September 13, 2026

We usually search for each neighborhood on Google on the way there, and Beechview was our first destination that yielded news posted just days ago. Unfortunately, the neighborhood’s current notoriety is due to the rising number of ICE sightings and detentions over the past few weeks. Beechview follows in longstanding Pittsburgh tradition as a neighborhood made up of immigrants. In 2020, ten percent of its population was Latino, the highest percentage of any Pittsburgh neighborhood. This creates a uniquely bilingual neighborhood with Spanish and English intermingling on signs, posters, and conversations.

We arrived in Beechview excited to support the Latino-owned businesses that have been targeted by ICE. We found a neighborhood full of streetside tacos, restaurants representing the neighborhood’s diversity, and our destination, Alquisiras Paleteria, where we tried our first ever paletas. We were unfamiliar with these Mexican popsicles and became fast fans. With a multitude of flavors we had a hard time making the call, but eventually settled on Mango (a fresh popsicle with chunks of frozen fruit), and Strawberry, which was creamy and refreshing.

We took a walk through the neighborhood, taking in its sights and trying to survive its hills (shout-out and huge thanks to the neighbor who offered us bottles of water!). Beechview is one of Pittsburgh’s steepest neighborhoods (I mean, look at that fun fact below). We saw a branch of the Carnegie Library, St. Catherine of Siena church, passing trolleys, and Las Palmas supermarket.

Returning to our car, we drove to other significant Beechview sights, including Brashear High School and Seldom Seen Greenway. The Greenway is probably seldom seen because we had to make about seven U-turns before successfully parking to walk the 0.5 mile path, however the scenery was super worth it.

In between U-turns, we spotted Our Lady of Victory Maronite Catholic Church, where the annual Lebanese Food Festival was happening. As lovers of a food festival, we stopped and grabbed a dinner of kebabs, kibbee, kufta, rice, lubia, baklava, nammora, and other pastries. We also entered into a raffle to win a new car (but alas, we didn’t have Edmund, the family member who has all the luck at church sponsored games of chance.)

Fun Fact:
Beechview’s Canton Avenue is the steepest street in the U.S., with an intense 37% grade. But other streets in Beechview are almost as gnarly, with five other roads boasting grades of 20% or more. The annual Dirty Dozen bike race sends cyclists up all these inclines, plus six others in the city.