South Oakland

Walking down the uneven cement sidewalks, the mingling smell of garbage and stale alcohol… Walking down the uneven cement sidewalks, the mingling smell of garbage and stale alcohol reaches your nose. You glance up to watch the black Honda with the broken side-view mirror slowly crawl past you for the fifth time; the driver is still looking for a space to park on the crammed, narrow street.

You hear a crunch and look down. You’ve stepped on a red plastic cup. You notice broken glass and a puddle of an unidentifiable liquid up ahead and decide to avoid both.

Now you realize exactly why South Oakland earned its infamous nickname-“the Dirty South.”

What students call South Oakland, though, is actually Central Oakland. It runs from Fifth Avenue down to Boundary Street, and from Schenley Plaza to the Boulevard of the Allies, according to the Pittsburgh City Planning website. This area is known for on- and off-campus housing, its restaurants and its party spots.

Bouquet Gardens, which is made up of eight different apartment-style buildings, is located on South Bouquet Street and Oakland Avenue, across the street from Posvar Hall. The residents of this Pitt residence complex are mostly juniors.

Pitt’s Oakwood Apartments, a brown brick building on Oakland Avenue, houses 38 students in single and double bedrooms, according to Panther Central’s website.

Much of the rest of this region consists of separate houses owned by private landlords or real estate companies. Most are crowded together without much grass or well-kept plant life between them. Some students choose to rent an entire house, crowding in anywhere from four to eight people.

Other houses are divided up into separate apartments, with one or two apartments on each floor. One to four people usually live in this type of apartment.

The real South Oakland is not as infamous as its poseur, Central Oakland.

The South doesn’t technically begin until Fifth Avenue at Halket Street. Its boundary runs back to Swinburne Street and down to the Hot Metal Bridge, gateway to the South Side.

If traveling through South Oakland by car, you can merge onto 376 East, better known as the Parkway East. The Parkway will lead you to areas like the Waterfront and Monroeville, both of which are popular sites for shopping and eating.

Students also make their home in this section of Oakland on streets like Ophelia and Juliet. Families also live here, interspersed among the college kids.

When you overhear upperclassmen discussing details of the area collectively known as South Oakland, you may think no one likes it. But in actuality, scores of students appreciate the region for its sense of community.

Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, flocks of students wander door-to-door like little kids on Halloween in search of parties or late night eats at places like Fuel and Fuddle on Oakland Avenue and Antoon’s Pizza on Atwood Street.

When the weather is nice, students sit outside on their lawns or roofs and converse with passersby about South Oakland’s famous summer stench (which no words can truly describe) or about what they plan on doing that evening.

The neighborhood promotes a bond among those who live there. Each one’s experiences and memories here seem universal.

This is where you walk down the sidewalks, early in the morning, toward the Cathedral and see the faces of peers, barely awake and chugging down coffee. And when you go out to eat at midnight, here is where you’ll see other Pitt students carrying on and acting like family with one another, although they may have just met.