Something very simple happened today. In any other urban neighborhood, coffee shops come and go. Here in Pittsburgh's North City Flats, a coffee shop was.... Something very simple happened today. In any other urban neighborhood, coffee shops come and go. Here in Pittsburgh's North City Flats, a coffee shop was a long time coming.

Today was the first day of operation for Beleza. The place had gotten some good buzz locally. Not in the press so much, but the word certainly got around. There was my neighbor Bob who was heading over to help the entrepreneur's prepare. Casey, who said her friend who lived in an abandoned building was involved. Dave, who doesn't even live in North City, sent an email telling everyone Beleza was soon opening. It seemed everyone knew about the new coffee shop.

Beleza opened at 8 this morning. I arrived at 11:30. A young women was sitting out front with her dog. Three people stood on the opposite corner taking photos. Inside I was greeted with warm colors and aromas. A few sat in their solitary corners, but for many others it was like walking into a friendly living room. I had the sense that all these coffee-starved folk knew of each other, had exchanged friendly glances, but had few opportunities to interact.

"Where do you live?" the person at the counter asked. Hell, I thought, that may be a rather rude question in Starbuck's, but here it seemed normal, even welcomed. "Over by the Schoolhouse," I said. She lived up the block on Buena Vista.

Sometimes it seems day by day each of our little pockets we call "neighborhoods" are entrenched in their own provincial corners. We're stuck on Deutschtown being somehow distinct, if not better than the Mexican War Streets or Allegheny West. Today those lines were not the only ones to blur. Today those lines that kept us seperated by the sense of personal space on a city street were blurred by this third-place where we can meet and interact from today on as neighbors.

A side note, Beleza serves Peace Coffee