Trip #666 Ballinger Street, Brookline, Pittsburgh took place on November 9, 2021, and was published on November 29, 2021.
Today, surprise yourself by doing something unexpected. Stop when you’d usually keep going. Keep going when you’d usually stop. Say the words you rarely say. Do something you frequently avoid. Walk the hallways of memory and intentionally recall a person or place you haven’t thought of in years. Step outside and look at the sky, then slowly spin around. Allow yourself to inhabit your own unpredictability and see how it feels. You might be surprised.
Field Notes: I’ll always remember visiting this flight because moments earlier, as I was turning on to Edgebrook Avenue, a car driven by an elderly couple broke down in the middle of the road! I pulled over and jumped out of my car to see if they needed my cell phone, but before I knew it, I was behind the wheel of their car steering it as a big guy in a pick-up truck (who had also stopped) pushed it into a parking lot. Sometimes, visiting steps is a high-impact, high-excitement adventure! Hopefully, these strangely wrapped and exposed pipes running along the hillside aren’t poised for such a breakdown…
Love city steps? Get yourself the latest issue of Mis.Steps: Our Missed Connections with Pittsburgh’s City Steps! Each copy is unique and features 10 randomly selected “trading cards” of Pittsburgh’s 739 public stairways. Visit the Mis.Steps online store to see all issues and place your order.
Want to visit these stairs? You can locate them on the Pittsburgh City Steps Plan website!
Be a good neighbor! Have you visited these stairs and found them in poor condition or that illegal dumping (large items like tires, old furniture, and construction debris) and trash were abundant in the area? There are two things you can do to take action and make our city steps cleaner and safer for everyone! First, grab a photo if you can, and submit a report to Pittsburgh 311. All problems, both broken stairs, and railings, as well as trash and dumping, should be reported to the city. You can easily do this online or by calling.
