Confluence 2017 Restaurant Guide: Restaurants Between Robinson Township and the Airport

[Originally published on 7/17/2017 in Alien Cheese]

Most of the restaurants fall into three areas: Thorn Run Crossing near the Sheraton Pittsburgh Airport at 1160 Thorn Run Rd (Area 1), University Blvd (Area 2) and Robinson Town Centre/The Pointe, the shopping area where Routes 22 and 60 intersect (Area 3).

Recommended Restaurants

• Hyeholde Restaurant 1516 Coraopolis Heights Rd. (near Area 1), 412-264-3116, 4pm-9pm Mon-Thur, 5pm-10pm Sat: For an elegant meal out, great wine list hyeholde.com
• Maxime’s Mediterranean 937 Beaver Grade Rd., Ste 5 (Area 1) 412-269-0111 11am-10pm sandwiches, salads maximesfresh.com
• Eggs’N’At 8556 University Blvd. (Area 2), 412-262-2920, 7am-2pm: Eggs, burritos, apple strudel pancakes! eggsnat.com
• Selma’s Texas BBQ 9155 University Blvd. (Area 2), 412-329-7003, 11am-8pm Mon-Sat, noon-6pm Sun: six kinds of BBQ, sides selmasbbq.com
• Burgatory 300 McHolme Dr. (Area 3), 412-809-9400, 11am-10pm: Excellent burgers, snacks, drinks. burgatorybar.com
• Papaya 210 McHolme, 412-494-3366, 11am-3:30pm 4:30pm-10pm M-F, noon-10pm Sat-Sun Excellent Thai papayathaicuisineandsushibar.com/30364
• Industry Public House 140 Andrew Dr. (Area 3), 412-490-9080, 11am-2am: Brunch, gourmet popcorn, beer industrypgh.com
• Ya Fei 1980 Park Manor Blvd., 412-788-9388, 11:30am-9pm Mon-Sat. 1pm-9pm Sun: Pan-Asian, sushi http://www.yafeipittsburgh.com/menu.aspx
• DeLuca’s Diner 1110 Park Manor Blvd. (Area 3), 412-788-1007, 7am-3pm Mon-Sun: Massive breakfasts! delucasdiner.com
• Bakd 6520 Steubenville (Area 3), 412-788-2253, 11am-mid F/Sat 11am-9pm Sun: Pizza, Italian food, beer, full bar bakdpizza.com
• Mad Mex 2 Robinson Plaza (on Route 60 near Area 3), 412-494-5656, 11am-11pm: Huge burritos, great chips & salsa, beer madmex.com

All the rest of the Restaurants    

(Area 1):  Within a Half Mile of the Sheraton

Sheraton (Con Hotel)  Link@Sheraton Cafe breakfast, lunch, dinner and Starbucks Kiosk 6am-11pm  sheratonpittsburghairport.com

Casa Amigo 333 Rouser Rd, Bld 4, 412-264-0800, 11am-11pm Mon-Sun  Mexican/tequila casaamigospgh.com/contact

Take a left from hotel to Thorn Run Rd, walk past Post Office. Bruegger’s & back entrance to Thorn Run Crossing up street on left

• Bruegger’s Bagels 1134 Thorn Run Rd. Ext., 412-264-2243, 6am-6pm: Bagels & sandwiches of all kinds  brueggers.com
• Kip’s Ice Cream, 1136 Thorn Run Rd. Ext., 412-269-7457, noon-10pm:     facebook.com/kipshomemadeicecream/
• Subway 1136 Thorn Run Rd. Ext., 412-264-6655, 8am-9pm: Breakfast, sandwiches & salad subway.com
• Hunan Chinese 1136 Thorn Run Rd. Ext., 412-262-1322, 11am-10pm Fri, noon-10pm Sat, closed Sun: Chinese  hunanmoonpa.com
• Pizza Bella 1136 Thorn Run Rd. Ext., 412-299-1990, 10:30am-10pm, noon-10pm Sun: Pizza, wings, hoagies  moonpizzabella.com
• Armstrong’s 1136 Thorn, 412-262-9355, 11am-10pm Fri-Sat, noon-8pm Sun: Italian allmenus.com/pa/moon/28744-armstrongs/menu

(Area 2):  Left on Beaver Grade Road, Moon Township

Take a left onto Thorn Run Rd, Ext, then another left in 1/4 mile onto Beaver Grade Rd.  After about 1.5 miles, you’ll intersect University.

• Vocelli’s 935 Beaver Grade Rd., 412-269-1993, 11am-10pm Sun-Thur, 11am-mid Fri-Sat: Pizza carryout vocellipizza.com/moontwp_pa
• Mario’s Italian 935 Beaver Grade Rd., 412-262-3020, 5pm-10pm Mon-Sat: Northern Italian, seafood  mariosfamilyrestaurant.com
• Forgotten Taste Pierogies 910 Beaver Grade Rd., 412-269-9800, 11am-6pm Mon-Sat:  Eastern European carryout     forgottentaste.com
• AJ Bambino Pizzeria 910 Beaver Grade Rd., 412-299-8590, 10am-3am Fri-Sat, noon-mid Sun:  Pizza, pasta, gyros   ajbambino.com
• Dunkin' Donuts  830 Beaver Grade Rd., 412-474-3245, 5am-mid: Donuts, coffee, sandwiches   dunkindonuts.com

Starbucks, Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald’s, K-Mart, Kuhn’s groceries, Dollar Bank on right just before University Boulevard.

