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I just heard about another artist who had moved to Pittsburgh. This one is a costume designer from Germany. Earlier this month I had taken picture-frame restoration classes from a French guilder, also now a Pittsburgher (he says his wife liked it here). Later today I'll meet up again with a San Franciscan who works in the opera there. She hasn't taken the plunge of becoming a full-time Pittsburgher, but she has purchased a home here.

I often hear Pittsburghers downplay the qualities of the city they both love and love to make fun of. I used to hear the question "why?" from Pittsburghers who had found out I had moved here after six years in San Francisco (I had lived in Pittsburgh previously). Today fewer are asking that questions, and even less are laughing.

The Pittsburgh landscape has inspired artists for generations. Andy Warhol might have left, but before him there was George Hetzel, Mary Cassatt and others. Today Pittsburgh's art scene is thriiving from Penn Avenue in Garfield to Penn Avenue downtown, Sampsonia Way, Regent Square and throughout the city. I know there's a significant cluster of artists on Spring Hill.

There perhaps two are two reasons they are coming. The first is the obvious beauty of the city and landscape (obvious to everyone but natives!) The second is the affordability and attractiveness of the city's building stock. There's a lot of great space in this place.