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This Valentine's Day, there's one love that most of us can agree on. Despite the snow, the traffic or any other shortcomings, most Western Pennsylvanians share a passion for the 'Burgh. We all know our sports teams are dear to our hearts, but what else about the Steel City makes us brag to visitors and faraway friends?
Dr. Ravindra "Ravi" Godse, 40, of Fox Chapel, is a full-time doctor with a full-time hobby -- making full-length feature films. His third Pittsburgh-set comedy, "If It Ain't Broke, Break It" is getting a local theatrical release sometime in March.
"If It Ain't Broke, Break It" stars Godse -- who plays himself -- as a nosy, bumbling doctor who finds out he has six months to live, and decides to spend it "helping" six friends, whether they want his help or not.
"One thing I love about Pittsburgh is driving, getting lost and taking directions," Godse says. "I am talking about good old days, before GPS spoiled all the fun. I don't know whether the people who named the roads in Pittsburgh were playing football with the Ravens without helmets. Imagine you are standing with your back to the new Children's Hospital at the junction of Penn Avenue and Main Street. If you turn left, you will reach the junction where Washington Boulevard becomes the Fifth Avenue; if you go straight, you will reach Fifth Avenue, and if you turn right and continue on Liberty, you will reach, guess what, the Fifth Avenue.
"Dealing with the roads is like dealing with the people here. Rugged, snow-covered at times, with a lot of ups and down, periods of confusion but gets you, in the end, where you want to go and makes you feel mighty good about it. I am so sorry for one mistake though. I am a proud Pittsburgher now and instead of saying the new Children's Hospital, I should have said, where St. Francis Hospital used to be!"
â€" Mike Machosky
Andrew Stockey grew up in a small town called Simsbury, Conn. He made stops at Fox News and ESPN before starting at WTAE-TV in March 1995.
He is the anchor of 5, 6 and 11 p.m. weekday newscasts.
He says he is grateful for the opportunities he has had to cover many diverse events and people in Pittsburgh, which is a city that has so much to offer.
"I love that I live in this big city with a small-town feel," Stockey says. "We have pro sports, the arts and so much of what major metropolises have, but we have it in a friendly place where small-town courtesies and manners are practiced every day. I grew up in a small town, always wanting to live in a big city. Now, I have the best of both worlds."
Stockey says the shooting of the three Pittsburgh Police officers in April in Stanton Heights was the most important story he has covered. His most enjoyable stories include the Steelers Super Bowl victories in 2006 and 2009.
â€" JoAnne Klimovich Harrop
Like a lot of Steel City transplants, Patrice Matamoros was charmed by Pittsburgh's combination of small-town friendliness and its big-city sports teams and cultural events.
Matamoros, race director for the Dick's Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon, was born in San Diego but spent most of her youth in Montana. She and, husband Glen, a former Navy SEAL, lived in Virginia Beach, Bethesda, Annapolis and Philadelphia before moving here.
"I love all of the different offerings," she says. "It's a town you really can get intimate with. It's family-friendly."
But Matamoros says she's particularly smitten by the region's bike trails. A former competitive runner, she had to hang up her running shoes because of a hip injury. She now gets her endorphin fix cycling up to 30 miles a day.
"I really like the riding trails, like the Great Allegheny Passage that they're developing right now," she says of the rails-to-trails route that stretches more than 300 miles from Washington, D.C., to Duquesne near Pittsburgh.
Matamoros hasn't had much time lately to saddle up for a two-wheeled rendezvous with the wind, however. Preparations for the May 2 marathon have begun in earnest. Her mind right now is focused on having enough Porta Potties and drinking cups for the runners, as well as making sure 26.2 miles of city streets will be clear when the starting gun goes off.
â€" William Loeffler
Aside from her family, Erin Halloran always has had one love in Pittsburgh, one that she's consummated for almost two decades: Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, where she is a principal dancer.
"It's been an integral part of my growing up and living here," says Halloran, who attended Allderdice and Schenley high schools while growing up in Point Breeze. "My husband (ballet master Steven Annegarn) works there. ... It's definitely my extended family."
Halloran spent a short period with the Cleveland Ballet right after high school before taking a position with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre in 1990 to work with former artistic director Patricia Wilde, who emphasized classical technique and the Balanchine repertoire. Performing with current artistic director Terrence Orr, Halloran's been able to explore more contemporary aspects of dance.
"It's almost been like working for two companies," she says.
Most of all, Halloran loves to be able to perform in her hometown.
"It's wonderful to have my parents here," she says. "We have two boys, and in terms of raising a family, being a dancer and having the stress of a full-time job, it's been essential to have them here. I don't know how I'd do it otherwise."