(Area 2):  Left on Beaver Grade Rd, Right on University Boulevard, Moon Township

• Kiyoshi Bistro 6506 University Blvd., 11am-10:30pm, 412- 269-2677: Chinese special, sushi. bar  kiyoshibistro.com
• Buford’s Kitchen 5980 University, 412-269-0644, 11am-10pm Mon-Fri, 8am-9pm Sat-Sun:  Southern food/burgers  bufordskitchen.com
• Giant Eagle 5990 University, 412-264-3856, 7am-11pm: Groceries, pharmacy, beer, Pizza Roma, Brighton Hot Dog, Wine & Spirits
• PNC Bank, Burger King, 6052 University Blvd. (parking lot of the Giant Eagle plaza)

(Area 2):  Left on Beaver Grade Rd, Left on University Boulevard, Moon Township

• Bob Evans 8405 University Blvd., 412-269-0333, 6am-9pm: Great breakfasts, large portions, salads, sandwiches  bobevans.com
• Pizza Hut 8609 University Blvd., 412-264-4423, 11am-11pm: Pizza, pasta, wings            pizzahut.com
• Primanti Brothers 8651 University Blvd.,  412-865-2200. 11am-2am: Large sandwiches with fries & slaw, beer  primantibros.com
• Wendy’s 8703 University Blvd., 412-264-4343, 10am-1am: Burgers, salads  wendys.com
• Wings Suds & Spuds 8806 University, 412-264-1866, 11am-mid Tue-Sat, noon-10am Sun: wingssudsspuds.dev.dexhub.dexmedia.com
• Arby’s 9100 University Blvd., 412-264-3830, 10am-mid: Roast beef sandwiches, milkshakes    arbys.com
• Eat ’n' Park 9526 University Blvd., 412-264-7201, 24 hours:  Breakfast buffet      eatnpark.com
• Hilton Garden Inn, 9600 University Blvd., 412-205-5400 Bar has some unique local beer     hiltongardeninn3.hilton.com/

When University Boulevard ends at the lights, take a left to go to The Pointe (Area 3) and, eventually, Pittsburgh.

(Area 3): 376 East, Right at top of Robinson Town Centre/Pointe/North Fayette Township Ramp

From Route 376, take the Robinson Town Centre/The Pointe exit, turn right at the end of the ramp to reach these restaurants:

• Quaker Steak and Lube 110 Andrew Dr., 412-494-3344, 11am-11pm:  Award-winning wings, burgers, bar food. thelube.com
• Tilted Kilt 120 Andrew Dr., 412-494-5458, 11am-11pm:  Steaks/burgers.     tiltedkilt.com/robinson    
• Max & Erma’s 130 Andrew Dr., 412-787-7000, 11am-10pm:  Pub food, burgers, salads, good desserts.  maxandermas.com
• Uncle Sam’s Classic Subs 225 Summit Park Dr., 412-788-4782, 10:30am-9pm: Philly cheesesteak  unclesamssubs.com    Starbucks   
• Bravo! Cucina Italiana 211 Summit Park Dr., 412-809-9115, 11am-11pm: Italian food.    bravoitalian.com
• Jimmy John’s 401 Home Dr., 412-809-8000: 11am-10pm: Sandwiches   jimmyjohns.com
• Buffalo Wild Wings 480 Home Dr., 412-788-9464, 11am-mid Sun-Thu 11am-1am Fri-Sat: Appetizers NTN   buffalowildwings.com
• El Campesino 460 Home Dr., 412-787-2225, 11am-10pm Mon-Sat noon-9pm Sun: Large Mexican menu elcampesinorestaurant.com

(Area 3): 376 East, Straight at top of Robinson Town Centre/Pointe/North Fayette Township Ramp

• Cracker Barrel 200 Davis Blvd. (near Lowe’s), 412-788-1103, 6am-10pm:  Breakfast, lunch & dinner, loads of sides   crackerbarrel.com
• Panera 250 McHolme Dr. (behind Pier One), 412-747-0460, 6:30am-9pm, Sun 8am-8pm: Pastries, soups, free WiFi      panera.com
• Chipotle 300 McHolme Dr., 412-787-3227,  11am-10pm Mon-Fri/Sun, noon-10pm Sat:  Burritos, tacos   chipotle.com
• Firehouse Subs  320 McHolme Dr., 412-788-4070, 10:30am-9pm: Subs          firehousesubs.com
• Five Guys 324 McHolme Dr., 412-788-5777,  11am-10pm: Burgers, fries          fiveguys.com

(Area 3): 376 East, Left at top of Robinson Town Centre/Pointe/North Fayette Township Ramp

