Evergrey

Carson Palmer seems to be regressing... even SI's Peter King said that Palmer seems "Jay Cutler-esque"

German Village for the reasons stated by David.

from a built environment perspective... OTR... but as a neighborhood it's not quite "there" yet... so I choose Mt. Adams fo the reasons others have stated.... gorgeous place with fun bars and restaurants tucked into the dense urban fabric.. hilly, narrow streets, etc.

I love this photo. Goats are such wonderful creatures.

Week 2 vs. Browns a big one Friday, September 05, 2008 By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette There is no such thing as a must-win football game until a team is in the playoffs or facing elimination from playoff contention. Certainly, the Steelers' game Sept. 14 at Cleveland isn't a must-win. What happens if they lose? Do they pack away the equipment and call it a year after just two games? More at http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08249/909579-87.stm

you have the life of reilly, mrnyc!

I apologize for the inferior quality of these photos, but I was running out of light. We'll start off with the smaller Tionesta (pop. 615) which is the seat of Forest County, the least populated county in Pennsylvania at 4,946. This tiny hamlet exists deep within the forests of northwestern Pennsylvania along the Allegheny River about halfway between Oil City and Warren. The local economy largely depends on tourism, as Forest County is dominated by the Allegheny National Forest. Many people visit the area for camping and outdoor activities. 75% of dwellings in Forest County are vacation homes or "camps". I noticed a couple places in Tionesta had "SHUT" signs... perhaps that's Tionesta's way of saying "closed" Forest County Courthouse... appropriately modest for such a tiny county... however, if I was Forest County I'd get rid of those ugly trees in front of the building... they totally block the architecture US62 crossing the Allegheny ... next we travel about 17 miles northwest to Titusville (pop. 6,146), located in eastern Crawford County (pop. 90,366). Titusville has an urban cluster population of 6,663. Titusville is where the modern U.S. oil industry was born in 1859, when Col. Edwin Drake successfully drilled a few miles south across the Venango County border. Settled in 1796, Titusville was a lumber town for its existence before the oil boom. When Drake's Oil Well struck black gold, Titusville became one of several oil boomtowns across northwestern Pennsylvania. Eight oil refineries were built in Titusville during the 1860s as population exploded from 250 to 10,000. The country's first oil exchange was established there in 1871. Oil production in the area peaked in 1891 and Titusville transitioned to steel/iron production and its traditional lumber industry. It remains to be seen how the oil "renaissance" in northwestern PA may impact Titusville's fortunes. Drake's Oil Well remains a popular tourist draw. Titusville is the hometown of John Heisman (college football's Heisman Trophy). didn't have much time before nightfall descended I absolutely love this Towne Square block... a remnant of the oil days gettin' ready to celebrate Oil 150! the Blue Canoe microbrewery just opened up in Towne Square