â€" Rege Behe
Bruce Klein, 54, of Oakland, is founder and curator of Photo Antiquities, the nonproft North Side photography museum.
Klein also owns the adjacent Bernie's Camera Shop on East Ohio Street, a store started by his dad, Bernie Klein, 87, of Squirrel Hill.
"The one thing I like about Pittsburgh is the people," Klein says. "I think the people are genuine. They aren't into putting on fronts. They are not into 'keeping up with the Joneses.' "
Pittsburghers "are down to earth," he says.
Klein also likes that total strangers often seem eager to stop and talk.
"My car was stuck in the snow the other day. I had somebody just come up and say, 'Hey, do you need some help?' Things like that -- just acts of random kindness -- that's all part of Pittsburgh. That's what makes Pittsburgh what Pittsburgh is," Klein says. "You go to a fast-moving city -- New York or Los Angeles -- and people just go right by you. They see you're stuck and they keep right on going. Here, people stop."
After recent snowstorms, a gutter fell off the roof of Klein's home. "A neighbor called me up and said, 'By the way, I noticed one of your gutters has just fallen.' That was very nice. I wouldn't have known if they hadn't told me," Klein says. "People watch out for one another, and that's nice."
â€" Deborah Deasy
Jazz is Maggie Johnson's first artistic love.
It's also the thing she loves best about Pittsburgh.
"Pittsburgh jazz has a very distinct past, present and future," says Johnson, a classically trained vocalist who sings jazz as well as being the director of marketing and audience development for the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. "Like a lot of things in Pittsburgh, its history and legacy is still alive around here."
When Johnson first moved here from Washington, D.C., the local jazz scene seemed to be in decline. But she has seen a resurgence in the number of clubs and events in the past three or four years.
To illustrate that, she points to events such as the live Monday night jam sessions at AVA Lounge in East Liberty.
"Around 10:30 or 11 o'clock on a Monday night, it gets packed, and there are so many young people," she says.
What helps make the Pittsburgh jazz scene so vibrant, Johnson says, is that artists can make a living here.
"It's something really significant when an artist like (trumpeter) Sean Jones not only can settle down here and give his gift to the city, but wants to."
â€" Alice T. Carter
Jane Werner didn't grow up in Pittsburgh and has lived in many places. So by comparison, it's the warm, friendly people of Pittsburgh that really stick out to her.
"The people are great here," says Werner, who moved to Pittsburgh in 1982. She is a native of Hellertown, Northampton County, in the eastern half of Pennsylvania. Werner also has lived in Philadelphia and New York.
"I can't believe it," Werner says. "I never thought I'd live here, and I never thought I'd stay. And sure enough, I'm a Pittsburgher."
Werner raised her two kids -- Ben, 20, and Matt, 17 -- in Pittsburgh, and says this is a wonderful city in which to bring up a family. She also finds the city to be high-tech and intellectual, with great culture and fine arts. Pittsburgh combines that with history, she says.
"I think Pittsburgh is very interesting place," Werner says. "It's very nostalgic, and I think there is a lot of forward thinking that goes on. It's very innovative. I think it's because of the people that are here.
Pittsburgh "has all this potential," she says. "People who are here now are taking advantage of that potential."
â€" Kellie B. Gormly
It is not difficult for drummer Roger Humphries to see the element of Pittsburgh he loves the most. It is being surrounded by the people he deals with, personally and professionally.
"It is just so easy to build a relationship here," says the drummer who is one of the strongest elements in the city's jazz life. "You make so many friends, and they always are around you."
It is different from places such as New York City where everyone is out for his own agenda, he says.
Humphries, who grew up in the North Side and lives there today, returned to Pittsburgh in 1969 after being on the road with greats such as Ray Charles and Horace Silver. He has run his career from here since, and is glad to be providing the same sort of warmth that others have for him.
"You get raised by the masters, as I was with Art Blakey, and you want to do the same," Humphries says.
He says he is proud many mature jazz players, such as pianist Max Leake, refer to him as "pops."
That shows that he has become one of those people who makes Pittsburgh a better place than many cities.
â€" Bob Karlovits
Jonathan Eaton, who was born in East Africa and educated in England, is glad he moved to Pittsburgh 10 years ago to become artistic director of Opera Theater and director of opera at Carnegie Mellon.
"What I love most about Pittsburgh is that it's a world-class center of culture. Thousands have walked the paths to the Pittsburgh Symphony and Carnegie Museums before me, finding meaning and fulfillment in the arts. To find such wonders set among so many diverse and appealing communities makes life here sweet indeed," Eaton says.
â€" Mark Kanny
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