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UNESCO ADDS PITTSBURGH LEFT TO HERITAGE LIST

PITTSBURGH (Special to the Dispatch).—The United Nations Educa­tional, Scientific and Cultural Organi­zation announced today that the Pitts­burgh Left has been added to UNESCO’s Repre­senta­tive List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

“The practice of making a left turn just before the light turns green,” the text of the original nomina­tion declares, “while not unique to Pitts­burgh, has been developed there to such a degree as to constitute a recog­nizable form of folk art.”

“Safeguarding our intangible cultural heritage depends on trans­ferring of knowledge from one genera­tion to the next,” said a UNESCO statement read by a children’s choir at the corner of Forbes and Murray in Squirrel Hill. “Conditions must be maintained in which cultural traditions can thrive. The Pittsburgh Left would be en­dangered if modern left-turn cycles were added to previously existing traffic signals.”

A spokeswoman for the Department of Public Works later replied in a prepared statement that “UNESCO shouldn’t lose much sleep over that.”