Steve and I took a short walk in South Oakland early Saturday morning, just for something to do–explore a part of town near UPitt that we didn’t know. The first couple blocks south of Forbes, the main drag in Oakland, felt like a neighborhood abandoned to the anarchy of rowdy students. Pizza boxes strewn around like the party had been on the sidewalk and nobody’s mom had come out to say you’ve made a mess now clean it up. Broken glass from smashed beer and juice bottles carpeted several blocks–I imagined the kids walking on it with their flip flops and winding up in the ER with glass in their feet. The housing stock is one depressing, run down place after another.
It got a little better farther away from Forbes. We found a street with a strip of grass running down the middle like a mini-park. (Oakland Square) The block was nothing terribly special but it was clean and felt amazingly solid.
The street ended at a sheer cliff that looked out on a magnificent view of a couple of suspension bridges going over a valley with a small stream and pond. The view was so beautiful and so unexpected we stopped and stared like we’d just found the Grand Canyon.
Google maps told me later we’d been looking over Schenley Park and Panther Hollow Lake. The Bridge is Panther Hollow Bridge
There was no fence, no barrier to keep children or drunk students away from this sudden death tumble with the great view. But then it’s not the Grand Canyon.
