Something very simple happened today. In any other urban neighborhood, coffee shops come and go. Here in Pittsburgh's North City Flats, a coffee shop was a long time coming.
Over the years I've heard stories about neighbors coming out to oppose coffee shops because they would attract people and bring about "loitering." These city suburbanites lost out. From today on there will be more to our neighborhoods than just decorative doors with homeowners hiding beside alarm systems.
Yesterday was the first day of operation for Beleza. This coffee shop is opening at a time when many "coasters" are looking for new cities to live in. Pittsburgh is high on the list (New York magazine recently named Pittsburgh as one of the top places New Yorkers are moving to. Many city neighborhoods are overlooked and one primary reason is because we can't always answer positively questions about whether there are grocery stores and coffee shops nearby.
From today foreward I can say "there's a great coffee shop over on Buenta Vista!"
Beleza opened at 8 yesterday morning. I arrived at 11:30. A young women was sitting out front with her dog. Three people stood on the opposite corner taking photos. Inside I was greeted with warm colors and aromas. A few sat in their solitary corners, but for many others it was like walking into a friendly living room. I had the sense that all these coffee-starved folk knew of each other, had exchanged friendly glances, but had few opportunities to interact.
"Where do you live?" the person at the counter asked. Hell, I thought, that may be a rather rude question in Starbuck's, but here it seemed normal, even welcomed. "Over by the Schoolhouse," I said. She lived up the block on Buena Vista.
Sometimes it seems day by day each of our little pockets we call "neighborhoods" are entrenched in their own provincial corners. We're stuck on Deutschtown being somehow distinct, if not better than the Mexican War Streets or Allegheny West. Today those lines were not the only ones to blur. Today those lines that kept us seperated by the sense of personal space on a city street were blurred by this third-place where we can meet and interact from today on as neighbors.
A side note, Beleza serves Peace Coffee.
No comments:
Post a Comment