Envy Apartment

Eventually the Civic Arena, which many came to see as a harbinger of the community’s destruction, was torn down and replaced with the modern PPG Paints Arena . Half a block away, the Freedom Corner was dedicated in 2001, commemorating the civil rights leaders of the 1950s and 1960s who sought to maintain the Hill District. It is also a symbolic gateway to the neighborhood. In 2006, a proposal to build a casino in the lower Hill District was overwhelmingly rejected by residents. To this day, the sphere of influence from downtown generally stops at Crawford Street, which for me was a jarring reminder of how ghosts from the past don’t easily dissipate. Though much of Wilson’s Pittsburgh is gone, you could use his words to tour the district. I did so, led by Kimberly C. Ellis, a digital consultant and founder of the preservation- minded Historic Hill Institute , who is also the playwright’s niece. “The neighborhood has changed a lot,” she said, adding that “there is a renewed level of p...

Of the 10 plays August Wilson wrote — two of which won him the Pulitzer Prize — nine were based in and around the Hill District in Pittsburgh; he chronicled the city’s changing landscape over decades. He is not the only writer to have chosen the Steel City as a backdrop. Below, one book explores the places that influenced Mr. Wilson’s plays, and two others reimagine Pittsburgh’s people and culture. Photo AUGUST WILSON Pittsburgh Places in His Life and Plays By Laurence A. Glasco, Christopher Rawson 146 pp. Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation (2015; second edition). For a visual tour of the historical sites that figure in Mr. Wilson’s work, turn to this book. It includes photographs of places like the apartment where he lived on Bedford Avenue, and locations name-dropped in his plays like West Funeral Home and what used to be Lutz’s Market. The guide also features essays that contextualize his work, as well as personal introductions written by his niece Kimberly C. Ellis a...

NEW YORK, NY — It's one of the oldest rivalries in American migration: New York vs. Los Angeles. For the better part of a century, residents of the nation's two largest metro areas have been defending their chosen kingdom and dismissing the other on an endless loop of judginess between kitty-corner coasts. Ew, the traffic! But the sunshine! But the subway! But the garbage! But the skyline! But the coastline! But the bustle! But the chill! In this tireless war of words, a clear winner has yet to emerge. But it's harder to argue against the numbers. Thousands of working professionals have relocated to Los Angeles County from New York City in the past year and a half, according to a series of monthly "workforce reports" released this spring and summer by the job- networking site LinkedIn (and spotted by LA Weekly). And it's not exactly a two-way street. Since early 2016, according to LinkedIn, around seven or eight out of every 10, 000 site users in LA report...