11/05 Research in the Strip District
Because the Strip District on a Saturday is a popular place to be, we decided to bring our research to the Strip. We met up around 9:00 to do some final assembly and get set up.
Our first thought was to find free wall space along Penn near where people lingered: the most obvious place was DeLuca’s. However, employees of DeLuca’s and the bakery next door were quick to redirect us elsewhere.
We ended up propping up one set of boards at the corner of 20th and Penn near a restaurant called Bella Notte. This ended up being a pretty strategic place for our boards: the sidewalk was less congested there so people could actually stop to take a look, and putting them up at an intersection meant that people had to stop before crossing the street anyways. One person tried to tell us off pretty early on, telling us that we’d have to check with the owner of the restaurant, but no one from the business told us we couldn’t put our boards there. We also were careful to make sure the boards weren’t blocking the intersection or their storefront. The first thing we did after setting the boards up was seed them with our own thoughts to make the empty space seem less intimidating. One man stopped at our boards right after we put them up to make sure we captured the Strip as part of what people love about Pittsburgh; it was really neat to see that people were intrigued right away!
We placed the second set of boards on 21st Street and Mulberry Way, which is just across an alley from Pamela’s. We knew that many people would be waiting outside of Pamela’s but we were nervous at first about how many people would cross the alley to engage with the boards. However, a lot of people actually added their thoughts and locations to the boards there; it seemed like a lot of people would interact with the boards either as they waited for a table or after they ate.
After we dropped off the boards, we continued to explore the Strip District, make observations, talk to people, and eat breakfast. Lisa and Manya went to our Bella Notte boards after breakfast to ask people to participate and engage in further conversation, and Nehal and I headed to the craft fair across the intersection to talk to vendors.
Through our conversations with people at the boards, we learned that a lot of people who come to the Strip District on the weekends are from pretty far out of Pittsburgh; many of them live in places off our map.
The first vendor we spoke with, Jan Spirik (and her husband Arden), lives outside of the city. They come to the Strip District every weekend to participate in the Strip District Craft Fair. The two of them were super friendly and fun to talk to! Jan makes all these hats on display by hand and even brings hundreds more in boxes below the table. She sells patterns for a lot of these hats (and just a few goods) on her Etsy shop.
Another vendor we talked to was a man from McKeesport selling jewelry right by PNC Bank on Penn. He’s lived in the Pittsburgh area his entire life and commented on how sports teams seem to be the center of Pittsburgh life. His black-and-gold jewelry sells better than anything else. He also talked about how the city changes during and after games. We also mentioned the emptiness of downtown, to which he responded that shootings are a big factor in what keeps people away; he talked about a shooting on the T (perhaps in reference to the incident in September that none of us had heard about).
We then talked with Anita and Andrea, sisters who sell homemade soap and candles under the name Overhill Lane. We spent most of our time speaking with Andrea, who explained that they are 2 of 6 siblings who grew up outside of the city. When we asked how she felt about the recent changes to Pittsburgh, she said she generally views it as change for the better but still reminisces on the old city. She spoke of memories from their childhood of one of the buildings downtown that used to be full of lively shops of wood and glass that has now been modernized and doesn’t have the same homey feeling.
Lastly, we briefly spoke to the woman in the background of the photo above (she was on her own and we didn’t want to prevent her from speaking with potential customers). She works with underprivileged children in India, teaching them to create table runners, handbags, trays, and other items by hand. In addition to traveling there every six months, she also works with some non-profits in the Pittsburgh area.
After we spent some time talking to people, we decided it was time to keep exploring other shops (and get some grocery shopping done). We noticed all sorts of people in the Strip District, from college students to families to four older gentlemen playing cards outside of La Prima Espresso.
Finally, we picked up our boards and brought them back to my car. The map at Bella Notte had broken off, but we noticed some people bending down to interact with the board. It was really exciting to see all the boards filled out as tangible, visual collections of the interactions, conversations, and thoughts that our boards may have sparked!
