The Best Pittsburgh Stories in 2023

It’s a special edition of the Friday news roundup! There’s a lot we could say about this year, but we’ve decided to focus on the good. We’re wrapping up 2023 by highlighting the best stories in the Burgh, including the return of McCutchen and grilled stickies, a bunch of milestone anniversaries, improvements to city landmarks, and a few funny mishaps along the way. Only happy news to close out the year! We always cite our sources: Virginia Montanez wrote about the best things that happened in Pgh in her newsletter, Breathing Space. Some big things we didn’t touch on in this episode include last month’s election, smoke from the Canadian wildfires, conversations about mental health sparked by Fetterman’s hospital stay, the East Palestine train derailment, and the verdict of the synagogue shooting trial. For their 125th anniversaries, friend of the pod Mark Houser talked about the opening of the zoo and how Kennywood became the roller coaster capitol of the world. We interviewed the city’s first openly gay police chief, and he shared his coming out story on the podcast. Dr. Jonas Salk was a key figure in developing the polio vaccine, and you can learn more about this work at an exhibit at Pitt Public Health. For another comprehensive list, check out KDKA’s lengthy roundup of their biggest stories in 2023. Become a founding member of City Cast Pittsburgh at membership.citycast.fm. Want more Pittsburgh news? Sign up for our daily morning Hey Pittsburgh newsletter. We’re also on Instagram @CityCastPgh! Interested in advertising with City Cast? Find more info here.