10 Essential Rules for Living in Pittsburgh

Whether you’re new to town or a longtime local, here’s a cheatsheet to living in Pittsburgh.

1. 📍 Know Your Neighborhoods

Our rivers, hills, and valleys have created unique boundaries for Pittsburgh’s 90 neighborhoods — pockets of communities with their own special character. Even within those official neighborhoods, there are many distinct sub-neighborhoods — like Four Mile Run in Greenfield or Mexican War Streets in the Central North Side.

📩 Let me know what part of town I should visit next and your favorite spots!

2. 🪑 Respect the Parking Chair

On a winter day in the Burrr-gh, you’re likely to see snowy streets and parking spots marked with chairs — from the old wooden ones you sit in for church basement fish fries to striped ‘90s beach seats. Whatever their form, it’s the function that matters: you have to honor the sanctity of parking chair dibs. (That is, don’t park in a spot that someone’s reserving with their chair!)

3. 📚 Get (& Use) A Library Card

There are dozens of Carnegie Library branches across Allegheny County, and even more that participate in its lending library programs. But did you know that you can check out more than just books? From power tools to bakeware, here are some things you didn’t know you could get with a library card.

4. 🚗 Don’t Honk in the Tunnels

It’s scary enough traveling through a mountain; we don’t need an echo of blasting horns. Not honking is the best way to avoid faceoffs and traffic build ups. (Yinz know what happened in the Liberty Tubes in 1924, don’t ya?)

5. ☁️ Prepare for Gray All Day

In 2023, Pittsburgh was ranked the fourth gloomiest city in the U.S. with 203 cloudy days per year. (PPG Paints even has a “Pittsburgh Gray” color!) That lack of sunshine can lead to a vitamin D deficiency. Pro tip: Take a supplement and buy a light therapy lamp.

6. 🌳 Protect Your Parks & Rivers

We’re lucky to have lush green spaces and waterways for outdoor recreation. Springdale-born environmentalist and author Rachel Carson once said: “Conservation is a cause that has no end. There is no point at which we will say our work is finished.”

7. 💬 Learn a Little Pittsburghese N’at

If you’re new in tahn, it may be helpful to know local lingo. Someone cuts you off? Call ‘em a “jagoff.” (Not to be confused with “jag,” often a term of endearment.) Want to order a soft drink? Your waiter might look at you funny if you say “soda” instead of “pop.” Your house is a mess? You should “redd up.” Addressing a crowd? “Yinz” is a gender neutral pronoun!

8. ⬅️ Revel in Pittsburgh’s Proud History

To fully appreciate our historic city, learn about the Indigenous roots of our river names and our critical role in the U.S. labor movement. Or the medical breakthroughs that happened here — from the first emergency medicine service to the polio vaccine. Or the many inventions we gifted the world — like the country’s first commercial radio station, an all-motion picture house, the Ferris Wheel, and the banana split!

9. 🏆 Be A Champion

Pittsburgh is one of the winningest cities in the U.S., boasting multiple championships among all three major sports teams. Even if you don’t love to watch, it can be helpful to have a passing knowledge of (or tolerance for) the Penguins, Pirates, and Steelers. (Start with knowing how to pronounce these famous players’ names) And here’s a fun, fashionable bonus — we’re the only city in America where our city itself and all of our sports teams share the same color palette. (We seriously think the Terrible Towel could be our city’s official flag.)

10. 💛 Be A Good Neighbor

Fred Rogers once said, “Imagine what our neighborhoods would be like if each of us offered, as a matter of course, just one kind word to another person.” Do that, and wear his classic cardigan while you’re at it! (Here’s where to thrift one.)