• Chick-fil-a 121 Costco Dr, 412-490-0177, 6:30am-10pm, closed Sunday: Chicken sandwiches, salads, breakfast.  chick-fil-a.com
• Costco 202 Costco Dr., 412-490-2204, open 10am: Great place to buy party supplies.  GFS Marketplace/Aldi’s nearby.
• Plaza Azteca, 1000 Sutherland Dr., 412-787-8888, open 11am-10pm Mon-Sat, noon-9:30pm Sun:  Mexican  plazaazteca.com
• International House of Pancakes 1002 Sutherland Dr.,  412-859-0282, 24 hours: Pancakes & more pancakes   ihop.com
• The Mall at Robinson 100 Robinson Ctr. Dr., 412-788-0816 10am-9pm Mon-Sat, 11am-6pm Sun: Free WiFi, Little Tokyo
• Buca di Beppo 6600 Robinson Ctr. Dr., 412-788-8444, 11am-10pm: Family-style Italian, lasagna, ravioli       bucadibeppo.com
• Joe’s Crab Shack 6491 Robinson Ctr. Dr., 412-494-5444, 11am-11pm Sun-Thu, 11am-1am Fri-Sat:  Crabs & mallets  joescrabshack.com
• Cold Stone Creamery 6509 Robinson Ctr. Dr., 412-788-8380, 11am-10pm: Variety of ice cream & yogurt  coldstonecreamery.com
• Golden Corral, 900 Park Manor Blvd., 412-788-1776, breakfast 7:30-11, lunch/dinner 11-10:  Buffet restaurant  goldencorral.com
• Beer - House of Brews 1928 Park Manor Blvd., 412-787-5070, 9:30am-9:30pm Mon-Sat, 11am-6pm Sun: twitter.com/houseofbrewspgh
• Ichiban Hibachi Steakhouse 1160 Park Manor Blvd., 412-787-1999, 1pm-9pm Sat-Sun: Japanese      ichibanhibachisteakhouse.com

It’s less than a half hour to drive to Pittsburgh, now one of the best restaurant cities in America. Recommended:  Altius, Poros, City Beer Works, Eleven, Six Penn, Le Lyonnais, Soba, Gaucho Parole, Braddock’s American Brasserie, Spoon, Emporio, Nicky’s Thai Kitchen, Nine on Nine, and Butcher & the Rye are all worth the trip. tripadvisor.com/Restaurants-g53449-Pittsburgh_Pennsylvania.html

Beer in Pittsburgh

Back in about 1994 (or maybe it was 1995), my husband Jim started to note where to get decent beer in Pittsburgh in a site called Jim's Beer in Pittsburgh. Believe me, if you didn't like to drink crap national brands in a restaurant, you didn't have many choices in those days, beyond one variety of Sam Adams, or maybe Yuengling. Luckily, friends introduced us to the Sharp Edge and Fat Heads so we felt like we had some selection. Jim and I maintained the site for a long time, but as good beer got easier to find, we didn't update it so much. But, it's been up, and despite its lack of updates, it gets about 700 visitors a month.

To be honest, I hadn't really looked at the site in a couple of years.

So, today, I got a note from a person at a bar I'd been to and liked in the last year. I went back and made some site updates. I'll share them with you here, but I liked to go back to the mostly archival Beer in Pittsburgh site and see a little bit about the way things were.

2011: It's been interesting that the number of good beer bars in the Pittsburgh area continues to grow even after restaurant smoking ban (yay!-remember the people who said that would ruin the industry?), the drink tax (boo, but ditto) and during a major recession (double boo). Kudos to the Sharp Edge for opening the best beer bar in downtown Pittsburgh (on Penn, near the pretty decent August Henry's). We've also made a few trips into the Southside to visit places like the DoubleWide Grill, Piper's Pub, and Fathead's. We have made one trip out to Rivertowne, in Monroeville, but haven't gotten to the ones closer to Pittsburgh yet. We thought the beer selection at Jerome Bettis' Grille 36 was much better than
we would have expected.

When you travel Pennsylvania in search of interesting beer, be sure to bring along Lew Bryson's newly updated Pennsylvania Breweries, an engaging look at the places in Pennsylvania that are brewing their own beer.

East End continues to supply craft beer locally.

Probably the most welcome addition to the beer scene has been the Steel City Big Pour, a huge beer and food festival held in early September to benefit Construction Junction. Absolutely worth trying to get tickets for it, but it sells out very rapidly. They've shown they understand how to put a beer festival together and make money at it at the same time.

The main failure over the last few years has been of the Penn Brewery. It closed for a while, and re-opened with a so-so menu, so-so beer, and the single worst beer festival we've ever been to in 2010. They continue to have problems, which is sad. Penn Brewery is a shell of its former self.

Oh, and while I know this is a religious argument to some, I tried and hated-hated-hated Harris Bar's bacon night. Sorry. Bad bacon, bad atmosphere, what's the point?

Pittsburgh's Blog for Equity Day

I'm busy today, so I'll get right to the point:

Consenting, taxpaying adults have the right to live with whomever they want without fear of state-sanctioned prejudice. There will always be bigots out there (that's life), but the law should not practice prejudice, like denying gay folks the right to marry should they so choose.

G-20 - Early Morning Joggers and Some Flicks from "Fortress Pittsburgh"

I'd volunteered a few months ago to help out at the G-20, during a time when I was mostly unemployed. I'd hoped to work in the press center during the week, but I didn't get one of those jobs. I was beginning to think I wouldn't get any job with the G-20, then I got an E-mail to work the 6am-10am shift on 9/25 at the information table at one of the west suburban hotels. At about the same time, I got a really neat part-time contract job, doing various Web work for Chip Walter. So doing a day's volunteering for the G-20 turned out to work well.

I got up very early this morning, and was at the hotel just before 6am. The lobby was still fairly dark, but there a few state troopers and suited men walking around. I quickly found the info table, replenished the freebies from Visit Pittsburgh (mostly maps and local visits guides). There was a binder of various information, including which groups were blocked in each hotel. While I assumed a distant hotel would have the journalists from Wyoming staying at it, this hotel had the delegation from South Africa.

