Once the end of the Baum Boulevard streetcar line, Friendship in the 1890s became an enclave of industrial managers who squeezed their large, stately Victorians in close; recently, the upper-middle class has returned to Friendship, with lawyers and architects painstakingly restoring original woodwork -- and having babies -- amid apartment-dwelling students and singles. Along Penn Avenue, Friendship meets its neighbors, the African-American hilltop neighborhood of Garfield and working-class Bloomfield, dubbed "Pittsburgh's Little Italy." Particularly during "gallery crawl" nights, an artistic flowering in the Avenue's old buildings draws visitors from around the city to innovative galleries, the Pittsburgh Glass Center, small dance companies, ad hoc rock venues, restaurants and the charmingly scruffy Quiet Storm coffeeshop, where you can drink very strong coffee with your vegan scrambles.

What's the best way is to get to this evolving neighborhood? Public transportation choices are plentiful. Seven PAT routes travel through one of Friendship's main thoroughfares. If you choose to come by car, street parking is almost always available as well, if not on Penn, then no more than two blocks away on one of the cross streets. Here are the main PAT routes to get you around the neighborhood. Baum Boulevard: 77 Penn Hills Centre Avenue to Downtown: 71A Negley and 71C Point Breeze via Oakland, 82 Lincoln via the Hill District and 86 Liberty via Bloomfield and the Strip District Friendship Avenue to Downtown and East End destinations: 87 Friendship Penn Avenue: 88 to Strip District and Downtown as well as East Liberty, Target and Bakery Square Routes 71C, 77, 82 and 86 also serve East Liberty shopping areas, while 71A provides service to Highland Park