A Look at my Version of Pittsburgh in the CU

[Mark Rand]

In this thread, we're looking at my version of Pittsburgh. Although it'll be home to a silver-age Batman campaign, that's a topic for another thread. In this thread, we're looking at the city and the surrounding area. Let's start with the real Pittsburgh, my home town.

The city is having a financial crisis. Our mayor has two groups trying to get the city out of the red. One is a legislature-appointed Oversight Board. The other is the Act 47 Recovery Team. The mayor and the Oversight Board are at loggerheads. He wants new taxes and they don't. He's hoping the ACT 47 Recovery Team will see things his way.

Alleghny County government is also in financial trouble. They're laying off 500 people, including, I hope, the useless County Row Offices.

The Port Authority of Alleghny County, our transit agency, is having troubles, too. Since Pennsylvania doesn't have a dedicated transit funding method, state funds for transit, and county funds which are set by how much the state gives, are staying the same, or dropping while costs increase. Layoffs and service cutbacks are the result.

Pennsylvania is the only state that doesn't let local police use radar to enforce speed laws. They think the communities will use it to raise money.

Slot machines, which are legal in surrounding states, are illegal in Pennsylvania. Since people are going out of state to play them, the local horse tracks are losing money. Hopefully, they will be legal by June 30. Of course, it will still take several months for the gaming commission to get set up and organized and issue licenses.

Next, we'll look at interesting places in the area. Some are real, some are taken from books, comic books, television, movies or gaming material while the rest come from my mind.

[Mark Rand]

Re: A Look at my Version of Pittsburgh in the CU

 

I corected a mistake in the first post.

Our look at interesting places starts with sports venues.

The Meadows, in Meadowlands, Pennsylvania is a 5/8-mile, limestone-surfaced track for standardbred (harness) horses.

Washington County Speedway, which is based on the old Continental Divide Raceway, consists of a dragstrip, a 1/2 -mile oval and a 2.66-mile road course. The dragstrip serves as the front straight of both the oval and the road course and the oval's back straight is included in the road course. The facility's home to many kinds of motor sports.

The Pittsburgh International Airport area is home to Pittsburgh International Speedway, a 1-mile oval with a 1.51-mile road course inside. The track owners have no interest in hosting amateur racing.

Beaverun Motorsports Park in Beaver County is a good track for amateur racing.

The Pittsburgh Vintage Car Grand Prix will hold its first event on a 2.33-mile temporary street circuit in Schenley Park. Unlike the real Vintage, which is, at least, 20-years old, the Vintage in the game was, due to politics, held up. The only reason they got it started was billionaire industralist Bruce Wayne's threat to hold it at Washington County Speedway, which one of his companies own.

Wayne Enterprises also own the Pittsburgh Ice Arena in the Strip District. When the Penguines, who want a new arena, heard about it, they insisted on certain changes before they would agree to play hockey there. Wayne Enterprises refused their demands.

[Mark Rand]

Re: A Look at my Version of Pittsburgh in the CU

 

The Beaverun (or, more correctly, BeaveRun) Motorsports Cpmplex is in Wampum, in Beaver County. It has a 1.5-mile track and a karting track. There are plans to add a 2.6-mile track, making the road course up to 4-miles long.

In real life, the old Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science is no longer active. There are plans to connect it to the Pittsburgh Childrens Museum, ruining the architecture of two wonderful buildings. His historic Zeiss Mark II Planetarium projector, as I understand it, is sitting an a warehouse near the water's edge.

In the CU, however, things turned out better for it. Wayne Enterprises bought the building and equipment from the city, brought the building up to code, had the Zeiss projector, nicknamed "Jake", repaired, state of art audio/visual equipment installed in the lecture hall, The Little Science Theatre, and the basement clubrooms, and added new computer equipment and two telescopes, a 16-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector and a 6-inch refractor, that are used, weather permitting, along with the 10-inch Siderostat-type refractor telescope for viewing the stars.

The rebuilt Zeiss is used daily. When it's raised the audience hears the opening portion from Richard Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra. This piece is better known as the 2001: A Space Odyssey theme.

During solar and lunar eclipses, a video camera is properly positioned and the image is fed to monitors in the galleries, video projectors in the clubrooms and Little Science Theatre and also webcast on the planetarium's website.

They also lease the clubrooms, lecture hall and planetarium theatre, The Theatre of The Stars, to the Community College of Alleghny County for morning classes at the rate of $1.00 per year.

The people at the Carnegie Science Center aren't happy about the old Buhl Planetarium still being open, but nobody else cares. Both places draw big crowds.

[Mark Rand]

Re: A Look at my Version of Pittsburgh in the CU

 

Wayne Enterprises was put in because I was planning to have the CU's Batman in pittsburgh instead of Gotham City. If I don't, Wayne Enterprises will be replaced by another public-spirited corporation.

Hot nightspots are this post's topic.

The Cabaret of Magic, in the Strip District, is a supper club where stage magic is performed. Their resident magician is a woman noted for her close-up and stage magic skills.

Danny's, on Bouquet Street, in Oakland, is a jazz club. Although there is no official house band, the Jazz Angels play there four nights a week.

The Falcon's Rest, on Ninth Street, is a Middle-Eastern night club that has, according to the owners, "The Best Belly Dancers In The World". The dancers are hired through agents, must be members of the American Guild of Variety Artists, and can play there only once a month.

The Funky Feline Bar and Grill, on EastCarson Street, on the South Side, is a fun place. The staff dress in black, complete with cat ears and tell. Feline-style half masks are required on Halloween and optional the rest of the time. The day-shift bartender and two evening waitresses, however, always wear them.

The Succubus Club is a Goth nightclub in the Strip District. The music there is hard rock. Usually, it's provided by a DJ, or, occasionally, a band.

Zorba's, on Forbes Avenue, in Oakland, is a Greek bar and belly dancers. Although dancers can get booked by agents, the dancers that regularly perform there have first call at the bookings and often commit themselves for the year by the end of January. This group includes, Salone, a 17-year old wonder who always wears long gloves with her costume, Nura, her mother, and Safura, their Israel-born teacher.