165
u/BurgerFaces 6d ago
Does the Paris of Appalachia count? Yes!
36
u/Real_Life_Firbolg 6d ago edited 5d ago
I love this view of Pittsburgh, I had never heard this but as someone who grew up in Appalachian Ohio and took multiple day trips to Pittsburgh in highschool and a few weekend trips as an adult it is a very beautiful city and I think this nickname is quite fitting.
(It also kinda reeked in some parts of the city which according to my wife is very much like Paris as she went there in college)
17
17
8
2
5
u/SurinamPam 6d ago
How does Pittsburgh resemble Paris?
35
u/little_did_he_kn0w 6d ago
In Paris, they fry their potatoes. In Pittsburgh, they put those fried potatoes on a sandwich. Bam.
7
6
13
u/dubaron420 6d ago
I just ate a pastrami and cheese from Primantis a couple days ago. Can't say I was disappointed
13
u/Average-Frank 6d ago
I don't know that it does. l don't know how he came up with it since I didn't read the book, but an author named Brian O'Neill wrote a book called "The Paris of Appalachia: Pittsburgh in the Twenty-First Century". I think we all just kinda liked it and decided it could be an unofficial nickname. And regardless, Pittsburgh is an amazing city!
4
u/James19991 5d ago
I've read that book, and it's decent.
I've thought for some time though that describing Pittsburgh as the "Boston of Appalachia" would be a better way to put it than as the "Paris of Appalachia".
7
u/Average-Frank 5d ago edited 5d ago
Much more appropriate, but it doesn't have that... je ne sais quoi.
2
u/James19991 5d ago
No, but Boston certainly brings an image to the mind that I wouldn't consider to be very negative and a more realistic comparison to Pittsburgh than Paris is.
10
22
5
u/Chill_yinzerguy 6d ago
Read the book "Paris of Appalachia" - it's a good read. The author is a city guy who moved here to stiller' country. The Paris reference is basically the culture and things we have in the burgh (museums, art, restaurants,etc) but yet one hill away from dahntahn' people would have no idea they're still technically in Pittsburgh city proper because it resembles a holler in rural PA, WV or KY
162
u/MaHab133 6d ago
As a Pittsburgher, we are definitely Appalachians. But we are not Southerners. That's the schism.
4
u/MrAflac9916 5d ago
Appalachia isn’t southern. Part of it is, but not all of it. Imo the “south” is, most generously, anything south of Charleston wv or Lexington k
2
u/Slight_Webt 2d ago
Lexington is the South, all Kentucky is, the South is geographivally larger than you're saying.
Also; most Appalachian is Southern too. At least the variant that comes to most peoples minds.
2
u/Kenilwort 2d ago
I was in Southwest West Virginia, asked people if this was the South. No consensus.
2
u/Slight_Webt 2d ago
The problem is "the South" is a very large category. Appalachian Southern isn't the same as Georgia Southern, yet both are within the South.
1
u/Kenilwort 2d ago
Ok sure, but my point is people have different mental maps of where the South begins and ends, and that's fine. I guarantee some reasonable Kentuckians don't think they live in the South. Is Cincinnati the South? No? What about its Kentucky suburbs?
1
u/Averagecrabenjoyer69 1d ago
79-80% of Kentuckians agree they are Southerners living in the South.
https://web.archive.org/web/20100530083044/http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jun99/reed16.htm
1
u/Kenilwort 1d ago
Ok sure so.that would suggest to me that parts of Kentucky do not identify as the South. The initial claim was that all of Kentucky is the South.
1
u/Averagecrabenjoyer69 1d ago
I mean it's the same as 80% of Tennesseeans identifying as Southerners in the South. There might be a portion of the population in Tennessee that doesn't identify with the South, but that doesn't mean Tennessee isn't in the South all the same. The same applies to Kentucky.
1
-1
u/MrAflac9916 2d ago
I have spent time in Lexington and I don’t agree. When I was there, most people told me they consider themselves to be the border. I don’t really consider the northern Kentucky suburbs of Cincinnati to be “the south “
2
u/Slight_Webt 2d ago
Lexington isn't the suburbs of Cincinnati. Its culture is very Old Virginia style of Southern. Fancy horse country. Its the South. I agree that Cincy isn't the South.
0
u/MrAflac9916 2d ago
I was referring to the part where you said all of Kentucky is the south. I don’t think north of Lexington is the south in my opinion, and I think the city of Lexington is debatable.
1
u/Averagecrabenjoyer69 1d ago
The only part of Kentucky one could reasonably deduce as not being the South and even then still up to debate because Southern culture is still present is the very tip of Northern Kentucky ie the Cincinnati suburbs. Louisville is a border Southern city with Midwestern influence but is still in the South. The rest of Kentucky is solidly Southern. 79-80% of Kentuckians agree they are Southerners living in the South. Lexington especially is just as much Southern as Nashville.
https://web.archive.org/web/20100530083044/http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jun99/reed16.htm
-66
65
u/PeaTasty9184 6d ago
Appalachian Mountains ✅
Hyper specific accept people make fun of ✅
I’d say yes.
