Here is a picture of my interviewees, Rhett and Katie, and a picture of their home on 45th St.
Rhett Jenkins is currently working on his doctorate in Classics here at the University of Pittsburgh. He and Katie, his wife, an English doctoral student at UVA, observed Lawrenceville for five years from Bloomfield. They are both extremely intelligent and well spoken, and each time I met with them they seemed genuinely happy and excited to chat with me. While renting in Bloomsfield, they kept a watchful eye on the neighborhood of Lawrenceville. When the young couple decided they were ready to buy a home, they looked to Lawrenceville with initial apprehension, because it used to be significantly crime ridden (A notion that Franklin Toker’s text conveniently glosses over.) In recent years, they claimed Lawrenceville seemed like a much safer environment with financially feasible homes to offer. Last winter, they happily bought their first home on 45th St, just around the corner from Butler.
For fun, Rhett and Katie hang out in the Carnegie Library, raise two sassy kitty-cats, attend various “Happy Hour” specials on Butler, and in the winter, they SNOW-SHOE throughout Allegheny County cemetery. (So awesome.) Both speak very highly of their new neighborhood; they argue that it is making large strides in a positive direction. In fact, in our first interview, Katie dubbed Butler St. as a potential “new Walnut St,” alluding to the evolution and consequent prosperity of Shadyside. They also voiced concern that Pittsburgh pays too little attention to budding neighborhoods such as Lawrenceville, believing that “residential neighborhoods with entrepreneurial components” could very well be the key to the city’s overall success.