As you might expect, it was pretty dead in the lobby for the first hour. Mostly just security and hotel personnel of various stripes. The first person I greeted turned out to be plain-clothes security and not a South African attache. The next person I tried to talk to spoke to me in Spanish. Luckily, I could say, "Yo hablo muy pecano Espanol" (probably sic - "I speak very little Spanish"), and he laughed and said he didn't speak much English either.

But that meant we probably didn't just have the South African delegation in the hotel. So I went through the binder again, and found we also had the Spanish delegation. I'd had about three years of Spanish in high school, but that was a very long time ago now.

After about an hour, the lobby got very busy very suddenly. About eight Spanish men in jogging clothes and another few in suites came through the lobby and went out the side door. I wasn't sure who was jogging, but I knew typical joggers don't have plainsclothes security.

Some of the South African delegation came into the lobby. I mostly directed people over to the hotel restaurant.

At about 8pm, a woman with a VisitPittsburgh button came over to the desk. Her name was Mina, and she was a Spanish teacher, who'd been providing translation work for the Mexican delegation on Wednesday. I was relieved she was going to be around the rest of the morning. She knew all about Spanish culture and politics. I described what I'd seen earlier, and she said, "Oh that's because President Zapatero is staying here."

A few minutes later, the joggers returned. Mina smiled and said, "Yes, that's the president."

Not long after Mina arrived, another info booth worker, Subash, joined us. Subash worked for the Allegheny Conference, the group that did most of the local coordination for the G-20. We chatted and Subash was sure we'd met before. We concluded that since we live a few miles apart, we've probably seen each other in the local groceries stores.

Very suddenly, the South African delegation was through the lobby so quickly they were practically outside before we saw them, followed by the state troopers. The Spanish delegation came through a few minutes later, and we had enough time to say "Buenos dias," to which the president of Spain said "Gracias." The first ladies of each country left separately a little later with much smaller entourages.

Once it got to be closer to 10, I said goodbye, ran an errand, then went to Ikea to wait for the bus to Pittsburgh. I was curious to see what downtown Pittsburgh was like today. It was a unique experience.

A storefront in downtown opened up a "grafitti zone." After walking all through downtown, I left the "Welcome to Fortress Pittsburgh" note.

A view of Mellon Park through the 8' tall crowd fence.

AlphaGraphics welcomes the world...even though it's closed and boarded up. There were very few businesses in downtown that boarded-up. Maybe only 50 windows were broken, mostly in Bloomfield, Oakland and Shadyside. I don't think there was any damage in downtown itself.

A view of the David Lawrence Convention Center from the Sixth Street Bridge. Many news outlets reported from the balcony.

Another irony alert - Travelers Aid also closed down during the G-20

It was pretty quiet in most of downtown between 11:30 and 1:30. Lots of cops and blocked streets. While I certainly understand why we needed the security, it was a pretty massive show of force (in fact, as I type at 11:05 on Friday night, there's a minor demonstration going on in the college area (Oakland) of Pittsburgh surrounded by about 200 cops).

About the only attaches I saw "outside the secure zone" were some of the Chinese delegates, who had some shopping bags with them as they walked back to their hotel.

I'll probably put up more photos tomorrow or Sunday.

Take a Deep Breath, Pittsburgh...

So the G-20 starts tomorrow and some of the folks in Pittsburgh are already getting hot and bothered. I mean both some of the anti-G20 protesters and some of the law enforcement agencies. If half of what the City Paper reported on yesterday, about the police harassing protesters who were just buying lunch(!), it bodes badly for the next few days.

Law enforcement certainly has the right to keep the delegates to the G-20 reasonably safe. Blocking off the area around the Convention Center makes sense, and, we know, we're going to have rolling roadblocks in from the airport area. Just stay off the Parkway West and avoid driving into town over the next couple of days.

Protesters have the right for peaceable assembly. So far, word is there's no real problem. Most protesters have quickly made their points and gotten out of the way.

I was in Oakland yesterday, and saw many more police than usual. Now, part of that might have had more to do with Bill Gates making an address up at CMU than "showing presence." But there were all kinds of peaceful protests going on in Oakland, mostly small, but still visible. For the most part, law enforcement just let people be.

I've been to about a dozen protests in Washington over the years and a few here in Pittsburgh. I was also at the Inauguration in January, and saw an amazing show of law enforcement. Well over 1,000,000 people came into Washington, and the vast majority were there to celebrate Obama's inauguration. The 300-500 counter-demonstrators were certainly there, they tried to be loud, and they had their little corner to protest in. Law enforcement pretty much left them alone, so long as they stayed in their designated area. Only a couple of people were arrested that day, of over 1,000,000 people who went to Washington. Damage to the city was minor, and mostly to the grass on the Mall.

It is usually a good thing for people in positions of power to get together to talk directly. Yes, I hope they do talk about the Darfur and poverty and climate change and environmental issues and establishing stronger laws over the banking and investment industries. Just let them talk.

Everyone - residents, protesters, law enforcement, just need to take a deep breath before doing anything over-the-top per the next few days. The eyes of the world are watching. We can try to be reasonable adults or reactionary children. If we are truly trying to reinvent Pittsburgh for a new generation, then showing a rational approach to the G-20 is the best thing to do.

NetRoots Nation Saturday

I left NetRoots Nation Thursday (even missing Bill Clinton's speech, which I would have loved to have heard) completely exhausted. After working my three hour airport shift, I went home and collapsed and missed Friday's events (including my cousin Alice's good friend Howard Dean).

So I returned to NetRoots today, and worked three hours at Registration, went to the Keynote Lunch, spent the afternoon videotaping a couple of panels, and am now at the evening Keynote.

