> 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


I, for one, know the difference. And I'm old enough to remember when Pittsburgh was turning out steel "for the war effort." Good citizens from all over the country gathered and shipped scrap metal to Pittsburgh to be turned into ships and tanks to fight Germany and Japan. The air was black with smoke from blast furnaces. But the air is cleaner now. Not just in Pittsburgh, but in Nashville, Birmingham, Charleston(W.VA.), and other smoky cities.
Howard