Oil City (pop. 11,504) is the largest city in Venango County and is located about 8 miles east of county seat Franklin at the confluence of the Allegheny River and Oil Creek. Oil City has an urban cluster population of 16,651. Oil City is famous for being one of the first oil boomtowns in the U.S., at one time hosting the headquarters of major oil companies Pennzoil, Quaker State and Wolf's Head. Oil City is known as the "Valley that changed the World". Oil City is a relatively new city by Pennsylvania standards, springing to life immediately after Col. Edwin Drake drilled the first commercially successful oil well in the U.S. in 1859, a few miles north near Titusville. Along with Petroleum Center and Pithole, Oil City exploded seemingly overnight as investment and workers flowed into the northwestern Pennsylvania oil fields. Oil City was a major transportation node in the oil network. Oil was transported by barge down Oil Creek and then transferred to steamboat for the trip down the Allegheny River to Pittsburgh. Monumental structures were built downtown and dazzling mansions were built in the neighborhoods. When oil production peaked in northwestern Pennsylvania around 1890, Petroleum Center and Pithole became ghost towns, but Oil City remained as an important business center well into the 20th century. Oil heritage tourism plays a major role in the modern Oil City economy. However, there has always remained some amount of oil drilling, and there has been renewed interest in this region's oil due to the escalating cost of oil making extraction here more economically feasible. Oil City is divided into two halves, the North Side (including Downtown) and the South Side... separated by the Allegheny River. Downtown has a somewhat "big city" feel to it structurally, but is unfortunately suffers from high vacancy and too many low-rent tenants. Residential neighborhoods are largely located on hillsides and hilltops, and range from very gritty to spectacularly beautiful. Oil City is celebrating 150 years of oil with a series of events beginning this month: http://www.oilcity.org/City_Docs/Schedule%20of%20Events%20-%20Oil%20150.pdf the main downtown street is quite narrow... and the taller buildings cast mighty shadows... creating somewhat of a "canyon" feel bridge spanning Oil Creek Drake Square seemed to be largely vacant... there's an enormous concrete parking garage near it that I assume was some grand vision of a downtown renaissance back in the 70s heading up to the hilltop neighborhoods of the city's North Side some gritty slope housing I love this church... perched above downtown and visible from everywhere this could be straight outta Pittsburgh useless fence blocking downtown view looking west down the Allegheny South Side viewed from North Side confluence of Oil Creek and Allegheny at downtown Oil City North Side from South Side Oil City's South Side has a small "downtown" of its own the Latonia is a 1500 seat, two balcony theater built in 1929... it was converted to retail use (with much of the theater closed off) for decades... but was purchased last year by a group that is returning it to theater use. detail I was just about to leave Oil City... but decided to try one last part of the South Side... on the western edge of the city.. and was rewarded with a large collection of spectacular mansions... strange all tuckered out farewell from the Hub of Oildom!

Franklin (pop. 7,212) is the seat of Venango County (pop. 57,565) in northwestern Pennsylvania. Franklin has an urban cluster population of 9,727. It is situated at the confluence of the Allegheny River and French Creek. The Franklin area was at the center of territorial conflict between the French and British in the mid-18th century (French & Indian War). The French built Fort Machault at the site of present day Franklin in 1753. This was to be the launching point for a French attack on Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh) in 1759. However, the French abandoned and burned Fort Machault and moved north to protect Fort Niagara. The British built Fort Venango at this site in 1760. The garrison was massacred by a surprise Indian attack during Pontiac's uprising in 1763. The American Colonial Forces built Fort Franklin (named for Benjamin Franklin) here in 1787. The city was platted in 1795, and its street system was designed by Andrew Ellicott, famed for his Washington DC plan. In 1859, Venango County gained worldwide prominence when Col. Edwin Drake drilled the first commercially successful oil well in the U.S. near Titusville. Franklin rode the wave of the late 1800s oil boom, but differed from many nearby communities (like Oil City) in that it was already a long-established, mature community as opposed to a boomtown. The oil boom did result in many fabulous mansions throughout the small city. Today, Franklin is a stable small town with a remarkably preserved and active downtown and beautiful residential streetscapes. I love the asymmetrical towers of the Venango County Courthouse residential south of downtown oldest house i saw nice colours French Creek I saw a couple pineapple flags in Franklin... not sure what that represents deco school the neighborhood west of downtown has some really spectacular mansions Franklin residents love their city flag! make sure to check out my other recent photo threads as the links have been fixed!

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Ugh... I'll get this situation straightened out... how frustrating... please check back again!

Toledo might have a lower rate than Akron because the municipality of Toledo is somewhat "overbounded" in comparison to the municipality of Akron.

This list is for municipalities over 250,000. There is also a list for municipalities between 65,000 and 249,999 people.

