This weekend, our group had the opportunity to explore more of Pittsburgh, specifically through a tour of the historic city steps in Fineview and a visit to the Nationality Rooms. These experiences helped me better understand Pittsburgh’s culture and strengths as a community.

The step tour was extremely informative and interesting. It was fascinating to hear the history behind them and how they were once a vital part of everyday life in the city. Due to Pittsburgh’s famously hilly terrain, there was a time when these steps were essential to transportation and making the city walkable. When Pittsburgh was one of the ten most populated cities in the United States, the city needed to expand, both in housing and in jobs. As people began settling in areas with higher elevation, large staircases were built to connect them to the rest of the city. In fact, because of this, Pittsburgh now has the most stairways of any city in America.

The stairways, beyond themselves, showed the ability of the Pittsburgh people to adapt to their environment. Rather than being limited by the terrain, they engineered creative solutions to grow and thrive. While the popularization of cars eventually reduced the everyday need for the steps, they did not lose all of their value. Many locals still use them today for walking dogs, daily workouts, or simply enjoying a more walkable neighborhood.

However, the neighborhoods with old steps face a number of issues with the staircases. Many of the stairs are old and expensive to maintain. As a solution, neighborhood groups and volunteers have taken it upon themselves to preserve and modernize the stairs. The communities have added artwork to make them more interesting, and also added innovative engineering solutions, like building staircases with removable parts to simplify future repairs.

Even though Pittsburgh is no longer the industrial city it once was, it has kept its character and ability to adapt. The city’s population has been reduced to approximately half of its peak, and some neighborhoods, especially those built on hills, are less populated than they once were. Still, the people in these communities continue to find ways to make the most of what the city has, even through simple things like stairs.

This reminded me of Carrigart, the town we are working with for our group project. While Pittsburgh and Carrigart are vastly different at first glance, Carrigart also faces the challenge of a diminishing population and has to find creative ways to adapt to the modern world.

With all these experiences over the past week in the Haller Program, I have realized the importance of adaptability. Our tour around the Pittsburgh stairs in Fineview reinforced ideas from discussions with people such as Tierra Thorne, who also adapted to a difficult situation with the pandemic.

In addition to the tours, we spent some time walking and driving around the city, which included visiting the Northside Festival. There were a number of people from the surrounding communities, and it was interesting to further explore the local culture of Pittsburgh. Our weekend exploration of Pittsburgh made me appreciate the city more and realize how various communities make do with the various issues they deal with.