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Why are you afraid/reluctant to actually allow the street signs to be read? My late parents grew up in McKeesport, near the old George Washington Elementary School.
Thanks CharlieBo313,I can remember when the mills were open, better times that these, I will be donating for sure. These were thriving blue collar neighborhoods, what type of camera do you use?
I'm neither afraid, or reluctant. I actually never think about it because I concentrate on getting the best angles for the footage and the camera is in a fixed position, Sometimes the street signs are shown but that's if they happen to be in the camera view.
Amazing to me how these older structures apparently built tears ago have withstood the test of time in those hilly conditions without suffering damage from soil erosion. Hills must be very solid.
A lot of Pittsburgh looks like that -- black neighborhoods, white neighborhoods, ghetto neighborhoods, safe neighborhoods, city neighborhoods, suburbs -- it's not always easy to tell which is which just by looking around.
Thanks for what you're doing! I'm trying to imagine what this are looked like 40 years ago when the steel mills were still operating. Interesting video, as all of yours are.
Thanks for the vid, Charlie. The towns just east of Pittsburgh proper are really in rough shape, and McKeesport might be the most benighted of them all. At least being part of a larger city gives you the wherewithal to clear out a bit of the blight (sadly well past saving now.) I heard McKeesport sold one of its utilities (water company I think) to a private company to finance tearing down some of the vacant properties. Looks like they barely managed to scratch the surface.
I looked up the history of McKeesport and it was originally settled in 1755 and was named after John McKee who settled it and 1795, it was named "McKeesport" because his son ran a ferrying business there and the place was known as "McKee's Port"... Bituminous coal was discovered and from 1832 on, the town grew into a city... As for the old houses, moat of them were built in the late 1800's and into the early to mid 1900's as industry flourished... There are plenty of houses of the same era all throughout the region... Once the mills started shutting down, McKeesport, Pittsburgh, Aliquippa, Ambridge, etc. crashed... And like many in Detroit, Gary, Flint, Pontiac, etc., those who couldn't leave just have to "make do"... And, the "real estate bubble" and "drug pandemic" didn't help either ! I was born and raised in Pittsburgh and lived through it all until my job situation prompted me and my wife to move to Maryland for better job opportunities...
@@sarahjane7472 You're welcome ! I got that from Wikipedia... I grew up in Pittsburgh and had been in McKeesport a few times, but never knew its history...
Great breakdown, they'll have you believe that blacks destroy these cities, not true, industry, and manufacturing jobs etc get shipped to other countries for cheaper labor and these cities deteriorate, then in comes drugs and crime because ppl are trying to survive, this also happens in rural areas as well.
The brick streets though! Some of my family is in, East Liberty. I used to spend summers in McKeesport, with my grandmother, in Harrison Village projects. May be an unsightly "hood" but spirited people live there. Shout out to the Port! 🙌🏽✨
I like your videos but, why do you travel around the same block in all your videos? There is so much to see other than circling the block which you were on.
I am biased, but Pittsburgh is beautiful. Though this town has more problems than most, it’s still a pretty place. I really enjoyed watching you drive up the hills with the sunset straight ahead.
Hope Charlie goes through East McKeesport soon. Try going up Renzie Road to Buena Vista too. That is the other side of McKeesport that still has home equity left. As a toddler, I would look out beyond the hills of Ridge Road at night at the glow of the many steel mills to watch the colors change.
Way back in the mid to late sixties, there was a female comic whose act was about her being a hick from East McKeesport. I forgot her name but she was often on Merv Griffith and other variety shows.
@@94110mission Sandy Duncan !! Perky! One of her good lines was concerning the sign that said on one side Welcome to E. McK. ....on the other side said Your now Leaving E.McK. !!!! It was really just a few homes along Rt. 30
Those hills damn.. what a weird looking city. this the type of place u go when u want to stash a body... or are on the run. Thank yu Charlie for showing the fans something different.
I biked through McKeesport a few years ago on my way to Pittsburgh. There are a lot of similar run-down communities in Western PA, but McKeesport struck me as particularly dumpy.
All of western Pa went down hill starting in the mid 1980s when the steel industry first crashed. It started a domino effect all the way up the Monongahela River to Fairmont Wv. There are a lot of us good people who still have what jobs are left. We make the best of the situation here.
I wanted to bike tour to McK. I live in Harrisburg but am from there...class off 72! I saw the mills collapsing and the crime, unemployment, etc. We're a death sentence. After my parents passed and us sibs scattered theres been no reason to visit. But several years ago I purchased an ebike ,also learned there's a Rails to Trails from Washington, DC to McK. !!! Called the Great Allegheny Passage. I was going to use the ebike to visit all the places of my youth.. the fond ones!! Renzie park, Bucks farm...ahhh the keggers there under full moons! Watching some of these videos...a guy Walt Garner...has a very good channel ...a whole bunch of videos just like this one! He covers quite a bit of the city.
