This morning’s tour of the Hill District with Terri Baltimore hit me in a way I didn’t expect. I knew we were going to learn about history, community development, and all that important stuff. But what surprised me was how familiar the neighborhood felt. Not familiar in the sense that I’d been there before, but familiar in the way certain parts of LA feel when you’re walking through them. The Hill District doesn’t look like the shiny, polished parts of Pittsburgh we’ve been exploring. It’s older, quieter, and honestly a lot less affluent. But it has its own unique story and the kind of people that reminded me of home.
As Terri talked about the painful moments in the Hill’s history, I kept thinking about neighborhoods in LA that went through the same thing. Places people call “ghetto” or “hood,” even though those labels never capture the real culture or the people who live there. The Hill District had that same energy, a place with many misconceptions, but with much character and life. You could feel the pride in the way Terri spoke about the community, the way she pointed out murals, old gathering spots, and buildings that still hold memories.
Walking around, I realized how much a neighborhood’s success depends on who gets to shape its future. Terri made it clear that the Hill District’s strongest moments came from within. Even the residents fought for their own vision instead of letting someone else define it. Growing up around places where culture is ever abundant, I understood exactly the importance of keeping that culture and uniqueness of a neighborhood. A neighborhood thrives when the people who live there get to decide what it becomes. Not developers or outsiders. The people who call it home.
By the end of the tour, I wasn’t just thinking about community development or the prompt we were given. I was thinking about how places that look “rough” to some people can feel comforting to others. The Hill District didn’t feel foreign to me. It felt like the kind of place where stories matter more than how nice or rich the buildings look. This tour made me appreciate Pittsburgh in a new way. Not just the clean, modern parts, but the neighborhoods that carry history the same way LA does.
Now to get to the fun part of my blog… I ended the day with so much volleyball on the Cathedral lawn that I came back to the dorm with scratches and bruises that can only be explained as a bear attack. Time has been passing so fast that the only way I can tell almost two weeks have gone by is from the exhaustion that comes from how full my days are. Most nights, whether I’m doing random side quests with my roommates or playing unhealthy amounts of volleyball, I’m too tired to even remember what my life was like in California before coming here. Every once in a while, though, those In‑N‑Out cravings start to kick in, and you miss home just a little bit. But for the most part, I’m having the time of my life, and I’m so grateful to have some of the best roommates I could ask for.