Pittsburgh is a NATURAL City

Having lived in Pittsburgh all my life, I never stopped to consider any of its communities outside of a purely pragmatic standpoint. The mall was located in Monroeville. The movie theatre was in the Waterfront. The bowling alleys were in North Versailles (pronounced, of course, "ver-sales"). This Christmas, however, as I explored the 'burgh with a friend who hails not only from L.A.--where she is currently earning her master's degree--but from Singapore (her home country), I began to realize that the communities around Pittsburgh have distinctly "natural" sounding names.

Consider, for instance, the many animal-themed communities we have:

• Turtle Creek
  
• Squirrel Hill
  
• Fox Chapel

Then, consider all of these forestry-inspired communities:

• Oakland
  
• White Oak
  
• Shadyside
  
• Forest Hills
  
• Edgewood

Incredible, huh? And it only took me five years of living away from the city to make this realization!