The lunchtime keynote was OK, but not quite as forward-looking as I'd hoped. Most of the discussion was "it's better in Europe" and "we need more unionization." While these things are certainly true, they aren't making any new suggestions about how to handle the situation. Where are Paul Krugman and Charlie Stross, who spoke very interestingly on this very topic at Worldcon, when we need them?

After lunch, I was the videographer for a fascinating panel on DOJ extremes during the Bush years (that the Obama folks haven't fixed yet...*sigh*) and a very interesting panel on getting parents more involved in political organizing. I kept having to ask for help, but, luckily, my room was next door to the video office, so it was pretty easy to run next door and ask another stupid question.

At the evening keynote, State Senator Jim Ferlo gave a good speech, reminding us that peacefui assembly during the upcoming G20 meeting in Pittsburgh is Constitutionally protected - "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." - Benjamin Franklin. The city is way overreacting, saying that protests A MILE AWAY from the Convention Center during the G20 are forbidden. Much as I do believe that the G209 should continue unimpeded by disruptions, peaceful assembly is not disruptive. I'm very much opposed to muzzling peaceful protest.

Thursday, August 13 - Live from NetRoots Nation in the 'Burgh!

After spending some time helping run my Dad's 80th birthday, vacationing in Canada, then helping run the World Science Fiction Convention in Montreal, I'm back in Pittsburgh. My next "I'm underemployed and I'm bored!" project is working as a local volunteer for NetRoots Nation, which is here in Pittsburgh through Saturday. I've already linked up with "Drinking Liberally" and told them where they should go to drink.

I worked with another woman delivering today's tent cards to various panel rooms this morning, then helped out with Registration for a few hours. I'm now on a break, testing out the Acer WebBook in the exshibit hall.

While I have been fairly inactive on this blog for the last few weeks, due to doing work for Worldcon, I'm a proud liberal blogger and was delighted to hear that NetRoots was coming to Pittsburgh. I hope to make some contacts (beyond the "Drinking Liberally" folks!)

Brainstorming for the G-20 in Pittsburgh

The local organization leading the organization for the G-20 in Pittsburgh this September is a group called the Allegheny Conference. They decided to have a series of brainstorming sessions and invite the public to them, to generate ideas for further discussion.

On paper, this is a great idea. And, to a degree, it was. There were some incredibly good ideas proposed, including:

• Student ambassadors to observe and report on the proceedings (this from a high school student)


• Welcome banners and audio greetings in all of the languages spoken by members of the G-20


• A whole month of activities around the countries of the G-20, focusing on each of the countries and stressing educational programs


• Various ways to present the arts and music of Pittsburgh


• Stressing Pittsburgh's leadership as a green city


• Name badges for Pittsburghers with the flags representing the country of whatever foreign language the person speaks


• An event featuring foods prepared by foreign-born chefs who cook at Pittsburgh-area restaurants

But, an awful lot of the ideas started off with, "Hi, I'm X my company is Y, we make Z and here's how we can offer Z to the people coming to Pittsburgh for the G-20."

As a result, there was very little actual brainstorming. Almost no one's ideas seemed to spark other people's ideas, and that was somewhat disappointing. During the first brainstorming session at Point Park last week, 57 ideas were generated. At ours, I'm sure it was less than that because it was more about selling than idea generation.

I came up with some ideas, and presented them this way: "Hi, I'm Laurie Mann, I'm a blogger and I have nothing to sell. I just have a couple of ideas." My suggestions were to make sure that the G-20 uses the lovely rooftop terrace at the Convention Center. I'd been going to events there for years before I stumbled over the terrace at one event, which was being used informally that day. It has a great view of the city, the Allegheny River and the bridges. It's basically an unappreciated gem of the city. My other suggestion was to use some of the empty storefronts along Penn and Liberty as art galleries for students, robot makers and filmmakers.

There will be one last public brainstorming at the University of Pittsburgh, Alumni Hall in the Connolly Ballroom from 5:30-7:00 tonight (Tuesday, June 23).

Hey KDKA Radio - Why Can't You Cover Local News Competently Anymore??

We usually go over to Bocktown Beer and Grill for dinner and the Wednesday beer tasting. After that, the plan was to go out to Friendship to attend a planning meeting for Confluence.

When we got to Bocktown, it was threatening but not raining. By the time we got our beer, we could hear the loud thunder overhead. As we sat in the back, we couldn't see the storm, but it had gotten very dark outside in a hurry.

By about 6:15, we were done eating and went to the front of the bar to try some Abita beer. It was raining so hard that that we couldn't see the parking lot from the front windows. The rain was coming in sideways, and the wind whipped up for a while. Lots of lightning and thunder. The rain and lightning were so heavy that we didn't dare go to our car.

Unfortunately, some of the Bocktown staff were out on the partially covered patio. By the time they got in, they were completely drenched.

We watched the rain for a while. Then, it lightened up slightly and the torrents calmed to mere rain. Even though the storm was going east, and we were going to be following it, we figured it was probably safe to drive to Friendship. According to KDKA radio, there were severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings for our area. While the severe thunderstorms were obvious, the tornadoes weren't as the wind wasn't too bad and we hadn't seen any hail. But, following the standard news/weather check, KDKA went back to its regular talk shows. So KDKA did not view the situation as particularly dangerous. We changed the channel and listened to classical WQED instead of listening what passes for talk.

