Archive for July 15th, 2026
Where the other half learns
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This section of a recent scuttle played out in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, and walked a path around – and through – parts of the campuses of Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Pittsburgh – aka PITT. This made three university campus visits for me on this walk.
It’s pretty much what you’d think Ivy League school campuses would look like, around these parts. Lots of hustle and bustle, crowds of impossibly young people rushing about… all that.
I recently learned that a single semester’s worth of matriculation at CMU – for a freshman – costs in excess of $70,000. Wow.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned during prior recent walks through this zone, it’s a nice and a quite familiar feeling to me, having tall structures to use as navigational aids.
The bridge overflies a ravine which is colloquially referred to as ‘Panther Hollow,’ but which I’m told is technically ‘Junction Hollow’ instead.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s train tracks, a big steam boiler facility, and all sorts of ‘stuff’ down there. On my list for future scuttles, this path.
I’ve walked around and through a more southeasterly section of Panther Hollow just once, shortly after moving to Pittsburgh back in 2024, but didn’t scuttle through to this particular spot.
One continued along. It was late in the afternoon and the evening ‘rush hour’ was setting up in Oakland.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Oakland is the de facto daytime population center of Pittsburgh.
Multiple large hospitals, university buildings, offices of every kind can be found there. One of the few places where you’ll encounter what a New Yorker would describe as ‘traffic.’ My path followed one of the ‘main drags,’ called Forbes Avenue, where buses line up to accept and cart away the crowds of commuters who work in the area.
As mentioned several times, Newtown Pentacle is so far ahead of schedule right now that we’re existing in a time warp together, lords and ladies. These shots are from early May, the words from early June, and you’re receiving this in mid July. I mention this, as that fellow in the shot above is wearing a jacket, despite how warm and humid the afternoon was when this shot was gathered.
By the time you’re reading this, a humble narrator declares, I will have ridden upon a Pittsburgh bus and explored at least one of the busways. I’ve been threatening to do that for a while now and ‘do what you say, say what you do’ applies.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The walk gets ‘hinky’ at the foot of Forbes, where it transmogrifies out of a highway off ramp. Pedestrian and bike concerns are an afterthought in this area, and there’s an extremely risky street crossing at the end of it.
No Bueno.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the crossing, which I’ve mentioned before. Vehicles emerge on that off-ramp from I-376 moving at highway speeds, and they don’t have a stop or yield sign either. There is a painted crosswalk, however, so it’s a ‘legit’ crossing. I’ll just say it again – No Bueno.
Back tomorrow.
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