Now we enter Mercer County, PA (pop. 120,293)... which was added to the Youngstown-Warren, OH MSA this decade. Grove City (pop. 8,024) is located in the southeastern corner of Mercer County near the intersection of I-80 and I-79. It has an Urban Cluster population of 10,727. Grove City is about 58 miles north of Downtown Pittsburgh and 40 miles east of Youngstown OH. Most people in the Penn-Ohio region know the name "Grove City" due to the Prime Outlets shopping destination nearby, but the "real" Grove City is a beautiful small town with an industrial history that today is the host of Grove City College, a "conservative" liberal arts college. This evangelical Christian school has some impressive campus architecture. The chapel at Grove City College administrative building a lush residential neighborhood near campus... it probably doesn't come across in photos... but elements of it seemed Olmsteadian... I was quite shocked that a small "independent" town like Grove City had a neighborhood like this closer to downtown Downtown Grove City blew me away... they've really done a bang up job here... no empty storefronts, no crumbling facades, fresh paint jobs, lots of ped traffic... bravo Grove City! some old industry near downtown I wish today's banks wouldn't put those plastic tumors on classic old banks like these... there should be more appropriate signage functioning downtown movie theatre a cheerful lemon-lime house ... Now we travel 9 miles northwest to the small hamlet of Mercer (pop. 2,391), which is the seat of Mercer County. It has an Urban Cluster population of 3,715. For being a somewhat heavily populated county with a large urban area (Sharon), Mercer County has a very tiny place for its seat. Mercer has a huge courthouse in the center of a square downtown. Beyond the square though, Mercer barely is a town... its "structure" has a very "loose" feel. But there are some impressive old homes. Mercer is surrounded by vast agricultural lands. Mercer is famous for being the hometown of Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor. Reznor has in fact cited his upbringing in Mercer as a prime creative influence. photo credit: wikipedia side view of the imposing courthouse

While the poverty problem is very real.. when doing these "comparative rankings"... it's important to remember the vast discrepancies in scales of municipal boundaries across the U.S. Notice that the "Top Poverty" cities are all underbounded cities with tiny boundaries that don't reflect the reality of today's urban areas (except for Memphis and El Paso... which should be truly damning for those places). The "Lowest Poverty" list are all overbounded cities (except San Fran)... that have huge corporate boundaries including huge swaths of wealthy suburban areas. Virginia Beach? It's just a massive agglomeration of suburbia... take 30 small suburban municipalities east of Cleveland and you can form a Virginia Beach. Colorado Springs? Barely qualifies as a city. ... This is not to take away from the pressing need for solutions to the poverty problems in so many cities... but I feel like these lists can be counter-productive and damaging when people fail to look at the issue of corporate boundaries.

Butler, PA (pop. 15,121) is a small city about 33 miles north of Downtown Pittsburgh. It is the seat of Butler County (pop. 174,083). It is part of the Pittsburgh MSA. Butler is not part of Pittsburgh's Urbanized Area, but has its own Urban Cluster of about 40,600 people. Butler was founded in 1802. In 1941, the Jeep prototype was developed at American Bantam's facility in Butler. There is a rather large neighborhood of spectacular Victorian mansions northeast of Downtown. Today, Butler remains an attractive regional satellite city working on a downtown revitalization programme. AK Steel is a major employer in Butler. Butler County Courthouse... I am aware of the symbolism... but I could do without the cheesy cardboard cutout yellow ribbon detracting from this magnificent piece of architecture... Downtown Butler seemed pretty active... even in the early morning... while its retail mix doesn't quite reach its potential... there are quite a few interesting restaurants and shops downtown I didn't capture it in my photos... but there's a really cool system of brick alleyways in Downtown Butler... and a lot of fantastic historic churches Downtown Butler redevelopment plan... hopefully the architecture of the hotel turns out a little better than that rendering... one of the existing downtown lots is GRAVEL! Ugh! that attractive old house has a tumor (Burger Hut) I love pink houses a beautiful shade of lemon This 128 year old brick house was moved down Main St. a couple weeks ago to preserve it from demolition one of many gorgeous downtown churches... wish I had captured more but the early morning lightning wasn't always right the southwest corner of Butler is pretty gritty and severe but the West End gets nicer as you move north Butler is surrounded by lush hills I was really amazed at how extensive Butler's mansion district is Butler's SouthSide is a middle class neighborhood... it is extremely steep and offers some great views of Butler... such as this one ... next we travel to the small town of Slippery Rock (pop. 3,068), located in northwestern Butler County about 17 miles northwest of Butler and 50 miles north of Downtown Pittsburgh. Slippery Rock is an extremely small village, and most of the population consists of students at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania, one of our many state universities. It's kinda surprising that a larger town wouldn't develop around the university to make money off the over 7,000 students there. SRU's campus SRU has a couple monumental structures... such as Old Main small but attractive downtown... this tanning salon seemed to be the largest business downtown Very small... but Slippery Rock did give me a sort of "mountain resort" feel... it reminded me of a much less mountainous and less hippie Boone, NC (home of Appalachian State) North Country Brewing looked like a cool place to relax... but I had to hit the road...