As we approached the city, we were back in the heavy rain again. Usually, we take Bigelow Blvd. to go to Friendship, but there's a tendency for rockslides in the heavy rain. I chose to go through Oakland. After all, most of the students were gone - how bad could the traffic be?

Oakland had a horrible traffic jam. It took us nearly a half hour to go about a mile. And we couldn't figure out why. We kept switching between "news radio" KDKA and WQED, the classical music station. KDKA had no specifics - their 7:30 "news" show lasted about 30 second before it went back to standard talk radio bloviation.

As we got through the Forbes/Bigelow intersection, we suddenly saw why the traffic was so horrible in Oakland - street flooding in front of Carnegie Hall. I thought I could get through it. Jim insisted that I could not. So, I pulled a U-turn (highly illegal) and got back to the road between the parking lot and the library (going the wrong way briefly; luckily, the PAT bus let me go by). Many cars were stopping, and the sounds of police sirens were louder than the thunder.

There was street flooding on that street too. However, it didn't look as bad, and past that bit of flooding was higher ground. I slowly drove through the flooding and turned left past the library to make the relative safety of Schenley Park. We drove up the hill and parked by Baker Hall at Carnegie Mellon so we could hit a bathroom and consider our options. Running the 50 yards from our car to the hall made us both completely wet.

Several people were standing by the door of Baker Hall, trying to figure out the best thing to do. We visited the bathrooms and waited for the rain/lightning to calm down. After about another ten minutes, it did. The woman who was left said she'd parked her car in Schenley Park and wasn't looking forward to walking to her car. We offered her a ride. There were branches down but it was not as bad as after the tornado in 1998. There was also minor street flooding in Schenley Park - maybe 1-2 inches rather than the 6 inches we saw in Oakland. We dropped the professor off at her car, and decided it was safer to skip the meeting and go home. We drove through Squirrel Hill to get to the parkway.

While KDKA continued favoring talk show crap over actually reporting the news, we felt lucky to find that Squirrel Hill didn't have the flooding of Oakland. The only street flooding we saw was near the parkway entrance. The rest of our trip was uneventful, and we finally got home a little before 9.

KDKA ought to be ashamed of itself for the way its "local breaking news" was so completely useless during this storm. I remember back in 1998, the same station focused on the local wind and rain damage following the Mt. Washington tornado. This time, "news" station KDKA provided almost no local news. So much for helping the public. If stations like KDKA were still reporting local news rather than blathering on, it would have been much more helpful. Luckily, it sounds like no one was seriously injured last night, but there were apparently dozens of cars stuck in flooded areas all over eastern Allegheny county.

Report from Barack Obama's Pittsburgh Rally

I had the opportunity to volunteer for the Barack Obama rally in Pittsburgh on Monday. A local organizer connected me to Sally Matts, so we could commute together to Pittsburgh.

We took the 28X into town and got up to the Mellon Arena a little after 1. A long line had already formed:

Beginning:



Towards the end:



In the middle:



The line extended for several blocks (up past St. Benedict the Moor church for the folks familiar with the area).

We waited around while the staff got the volunteers organized. That took a while. They wanted most of us to encourage the attendees to sign up to help Get Out the Vote over the weekend...but ran out of clipboards before Sally and I got them.

I've worked all kinds of events, and one thing that was really clear from this one is that there was inadequate signage. I walked around a little, and suggested to Sally that we invent a job for ourselves. We decided to escort handicapped attendees up to the handicapped entrance, which was on the far side of the Mellon Arena from the main street entrance. We talked to a staffer who agreed that was a good idea.

So we stood about midway up the hill to the Arena, where the entrance road and the parking lot meet. When we saw someone who seemed to be having trouble, we brought them up to the handicapped entrance.

This was tricky (of course). The sidewalk was blocked off in places, so we'd direct people in wheelchairs to the adjacent road. There were surprisingly few cuts through the curb for wheelchairs. The one closest to the handicapped entrance had a car parked in front if it illegally. Luckily, there was still enough space around the car that people in mobies could get back up onto the sidewalk.

And then, someone who was either with the fire department or the TSA (not sure which) parked in front of the illegally parked car in such a way that we could no longer get handicapped attendees up the ramp and back onto the sidewalk. I went to him and said, "Um, excuse me, sir? Could you push ahead a little so we could get people back on the sidewalk?"

He growled at me a little, and went off in search of the person who was parking illegally. Luckily, he found the person pretty fast, the person drove away, and the cops stuck a sawhorse in front of the ramp so no one could park in the way.

Sally got cold and went inside. I begged her to save me a seat and she did.

I managed to stay outside until about 4:30, when I got too cold and had to go in. The speeches were due to start at 5, but I figured Obama would be running late. I found another volunteer and got him to help bring handicapped attendees up to the special entrance.

I hit the bathroom, bought some "dinner" (hot dog and popcorn) and found Sally. She'd saved great seats not too far from the podium and off the floor in the staff area. The Arena seats 17,000 for hockey games. While there was a floor over the ice, there floor wasn't completely filled up by people (the press area was spacious and not filled). Not every fixed seat in the arena was filled either. I'd estimate there were between 14,000 and 15,000 in the arena, a good crowd given it was a weekday, the weather was cold, and we'd only heard about this on Friday.

The TV camera area was towards our right:



The floor and the podium were towards our left, just to the left of all those supporters who were standing:



The rally was due to start at 5. The weird thing was that the rally started at about 4:45. Rallies almost never start early. Governor Ed Rendell, Senator Bob Casey and local Congressional Representative Mike Doyle gave short speeches. Then there was nearly a half hour of recorded music (and I don't think the writers/performers have asked Obama not to use it, unlike some other campaigns I could mention).

