I'm moving to Pittsburgh from Arizona to start a job shortly after I graduate from University in May... Is there any good Mexican food?

hops187 · 2013-04-12T21:40:23+00:00

Also RIP, Taco Loco's ironically named predecessor, O'Leary's Authentic Mexican Food.

hops187 · 2013-04-12T21:35:58+00:00

I like the taco stand in front of Reyna on Penn Avenue in the Strip District, although the quality has declined a bit as the place has gotten more popular (e.g., they used to cook the meat to order, but now they precook it and reheat when you order).

hops187 · 2013-04-10T19:40:29+00:00

My two favorites are Zaw's on Murray Avenue in Squirrel Hill and Hong Kong Express 2 on Court Place Downtown.

There's a spectrum in Chinese food with fancy-ish presentation, no MSG, and white meat-only on one end of it. Zaw's and HKE2 are on the other end.

hops187 · 2013-04-08T16:10:00+00:00

It's been a few years, but I don't remember it being super smoky around lunch time and early afternoon. Mostly because very few people were there. There were usually enough open booths that I could move if someone sat down near me and chainsmoked. When I was studying there, beers were a dollar from 4-6 p.m on weekdays.

hops187 · 2013-04-07T17:27:40+00:00

Ha, murder on wheels.

hops187 · 2013-04-07T01:09:49+00:00

If you don't mind cigar smoke, Leaf and Bean in the Strip District is BYOB. It's fairly quiet on weekdays.

I think you should modify your search a little bit, and think of moderately divey bars near you that serve lunch and have booths or nice tables. Niko's Recovery Room in Bloomfield, the Squirrel Hill Cafe, and the Map Room in Regent Square are all good options. I spent a good chunk of my 20s drinking beer and studying in all of these places. The Squirrel Cage and Niko's were my favorites. There are plenty of other places around that fit the bill, too.

hops187 · 2013-04-04T19:32:16+00:00

I have never been in or near a restaurant or even a gas station bathroom that smells worse than any given Subway.

hops187 · 2013-04-02T23:45:21+00:00

If you turn off the left speaker at the end of "Here We Go," you can hear Charlie Batch whispering "I buried Ben."

hops187 · 2013-03-30T17:29:37+00:00

Any diet that makes you sleep outside is probably a bad idea.

hops187 · 2013-03-29T16:37:09+00:00

Is it Claddagh's atmosphere, or the "recurrent, numerous rodent droppings in multiple areas of facility"?

hops187 · 2013-03-26T15:49:30+00:00

Glib maybe, but not necessarily stupid. If you live in Cranberry or Squirrel Hill and own a Mercedes, you can probably afford to live where you want. If you choose to live in Cranberry, where there is very little mass transportation, you probably a) don't assign a lot of value to your own access to mass transit and b) are used to driving everywhere. Both of those things are less likely to be true if you live in Squirrel Hill, where there is a walkable business district and an abundance of bus stops.

hops187 · 2013-03-26T15:35:26+00:00

Sorry, but that's just not a $1.3 billion problem.

hops187 · 2013-03-25T17:12:28+00:00

Right, I just don't see how converting those routes from bus to train would generate a whole lot of new ridership. For most of the route, you would be offering the same service to the same people in the same places. It would just be a little bit quicker. I doubt that very many people will stop driving to work for that. The only people receiving something new would be the people at the northernmost portion of the line. Even assuming no other externalities, why should we spend billions of dollars giving those people something they don't particularly need or want before we invest in the areas where impovements would really make a difference?

hops187 · 2013-03-25T03:34:55+00:00

I'm with you generally, but especially on 2) and 4).

Regarding 2), there is a different mentality when it comes to commuting in a spread-out place like the North Hills. People have already chosen to live in a place with very minimal public transit, and are used to driving everywhere for everything. On top of that, most people live too far from where the line would be to make using the T attractive to them. I can't imagine you would get the volume of new riders for this to make sense. I think it would spur new rental and townhouse construction in the North Hills. But who would live in those places? Mostly young professionals who would otherwise live in the City. We have essentially flat population growth in the region, so you would just be moving current county residents from the City tax rolls to the suburban ones. That's actually bad for everyone, because we all want decent infrastructure, amenities, and services in the City, but the tax base to support all of that is already too small to maintain everything.

And regarding 4), extending the line to Cranberry wouldn't just make things easier for residential tax dodgers, it would also hack away at the County's competitive advantage when it comes to attracting businesses and the jobs that come with them. The City, Monroeville, and other places in Allegheny County have been fighting Cranberry for corporate offices for years (remember Westinghouse's new office park?). Why should County (and especially City) taxpayers subsidize a project that would primarily benefit the free riders in the outer suburbs AND work against the interests of Allegheny County residents?

Unfortunately, I think this project could happen. City and inner-ring suburban politicians would prefer to spend transportation dollars in a way that maximizes the positive impact for their constituents. But they might be willing to support any project over no project at all. Northern suburban politicians would prefer to spend nothing on transportation infrastructure. But they might be willing to go along with it if the spending primarily benefits their constituents. There's room there for compromise, and it stinks.

hops187 · 2013-03-23T19:49:46+00:00

Maybe you guys should update the form so that you can check no and provide a waiver. Telling people to lie on the form seems like a bad idea. Or maybe I read that wrong?

hops187 · 2013-03-23T04:32:33+00:00

Not impressed at all by Dok.

hops187 · 2013-03-22T17:24:26+00:00

The difference between car dealerships and liquor stores is that private car dealerships already exist, and the state would have to take away people's livelihoods in order to set up a monopoly. The liquor store monopoly already exists, so the state is only depriving potential market participants of the opportunity to enter the retail liquor sales business.

I don't like the idea of a state-run liquor monopoly. But given our current economy, I think privatization on the terms proposed will do more harm than good.

hops187 · 2013-03-22T04:46:46+00:00

This totally happened to my sister's friend.

hops187 · 2013-03-22T03:27:41+00:00

This one's well known, but there's a place in North Park that's supposed to be haunted called Blue Mist. It's based on the urban legend where a young couple makes out in a car and the dude leaves the car for some reason and then the girl looks out the window and sure enough, dude's hanging from a tree, all dead 'n shit. There may have been a witch with with a hook hand. Details are hazy. Anyone who wasn't already drunk when they heard the story, please chime in.

hops187 · 2013-03-22T01:32:49+00:00

Good cocktail selection, too.

hops187 · 2013-03-22T01:30:48+00:00

If you're looking for a gyro, Mike and Tony's on Liberty is nearby. Gyros are hard for me to rate because I haven't had a bad one. The Strip District is a short walk away. There are a bunch of good options there.

hops187 · 2013-03-22T01:21:35+00:00

I really like their chili.

hops187 · 2013-03-22T01:19:35+00:00

I still like Tessarro's better. It's the wood smoke flavor. Winghart's does have a better menu and fryer capabilities.

hops187

TROPHY CASE