> I was curious as to whether the world wide opinion of this wonderful city is still that of a dirty, smog-filled, black-skied absolutely terrible place to live. I've been told that people in my own country, let alone other countries, still believe that Pittsburgh is a heavily industrial city. This is far from the truth. Pittsburgh is home to one of the most cutting edge hospitals in the world (University of Pittsburgh), as well as major companies (Heinz, Alcoa). The skies are indeed blue every day (when it doesn't rain, anyway), and you can go outside wearing white clothes without ruining them. I may be biased, but I think with the recent additions of our new baseball and football stadiums, (and of course our beautiful skyline, which was not recently added but has been here for some time now) that Pittsburgh is a very beautiful city.
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> The reason I bring this is up is that I fear my city will get blown up by some Communist with an old history book who still believes that Pittsburgh provides 1/2 the world's steel. I hate that I go somewhere and people still refer to Pittsburgh as the "Steel City." Heck, people in PITTSBURGH still do that. So put my fears to rest. Do tell me that Pittsburgh has shed the image of the past.
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> The Other "Busy building his fallout shelter" Matthew

Heh. I can't say that I remember Pittsburgh as having any kind of reputation at all. Not somewhere that's famous in England for anything at all.

And besides, you're unlikely to be blown up by communists. In the US you only really need to worry about lonewolves with a grudge against the state (Tim McVeigh, for example) rather than any foreign threat. Any home-grown terrorist will realise that Pittsburgh is no better a target than anywhere else, and even if they believe that Pittsburgh is still the steel capital of the world, they'll probably realise that steel isn't quite as important to America as it used to be.

winter"Now, me, I live daily with the very real threat of being exploded by communists"mute