Pittsburgh is a very hard city, especially if you're black.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I do have friends in Pittsburgh, and I had some wonderful experiences there.
Pittsburgh felt like the perfect size of a city to me. There's enough to do, but it's not like living in a circus. I also really loved how sports-enthusiastic Pittsburgh people are: how proud of their sports they are.
I've lived in New York for thirty years now, but I'm a proud Pittsburgher, and home is home. My family's still in Pittsburgh.
I didn't speak English until I came to Pittsburgh.
It may be no surprise that Pittsburgh has direct flights to London, Paris and Frankfurt, but consider this: many of the tourists here have come from Europe to the capital of culture in the Alleghenies.
New York City is a very tough place. I'm tough, too. When people give me a punch in the nose, I react by getting even tougher.
I am haunted by what my life would have been had I not had the courage in my early twenties to leave Pittsburgh for New York City and really commit to being a writer. Pittsburgh is both post-industrial and provincial, and the opportunities there are limited. It would have been quite easy to simply drift through life.
Yes, I would have rather finished up in Pittsburgh.
Just growing up in Pittsburgh and knowing different neighborhoods, having family there and just loving it, it's like no other place.
I would always reserve a special place in my heart for Pittsburgh.