Duquesne

One of the worst and most desolate hoods in the greater PGH area. Not very well known because it's been on the decline since at least the early 1980s and very few people still live there. It's even more violent and blighted than McKeesport, but on a smaller scale. People get targeted for literally no reason at all, nothing to even rob or take from them except their suffering.

Most remaining houses go for sheriff sale because properties are worth so little there now that sellers struggle to find a buyer at practically any price. $50k would be a fairly nice older house near Kennywood for instance.

Half the lots have been demolished or are rotting apart, although some old timers do take good care of their homes and deserve respect for hangin on the best they can. A few churches and businesses are still operational too and decently taken care of.

Some of us still remember the parades down the avenue, our nice older black neighbors (shout out to Mr. Ed!), getting a pizza from Mario's, beautiful summer mornings at the top of the hill, and the sense that this area used to really be something. It's also the kind of area that could become really beautiful and desirable again if some company were to just dump IDK like a billion dollars' worth of investments into rehabilitating the area and give actual opportunities to the people who live there.

Sadly this is one of those places that for a long time has been super inexpensive for good reasons.

At least McKeesport has its own schools with a wild football team, some parks, stores, services, and some parts of it are better than others. There's no "better" part of Duquesne, even the areas near Kennywood / West Mifflin, it just feels like a wasteland.

Bluebeard's Castle

Named after the folk story in which a wealthy and very secretive man brings his newly eloped wife into his castle -- she keeps opening doors to areas he begs her not to explore as she finds out all his dark and wondrous secrets, which keeps her curious about him until finally she is in too deep and can no longer escape him.

Bluebeard's Castle is when an otherwise pleasant and enticing guy just gives you weird vibes like he's not completely open about himself, and you ignore the obvious warning signs because you're just so curious about his past that you don't see how you're dragging yourself into his "soon-to-be" past, for better or (most likely) worse.

Think "Beauty and the Beast", but if the roles of the Prince and the Beast were reversed in the story arc.

(as they pull up to his place in a car)
Her: He doesn't want me asking where he got all his money. I don't get it, he never talks about his family or friends. He's being so cagey.
Friend: Well what does he tell you?
Her: He tells me I'm all he cares about, that he wishes I could just love him as he is and not ask questions. He wants me to stay the weekend at his place.
Her: (laughs) What is this, Bluebeard's Castle?
Her: Snap out of it, girl, he's playing you. I don't mean to hurt your feelings but he's nothing to you.