No matter how many late-night talk shows the mayor goes on or how many Super Bowls the Steelers win, Pittsburgh has one major deficiency to get over before it can be considered big time: Some roads turn into stairs.
There's a long-running joke in Pittsburgh about dead-end stairwell streets that have even Mapquest and dashboard GPS systems fooled.
But in the South Side Slopes, residents see these concrete climbing routes as a way to get somewhere.
For the sixth time Sunday, the neighborhood will play host to StepTrek, an afternoon walking tour of the steps that linked the hilltop community with its lifeblood, the steel mills on the riverbank below.
"In the tucked away areas of the neighborhood, people find it interesting that the perspective changes," said Joe Balaban, vice president of the South Side Slopes Neighborhood Association, which plays host to StepTrek.
"Pittsburgh usually is viewed from Mt. Washington, but as you walk up and down the Slopes steps and make turns and stand on another hilltop, you see the city from a new angle."
It's that view that the neighborhood knows will transform it and make it a destination. This year, some of the routes go past eight new townhouses at Shelly and Sarah streets, which have sold for twice as much as the average home in the neighborhood.
"Years ago, you could see nothing but smoke from here," said Bob Regan, from the top of Yard Way, looking across the Monongahela River at the city skyline. "Some of the most humble neighborhoods have the most spectacular views."
Regan, a visiting professor of geographic information systems at the University of Pittsburgh, mapped 738 (and counting) sets of steps in the city. He said he has found two dozen more since he published his book, "The Steps of Pittsburgh," two years ago.
Yet the romance, artistry and quirkiness of the steps often is lost on longtime residents who simply know the steps for their practicality.
"I think that's the thing -- people never appreciated them. They were just a part of everyday life," said Regan, who calls the steps the first public transportation system in the city. "Once we started studying them, we realized there was nothing else like this in the world. This is the steps capital."
The Department of Public Works uses Regan's book as its official reference guide; it's the only complete mapping on record.
"A lot of these steps have street lights. They're treated like streets; they fall under street maintenance on our operating budget," said Public Works director Guy Costa.
The department removes snow, spreads rock salt and cuts weeds from the steps, Costa said.
He promised to join in StepTrek again this year, but added, "I just don't know if my knees are gonna hold up."
Balaban, a resident since 1992, said StepTrek draws people from across the region. About 500 people participate each year, and 300 have preregistered for Sunday.
"You're weaving in and out, the stairs go through wooded areas, you have no idea where you are, and then, boom, you spot the Cathedral of Learning," Balaban said. "There's an element of surprise and an element of accomplishment."
The course guides, which will be handed out at 21st and Josephine streets for each of the three paths, read more like a scavenger hunt of panoramic views.
And it gives walkers a sense of what it would have been like to walk home, uphill, after a 12-hour shift in the mill.
"The view from the steps, you feel like you've earned it," Regan said.
Step by step
• Number of staircases: 738
• Total number of steps: 45,200
• Total miles: about 5
• Number of staircases that are legal "paper" streets: 334
• Number of staircases with more than 300 steps: 5
• Number of staircases with fewer than 25 steps: 189
• Number of wooden staircases: 80
• Number of brick steps: 1
• Neighborhood with the most staircases: South Side, 70
• Number of neighborhoods with no staircases: 24
• Decade in which most staircases were built: 1940s, 204
• Longest staircase no longer in existence: Indian Trail steps, more than 1,000 wooden steps up Mt. Washington from Carson Street to the intersection of Shaler Street and Grandview Avenue, Duquesne Heights.
• $342,863 spent on step maintenance and repair from January 2005 to August 2006
Sources: Bob Regan, author of "The Steps of Pittsburgh: Portrait of a City"; Department of Public Works
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