Just before 5:30, Steeler president Dan Rooney came out to introduce Barack Obama. When Obama came onstage, the cheers were deafening. Rooney handed him a Steelers' jersey:



Sally Matts foreground, Barack Obama background



I've heard Obama speak on TV a number of times. While he's often a little stiff, he speaks very intelligently, unlike your average politician. He sounds like he's thinking about what he's saying and not just repeating sound bites or blurting out something wildly inappropriate. It was definitely worthwhile to hear him speak in person. Yeah, there were bits and pieces of his standard stump speech and his Democratic National Convention speech, but he seems to adapt it slightly for his audience.





Obama's speech, which lasted about a half hour, hit all the right notes. People were still coming in, half-way through his speech. The audience was enthusiastic. There were only one or two hecklers. Everyone was welcome to this rally (no tickets, no vetting by local Democrats). The fact there were so few Republican intrusions was indicative of the fact that McCain/Palin don't have as much support in Pittsburgh as they'd like to pretend (when they were in Western Pennsylvania last week, McCain drew about 4,400 people and Palin about 2,000). The Democratic vote in and near the main cities usually exceeds the Republican vote in the rural parts of the state, and I hope this will be true this year.

It was a great rally!

My favorite sign:



After his speech, Obama went down on the floor to shake hands. Sally and I decided we'd just as soon find the bus and get home, which we did.

I took a test this morning which I saw in adelheid-p's Live Journal.

You Should Be Allowed to Vote

You got 15/15 questions correct. Generally speaking, you're very well informed. If you vote this election, you'll know exactly who (and what) you'll be voting for. You're likely to have strong opinions, and you have the facts to back them up.

Should You Be Allowed to Vote?

There's only one more thing to say: VOTE!!!!!!

Meeting Up with Other Bloggers

I've missed the last few Pittsburgh Blogfests, but I was at the next one, which was Thursday, November 8 at Finnegans Wake on the North side. It's fun to meet up with the people you read online.

I mostly hung out with my friends Christina and Vanessa. WTAE was there too, and I'm in the background of some of the early shots. Blogfest diva Cindy Closkey was the primary interview.

Sadly, Christina and Vanessa were a bit on the camera-shy side so they left when the video camera started rolling. I talked to Rob from Unspace and Dayvoe from 2 Political Junkies. We were joined by Jennifer Angelo (GermCircus). Cindy Closkey (My Brilliant Mistakes) brought a cake, as we were celebrating the third anniversary of blogfest. I had to leave before they cut the cake, as I had plans to go to CMU to see Golden Boy.

Banning the Smoking Ban Again *groan*

In an effort to get Pittsburgh to join the late 20th century, county council passed a law to ban smoking in most public places (especially restaurants and bars). This ban has now been held up twice by a couple of restaurant/bar owners who believe the ban would be detrimental to business.

Now, let's examine for a moment the establishments who are causing Allegheny county restaurant/bar patrons to stay firmly in the smoke of the 20th century.

I've never been to Mitchell's Tavern, and now I never will. I've been to the Smithfield Cafe one time, but the food was mediocre and even the non-smoking section reeked of smoke. I won't go back for any reason.

If every non-smoker who wants clean air in Allegheny county restaurants and bars would boycott places like Mitchell's and the Smithfield Cafe, maybe the completely clueless owners would understand that a smokefree bar could help business.

Most bars and restaurants in most areas that have gone non-smoking have more business, not less. But let's not confuse the smoking ban foes with facts.

In the meantime, I'm going to Bocktown Beer and Grill so I won't have to worry about the smoke. The Bocktown owner has the sense to be in front of the curve about not subjecting her patrons to smoke.

Stunning Performances by the Pittsburgh Symphony and Violinist Julia Fischer

Jim and I try to go to the Pittsburgh Symphony once or twice a year. We bought tickets to four concerts this season and have really lucked out with our selections.

Last night, we heard the sublime violinist Julia Fischer perform the Beethoven Violin Concerto.

We're frankly not up on the current crop of classical performers. We had no idea who Julia Fischer was. We know now. To say she and the symphony were superb last night do neither of them justice.

The Beethoven Violin Concerto is the sort of classical piece we've all heard snippets of. It is a fairly long and challenging piece, for the orchestra as well as the violinist. They were all beyond wonderful last night.

I know that the Brahms piece in the second part of the concert was recorded; I wonder if the violin concerto was because I'd run out and buy that without hesitation once it is released.

Oh to Be in Pittsburgh Today! (July 6, 2004)

Wow, it's been a very long and very interesting day.

Our alarm clock went off at 5am. Now, many days, I'm awake that early, but usually that means I'll wander downstairs and do stuff on the computer until I really wake up (along about 6:30). Today, I had to shower, dress, grab some breakfast and be out the door by 5:30 so I could get to the trolley. I was in Market Sq by 6:15 as I'd volunteered to work on John Kerry's rally, and we volunteers had to be there early. My first job was to be a gopher and run over to a hotel to pick up a suit for the volunteer manager. By the time I got back, I was assigned to help with getting the lines through the metal detectors. As the rally started, I was passing out flags.
There were short speeches by former Steeler Franco Harris, and by Congressman Mike Doyle.

