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I never said Buffalo was closer to Boston; please actually read my posts before you start attacking me.
I was listing cities that I would drive to from Boston if I needed to or wanted to.
And the reason I included Albany and Hartford was because the person whose post I was responded to used Buffalo and Indianapolis in his/her list of cities close to Pittsburgh and then made the argument that Pittsburgh had more destination cities nearby.
If Buffalo and Indianapolis can be considered "selling point" cities than Albany and Hartford can be too.
And you're acting like we can't drive to many of cities within a day you've listed so your point is mute. Like I said before, half of the eastern cities you listed in your first post are closer to Pittsburgh than Boston anyway. Boston is in the very NE corner of the country. The idea that Boston has Pittsburgh beat with cities to travel to is laughable.
Ohiopyle State Park is one of the most beautiful and magnificent state parks in the country.
Don't forget about Deep Creek MD. The country drive was exhausting but is was well worth it. My family spent Thanksgiving on the Lake. I was impressed.
Sorry, Boston does not compete with the Burgh on Outdoors ... Sorry, you can't win them all... Just be happy at what Boston excels at....
the Blue Hills Reservation sits on the Boston/Milton/Quincy border in looks similar to that.
BTW this whole "proximity battle" is insane, no city is within daytrip range of any other city.
Boston is 4.5 hours from NYC, Pittsburgh is 6 hours from Philly, neither of those drive times are daytrip material, unless its under 2 hours, its not like it will impact QOL.
- Cost of living - Boston is more expensive, but I don't consider a high COL a bad thing. A high COL comes with a more livable city. I can also afford Boston, since it has a similar cost to DC.
- Things to do (museums, galleries, nightlife, festivals, events etc) - This is not even close, Boston. Great classical, rock clubs, festivals, museum.
- Surrounding nature / area / closeness to other interesting places or cities - Boston has access to Vermont, Maine, and the Ocean. It's also very easy to get to NYC, DC, and Philly by train. Boston wins this hands down.
- Weather - They are both awful
- Attractiveness of inhabitants - Could care less. How vain.
- Best food - Pittsburgh is getting better, but nothing beats Boston's seafood.
- Best suburbs - Boston...they are beautiful.
- Best downtown - Boston
This is not even close...Boston wins this. Boston vs. DC or Seattle would be more interesting. Since they are the comparable cities.
Boston continues to grow, while Pittsburgh continues to shrink. Pittsburgh is not seeing the booming construction going on in Boston, either. All of the department stores have closed down in recent years, and they just announced, DTE will close down just outside of Pittsburgh.
Odd, anomalous pause in 2013. You do know what anomalous means, right? It means that 2013 isn't uniform with the other years this decade.
No, the Pittsburgh area is NOT losing jobs, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics data in my screen shot proves it. You're guilty of the same dishonest bull**** that another intellectual chew toy who got banned from this website for being a relentless nuisance on the Pittsburgh board was, by a) trying to pass off old information as current (the article you cited was written on April 6, 2014 in response to the 2013 anomaly), and b) trying to pass off one moment in time as a trend. Job growth in the Pittsburgh MSA was positive in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014, and has been positive in 2015 as well, so 2013 might as well be expunged from the data, given how radically different it is from all those other years. Plain and simple, you've mistaken the noise for the signal, and given the other times I've caught you talking out your ass about Pittsburgh, I wonder if you're doing this on purpose. Notice how my screen shot says "Data extracted on: December 22, 2015 (6:09:58 AM)" at the very top? My information is current. You're welcome.
And no, I don't exactly think this city comparison is a fair fight. Boston is twice as large as Pittsburgh at both the city and metropolitan levels. Boston better have more to offer, given the difference in size. With that said, there are urban studies experts comparing Pittsburgh's ongoing economic transformation to Boston's a generation ago.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pete Saunders
Pittsburgh is incredibly lucky in one respect. While the steel industry collapsed, the city’s major institutions doubled down and stayed put.
The Boston parallel is appropriate. Boston became one of the earliest and largest American industrial centers in the mid-19th Century, with numerous mills and factories scattered throughout the region devoted to the production of garments, leather goods, and other products. Boston’s preeminence in the industrial sector, ironically, fell with the rise of cities like Pittsburgh that were, for a variety of reasons, better suited to sectors like steel production. Boston recovered as it recognized that it had an enviable collection of academic treasures that could form a new economic foundation.
It was because of their academic assets that Boston and Pittsburgh were able to reintroduce "flow" to their regions. Even as the middle class merchants and working class factory workers were abandoning Beantown and the Steel City, they maintained a steady inflow of high-level students and talented faculty, until their numbers reached a critical mass. Once that number was reached, the cities were transformed.
Given this, I can understand why Pittsburgh and Boston are being compared in the first place, though again, Boston's size makes a big difference, as does its place on the timeline of economic transformation compared to Pittsburgh (Boston's started about 30 years earlier than Pittsburgh's).
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