If youāre born in Pennsylvania, you are from Philly, Pittsburgh, basically Philly, basically Pittsburgh, or Pennsyltucky. Despite being from the boonies, I was born just close enough to Pittsburgh to be considered by outsiders as āfromā there, and considering that my local newborn boys and girls alike are not wrapped in blue or pink towels but a yellow Terrible Towel at birth, you are āfromā Pittsburgh to your fellow townies, too.
While Ive lived a lot of places, Ive lived in Pittsburgh the longest of any city, and have lived there multiple times. I consider it to be my most āhomeā sort of place in the US. While I love to dunk on it a lot, I defend it vigorously from peopleāespecially those from bigger cities, or especially the suburbs.
Which is why itās so funny to me that practically no media that is set in Pittsburgh romanticizes it. Itās the setting of a lot of zombie media (thank you Romero mwah mwah), itās shown often in post-apocalyptic scenarios. They even blew up the stadium in batman. I lovingly call it Pissburg due to the dogshit infrastructure, media loves to refer to it as a Pit/t.
So when I first heard about The Pitt and saw the double t, as a former āPitt kidā I thought āha! Like Pittsburgh.ā When I found out not only is The Pitt about and set in Pittsburgh, but that the story is about a crumbling hospital and the collapse of āourā underfunded and neglected safety nets, my interest was piqued.
While the specific hospital is fictional, the real hospital they use for exterior shots is the biggest competitor to the monopoly healthcare system run by the largest university in the city. The two have such an intense rivalry that depending on your insurance, you would never be permitted to even speak to a department run by the other. Every rant by Dr Robby in the first two episodes is true of probably every hospital these days, and insurance and hospital moneymaking priorities, but hearing it in Pittsburgh hit extra hard to me.
I used to canvas about our nursing shortage there. Ive worked fundraisers and envelope stuffed. I worked IN healthcare there briefly. Iāve unfortunately had most of my worst and biggest health issues when ive lived there and am extremely familiar with the experience of being in Pittsburgh hospitals, and how your insurance deeply dictates how that experience goes.
Did you know Pittsburgh invented the modern (non-war) ambulance, because Black emergency medical providers were aware of how emergency services didnāt respond appropriately to Black patients, and racist zoning moved hospital locations away from Black neighborhoods, so even before Black patients were subject to bigotry in hospitals (like the sickle cell patient in the show) they often died because they could not GET to a hospital?
Pittsburghās history was of boat and glassmaking, then the long period that is still continued in the surrounding towns: steel, but in the last 20 years, (with a long background history preceding) Pittsburgh has really defined itself as a major player in the field of medicine.
Did you know Jonas Salk made the polio vaccine in Pittsburgh? Did you know the childrenās hospital made revolutionary breakthroughs in heart valve research? Did you know the Will Smith movie Concussion about CTE in sports was because Pittsburgh made critical conclusions about traumatic brain injuries in sports and effectively forced the public to stop denying the connection? Did you know Pittsburgh was where the āfather of transplant surgeryā made exceptional advances in what was possible for transplants and multiple simultaneous transplants?
Pittsburgh is a city that made strides out of necessity, that has worked tirelessly to address social ills and pioneer tactics that would be adopted by bigger cities, and whose contributions are forgotten and erased, and whose workers are neglected, underpaid, sabotaged, and fucked over constantly.
I love Pittsburgh. I love its grit. I love its people. I hate its politicians. I hate the cycle of window dressing beautification and total Infrastructure collapse.
Pittsburgh has more bridges than anywhere in the world, and are so iconic in imagery that they are almost always included in skyline silhouettes, and they are all crumbling.
Pittsburghās history is one of abuse and prioritization of profit. But people have constantly found ways to fight it, to go around it, to shift focus back to the people. I never met more dedicated activists, I never worked with more resilient people. Everyone saying āyeah itās a shithole, but itās MY shitholeā was greater inspiration to fight the good fight than any romanticism ever did.
Pittsburgh was not my forever home but it is forever part of me because it is a tenacity and underdog aggression and fierce defense of my neighbors that I carry with me everywhere.
Thank you to The Pitt for really capturing the heart of this city.
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