Last week, I went to see a movie at the South Side. It’s not something I haven’t done… Last week, I went to see a movie at the South Side. It’s not something I haven’t done before; after all, it really is the closest major movie theater to the Pitt campus and only a convenient bus ride away.

As I de-boarded the 59U, I took a look around the neighborhood to which I had just arrived. It seemed that I had gone from working-class Oakland to the epicenter of yuppie activity in about 10 minutes.

Standing somewhere between a row of apartments that cost more a month than do some Oakland apartments in half a year and the Cheesecake Factory – it hit me. The South Side is changing.

It always happens this way. One of the great ironies of bohemian neighborhoods is their tendency to become so expensive that the people who comprise the fabric of the area can’t afford to live there anymore.

Young urban professionals, or “yuppies,” take notice of the arts scene developing and somehow can’t resist trying to pretend to be part of it.

A few more move in, and suddenly, a culture shop and studio make way for an American Eagle Outfitters.

The South Side of Pittsburgh is probably the area’s greatest neighborhood (although Oakland is pretty close). At one time, the area alongside the Monongahela River provided convenient homes for the thousands of steelworkers who were the backbone of Pittsburgh’s economy for generations.

In the 1970s, however, as America began to outsource its manufacturing jobs and Pittsburgh became less dependant on steel as its primary source of revenue, the factories began to shut down.

The South Side was emptying and scores of ages-old lofts and Victorian storefronts emptied with the fleeing people.

After the steelworkers began to leave, a community of Pittsburgh artists began to move in. Attracted by cheap rents and huge apartments with plenty of windows, the South Side quickly became Pittsburgh’s bohemian enclave.

The old stores once again began to flourish, this time as coffee houses and art studios, and the lofts were home to a new generation of Pittsburghers – this time, not producing steel, but art.

After a few decades of individualist culture, things seem to be changing again. The small boutiques and culture shops are facing higher rents and more competition.

A sign hangs on the wall in the Beehive Coffee Shop on the corner of East Carson and 14th Street: “Friends don’t let friends drink Starbucks.”

It was placed there with good reason – the national chain opened up a store directly across the street a few years ago.

The biggest change of all, of course, is Southside Works.

While many of the old stores south of 18th Street remain intact (for now, anyway), north of that border is a different story.

Across the street from the South Side’s Goodwill is a new community that has no need for such a place, complete with loft apartments that are going for no less than $1,100 a month for a one-bedroom, one-bath.

The idea of a wealthy population driving up once-cheap rents and displacing longtime residents is nothing new.

Sociologist Ruth Glass coined the term “gentrification” in 1964 to label the now-common phenomenon.

While gentrification surely has its opponents, many people support the process.

It’s known to clean up the streets and reduce crime, as well as earn more money for the area.

It’s become apparent that gentrification doesn’t rid the world of crime or homelessness, however. It simply pushes it elsewhere.

There may be less trash on the streets of the South Side these days, but if you ask me, there’s beginning to be less individuality as well.

Corporate stores and offices don’t do justice to people or neighborhoods. That said, I’ll take a cup of coffee at the Beehive over a double-vented mocha cappuccino at Starbucks any day.

Do you prefer a double mocha whatsit over a cuppa joe? E-mail Peter at [email protected] and let him know.