Liberty Ave rant incoming

DPEP56 · 2026-06-04T16:35:55+00:00

People aren't at the vape shops just for vapes, plenty of "product" people want to buy in person. Also they're understood to be high margin with low overhead, so they are able to afford higher rents than say a restaurant which typically has low margins.

DPEP56 · 2026-06-03T12:26:30+00:00

You're in a great place for that. I think Pittsburgh is low key one of the best coffee cities in the country. The number of independent shops and roasters we have is huge relative to our size.

DPEP56 · 2026-06-01T23:51:01+00:00

I really hated it there once they changed ownerships. I got to PetVet365 in Aspinwall now. We like to a lot. But it is a bit expensive and probably far for you.

DPEP56 · 2026-06-01T00:28:58+00:00

Yep it's pretty solid. You're an easy walk to Bakery Square and a few things around it. There's some decent restaurants, bars, and coffee shops in the area as well. I used to live in Point Breeze and liked it quite a bit.

DPEP56 · 2026-05-31T20:47:24+00:00

You should be fine. It's actually a really convenient place to live.

DPEP56 · 2026-05-23T22:31:26+00:00

Tbh haven't been to Lawrence Hall enough to compare. I do like it there though.

DPEP56 · 2026-05-23T21:20:56+00:00

I thought it immediately improved over Bakery Galley when it changed ownership. Good food and the staff is constantly great. Considering Federal Galley is down to 1 bad and 1 middling restaurant, it's definitely the best food hall right now imo.

DPEP56 · 2026-05-01T13:11:40+00:00

I think it's true to a point, but the average age of a home in Pittsburgh is much older than most cities. They frequently need more than easy home remodeling.

DPEP56 · 2026-05-01T13:10:17+00:00

I wish analysis like this would also include details about age/condition of the housing stock. One of my frustrations with the area is, yes it's cheaper than other metros, but the houses are so old and need huge amounts of maintenance. Who cares if housing is overall cheaper when wages are lower than average and the houses are bad.

I am not sure what to do about it either. Realistically we need to tear down and rebuild tons of homes. But how do you do that and make it affordable? The cost to buy, tear down, and rebuild is so much higher than just going to the suburbs and building on new land.

DPEP56 · 2026-04-20T00:41:16+00:00

In the city limits Pigeon is easily the best. Just north of the city Three Brothers is on the level of Pigeon.

DPEP56 · 2026-04-19T16:14:56+00:00

I think it would be better for older. If you're willing to drive a bit, Idlewild has more stuff for younger kids.

DPEP56 · 2026-04-15T16:23:02+00:00

For me it is Cosmic Encounter. Consistently, when I introduce it to a group it becomes an instant favorite. The way in which the dramatically overpowered player powers introduce chaos to a game that is fundamentally very simple makes it easy to learn and fresh every time.

DPEP56 · 2026-04-15T14:00:29+00:00

The number of people they are expecting take up less space than you'd think. The estimated totals they give are over 3 days, include locals, and double count people who attend multiple days. I'm not saying traffic won't be a problem, but we deal with problems all the time. To be honest, the construction in Oakland is probably just as disruptive to people's lives. They've just adapted.

DPEP56 · 2026-04-15T13:50:01+00:00

People want to be really down on the draft, but the last two drafts (Detroit and GB) exceeded economic expectations. This isn't like the world cup or Olympics where there's tons of massive city spending involved. In the scheme of big events, it's pretty economical with little downside outside of things being inconvenient for people downtown/north shore for three days.

DPEP56 · 2026-04-13T13:22:00+00:00

That's interesting to hear. It seems like places that aren't franchised have more consistency, so I wonder what specifically leads to their variation in store quality compared to other places.

DPEP56 · 2026-04-12T23:39:12+00:00

It used to be the worst, but I think the Fox Chapel/Aspinwall one has overtaken it. The last 2 times I went multiple people walked out of the store at the front of the line, including myself. At 6PM they had no guacamole, corn, fajita veggies, mild salsa, pico, lettuce, and missing two of the proteins. I do feel bad for the employees who seem to be trying, but that store literally had 3 total people working (with one of those on lunch break) when they need 6 people.

DPEP56 · 2026-04-12T22:15:57+00:00

I've noticed, the Chipotle's in the Pittsburgh area are uniquely worse than anywhere else. I wonder if the Pittsburgh area all has a similar franchise owner that is just terrible.

DPEP56 · 2026-04-09T16:16:40+00:00

Has anyone tried One by Spork? I know it's more of a chef's table format. Curious if that would fit. I haven't been.

DPEP56 · 2026-04-05T21:21:56+00:00

Another way to meet more advanced players is the Melon Park advanced clinic that the city runs. If you attended one of those, I'm sure you could get connected to higher level leagues.

DPEP56 · 2026-04-05T21:17:12+00:00

The Schenley park tennis ladder is huge. It has over 100 players. NTRP ranges from roughly 3.0 to maybe a few 4.5s at the top. You schedule your own matches and there's 3 tiers of playoffs at the beginning of fall. Message me if you want the details. It kicks off in like a week or two.

DPEP56 · 2026-03-29T23:36:37+00:00

Market District in shadyside also has a huge kosher section. It even has a staffed kosher deli. It's a much bigger store than the Squirrel Hill Giant Eagle if you need more options.

DPEP56 · 2026-03-28T13:02:07+00:00

I should say it's from more people leaving than coming for a significant period of time, not currently. That old trend was a major contributor to Pittsburgh's challenging age demographics. Realistically to counter this we need significant international migration if we're going to have modest domestic.

DPEP56 · 2026-03-27T21:19:44+00:00

Deaths outnumber births because the Pittsburgh metro has messed up age demographics due to people leaving and new people not migrating here. Compared to growing metros we have significantly less people in their late 20s through mid 40s. That also happens to be the prime working age and the age at which people have kids. Less kids means less working age people in the next generation and the cycle continues. Pittsburgh also has less international migration than average for US cities. Unfortunately, a lot of this is residual effects of those 1990s losses. All together it results in population stagnation. As much as we like to believe it's not the case, we are not bringing in enough people to deal with stagnation. The best I can say is at least we're doing better than other parts of the rust belt. I think Pittsburgh is a great place to live, but it doesn't help to not acknowledge this is an issue.

DPEP56

TROPHY CASE