.

Since our houses were so spread out.

Molly just thought it would be nice to get together and have some fun.

I lived next door and I didn't get to join right away because my husband didn't allow me to join, but when he passed away, all the all the women came and one of them whispere in my hair, can you join us now?

And I did, and I've been here ever since.

When we were younger, it was as far as the women goes, it was our only outlet.

I joined because I really wante to know what these ladies did.

Every month my dad went bowling and on Fridays my mother went to club once a month.

So you come home and it's midnight, you know?

What do you talk about?

And she said things.

And what do you do?

Nothing.

We just talk.

You don't play cards, you don't no.

Yeah.

Everybody tells their problems or whatever happened or who's getting married and who's having a child.

And I don't think we raise money ever.

We just spend it some night.

We'll have, Mary Godfrey for instance, when I first came here she took everybody's blood pressure and it's like, oh my gosh, what's going on here?

You know?

And it's just kind of like taking care of each other.

Every month, a year that I have and I do something different.

It's not always pies.

She had five kids.

I had five kids.

The people down the street had four.

They had six.

Everybody was mother and father to them.

But I remembe when we were little, you know, we were in Mrs.

Goefreys yar and my brother put his hands on hips and said, you're not my mother.

And she said, yes, I am.

Stomped back home and.

I would wash on Mondays, and she would watch my kids.

She would wash on Tuesdays and I would watch her kids.

And I remember Mrs.

Sotnich one day I went over to help her clea because she worked and I didn't.

She had a bottle of Dreg and Buo and boy did we have a good time cleaning her bedroom.

You know how we elect officers.

Everybody writes their name on a on a paper.

And first one drawn is president.

Second one is vice president.

We camp together.

We we've gone all ove the places in a pop up camper, a pickup truck.

And it's it's wonderful.

And we have fun together and we laugh.

And you really know that if you ever need anyone, there's always someone there to help you.

It gives you somethin to look forward to every month, Were just great friends, the good company to be with.

Well, we just take it.

It's normal grown on us.

It's normal, isn't it?

Isn't every neighborhood like that and it's normal.

I moved back here with my dad a few years after my mother passed away, and I thought about going back but I don't have any neighbors.

It's a townhouse, but there's no neighbors.

I thank God every week when I go to church, them in this neighborhood.

Believe me, this is like having 13 wonderful sisters.

Then she passed away about 12 years ago now, and two years ago I was honored with a letter asking me to join.

And it was true.

Im going to cry Truthfully, an honor and for me, because my mother.

I'm sorry, I my mother just loved this club and and these are all my my mothers.

Were just one humongous family.

It's fantastic.

I wish everybody could have a neighborhood like ours.

That is.

But, you know, neighborhoods are fascinatin because they're not all alike.

Down the Ohio River at Aliquippa, lots of people with connections to one old neighborhood gather every year in mid-Augus for the Festival of San Rocco.

It all starte back in the early 20th century, when Janelle Steele created new neighborhoods called plans for workers in the nearby mills.

The plans, all numbered, grew to have distinct ethnic affiliations.

Most of the Italian people were in plan 11.

Aliquippa became a very ethnic community.

We're all very strong in our ethnic heritage.

And this celebration, they started it way back when it's been going on here since 1925.

Over time, it's become th defining feast of our community, our Italian community.

It's who we are.

Well, plan 11 has changed, but many immigrants who once lived there came from the Italian village of Patrica, where San Rocco was the patron saint.

In Aliquippa, folks at the local MPI club, the Musical and Political Italian Club and its wonderful band were instrumental in getting the festival started here.

It's fun, it's fun.

You don't even have to be Italian to have fun.

It's entertainment, it's food, it's laughs, tears.

I mean, it's everybody congregating at a place to honor this particular saint.

We have this attraction to our community, just like the swallows that return every year to Capistrano.

And the salmon swim upstream in the northwest, you know, we come back to Aliquippa, to remember who we are and to tie in to our community here.

In Aliquippa, there's three major events.

We have Easter, you have Christmas, you have San Rocco.

The best part of the whole weekend is Sunday, Sunday morning.

Everybody comes to Saint Titus church.

We started really, The banner San Rocco banner is picked up from Jean Rossetti's house at 8:00 in the morning.

One of the most wonderful things that I think that we have instituted is the family banners.

And they come to the back of Saint Titus Church, and we march in to the fron and, and the band playing along.

And it's just, as far as I'm concerned, the most beautiful thing in the world to see families there holding their banner and being very proud of the fact that they're here and celebrating, they come into church.

The celebration of the mass is absolutely wonderful.

And then we we just head over to, to Jean Rosati, where we picked up the banner and we start the procession.

And as you know, it's not a parade.

It's a it's a procession.

It's a conglomeration of people.

We start the procession together.

Normall everybody walks the procession except for the little kids.

We have them in cars and trucks and we end together.

But in between these, we're all over the place.

You have people on the streets pin the money to our banner.

You have our statue being carried.

You have refreshments put it that way.

We have refreshments.

It is just a beautiful experience.

The band plays people.

The salute showed off.

Everybody yells Viva San Rocoo!

Some walking in their bare feet, some walk in high heels.

People enjoy drink and refreshment and we just.

It's just.

It's in our hearts, in their souls.

That was a salute to San Rocco.

Viva San Rocco!

This is probably the first year that we have stopped like 40, 40 or 50 times.

But everybody wants us to stop at their house.

And you can't.

You can't deny them.

It's.

It's in our hearts, it's tradition.

It's in our hearts.

It's in our souls.

We can't give it up.

We just want to carry on the tradition.

When it bring us 79 years, we might go on forever.

So it's the mass.

It's the procession.

Now all these people are going to have dinner with their families.

They'll come back tonight and this will be the big evening.

And it ends up with wit a very traditional doll dance.

You'll see a baby doll dance.

You never saw in your life.

These people will leave here, like, as if they've been possessed.

Yes, I'm telling you got, You got to see it.

It's a celebratio of what was our family in Italy.

They our family in Italy brought it over and they settled on plan 11.

That's where it started.

And it's just, again like an evolution of moving on.

And and it's a wonderful neighborhood thing.

Well, wonderful neighborhoods seem to be something we're still good at producing in the Pittsburgh area.

The combination of topography and personality, ethnic roots and new ideas, Trusty people, Who have been around for a long time, and newcomers with an appreciation for the quirky charms of southwestern Pennsylvania, all seem to make a good recipe for places to live, places to stay attached to, places to run through, neighborhoods to celebrate, to admire and love.

Neighborhoods that so many people seem so happy to call home.

What are you going?

Get over here!

They're still here.

They like it here, I think.

So, so what kind of questions, are you going to ask us?

Oh, easy ones.

I guess I shouldnt play Solitare.

I could shut that down and pu Andrea Bocelli on, if you like.

Me.

No, no no, we're getting interviewed.

You cant say this one period.

It was nice meeting both of you.

And the story.

You lost your yellow.

Geez, I just fell in a hole.

Really I just want to dance, you know?

That's my passion.

You have any Ibonezer Anything where just, you know, it's just really unique.

And in Pittsburgh.

I thank you, honey.

Keep the rock walk down there, please.

No, no, no.

Let's cut.

Let's.

Okay.

I'm tired.

Okay.

Im not rolling, no Yes, I am.

We won't use that though.

Major funding for Its The Neighborhoods was provided by the Buhl Foundation, serving southwestern Pennsylvania since 1927.

Additional funding was provided by National City with more branches in Pittsburgh neighborhoods than any other bank.