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In terms of the cities themselves according to the latest census data from 2010, Pittsburgh is about 65% non-Hispanic white and Portland is about 72% non-Hispanic white. Considering that many of the people you'll see in each city on a day to day basis who work or play there might live in adjacent suburbs and Portland has close to 100,000 more Asians and 200,000 more Hispanics in the metro than Pittsburgh, I don't think that either city is necessarily much more diverse than the other.
Both cities/metros are well known for being fairly white and less diverse cities than most major metros in the US and both are prone to having articles like the following written about them(though there's fairly diverse pockets in certain areas).
As time goes on both cities will have growing Asian and Hispanic populations--though that's basically going to be a nationwide trend in cities in coming years. I don't think the current diversity of either city is really unique enough to be notable, nor does the lack of it really take that much away from either city.
Good point. In fact, if you look at Portland's two largest suburbs, Gresham and Hillsboro, both have populations around 100,000 and are roughly 20% hispanic/latino, which is more than double that in Portland proper.
Pittsburgh and Allegheny County are becoming increasingly diverse, but the six outlying metropolitan counties (Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington, Westmoreland) are all over 90% white, which literally "whitewashes" out the increasing diversity in the urban core.
All the positive socioeconomic trends in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area in the last 10 years have originated in Allegheny County, so this is not an example of "the hole filling into the donut." In fact, Allegheny County is now responsible for the entire population growth of the metropolitan area, and then some. The metropolitan area minus Allegheny County is still slowly losing population. Butler and Washington Counties are growing, but their growth is based almost entirely on white people leaving Allegheny County. Furthermore, neither are growing as fast as before, and their growth is wiped out by losses in Armstrong, Beaver, Fayette and Westmoreland Counties.
Among all 20 Northeastern and Midwestern metropolitan areas with 1,000,000+ population (Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Hartford, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York, Philadelphia, Providence, Rochester, St. Louis and Washington DC being the others), Pittsburgh now has the highest rate of Hispanic growth, and trails only Baltimore, Indianapolis and Columbus in the rate of Asian growth. Almost all the Hispanic and Asian growth in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area is occurring in Allegheny County.
Pittsburgh and Allegheny County are becoming increasingly diverse, but the six outlying metropolitan counties (Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington, Westmoreland) are all over 90% white, which literally "whitewashes" out the increasing diversity in the urban core.
All the positive socioeconomic trends in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area in the last 10 years have originated in Allegheny County, so this is not an example of "the hole filling into the donut." In fact, Allegheny County is now responsible for the entire population growth of the metropolitan area, and then some. The metropolitan area minus Allegheny County is still slowly losing population. Butler and Washington Counties are growing, but their growth is based almost entirely on white people leaving Allegheny County. Furthermore, neither are growing as fast as before, and their growth is wiped out by losses in Armstrong, Beaver, Fayette and Westmoreland Counties.
Among all 20 Northeastern and Midwestern metropolitan areas with 1,000,000+ population (Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Hartford, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York, Philadelphia, Providence, Rochester, St. Louis and Washington DC being the others), Pittsburgh now has the highest rate of Hispanic growth, and trails only Baltimore, Indianapolis and Columbus in the rate of Asian growth. Almost all the Hispanic and Asian growth in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area is occurring in Allegheny County.
i wonder why portland is growing faster even though economy is worse than pitt
As for the metro, Pittsburgh's metropolitan area is more white per say, but it also has a much larger percentage living in rural communities, (outside the core counties) and most rural communities are overwhelmingly white in PA. The city and suburbs are fairly diverse themselves. And yes, Pittsburgh has 2 suburbs with a 10% Asian community and approximately 15 with at least 5%. Pittsburgh has a growing Hispanic population, but its not nearly as prevalent.
South Asians are particularly prominent in the Pittsburgh suburbs. There is one neighborhood of a suburban township which is majority Indian, and the local megaplex routinely plays 1-2 Bollywood movies now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EnricoV
I'm curious. It always seems to happen in these city vs. city discussions. Why is it, when the topic is "Education" all anyone talks about are colleges? Aren't the state of the K-12 schools more important to a city than its colleges and universities? And the availability of affordable educational opportunities throughout one's life? People will go anywhere to a 4-year school (in fact, most people prefer to attend a university not in their hometown). What does that have to do with the residents of a city? How may Pittsburgh residents actually attend Carnegie-Mellon? And how many of those graduates remain in the city?
