Notes from Pittsburgh
I was in Pittsburgh last weekend, staying at the Westin Convention Center Pittsburgh, and I had a chance to walk around a bit and make some notes. A couple of things:
* Liang's Hunan Chinese Restaurant on Liberty Avenue has closed. I've never been there, but Morton Fox's pictures suggest it was a pretty tasty joint. Sad to see them go.
* There is a coffee shop in the arcade adjacent to the Westin again! Crazy Mocha, a small Pittsburgh chain, has opened in the location of the old coffee shop, which closed sometime between AC 2007 and AC 2008. Alas, they were closed when I went by on Sunday morning - I hope that someone puts a word in their ear about how it would be to their benefit to be open Anthrocon weekend! (It looked like Brown Bag Deli was still there, though it was also closed for the weekend.)
* The Grant Street Transportation Center is complete and operational! This is just across 11th Street from the Westin and provides service to Amtrak, Greyhound, and Pittsburgh Port Authority buses. The Transportation Center has some really nifty lighting effects that folks staying in certain parts of the Westin will appreciate.
* In conjunction with the opening of the Transportation Center, two new parking garages have opened up right next to the Westin. Even better, they're much cheaper than the convention center or Westin parking lots ($13 for 24 hours M-F, $5 for 24 hours on weekends), and they're open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
I have added these newest additions to the Official Anthrocon 2009 map, which can be found at http://www.anthrocon.org/map.
Found an email address on their site (under their locations) and fired off a polite email pointing them to us, having them ask around (especially Steel City Diner), and also asking about having special hours.
I stopped at that Chinese restaurant one night during last years con to get out of the heavy rain when I didn't bring any umbrella. The employees there really nice to let me stay for awhile even after they closed and gave me a cup of hot soup on the house. It was still raining when they eventually told me I had to leave, but at least it wasn't as bad. I wanted to go back to say thank you for the hospitality, but looks like I wont ever get the chance.
Otherwise, the other locations are very good news to attendees who plan on driving or taking greyhound. This is gonna be a big help. 
I live in Texas, the home state of George W. Bush. I apologize.
Thanks for the info! Frontpaged and Tweeted.
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