Mckeesport is very violent. They've recently tried to improve by tearing down many abandoned buildings but there are very few jobs around. Shot out to the Port!
@TheLand Worldwide Educate yourself. Them guns won't help you. www.wpxi.com/news/top-stories/mckeesport-ranked-as-one-of-most-dangerous-us-cities/929647487/ 2017 murder rate - 62.1. What was your cities rate?
@@chuckedward580 wtf are you talking about "disputing reality"? i'm asking that just because there are few jobs around is causing these people to be violent?
All of those old, old historical brick paved streets, some not buried under breaking layers of asphalt must be hell all year round to have to drive and bike on.
I grew up with cobblestone ( Belgian Granite Block ) roads because the early streetcars were horse drawn and the cobblestones were to help the horseshoes to provide a better grip for the horses... ( Now, the cobblestones that were able to be salvaged are used for decorative, rustic, ( and "historical" ) purposes for houses, etc. As for the red, and other brick roads... When the roads were first paved, asphalt wasn't invented yet, but bricks were readily available... Yes, it made for rough riding on bikes, and was an annoyingly noisy ride in cars...
The brick pavements are still in good shape, it is the asphalt overlays that are rutted and rough. Just mill off all the deteriorated asphalt and repair the brick and those streets will be good as new.
Dale McNamee It depends on the texture of the brick. I have ridden my road bike on some brick streets that were nice and smooth but than a yellow brick pavement was very course and rough.
Thanks for this video. So many streets look similar. Did you drive down Grover Ave? If so what time on the video? I grew up in a duplex there when I was very young around 1973.
Grover Ave is the first street in the film! the very first…we lived at the bottom of Grover as it turned into Irwin in the 1950s. i recognized the houses
@@Pentazemin44 ok lmao. you have no knowledge on how the city used to be or what people would do if they had more opportunity. but you can be a youtube expert
@@GroovydawgJ ok lmao what? dont sell me this bs, I used to run with dope too and somehow me and many other ppl managed to grew up and get a good paid job. You stick to the hood cage you become a slave easy
Burbilog that's all that pleases somewhere in Russia, the roads are worse. But now we see wrecked houses, wooden electric poles, roads in patches and holes in another country
The point I'm trying to make is that whatever numbers you read or whatever you think you saw on a video doesn't even scratch the surface of how serious the situation really is.
My hood! Used to love it there growing up in clairton and then McKeesport before moving to the DMV. As I look back, moving to the DMV was the best thing my mom could've done!
My family still lives there.my dad grew up in that town. My grama lived there till the day she died..I’m crying I miss that place so much Everyone there wants out. I want to just go back home.
Shout out to Mckeesport! Spent a lot of time there as a young man. This is a perfect picture/ film of what small city living is like in south Western PA. I grew up in Greensburg which is like 25 minutes from there.
I know it looks like it's in the country but that is how it is here. The terrain gives each neighborhood it's own space. This definitely is not country. It's right outside of Pittsburgh.
I’m from the west coast, but I lived in Glassport back in 85 for a few months with my dad. I made a friend there that lived in 10th ward in McKeesport. Man that place was scary back then, I wander what it’s like now!
You had another video talking about Pittsburgh hoods and I was like "he ain't in certain parts of McKeesport so he aint touched the hood." This video: there U go.
LOL, we saw you a few days ago when you came through our neighborhood. Too bad our street didn't make the cut. :) It's not all bad, some of us are good, contributing members to society.
Hi Charlie could you please go to Altoona Pennsylvania and drive through Pleasant Valley a section of Altoona. And go to Hudson Avenue which in Pleasant Valley thank you.
Дороги уложены плиткой, а ямы в плитке заляпаны асфальтом..😀, а еще старые деревянные электрические столбы - это конечно трэш 😂!Спасибо Чарли, за видео!Мы хоть узнали, что собой представляет настоящая Америка!!!
My boyfriend and I watch your videos on our screen tv and play a game of guessing if you will turn left or right at the stop signs 🛑 and lights and the winner gets 5.00 each time. It’s really fun.
I got love for Pittsburgh and that part of PA. Lived in Rochester by aliquippa and I'm from Milwaukee. Never seen so many hills and valleys in my life . How do yall get thru the winter not sliding into death lol.
It looks potentially beautiful. Hills, trees, nice houses. Except no one takes care of anything. No one fixes his broken fence, does his lawn, gets rid of trash, nothing. I guess that's what this channel has taught me. You could put these people in any neighborhood and it would go to shit within a year.
@@RDJ2 Totally, lazy ass mofos waiting for "them" to fix it and when they dont receive what they want - all the cards are being played especially the race card.
