We bank at Mechanics in Pittsburg, so I’m over there fairly often, even though it’s a 20-minute drive from here. (That’s assuming there’s no traffic.) The photos in this gallery are actually from two separate walks, one around the Pittsburg Marina in the afternoon, and one around Old Town in the morning. You should be able to tell which are which from the light as well as the subject matter, though I’ve tweaked all of them a bit in Photoshop and/or Lightroom. I enjoy my baby PowerShot A2500 immensely, but there’s no viewfinder, so shooting in sunlight is a matter of aiming the camera in the general direction of the subject and hoping it focuses, because it’s almost impossible to see the preview screen.
What I heard about Pittsburg in Oakley is that they spent their Redevelopment Agency money on fixing up their downtown, and this misappropriation of funds helped give the governor an excuse to reclaim all the Redevelopment money for the state, leaving cities scrambling for funds. I suspect the Pittsburg City Council sees it a bit differently, but I haven’t asked them.
In any case, there are a number of nice new buildings in Pittsburg’s downtown, and also a number of nice old buildings. The spooky thing is that most of them are empty. Some of the older ones have murals painted on the boards that cover the doors and windows; the newer ones have “For Lease” signs. Pittsburg has a thriving Chamber of Commerce, but most of the businesses are located further out Railroad Avenue, and not in Old Town.
I have not yet been to the Pittsburg Historical Museum to learn about Pittsburg’s history, but there is still at least one steel mill in the area (USS Posco), and the city has monuments to both steel workers and fishermen.
