Well I got my dose of NE Ohio and Pittsburgh this past week, and the experience can pretty much be summed up by those 4 words. I didn't expect much from Newton Falls, but neither did I expect what I saw. The area is unbelievably depressed. Abandoned factories, store fronts and houses are everywhere, and what houses aren't abandoned are unbelievably dilapidated. It was truly depressing, to see a place I lived for 4 years, and where Edie grew up, deteriorate so much. But I was even disappointed in Pittsburgh as well. I had heard so much about how Pittsburgh had changed, and while there where a lot of improvements, especially in the downtown area, most of the city was either unchanged or depressed as well. The streets are narrower than I remember, the houses smaller, the streets in worse condition than in LA, and riding a bike in this city can definitely be hazardous to your health. Plus all my favorite breakfast and deli haunts were replaced by Starbucks and Brueggers. Even the f...
The ramblings of a mantle cell lymphoma and bypass surgery survivor, and then some