The Oakland neighborhood is filled with museums © Raymond Boyd/Getty Images Oakland Regardless of what time you come, be sure to come hungry. There are hotels within the Strip, and it’s a fun place to stay because it’s always busiest in the early morning. The Strip is within walking distance from Downtown, and driving distance from the rest of the city. This dichotomy of local pride mixed with international cuisine is what makes the neighborhood so special. The sidewalks are brimming with vendors selling Pittsburgh merchandise. Smallman Street and Penn Avenue, which run parallel through the neighborhood, are crammed with international markets featuring goods from Poland, Italy, Asia, the Middle East, and everywhere in between.ĭespite this fact, the first thing you’ll notice about the Strip is the black and yellow. ![]() For over 100 years, the neighborhood has been the best place in Pittsburgh to shop for specialty foods. Well, if Epcot also featured a Steelers paraphernalia store on every block. Again, the views here are spectacular, and in most other cities the neighborhood would be packed with astronomically-priced condo towers.Īfter a long period of neglect and decline, the park was restored with a new playground, half-court for basketball, walking paths and an art installation from the Hill’s legendary photographer Charles “Teenie” Harris, a peerless visual chronicler of Black Pittsburgh."The Strip", as locals call it, is like Pittsburgh’s Epcot. Large rain gardens and planters trap up to 2 million gallons of stormwater, keeping water out of people’s basements (and sewer overflows into the Monongahela River).įormerly known as Cliffside Park, this relatively recent addition is part of a larger renaissance in the Hill District. The park was designed to solve drainage problems that periodically flooded basements nearby. A covered wooden picnic pavilion is open to the community along with a walking track and a half-court basketball hoop. There are distinct play areas, one for toddlers ages 2 to 5 and another for children ages 5 to 12, with an array of slides, tunnels, netting and other climbing equipment. You don’t need flattened cardboard boxes to whiz down this one, though.Īrtists Oreen Cohen and Alison Zapata of OOA Designs created metal sculptures, inlaid with colorful panes of glass that merge the forms of falling water and pollinating insects, that are child-safe and act as benches. ![]() The park is shaped like a bowl, with embankments separating the park from the surrounding housing, so a novel solution was found - a slide built into the hillside (not unlike Blue Slide Park). Photo courtesy of the City of Pittsburgh. No idea what kids do here in the winter - but the broad, sloping lawn in front of the Observatory looks like the world’s greatest sledding hill.Ĭouncilperson Erika Strassburger on the slide at Wightman Park. It’s currently undergoing significant restoration. It’s a strikingly beautiful place, surrounded by 100-year-old trees, stately Observatory Hill mansions and broad, winding boulevards with well-trafficked bike lanes.Īt the top is the historic Allegheny Observatory (built in 1859), which made many significant discoveries, and originated the “Allegheny Time” standard of timekeeping for the Pennsylvania Railroad, the first standardized time system. Riverview Park was created in 1894, and a lot remains of the “City Beautiful”-era Allegheny City. This is one of Pittsburgh’s major regional parks, but it only gets a fraction of the visitors due to its isolated location, which is best approached by a flanking maneuver from the back (Ohio River Boulevard).
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