It would be so cool to purchase a bunch of the homes on same block, not displace the family there but just remodel it back to original pristine conditions. If I were a rich woman, I’d have all the money and share with the world.
I'm just glad you didn't call McKeesport a city like other ppl were saying on other videos. Like, if that's the case, every other town near Pittsburgh that isn't downtown is a city & should have their own sports team.
I grew up in eastern europe and many of these streets remind me of my childhood, i dont really feel intimidaded by the looks of these hoods but i can imagine the crime rate is big. i grew up in a poor hood so poverty and fucked up streets don't bother me, but its really sad when you think people actually have to live like this.
Pittsburgh and the river steel mill towns had a triple wammy. First, steel workers of the 50s through 70s saved money to send kids to college and the bulk of them never came back to the area. The second was free trade and the third was the crack era. Crime increased and those with money left the area. I'd say gentrification was the fourth wammy for the river towns. It displaced people from East Liberty and other parts of Pittsburgh, and they ended up in the Mon Valley (McKeesport, Duquesne and Clairton).
Whoever's the Mayor; should be ashamed. This area looks terrible. The street don't look like its actually paved. Mass improvement is needed for this place to be considered inhabitable.
@Aimee Webber Most of these people are struggling just to keep the rent and light bills paid. Jobs are scarce and most have been priced out of the city and more livable neighborhoods. Most are also financially 'trapped' in this situation. Low paying, dead end jobs. These small towns get crumbs from the state and Federal government to try and maintain what infrastructure they can. The heavy industries that built and funded these areas are long gone and those who did well financially in the mills left long ago and took their fortunes and tax dollars with them. This situation has little to do with the residents not caring. Perhaps you could thank your lucky stars you are fortunate enough to not have to live in a place like this and maybe, say a little prayer that things will improve for these folks who do.
Ever think some people like it where they grew up? I still live in and love the mon valley and unless you are well off you probaly cant compete with me financially
never understood the term "make it out", one of the best ways to improve a "hood" is the folks that are in it... if every one keep "leaving", you take your potential tax dollars with you.. which can be used to improve the area.. just like in so-called rich areas, those tax dollars that live in those areas keep it looking nice for the most part.
@@jay_tripp yea.. you get out than gentrification happens, then folks with jobs and thier tax revenue from their paychecks move in... like JayZ said, gentrify your hood..
@@macanthony1982 yea if you have Jay z money cool. I'm talkin about regular people getting out. If I make it to a billion dollars I'll probably go help out, but you couldn't change a damn thing with $100k or less... and I don't have $100k. I don't even have $10k but you know what i do have? Enough to live in a place I can enjoy. I can live in a place where I don't have to worry so much about my daughters getting strung out or being involved in a gunfight or watching my friends die. Instead I wished them all well, I invited the few I'm close with to join me, and I went to a place where I can enjoy my life to the highest quality I can create for myself. I made it out and I'm glad.
@@jay_tripp yea, individually.. im talking about more than one person... example, here in DC, folks move have moved in "distressed" area bringing with them their good jobs and taxable income, hence gentrification
This town has nothing to offer no jobs nothing moved out 17 years ago best choice I ever made happy to be paying taxes somewhere I can actually make a livable wage now
The people who live in this community need to come together to form a committee to better their town ,apply for necessary grants etc Find out who owns the empty and abandoned buildings and ask them that own any of their intentions for the properties. Perhaps they can be renovated for homeless and put to good use. It's a pity to let this place fall into decline
rkhan2 Born and raised there in the 70’s and 80’s. I loved it. We all knew each other and were such a close knit community. I now live in Maryland and haven’t been to Quip in years.
This is typical of so many old Pennsylvania industrial towns built on a once thriving economy that's long since gone. The state's dotted with places like this. Some of our main roads aren't much better than the streets shown here!
There's some really great abandoned mansions and stuff over there. McKeesport is full of history it would take years to learn it all and it's sad that it's becoming so lost. Born and raised here so it's where I do a lot of my exploring and if you find the right people you wouldn't believe half the stories you hear lol
That must be the rich side of town. When it was fresh and new it was probably a really cool place to live. I like the hills and stuff but it’s taken a beating over the years.
I never realized that there sh!thole places such as this in America!!! I've looked at places over in Nigeria and if you didn't know any better then you'd think that's where you were!!!! A damn shame!!!! The so called richest nation in the world looking like this... However I do realize that this is a product of the system.
being from mckeesport, i'm kind of disappointed that you only drove around in circles! There is SOOOO much more to mckeesport that what you showed! There are lots of livable areas also. BUT there are many many more homes in the old/run down section. The historical area - around the library....the original mansions from the mill workers and doctors! ugh! it is a beautiful dilapidated, historical community. Yes, there is violence, but overall it is not at all as bad as people make it out to be.
