General Information

• About.com
• www.pittsburgh.about.com
• A good destination for keeping abreast of upcoming events and local news, About’s Pittsburgh site also boasts info about finding a job, finding a home, and finding something fun to do with the family. Here you’ll also find lots of links to local sites.

• Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
• www.clpgh.org
• The Carnegie Library’s website is an absolutely indispensable research site for scholars of all things Pittsburgh. Click the “Research Databases” link on the left-hand side of the homepage, and you’ll be directed to a wonderfully detailed collection of Pittsburgh data, be it cultural, historical, or just about anything else. Don’t miss Pa Pitt’s Master Index.

• City of Pittsburgh
• www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us
• The official City of Pittsburgh site provides information about city parks, tourism, road closures, and city-sponsored events. New residents will appreciate the site’s garbage collection schedules, road closure info, and business news.

• The College City
• www.thecollegecity.com
• Particularly useful for its fantastic collection of local links, this site should also be the first stop for any college student interested in area schools. It’s also a useful site for new residents and tourists looking to discover the city’s youthful and active opportunities.

• Global Pittsburgh
• www.globalpittsburgh.org
• This wonderfully useful site is concerned with connecting Pittsburgh’s various international communities. Visitors or new residents from abroad can easily track down job opportunities, new friends and activities, and information about immigration.

• Imagine Pittsburgh
• www.imaginepittsburgh.com
• Launched as part of a three-year, $3 million marketing campaign to increase awareness about the Pittsburgh area’s numerous achievements, as well as its nearly unlimited possibility for growth, this site does a wonderful job of explaining why Pittsburgh is such an incredible place. You’ll also find links to the helpful tourism sites of 11 surrounding counties.

• Pittsburghese
• www.pittsburghese.com
• This is a hilariously good-natured guide to one of North America’s most curious regional dialects, Pittsburghese. It includes a glossary, a translator, an audio quiz—even Pittsburghese calisthenics. (Believe me, yinz are gonna need it.)

• Pittsburgh Indymedia
• www.pittsburgh.indymedia.org
• This community-based media site is filled with regional news, most with a heavily liberal bias. Pittsburgh’s activism community is surprisingly large, and this is where many of them congregate. Information about upcoming protests and antiwar marches can be found here.

• Pittsburgh Roars
• http://www.aboutus.org/PittsburghRoars.com
• Something of an online celebration of the fun and excitement to be had in Pittsburgh, this site contains info about arts, attractions, and various unique events going on in the city at any given time. You can also purchase a Roars Pass here ($10 adult, $5 child 12 and under), which will save you money at literally dozens of area museums, theaters, shopping centers, and more.

• Never Tell Me the Odds
• http://board.nevertellmetheodds.org
• This is a Pittsburgh-centric message board community geared toward the DIY and punk scenes. Many threads lean toward the juvenile or self-righteous, but the regular posters are a collective clearinghouse of obscure Pittsburgh trivia. If you have a question about the city that you can’t find an answer to, you might try asking here.

• VisitPittsburgh
• www.visitpittsburgh.com
• The Greater Pittsburgh Convention & Visitors Bureau site is where you’ll find all the necessary information to plan a vacation or business trip to the Steel City. Essentially a mini online guidebook, VisitPittsburgh also allows visitors to book hotel and vacation packages. Particularly useful are the suggested itineraries for those interested in taking day trips to the nearby counties and countryside.

Event Listings

• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Events Calendar
• www.post-gazette.com/events
• This is a regularly updated listing of mostly mainstream and family-friendly events, such as theater and symphony performances, art gallery openings, sporting events, fairs, and festivals.

• This Is Happening
• www.thisishappening.com
• Created with the intention of convincing the young and hip that there are, in fact, interesting and unusual things to do in Pittsburgh, the site is searchable by subject but can be confusing to navigate; you’re better off subscribing to the site’s free weekly events email, which will conveniently appear in your in-box every Thursday.

Pittsburgh’s Best Blogs

Pittsburgh’s blogging community is equal parts political, apolitical, pissed off, pleased with itself, deadly serious, and seriously sarcastic. Naturally, there are hundreds (if not thousands) of blogs about life in the Steel City, and half of the fun is discovering new blogs you’ve never read before. Here are five to get you started.

• The Burgh Blog
• www.theburghblog.com
• This is an amusing and sometimes sarcastic look at local events.

• I Heart Pgh
• www.iheartpgh.com
• This is a quirky, well-edited, and frequently updated listing of events, especially those with a focus on the arts.

• Overheard in Pittsburgh
• www.overheardinpgh.blogspot.com
• This site is a local version of the legendary NYC site.

• Pittsblog
• www.pittsblog.blogspot.com
• Local politics and current events from a University of Pittsburgh law professor are featured here.

• Pittsburgh Bloggers
• www.pghbloggers.org
• A blog about local blogs, it is useful largely because of its incredibly extensive collection of links.

© Dan Eldridge from Moon Pittsburgh, 1st Edition