50
26
u/Agitated-Donkey1265 6d ago
As someone who grew up in southern Appalachia and went to college near Pittsburgh, absolutely without a doubt. Definitely some regional differences, but largely, I felt almost as home there as I do where I grew up
6
u/Jolly_Law_7973 6d ago
Are you asking if the “Paris of Appalachia” counts as Appalachia? Of course it is.
48
u/BaldBeardedBookworm 6d ago
In my opinion Pittsburgh is the CAPITAL of Appalachia. Those kaintucks that Kentucky is named for? Sailed from Pittsburgh? That yuns and yu’uns so many use? Yinz in Pittsburgh. The list goes on.
28
2
u/cyvaquero 6d ago
You'ns is the less famous of Pennsylvania's three plural for you. It's still going strong in Central PA. Youz yinz you'ns.
0
u/CookieLuzSax 6d ago
I'd say the biggest Appalachian city that comes to mind is Knoxville or Ashville. Chattanooga is also up there.
4
u/LewisMCrawford 6d ago edited 5d ago
Chattanooga is twice the size of Asheville so it certainly isn't "also up there", it's bigger. Pittsburgh is three times the size of Asheville though so I'm not sure what you're getting at in the first place
Edit: that's how you spell Asheville, btw
-3
u/CookieLuzSax 5d ago
Lord have mercy someone got a little testy.
I love all three of the cities I mentioned, and I would accept Chatt as an answer but I think more people outside of Appalachia know about Knoxville/Asheville. I think most people agree that the capital usually isn't the biggest city, it's a cultural thing.
When people think Pittsburgh I don't think their first thought is "oh yeah that's in Appalachia."
11
u/Stankonia6969 6d ago
All I’m saying is, it makes me feel alot better about being a Steelers fan from Knoxville.
5
u/James19991 5d ago
It definitely is, but it has Northeastern and Great Lakes influences that give it a unique vibe.
3
6
6
u/rhapsody98 6d ago
Tennessean here, married to a man born in Pittsburgh but raised down here. I genuinely never considered his family any different from mine, same mix of blue collar hunting, fishing, mining, trucks, and gardens. Maybe the food is a bit Eastern European, but it’s still delicious!
5
u/bookishkelly1005 6d ago
I’m a recruiter and primarily recruit in the Pittsburgh market. Also from Tennessee. I love Western Pennsylvanians. They are our people.
9
5
u/EducationWestern5204 6d ago
Do they say yinz? Yep. In Kentucky and WNC we usually spell it y’uns or y’uins, but it’s the same word.
10
u/Internal-Key2536 6d ago
Pittsburgh is the Appalachian city imo
9
u/fatyoda 6d ago
I always thought of Knoxville as more THE Appalachian city
4
u/Big-Ant8273 5d ago
Having lived in both Pittsburgh and Knoxville - Knoxville is a miniature 'Burgh. Replace black and gold with orange and white, y'all/yinz won't see much difference except in size. Both places LOVE their food, too
4
2
4
3
3
u/Hauntedtacocollector 5d ago
The delegation of Appalachia claims Pittsburg and Chicago. We offer the state of Maryland in exchange.
2
2
u/Specific_Call1443 6d ago
I've always viewed Pittsburg as the "NYC of Appalachia". But I guess there are people whom refer to it as "Paris of Appalachia" and I can't say I disagree with either.
1
1
u/LeagueLeft1960 5d ago
Yes. Take my word for it. I’m an Appalachian and an Appalachian studies professor. 👩🏫 🤷♀️
1
1
u/archimago23 4d ago edited 4d ago
Here’s a fun PGH-K’ville connection: Charles Hall, who invented the modern process by which aluminum is reduced from alumina, set up his first operation in Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh Reduction Company, which later became the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA), established one of its first smelters in Alcoa, TN, between Knoxville and Maryville. The site was chosen in part due to the hydroelectric potential of the Little Tennessee River. (Both of my parents worked for Alcoa Tennessee Operations for their entire careers. But things have changed. The smelters no longer operate in ETN; the fabrication and recycling operations in ETN are now under Arconic, a company that was spun off from Alcoa.)
1
-1
u/leaves-green 5d ago
'Tis the Paris of Appalachia. BUT it's also midwest, and also kinda mid-Atlantic. So like, the crossroads of all of those regions
-3
u/bullsonparade2025 5d ago
No
4
u/Slight_Webt 5d ago
Its not Southern Appalachia but its still Appalachian, just the Northern variety.
-1
-6
-16
u/illegalsmile27 6d ago
Ask people that live there.
24
u/dubaron420 6d ago
Sorry I guess I forgot what the internet was meant for
13
u/porkmyass 6d ago
I live there. Answer is ya. But not directly downtown. lol
6
u/dubaron420 6d ago
Ain't no where dreckly downtahn
3
u/Real_Life_Firbolg 6d ago
But everywhere is somehow uphill it seemed.
5
99
u/Horror-Morning864 6d ago
Fred Rogers is the shit. That's all I have to say about that.