For a major city, Pittsburgh's K-12 educational system is better than the norm, but still well below the statewide average. In terms of standardized testing, it ranks about 474 out of 502. While low, it beats out the school systems in Philly, Erie, Allentown Reading, York, Harrisburg, Lancaster, Johnstown, and Wilkes-Barre. Scranton and Bethlehem are the only two large cities with better school districts in the state, but in the case of the latter several suburbs are amalgamated into the school district.
Regardless, there are huge differences in educational performance across the Pittsburgh school district. The district is a bit over half black, and as is the case elsewhere, there is a large racial gap in test scores. In the Pittsburgh school system this explains the vast majority of the variation both within the district and compared to the suburbs. White kids who go to school in the "favored quarter" of neighborhood schools in the lower east end, along with the white children in the magnet program (which comprises 25% of total district enrollment) score as well as kids in the top performing suburbs in the state. The working and lower-middle class neighborhood schools in the southern part of the city never saw white flight in a major way and are still integrated. It's only really in select parts of the city (the Upper East End and the Northside) where there was total white flight out of the neighborhood schools.
Regardless, you can navigate the Pittsburgh Public Schools system and easily get a top education for your child. Hell, our magnet high schools are in such high demand that some suburbanites pay tuition to go to them. That said, my understanding is in Portland it is just as easy, if not easier, to send your kid to public school, so Portland probably ties or exceeds Pittsburgh by this metric.
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Originally Posted by greenlite
i wonder why portland is growing faster even though economy is worse than pitt
Because a substantial number of people move to Portland without a job lined up. Or they are self-employed and could live anywhere in the country, but they chose Portland as their residence.
South Asians are particularly prominent in the Pittsburgh suburbs. There is one neighborhood of a suburban township which is majority Indian, and the local megaplex routinely plays 1-2 Bollywood movies now.
For a major city, Pittsburgh's K-12 educational system is better than the norm, but still well below the statewide average. In terms of standardized testing, it ranks about 474 out of 502. While low, it beats out the school systems in Philly, Erie, Allentown Reading, York, Harrisburg, Lancaster, Johnstown, and Wilkes-Barre. Scranton and Bethlehem are the only two large cities with better school districts in the state, but in the case of the latter several suburbs are amalgamated into the school district.
Regardless, there are huge differences in educational performance across the Pittsburgh school district. The district is a bit over half black, and as is the case elsewhere, there is a large racial gap in test scores. In the Pittsburgh school system this explains the vast majority of the variation both within the district and compared to the suburbs. White kids who go to school in the "favored quarter" of neighborhood schools in the lower east end, along with the white children in the magnet program (which comprises 25% of total district enrollment) score as well as kids in the top performing suburbs in the state. The working and lower-middle class neighborhood schools in the southern part of the city never saw white flight in a major way and are still integrated. It's only really in select parts of the city (the Upper East End and the Northside) where there was total white flight out of the neighborhood schools.
Regardless, you can navigate the Pittsburgh Public Schools system and easily get a top education for your child. Hell, our magnet high schools are in such high demand that some suburbanites pay tuition to go to them. That said, my understanding is in Portland it is just as easy, if not easier, to send your kid to public school, so Portland probably ties or exceeds Pittsburgh by this metric.
Because a substantial number of people move to Portland without a job lined up. Or they are self-employed and could live anywhere in the country, but they chose Portland as their residence.
Because Portland has gotten a rep as a good place to be a slacker. So people (meaning mostly people 22-35) move there with no real plan, thinking maybe they can make do silk-screening t-shirts or being a yoga instructor or something.
Because Portland has gotten a rep as a good place to be a slacker. So people (meaning mostly people 22-35) move there with no real plan, thinking maybe they can make do silk-screening t-shirts or being a yoga instructor or something.
Because Portland has gotten a rep as a good place to be a slacker. So people (meaning mostly people 22-35) move there with no real plan, thinking maybe they can make do silk-screening t-shirts or being a yoga instructor or something.
Yup. That's one of the biggest differences between the 2 cities, the type of crowd it attracts. Pittsburgh is attracting people with a recovering economy with which it's trying to make a comeback. While Portland is attracting people by just being Portland. A lot similar to places like Austin, New Orleans etc are currently but for different reasons obviously.
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