the carrie furnace

[labrujah]

Now that school is ending, I hope to be posting more over on my cities blog. I don't like wordpress as much as lj, but maybe I just don't get the functionality yet because I don't use it a lot?

here's my latest post. If you'd rather get a feed, you can do that here (I will stop cross-posting once anyone ever starts looking at the cities blog! it's still waay below radar).



This upcoming Monday, April 23, you are invited to explore the "rusty grandeur of the Carrie Furnace -- the last of the unused blast furnaces in the Pittsburgh area and a truly monumental structure which sits on the Monongahela River," according to Jebediah Feldman, deputy mayor of Braddock, PA. Allegheny County plans to redevelop it as a steel heritage site in the model of the Sloss Furnaces in Alabama.

Meet at Hidy's Bar under the Rankin Bridge between 12:30 and 4:30 pm

and RSVP to BraddockMayor@gmail.com.

I visited the Carrie Furnace many years ago in the one spectacular weekend trip I've taken to Pittsburgh. I am planning to head back for the first national conference on vacant and abandoned properties, this fall. Pittsburgh seems like a wonderful place to live -- I remember the bridges sparkling over the rivers running through the center of the city, the strange small incline railways.

Comments

[kittymalicious.livejournal.com]

bleh, pittsburgh. with the exception of warhol, people who grew up there don't seem to leave. bands who are from there have no ambition to tour, they just want to master the local scene. so so many schools, though, so many people are really over educated.

steelers enthusiasm is pretty awesome.

i dunno, i always have fun there and my friends there are smart, funny, great to be around, but it is very much a deadend place. sorry, but that's my impression.

[labrujah.livejournal.com]

Yes I got that impression. There is a hurdle between them and the rest of the world. A little isolationist. I am kind of in a gardening mood, you know? I want to grow things and there is no space for growing here anymore. Maybe on the fringe. There's something happening in Paterson that I am excited about.

I'm mad at NYC right now. It's not a new story, the way it's changing, but I am finding less and less to hang onto. Maybe the summer will be different.

[kittymalicious.livejournal.com]

maybe you need to redefine your relationship to nyc. i've been living here for 7 years and my relationship with this city is always changing...

random post

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry to butt into your journal. I came across it through a weird Google search and stumbled into this comment that irritated the poop out of me. Anyways, yes Pittsburgh is a great place to live. I grew up here, move out to California for 7 years {San Francisco+ Santa Cruz} and moved back. Yes it is true that this happens to some Pittsburgh natives, but it happens for a reason- things are much genuine here then they are in other cities. The art, the people, people's motivations, etc... Living in San Francisco all those years was fabulous, but a lot of that fabu-ness was just on the surface. I think it was very arrogant of you to say, Ms. Kittymalicious, that Pittsburgh is dead-end merely because people have a tendency to want to stay. BTW, based on your criteria for judgment, NYC is dead-end too.

[delphizyx.livejournal.com]

Sometimes your posts really make me want to switch career paths and follow yours!

Lately I've also find myself waxing nostalgic for good old brooklyn brownstones and brick buildings. LA has some beautiful houses and great old buildings (being torn down by the minute!) but I think I took for granted the rows and rows of great old architecture there and now I miss it.

[labrujah.livejournal.com]

you can always volunteer! my impression is that the LA conservancy is very good. and there's not much money in it -- it would make a better hobby I think!

[delphizyx.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we came to the realization that the majority of the people who sat on the CHC panel for our hearing were volunteers and only one or two of them were actually paid to be there. Maybe I'll ask Jay Platt the next time I see him what options there are for volunteer work, although I'm going to miss the last hearing since it was rescheduled to the time I'll be in NY.

[uberdionysus.livejournal.com]

Goddamnit. I'm getting the last part of my root canal on Monday. Damn I want to see that.

[labrujah.livejournal.com]

yeah. you would also have to be in PA. but it's a good weekend trip and only $35 each way on jetblue...

[uberdionysus.livejournal.com]

I'd do it if I didn't have to get a damn root canal. Will there be another? Can I just go?

[labrujah.livejournal.com]

Dunno. email Jeb and see. the site belongs to allegeheny county, and they are developing it...