City Scenes: Pitt Homecoming fireworks redux

One of my favorite features of my South Side apartment is the view of Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning across the river in Oakland. When the time came for Pitt’s annual Homecoming fireworks display last Fall I was excited to check out the proceedings from the comfort of my living room. This time around I wanted to see how I would fare photographing the pyrotechnics with a proper camera instead of my phone. So I set a tripod up at the window and waited for the show to start.

This year’s show was a little different because in addition to the usual fireworks going off from the Cathedral and nearby Schenley Park, there were also fireworks going off toward downtown (I’m not sure what vantage point these would be visible from.).

Anyway, these weren’t the photographic marvels I had hoped for, but it was something a little different for another time around the block.

Goat Fest 2022

For the past five years an annual Pittsburgh event has celebrated a cutting-edge technology of ecological restoration: goats. Since 2017 an organization called Allegheny GoatScape has utilized goats – “nature’s lawn mowers” – to reduce invasive vegetation and clear away difficult brush in the city’s parks, vacant lots, and other public spaces. This work is honored each summer at Goat Fest, a community event organized by the volunteer group Friends of South Side Park.

This was not only my first Goat Fest but also my first time visiting South Side Park. The park is located just a ways up the hill from me in the neighborhood of Arlington. Arlington is above South Side Flats and at the edge of South Side Slopes.

When I arrived mid-afternoon on Saturday the area was buzzing with activity, with visitors and vendors crowded across Arlington Baseball Field.

I was totally blown away by South Side Park itself. I had no idea that there was such a large and lush park so close to where I live.

Goat Fest was held on the same day as this summer’s final Open Streets event, and the park offered a perspective where I could look out over the East End neighborhoods that I had rode through earlier that morning.

It was also possible to catch glimpses of iconic downtown skyscrapers through the trees.

The goat’s efforts are concentrated in an area of the park called Jurassic Valley. Placards placed along the footpaths provided information on the goat’s work and the park itself.

Of course the stars of the show for most visitors were the goats themselves. A penned area near the park entrance allowed guests to view and pet the animals.

Further into the park visitors could encounter the working goats engaged in their labor of consuming unwanted vegetation.

City Scenes: Cycling to East Liberty, Oakland, and back again

Ever since my roommate got his new road bike a couple weeks ago he’s been tearing up the road and trails. He rode 12 miles out to the town of Duquesne this week just because he had the afternoon free. And he’s now completely switched from commuting via public transit to cycling. I had been pleased with my modest outings after arriving in South Side this summer, and especially just enjoying going out on the river trail just for the hell of it. But now my friend has a fancier (and faster) bike, he’s putting in significantly more miles in the saddle, and he’s thrown down the gauntlet regarding daily commuting via bike. So for the past two weeks he’s been asking me nearly every day if I’m going to ride into campus with him, and I’ve replied that I don’t feel up to it yet, that I still don’t feel confident riding in traffic, that I want to build my stamina up. But this past Sunday I decided to finally bite the bullet: when he asked if I wanted to ride into Oakland, I said “OK.”

We rode down Carson and crossed over the river on the Hot Metal Bridge. We went through Panther Hollow into Oakland but my friend wanted to get breakfast first, so we transitioned onto Ellsworth and traveled through Shadyside into East Liberty. East Liberty–and in particular the Highland/Centre nexus–remains one of the significant neighborhoods for my experience of Pittsburgh. Not only as a major hub when I lived in Friendship and Bloomfield, but also through my research in urban change, and all the transformations I’ve seen and studied in and around East Liberty in the past seven years. As we locked up our bikes I expressed relief that Patron was still there. It’s not the greatest restaurant, not the greatest Mexican food I’ve had, but it is truly one of my comfort spots in the city. There was a time I went so often that the wait staff recognized me, and would even ask where I had been if I missed a week. It was my go-to location for both celebrating good times and getting through bad times. It was where I went after my dissertation defense, and one of the first places I went this summer when I came back to Pittsburgh.

My roommate and I were both gobsmacked at the scale of the development going up at the former Penn Plaza location in East Liberty. It is massive: totally out of proportion with the existing neighborhood. Our destination was another marker of change since I had last lived in the city: Square Cafe, which took over the location previously occupied by the stalwart local restaurant Spoon.

