Well, guys, this is where we part ways. This is our final blog post. To close out the blog, we are going to talk about Hawaii! Our post is centered around Chapter 18 of the book "Regional Landscapes of the United States and Canada" by Stephen Birdsall. Birdsall writes, "Today, nearly one Hawaiian worker in four is a military employee. Military personnel and their dependents represent more than 10 percent of Hawaii's population." Pittsburgh has the only museum in the country that honors women and men of all branches in the military. The museum is called Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum. The address is: 4141 Fifth Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15213
As you can see, this chapter covers the North Pacific Coast including Alaska, Canada, Washington, Oregon and some of California.
Seattle, Washington, is home to Microsoft. In King County, Microsoft has 16,000 employees.
Pittsburgh is home to Heinz Corporation. Hence, the Steelers' stadium is Heinz Field. (Although, who else likes to think it's named after the beloved Hines Ward?) Heinz makes a lot of products including Heinz ketchup. Heinz is in 200 countries. They sell 650 million bottles of ketchup every year. In total they have 32,000 employees.
(From Heinz's site)
I'm not much for ketchup, but if I were, I'd be supporting Pittsburgh's best.
Birdsall refers to California as "a state of immigrants." (p. 315) He says, "Although more than two-thirds of native-born Americans live in their state of birth, fewer than half of Californians were born in the state."
Pittsburgh, however, is home to many international immigrants. Pittsburgh's culture is
defined by many cultures as manyimmigrantshave settled there. Before
1900, people from Britain, Germany and Scandinavia settled in Pittsburgh.
Luckily, there were no major clashes between native and foreign born people.
After 1900, because of Pittsburgh's need for labor, people from Slavic Europe,
the Baltic States and southern Europe came to Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, this
caused some problems between the groups living in Pittsburgh. Those already in Pittsburgh thought "their social standings, customs, and lifestyles were in jeopardy to what they believed were the invading newcomers."
As you can see from this map, included in this region is California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
If you live in this region like I do, you know that illegal immigration is a hot topic. Birdsall writes, "Large numbers of illegal immigrants make it difficult to estimate how many Mexicans enter the United States each year ... estimates of 2 to 12 million." (p. 282)
Is illegal immigration a problem in Pittsburgh? Let's look at Pennsylvania as a whole. I'm getting this information from an article from thePittsburgh Post-Gazetteby policy analystDaniel Griswold.
According to the paper, illegal immigration is not a problem. Illegal immigrants are only 1.3% of the population and that's 40th in the country. The article even says cracking down on illegal immigration is the wrong answer because it would hurt the economy because "low-skilled immigrants do not compete directly with the large majority of American workers."
As you can see, included in this region is Alaska, parts of Canada (Yukon and British Columbia), Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado and Wyoming. Birdsall writes, "The Empty Interior is a land of stark contrast where aridity and lushness intermingle across wide desert valleys and high, rugged mountains." (p. 252) Pittsburgh is home to Mount Washington, which overlooks the city. In fact, USA Today voted the view from Mount Washington the second most beautiful place in the US. (As someone who has been there, I would agree.) From Mount Washington, you can see a view of the city, including the view of the rivers and the confluence (where the Allegheny and Monongahela form the Ohio River) and the city's skyline. There are two inclines that go up Mount Washington. (If you scroll down this blog enough, you will see photos of my trip on the the incline and of the incline.) Here is a cool video of one of the inclines going up Mount Washington.
(Unfortunately, this video was taken during the day. If you ever go, I highly suggest going during the night. Much more breathtaking.) But Mount Washington isn't really a "high, rugged mountain." It's only 367 feet! I guess we can say Pittsburgh is different from the Empty Interior in that way. But it's an important part of Pittsburgh for tourism reasons and it used to be the site of many coal mines. It was even called Coal Hill.
Photo Credit: US Embassy in Japan. This region is know for its extreme weather. The plains have a twenty year drought cycle. In July, Pittsburgh also had drought like symptoms. Check out this article from thePost-Gazette for more. In the summer, the weather was very hot with not enough moisture, which has an impact on crops. The Post-Gazette quoted a meteorologist:
"The drought conditions are accelerating," said David Miskus, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center in Washington, D.C told the Post- Gazette
Other states, such as states in this region like Oklahoma and Kansas, were also experiencing droughts this Summer. Another meteorologist quoted by the Post-Gazette said it was the worst drought since 1988.
As you can see from the picture, Pittsburgh just misses being in this region. As they say, so close, but no cigar. It may be hard to see, but the Ohio river is in this region and the Ohio river starts in our favorite place, Pittsburgh. The two rivers Allegheny and the Monongahela rivers turn into the Ohio river. Now, I mentioned the rivers briefly in Chapter 3, but for Chapter 11, I'd really like to focus on the Ohio River.
There's a lot more than how long (more than 900 miles) the river is. The river has been dubbed "The Beautiful River" and "The Great River." The river also has significance in our history. In the 1600s and 1700s, the river was the boundary in the Northwest Territory and showed which side was the English and which side was the Native American territory. Some of America's first permanent settlements were formed on the Ohio River's banks, including Cincinnati, home of the Bengals, one of the Pittsburgh Steelers' rivals. From the 1800s to now, the River has been key to transporting goods.
Here's a video of a ferry ride on the Ohio River in Pittsburgh. It reminds me of my time in the magical city.
In the video, you can see PNC Park. My friend recently saw a Pirates game when she was in this Pittsburgh. Here you can see a view of the Ohio river from her seat.
Welcome back! It's been a long time since we last talked, but we are covering some interesting material today. We will begin with Chapter 10 of the book "Regional Landscapes of the United States and Canada" by Stephen Birdsall. Chapter 10 talks about the Southern Coastlands. This region includes all of Florida as well as part of Texas, Louisiana, Mississipi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. Florida is of course known for its oranges. My grandparents send me mine every year. According to Birdsall, Florida has seven major citrus fruits. Orange and grapefruit are the best. In fact, Birdsall writes, "Orange production increased steadily until 1978, where 7.4 million tons were harvested." (p. 192)
What more information on Florida's oranges? Check out the juicy oranges details and the rivalry between California and Florida. Click on this article from Pittsburgh magazine! "Florida’s crop of thin-skinned, juicy fruit is distinctive from the thick-skinned, easily segmented oranges grown in California, which emerged as Florida’s citrus rival," Kate Chynoweth writes. What do you think? I like Florida's better, don't you? Leave a message in the comments!
While Pittsburgh may import oranges from the Sunshine State, they do have what they call "urban farms." And they were a hot topic back in 2010. Pittsburgh Tribune has the story: "Just as urban beekeeping, community gardening and raising poultry gains traction across the country, Pittsburgh leaders are considering limiting such agricultural practices." Many urban farmers were not pleased. They started a Facebook group to protect urban farming and many urban farmers started a discussion on the population chicken site, Backyard Chickens. WDUQ, Pittsburgh's radio station's blog gives a follow up: Pittsburgh residents are able to keep their farms with their plants and their bees and chickens. They will have to pay a $300 fee and if they are going to have animals, they will need additional permits. What do you think of Pittsburgh's urban farming decision? Post in the comments!