Franco Harris at the Kerry Rally

Since I'd been out of the square most of the morning, I didn't hear any rumors about whether the VP announcement was happening and, if it was going to happen, who it would be. But as John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry took to the stage, I saw a very good looking man backstage who looked like John Edwards. I called Jim on my cell phone "It's Edwards! I'm looking at John Edwards!" I shot the man a major thumbs up.

"CNN had that 20 minutes ago..." he said. (When I later read my E-mail, I was delighted to find that my message from the Kerry campaign was E-mailed to me before the rally.)

Oh well. So much for being an "insider." And it turned out that very good-looking man wasn't John Edwards, it was John Kerry's chief of staff, who looks like a taller version of John Edwards.

John Kerry Addresses the Audience in Pittsburgh

Teresa Heinz Kerry at the Kerry Rally

When Kerry announced John Edwards as his running mate, the crowd went wild. It was great. It's very ironic that the Republicans, of all people, are calling Edwards inexperienced. Compare Edwards professional successes to Bush's professional failures (including his presidency).

I passed out some of the first Kerry Edwards T-shirts, taking one for myself, of course! There were only about 200 or so T-shirt for the 4,000+ folks in Market Sq - believe me, they were hot items.

Modelling a First Edition Kerry Edwards T-Shirt!

A quick note on numbers - some of the media reported that there were only 500 people attending. I helped collect numbers and we counted somewhere around 2,000 before gates were pretty much opened. So I'm guessing we had
in the 4,000-5,000 range. One Kerry staffer later said we had 8,000 - 10,0000 and that
it was bigger than any other rally ever in Market Square. People running rallys tend to overestimate. I was in Market Square for the Pittsburgh Pirates rally in 1979 and I'm sure there were more people in the square in 1979 for that particular rally. There were only about 20 counter-demonstrators at the Market Sq. rally.

After the rally, I went over to help out behind the stage had to help hold down the curtain in the wind. As I was holding down the curtain, Senator Kerry stopped by. So I shook his hand, wished him good luck and said, "Hey, I'm from Massachusetts and I know John Kerry!" He smiled. I only regret I couldn't get my camera at that moment.

Actually, it turned out I did briefly let go of the curtain long enough to try to snap a photo (this photo was either from AP or Reuters, and I'm the headless person in the background). Unfortunately, the photo I was trying to take didn't come out, and then Kerry had to take a phone call from one of his daughters so he left the area.

I went to work for a while (one of the joys of working part time in downtown), and decided to go out to the Edwards rally at the airport in the late afternoon.

Suprisingly ontime, the Edwards jet landed, and, within a few minutes, Senator John Edwards and his wife Elizabeth came over to great the crowd of about 300. Maybe it was because I had the Kerry/Edwards shirt, I was one of the first people he greeted! I joked with them that when Jim and I got married in 1977 (same year they did), we did have enough money to pay for our hotel room... I hadn't seen Elizabeth Edwards before, but she seemed extremely nice. I hear she's also a fine lawyer herself.

John Edwards Meets the Crowd at the Old Pittsburgh Airport

Elizabeth Edwards on the Windy Tarmac

About 200-300 people went to the airport rally, and there might have been 100 media reps of various types. I didn't see any counter-demontrators there at all.

After spending many hours doing political things, I went to the Kerry Meet-up that was happening at the Church Brew Works. I got there early, grabbed a table, and chatted with a number of people (including my boss's step-daughter - it took us a few minutes to remember where we'd seen one another before). I had a fine time until it got too smokey, and will probably have more to say about it later.

A Letter to the Editor on the Philadelphia Convention Center

The Post-Gazette published a lengthy letter I wrote
in response to an article on the Philadelphia Convention
Center. Here's the letter:

As a volunteer planner of science fiction conventions, I was not at all surprised to read "Bookings Fall at Philadelphia Convention Center" (July 7). I worked on a conference at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia late last summer, and while our conference did get off in a timely manner, it cost thousands of extra dollars in labor fees.

We were required to rent equipment at high prices that we could have brought to the convention for free or rented more cheaply elsewhere. Dealing with that convention center involved more aggravation than I have seen in 25 years of working on conferences across the country.

The article makes one erroneous point: "The center runs the risk of attracting only military, educational, religious and social organizations."

The Philadelphia center may not even attract many of these types of organizations in the future. I worked on a conference for a nonprofit organization in Philadelphia, and, as far as I can tell, we were charged as much as any corporation would have been.

On paper, the Philadelphia center is a convention-ideal site. When prospective convention planners visit the site, it looks perfect from the street. The convention center has great facilities, is adjacent to Reading Terminal Market and Chinatown and has many hotels within three blocks. But I know many of us who have dealt with the center would rather not do so in the future, no matter how great the site looks.

The Pittsburgh convention center can learn some valuable lessons from the problems in Philadelphia. Although the Pittsburgh center has a lot of potential, it has an additional problem: the location of the convention center. The city needs to understand that the area around the convention center must be redeveloped to help attract more convention business.

While our new convention center will look terrific from the river, visitors look for street appeal. They look for nearby restaurants and hotels.

With the exception of the Westin Convention Center hotel (which is a wonderful hotel with one of the best restaurants in town), there isn't another hotel for at least three blocks.

People doing planning for Downtown Pittsburgh should quit ignoring the area around the convention center and start thinking about how to attract conventions to the city.

Unfortunately, the city of Pittsburgh has done little to make potential convention attendees want to stay in the convention center area.

LAURIE D.T. MANN
Mt. Lebanon


Here's the link:

http://www.post-gazette.com/forum/letters/20020717lets0717p1.asp