First of all, ye unfortunates who have not seen Pittsburgh within the past 20 years, you must realize that as citizens, we collectively bristle like porcupines on steroids when outsiders insist on calling this a steel town. Or punctuate every sentence with a reference to "shot and a beer", "a hard town", "dark and forbidding skyline" or of course, any mention of the long-gone steel mills. I can personally name three people with whom I am no longer speaking because of such an incident involving hard hats (n'nat). In fact, I saw my very first steel mill near Pittsburgh just THIS SUMMER.
No weeds grow out of steel mills because they have all been torn down, and replaced by either the medical or data processing industries. Pittsburgh is in the top ten of the country in both areas. Dr. Christian Barnard may have done the first heart transplant, but it was perfected here!
The columnist is trying to stir the pot with old, worn out myths in order to make his point, and in doing so, ends up making himself look ridiculous. Yes, this is Steeler Nation - but I don't see him talking about the number of buildings with black & gold windows, with every third person in black & gold, or pets dyed black & gold (yeah, that last one's pretty unfortunate). Yes, a man's heart did stop when Jerome Bettis fumbled - but he did live. This is the very first modern article about Pittsburgh which does NOT mention the friendliness of the people - think he may have been a bit obnoxious during his stay?
Pittsburgh is a vital, friendly, and yes, football town.
USA Today rated us the second most beautiful in the USA - after Red Rocks, CO. If you act like a jerk about our Steelers, expect to be treated like the jerk you are. We have four Super Bowl trophies to back up how we feel about our Steelers, and we'll probably even lend you a Terrible Towel to dry your tears as you look at them.
Oh, and for those who insist that Pittsburgh is so ugly, this photo is the viewpoint from which this columnist wrote:
I tried to be fair and post a dark image, but none are available which aren't over 50 years old.