What is happening in America? Pittsburgh suburbs are a total wasteland!

The last stop on our road trip 2019/2020 was in the city of Pittsburgh. We took I-79 south through pretty rolling Pennsylvania countryside, which had been recently snowed upon. However, this winter has been an unusually warm one in this region, and the temperature was a balmy 40 degrees.

We pulled into Pittsburgh on Thursday, January 9, 2020 at 2 in the afternoon.

In today’s video, we’ll give you a brief rundown on the city of Pittsburgh, share a few insights and a couple of experiences. Then, we’ll take you to a Pittsburgh suburb, which was perhaps the absolute worst place I’ve ever seen in person.

Pittsburgh is located at the convergance of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio Rivers. The whole Pittsburgh metro area is surrounded by hills. The city made it name in the steel industry, hence the big steel bridges and the city’s football team, the Steelers.

Pittsburgh is a very poor city, and we’ll get a look at that in a minute. But it has SOME rich people. Particularly in the Shadyside and North Squirrel Hill neighborhoods. Here’s North Squirrel Hill. This is the richest neighborhood in Pittsburgh where residents earn about $100,000 a year on average, and homes cost about $500,000.

This is shadyside, a modern chic neighborhood with upscale shopping and dining. Women wear their yoga pants to lunch here, even in foot deep snow.

The food is decent. I didn’t get a chance to try the Pittsburgh version of the Cheesesteak, but I DID have perhaps the best sandwich I’ve ever had at a place called Pork and Beans downtown. It was called their classic, and was composed of primarily beef brisket and cheese. I didn’t think to take a picture of it until it was gone.

I also ran into a guy who wore WAY too much cologne who I swore is on the Pittsburgh Steelers. I should have asked him.

Of course we didn’t come here to walk around downtown. We came to see the WORST part of town. I had originally planned to film two northeast pittsburgh slums - areas called Homewood and Larimer, which I had heard resemble the gutted out areas we had seen in other dying rust belt communities.

But in downtown, I asked a friendly bartender in what she thought of Homewood and Larimer. She told me if I REALLY wanted to see the WORST areas of Pittsburgh, I needed to see the south side. She said it was one of the most dangerous cities in the country - a place called McKeesport.

Whenever there’s a shooting or a crime or all the cops go somewhere, it’s in McKeesport, she said.

So the next day, we went off to Mckeesport to see what all the fuss was about.

McKeesport is a tiny city that’s only about 10 miles south of Pittsburgh, but because the region is so hilly, getting there takes nearly 30 minutes on windy, sad, beaten up roads.

Just like every other former steel town, McKeesport was hit hard when steel makers left the region. This city once had more than 50,000 people, but now, it has less than 20,000.

Here’s another cop. We saw 5 in the 20 minutes we spent driving around.

There are many other areas on Pittsburgh’s fringes like McKeesport - but not nearly so dangerous or destitute. This is another area 10 minutes from McKeesport on the city’s east side. Pittsburgh’s whole east side of pockmarked with crime and poor rundown neighborhoods.

We also visited the original ghetto hoods we had planned to visit. Here’s a look at Homewood and Larmer on Pittsburgh’s northeast side.

These places need help. They need a community leader to step up and do something or these places are going to disappear one day, as everyone either flees or dies.

These neighborhoods are just a small glimpse as to what it looks like when a city like Pittsburgh goes from a population of 700,000 to 300,000 in only about 60 years.

The rust belt tour was over. We had witnessed places like East St Louis, Lansing, Buffalo and Pittsburgh and how the loss of industry and a shrinking economy has made these cities sad, dangerous, empty and soulless. These places don’t look like America of the 1950s. They don’t even look like they should be in America at all.

As I pulled back into Raleigh, the following day, I was greeted by a muggy, party sunny sky, a far cry from the cold I had experienced for the past three weeks. But nowhere near as cold as it should have been. The green colors and overall positive vibes were welcome. It was nice to be home.

Music: Kevin MacLeod, Chris Zabriskie, TrackTribe, Wayne Jones, Asher Fulero.

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