Here's a random collection of skyline and cityscape photos from August... I was going to append them to my recent neighborhood tour... but figured it would make that thread too long (and they might never get viewed). So at the risk of diffusing interest in my Pittsburgh threads... I humbly offer the following photos for your viewing pleasure. These are from the West End Overlook... I started taking photos... after a few minutes I noticed a remarkable blood moon rising over the skyline... how serendipitous! optional soundtrack before the moonrise from the Hot Metal Bridge from Mt. Washington

The difference being that Pittsburgh's Westwood is only 1/10th the population of Cincy's Westwood.

This photo thread features the city neighborhoods of Westwood, Ridgemont, Oakwood and East Carnegie. These are small residential neighborhoods located in the southwestern corner of the city in the greater West End of Pittsburgh. They share the auto-centric Noblestown Road as their business district (sorry, no photos). I just felt like doing some rather obscure neighborhoods that don't get much exposure. Westwood is by far the largest of these four neighborhoods and straddles both side of Noblestown Road, only a few minutes from Downtown Pittsburgh. It is largely a mid-century suburban environment, which I find terribly bland. Its hilltop location does offer some interesting city vistas, however. It's a very quiet place where people wonder what you're doing with a camera lol. It's the type of neighborhood that's popular with city employees that are forced to live in city limits but want that "suburban dream". there's some new quasi-McMansion development in Westwood as well "blah" houses... but I like the views of lush wooded hills from Westwood some older houses are remnants of a time when Westwood was rather rural and undeveloped we even get those cheesy subdivision signs in the city... welcome to "Oak Brook" vinyl dreams... oh well, it's tax base on an obscure piece of land Downtown peeking over Mt. Washington Mt. Washington condo towers intense topography looking towards Ridgemont looking towards Crafton Heights yikes! looking at the North Side endless hills a bizarre skyline view who needs sidewalks? the tree canopy makes a huge difference the western edge of Westwood adjacent to the posh suburb of Crafton is slightly more interesting love the colour ... Ridgemont is a tiny residential neighborhood located on a narrow hilltop above the West End Valley adjacent to the suburb of GreenTree and its large office district. GreenTree office buildings in the background some neat views from Ridgemont neat view of University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning in Oakland peeking over Mt. Washington Allentown ... Oakwood is a small residential neighborhood along Noblestown Road. For such a small place it offers a surprising amount of diversity in neighborhood character... ranging from deep Appalachia to early 20th century brick homes to late 20th century suburban split levels (not photographed) to attractive mini-mansions this almost looks like a hunting camp in the middle of northern Pennsylvania wilderness weird some nicer stuff... the heart of Oakwood ... East Carnegie is the last city neighborhood along Noblestown Road... located next to the "industrial suburb" of Carnegie along the Chartiers Creek. Carnegie is slightly gritty itself... though it features a great downtown... but East Carnegie is much grittier. It is a very obscure little place... and I would bet most city residents are unaware of this neighborhood's existence. oh... to live in a sea green house thanks!

what is that delicious bowl of food?

brilliant stuff

nice retail shots, David!