PITTSBURGH - Pittsburgh has completed the arduous process of covering downtown buildings with fake facades borrowed from Hollywood studio backlots as part of a grand effort to spruce itself up for this Tuesday's All Star game. One particular eyesore was the Fifth-Forbes corridor that is set for a major overhaul in the next five years. Since that timetable wouldn't help with the All-Star game, Mayor Bob O'Connor had its dilapidated buildings covered with the facades from the town square used in the Back to the Future trilogy, courtesy of Universal Studios. Likewise Wood Street, stretching from the Boulevard of the Allies to Sixth Avenue, has been covered over with the facades from Warner Brothers' old Western Street. The occasional gun play that breaks out between Pittsburgh roving gangs will be more appropriate in such a setting, the Mayor said.
Market Square has been turned into Munchkinland from the Wizard of Oz. O'Connor asked City Councilwoman Twanda Carlisle to play the Wicked Witch of the West, "just for laughs," but Tom Sokolowski, director of The Andy Warhol Museum, campaigned heavily for it, and he will don the black hat and ride the broom.
"I could do without the baseball," said Sokolowski, "but still I say, Hooray! At least for a few days, Pittsburgh's going to be a fairyland!"
