America and Americans / Europeans

[David Bergdahl]

--On Friday, February 22, 2002 1:44 PM -0500 Drew Danielson
<andrew.danielson at CMU.EDU> wrote:

> I have heard people in these parts describe Pittsburgh as the first
> [easternmost] Midwestern city, as well as the last [westernmost] Eastern
> city.  I cannot attest to the thought process behind either statement,
> though the both make sense to me, culturally and geographically.

I think the rationale is that it's a town with ethnic neighborhoods
(Bloomfield = Italian, Polish Hill = Polish, the hill district = African
American, Squirrel Hill = Jewish &c.) and therefore it's unlike relatively
"whitebread" cities like Columbus, Indianapolis &c.