ABSTRACT
Downtown Pittsburgh rises majestically before drivers emerging from the Fort Pitt Tunnel. The shiny buildings symbolize the town’s fortune of industry yet belie the city’s smoky past. Gleaming bridges, bright lampposts adorned with baskets of flowers and banners heralding seasonal fun are testament that the city has shed its “steel-town image.” 1 In addition to being named “America’s most livable city,” National Geographic Traveler magazine named Pittsburgh one of the best places in the world in 2012. 2 On a crisp summer night from the balcony of a restaurant on Mount Washington, the “Golden Triangle” of downtown, bordered by the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, seemed spectacularly close. I could see the players on the jumbo screen of Three Rivers Stadium as the Pirates lost to the Chicago Cubs 14–9, which turned out to be the sixth loss of a ten-game losing streak. The check came, and went—whisked immediately over the balcony by the wind—the breath of this vibrant metropolis.
