Larryville Is So Last Year

Of all the hip neighborhoods in the United States, a pair of jilted brides from Australia chose Lawrenceville. In Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh? Those of you in the know have read about the diamond in the rust. Larryville has peaked and cool is beginning to spread to other parts of the Steel City:

Squirrel Hill is where they ended up renting. "We are happy with Squirrel Hill for all the amenities like shopping and buses to work," she said. "We are walking or bus people."

Of course, there was a moment when they first got here and she wanted to go to a gallery opening. Karen looked into the bus routes, but really didn't see any way that she would feel safe coming home late.

"I didn't go. At that moment, I thought, 'Oh, wow, you're really not in New York City anymore.' I wondered if I could feel urban and self-sufficient here," she confessed.

Since then she's become creative about crosstown adventures. "I am now pretty bold about asking people for rides back to the East End -- and people are pretty nice about it!"

Currently, the couple are in the process of buying a house near Polish Hill; they like what is happening there and in Bloomfield and Lawrenceville. "We're looking forward to moving to that side of town for a better social life."

A cosmopolitan couple is moving from Squirrel Hill to Polish Hill, for a better social life. How long has Polish Hill been a part of the Pittsburgh scene? That's a rhetorical question.

Wayward like Generation Y is now, I was Generation X Nomad. A Slacker. By the time I learned about the energy in Austin, the vanguard of the creative class was already looking for another city to explore. The seekers that built up Austin as a destination, as it is today, had moved on. I would also discover the wonders of Minneapolis and Seattle in the early 1990s, but I was still a step behind the latest trend. Once word gets out, it's too late.