Pittsburgh has always been a city pulled in opposite directions.
It’s built around the natural wonder of two rivers coming together to birth a new waterway, but it was built by vital industries that obscured the sky and belched pollution for decades.
It’s the home of ground-breaking, enviable medical treatment opportunities and is also the site of an ongoing knife fight between two billion-dollar organizations that threatens the access people may have to those opportunities.
It’s where a year the Steelers or Penguins don’t at least get a playoff berth means a great wailing and gnashing of teeth, but if the Pirates break even, it renews faith in humanity.
So it shouldn’t be surprising when it happens again.
Travel site Atlas Obscura looked at the whole world and decided that the Monongahela Incline is one of the 18 best examples of public transportation, citing the incredible view of the city as a major gold star. They aren’t wrong. The Mon Incline is great and the view is breathtaking.
But the day after that list was published, Pittsburgh residents were opposing a proposal they say could threaten that view.
Steelers affiliate company PSSI Stadium LLC doesn’t want to put up an external rooftop sign, which would require zoning approval. They’ve figured out a way to turn the seats themselves into a sign, with an as-yet-undetermined message.
Kudos to some trick-play thinking, Steelers. Maybe some of the PSSI folks could consult on special teams.
But a zoning administrator threw a flag on that and it’s now under review, and some residents aren’t eager to see one of the city’s major landmarks become an intrinsic billboard.
It makes sense that locals don’t want to turn the Pittsburgh cityscape into Times Square or the Las Vegas Strip. Don’t we have enough branding and name-stamping and bright-light logo-ing already going on?
Flip side, the stadium is already a billboard for not only the team but Heinz, just like the baseball venue pushes both the Pirates and PNC. Does that make the point moot?
The protest seems less important for its opposition of this one signage idea than it is as a rumble strip reminding both businesses and the city that there is no pop-up blocker for that Mon Incline view of Pittsburgh.
