Protests? Pittsburgh Just Glad for Respect

Native Pittsburghers definitely saw a motley crew of protesters invade for the G-20 summit this week, and were generally pretty unfazed. “It’s cool. People need to speak their mind,” one local told Bari Weiss, writing for the Wall Street Journal. “They didn’t bother anyone.” Indeed, the Steel City was looking for, and feels it got, new respect at home and abroad.

“Cops are just doing their jobs; protesters are just doing their jobs,” said another local, happy that rejuvenated Pittsburgh is “getting international respect—what it deserves. … At the end of the day, we’re no longer a second-class city.” Chimes in Weiss: “They’re right. Those who visited Pittsburgh this week—from French first lady Carla Bruni to the grungiest freegan—enjoyed a city with cultural institutions, businesses and parks well in excess of its modest size.”
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