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Pittsburgh is basically part of greater Appalachia; not what most people consider the "Northeast". Cleveland and Detroit are both more culturally similar to the Northeast than Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh is basically part of greater Appalachia; not what most people consider the "Northeast". Cleveland and Detroit are both more culturally similar to the Northeast than Pittsburgh.
Most people, don't even know of an "Appalachia" to even identify a city with... That term is pretty much non-resistant outside of you City-Data Regional Zealots ... Pittsburghers themselves don't even identify with an Appalachia, they will tell you Pittsburgh is in the Northeast.
So much for "Most People" ..... And that whole Cleveland Detroit being more NE, just proves you're clueless on what you're talking about, you've probably never stepped foot in either 3 cities...
Most people, don't even know of an "Appalachia" to even identify a city with... That term is pretty much non-resistant outside of you City-Data Regional Zealots ... Pittsburghers themselves don't even identify with an Appalachia, they will tell you Pittsburgh is in the Northeast.
So much for "Most People" ..... And that whole Cleveland Detroit being more NE, just proves you're clueless on what you're talking about, you've probably never stepped foot in either 3 cities...
I don't see Pittsburgh anywhere in the title of this thread, and don't really want to be dragged into an off-topic debate with Pittsburgh homers, but for the record, I've "stepped foot" in all of them, and I've lived in Cleveland all my life. Pittsburgh is within the Appalachian region, so how can you claim it's not Appalachian? Even someone who posted on here earlier said that Pittsburgh has more similarities to West Virginia than it does to Ohio. Below are more example of people who agree with this sentiment.
I don't see Pittsburgh anywhere in the title of this thread, and don't really want to be dragged into an off-topic debate with Pittsburgh homers, but for the record, I've "stepped foot" in all of them, and I've lived in Cleveland all my life. Pittsburgh is within the Appalachian region, so how can you claim it's not Appalachian? Even someone who posted on here earlier said that Pittsburgh has more similarities to West Virginia than it does to Ohio. Below are more example of people who agree with this sentiment.
South
1. Within the city, the soul food/BBQ (high migration patterns early 20th century)
2. Along the way to Youngstown heading SE from city, confederate flags.
3. Country Music Scene (Toby Keith's being opened in the Flats)
4. Mudding/truck festivals popular a little further down
5. Some Pittsburghese due to relationships noticed between the two cities.
"Pittsburghese" is a Midland accent, not a Southern accent.
Quote:
Originally Posted by yofie
Maybe it's possible that western PA used to be tied in more with Ohio, Michigan, etc. than to the East Coast economically (when manufacturing was thriving) but now it's more tied in with the East Coast despite the relative distance?
That's correct. Pittsburgh is not absent of Midwestern influence, nor will it ever be, but the influence has become overstated ever since the collapse of the steel industry. Manufacturing is what gave Pittsburgh an economic connection to the Midwest in the first place, so absent that, the connection has weakened. It'll never totally disappear, because history will keep those ties intact to a degree, but it'll never be as strong as it once was either, because the days of heavy manufacturing are history.
These days, Pittsburgh has learned to leverage its cultural and civic assets to help rebuild its economy, not unlike the big cities on the coast. Back in the 1950s, Boston was labeled "a tumbledown has-been among cities" by Life magazine, but look at it today. Pittsburgh is following the same path, and it's really begun to pay off, with Google, Apple, Intel and other high-tech sledgehammers opening research facilities in Pittsburgh to tap into the talent coming from its colleges and universities. As a result, Pittsburgh is behaving much more like a Northeastern city these days, economically speaking. Boston reinvented itself around its colleges, universities and other top-notch cultural assets, and it's become a very glamorous place in the process. Pittsburgh will never be as big or as glamorous as Boston, but it can certainly replicate Boston's model on a smaller scale, as it appears to be doing now.
On the other hand, a lot of Midwestern cities haven't leveraged their civic assets quite as well, if they've ever even had to, so even though there's nothing necessarily wrong with their economies, the industries they rely on for most of their growth are mature industries, like the automotive industry as one example. Cars and car parts are designed, engineered and assembled largely in the Midwest, but researchers in Pittsburgh are now taking the cars and making them drive themselves. There's still plenty of manufacturing of all kinds in the Midwest as well, but GE recently purchased land near Pittsburgh International Airport and announced their intent to build a large-scale 3D printing facility there. All the high-tech stuff going on in Pittsburgh more than likely explains the difference in venture capital activity versus its "peer" metropolitan areas in the Midwest.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SDPMiami
I can see why a city like Utica, despite not being coastal is considered "northeast" but Pittsburgh just no. And I've been to that city many times.
You think you're northeast because you get some transplants from that area? I can guarantee Miami gets more
If a mass influx of Northerners into large Southern metropolitan areas can change their cultures enough for Southerners to lament their loss of their culture in those areas, then a mass influx of people from the coast into Pittsburgh can change its culture too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cleverfield
Pittsburgh is basically part of greater Appalachia; not what most people consider the "Northeast". Cleveland and Detroit are both more culturally similar to the Northeast than Pittsburgh.
Using that logic, Knoxville, TN isn't a Southern city.
Huntsville AL would be in the same region as pittsburgh
As would Birmingham. For those of you that think Appalachia only includes West Virginia, here are a list of major cities within the region, some southern, some northern, some midwestern, etc. As other posters have explained, some of the cities are hybrids reflecting characteristics of their census region, but are still firmly in Appalachia.
From largest to smallest:
Atlanta.....just kidding, seeing if y'all are paying attention
Pittsburgh
Birmingham
Knoxville
Huntsville
Chattanooga
Roanaoke
Asheville
Charleston/Huntington
Chicago as well as Cleveland has quite a rich cultural legacy, and the likes of Detroit, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, etc. aren't very behind Cleveland, Chicago, and the big East Coast cities. And Cleveland is not alone among Midwestern cities in having "a heavy Ellis Island culture...with many old world eateries," I'm sure.
Pennsylvania has a big Amish country as well, and yet it's in the Northeast.
I think that you largely mean Appalachian culture, since a part of Ohio is in the Appalachians and the core of Appalachia (e.g. West Virginia, east Kentucky, east Tennessee, etc.) isn't that far away, though there is also influence from the Deep South, where many labourers came from early in the 20th century.
True. Those all are very good cultural cities. However, I'm not as certain on any of those cities in terms of the "Old World" stuff. Certainly there is "The Hill" in St. Louis, and there is Greektown in Detroit, but particularly in Pittsburgh, Minneapolis and Chicago, I don't know that all of that stuff took as much time to form, or if it did, it was largely eviscerated in the later parts of the 20th century when it went "out of style" to Generation Xers I suppose. Cleveland seemed to remain more largely committed to that, admittedly because the populations that were there, stayed there. Now that people are taking the time to appreciate that stuff again, Cleveland is reaping the benefits in food tourism, with West Side Market and Sokolowski's University Inn and Little Italy becoming a fixture on almost every destination show that talks about food.
I suppose that could be mentioned as fortuitous bounces though as much as it was "East Coast Feel" though, as it sounds like even Manhattan's Little Italy has declined in size quite a bit now.
Good point though, the uniqueness of it still seemed worth mentioning. I knew that there was populations in PA, and also a significant population I believe in Indiana and Wisconsin, but not positive. Regardless, if one were to venture about 40 minutes or so to the southwest of Cleveland, they wouldn't be lacking in farm country.
Also good point.
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