It was a beautiful Fall day, clear and cool. We had to wait out front for nearly half an hour before getting a table and the rays we were soaking up had me wishing I had brought sunscreen. It was my first time to Square, although I had patronized the former restaurant. We were seated by a window with a view of our bikes locked up across the street. Overall I was super impressed by the Square menu, and although I was faced with a lot of good options I decided to stick with the Fall vibes and ordered some of their seasonal specials: pumpkin walnut pancakes and a Jack-o-lantern latte.

The streets in the East End neighborhoods were mostly easygoing on this Sunday morning. The most excitement involved coming upon a car accident at Ellsworth and Aiken: two cars had collided in the intersection with one ending up rolled over on its side, the horn persistently blaring. Soon we were at the base of the Cathedral of Learning. Bigelow Boulevard between Forbes and Schenley drive was blocked off for Pitt’s Fall Fest; as we locked our bikes to the rack we heard the soundchecks coming from the temporary stage.

I spent most of the afternoon working in my office and I assumed that my adventure for the day was mostly finished. But my friend got a wild hair to go see the Riverhounds game that evening, and suggested that we might as well just ride down to the stadium after crossing back over to the South Side. So that’s what we did.

This was my first time cycling to a sporting event, although this summer I did walk to Highmark Stadium as well as to PNC Park for the first time. It was a great capper to a beautiful autumn day; a Goodyear blimp drifted overhead amongst cotton ball clouds, and the downtown skyline glimmered with the fading final rays of daylight.

After the game it was nice to avoid all the chaos of the parking lot and the lines of traffic as cars headed for the exits. We took the river trail east to go home; it was my first time riding on the trail after dark, because it is unlit. I followed my friend because he has bike lights and I don’t. It was sort of exhilarating: in the darkness of the evening, exacerbated by the overgrowth and trees lining the trail, the only thing I could see clearly was my friend’s silhouette against the small cone of path and trees illuminated by his bike lamp. I pedaled hard to keep close as that was my only hope of getting my bearings amongst the tangle and murk. We made good time through the shadow and dusk until we hit the train tracks at 18th st and were delayed by the passing of a CSX Coke Express freight. All-in-all a rather welcome expenditure of energy.

City Scenes: Peloton Pair at Point & Pitt Cathedral Fireworks

This past Saturday afternoon my roommate entered our apartment wearing a bicycle helmet and announcing that he had just impulse-purchased a new cycle. “Wanna go for a ride?” he asked me.

He had stopped by a renowned bike shop in our neighborhood and picked up a new ride, one that puts my entry-level hybrid from a sporting goods store to shame. I asked if my 2 AM cycling joy ride last week had finally motivated him to pull the trigger on the new bike but he assured me that it was some recent commuting frustrations that had forced his hand. Even though his new wheels greatly outclassed my own, I couldn’t refuse a spontaneous afternoon bike ride. So I took the lead as we navigated our way down the riverfront trail and over to Point State Park downtown. Fall arrived in Pittsburgh this week in undeniable fashion: cooler weather, longer shadows, the whole shebang. So it was a great, crisp ride to inaugurate the season.

This weekend was also Homecoming weekend at the University of Pittsburgh. That Saturday evening was Pitt’s annual homecoming fireworks display which includes pyrotechnics being launched directly from the Cathedral of Learning. From our South Side apartment my roommate and I have a fantastic view of the Cathedral over in Oakland. So after our bike ride we got dinner then headed back to the apartment to catch the fireworks.

I have been fascinated by the annual fireworks display ever since I moved to Pittsburgh, in part because the elegant-yet-imposing edifice of the Cathedral helped draw me to Pitt in the first place. I always wanted to stakeout a spot in the student union building across the street for an elevated front row perspective of the show, or hideout in the Cathedral to get a view from inside the building itself. None of my previous apartments in the city had clear line-of-sight of the Cathedral, although in Bloomfield I did once watch the Homecoming display from the top level of the West Penn Hospital parking garage. But even that vantage point pales in comparison to the view from my current living room.

The fireworks started just after 9 PM and we were treated to an even better-than-expected perspective. These photos here aren’t great quality and clearly don’t do the display justice (photos of fireworks rarely do...although my roommate captured some video that did a better job), still I have included a few here.