Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Which city you think offers the best in regards to:
Outdoor actives in or within proximity
Colleges/Universities
Hospitals
Safety/Crime
Running/Biking
Best libraries/book stores
Most open with religion
Near good camping areas
Music scene
Being less crowded
Cheaper COL
Pittsburgh is a great city, and deserves the cool reputation it's just beginning to get. There's something about hills and wooded valleys that makes urban decline look good. Also it has some great vibrant urban neighborhoods. And apparently the revival is starting to take hold. Of course happens in some neighborhoods ahead of others so the population turnaround isn't as quick overall.
I've only barely been to Richmond. It was a bus transfer in 1987 that went a little haywire. Greyhound had just bought Trailways and they were integrating the systems. My backpack was automatically transferred to the other station for the next bus. They told me I could walk there. It was around midnight and I just wanted to sit around and try to doze off. It was "just down Boulevard." The first station was on Broad, and I confused the names. The intersection of Broad & Boulevard turned out to be a few blocks away. But what I did by mistake was walk west on Broad and keep walking. After a mile or two it was getting obvious that'd I'd missed something. But my bus wasn't until morning and it was a nice night so I kept walking for a couple hours, past a freeway and deep into suburbia. Then I went back and it was instantly clear including a sign visible from Broad. Be glad you have smartphone with a map folks.
Outdoor actives in or within proximity- tie
Colleges/Universities- Pittsburgh
Hospitals- Pittsburgh
Safety/Crime- Pittsburgh
Running/Biking- Pittsburgh is more bike friendly
Best libraries/book stores- tie
Most open with religion- can't say
Near good camping areas- tie
Music scene- Richmond, maybe
Being less crowded- Richmond
Cheaper COL- Pittsburgh
Richmond is a better food city and has better shopping. Art scenes are about even. Richmond has better diversity. Pittsburgh has a couple of walkable, urbanized suburbs, which Richmond lacks, but overall Richmond had better burbs.
I think Pittsburgh is a slightly better city (Sports and public transit give it the edge), with a lower cost of living. I currently live in the Shadyside neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Richmond's closest analogue is probably The Museum District. The Museum District is a little more charming, but also more expensive, and has terrible public schools, further raising the expense of raising a family there.
Actually Museum District has a first class elementary school. I live there, and my daughter attends Fox. It's a great school, by my Ivy League perspective.
Not on the list, but Richmond pretty clearly wins on weather. Richmond is full of people who moved to RVA from Pittsburgh, maybe true vice versa as well, but the sun effect is real. That's how we ended up in Richmond. We never even considered Pittsburgh, moving out of Boston, as we wanted better weather.
Actually Museum District has a first class elementary school. I live there, and my daughter attends Fox. It's a great school, by my Ivy League perspective.
Not on the list, but Richmond pretty clearly wins on weather. Richmond is full of people who moved to RVA from Pittsburgh, maybe true vice versa as well, but the sun effect is real. That's how we ended up in Richmond. We never even considered Pittsburgh, moving out of Boston, as we wanted better weather.
Yes, there are maybe 2-3 decent elementary schools, no good middle schools, and two tiny magnet high schools (roughly 200 kids each). We're we to live in Richmond, we'd be doing private schools, because middle and HS are pretty bad. Pittsburgh schools aren't great either, but in addition to decent magnets, there's at least ONE zoned neighborhood HS, and the feeder neighborhoods are relatively affordable.
Like you, we also moved to our current city from Boston.
It's a bit better than that. 3 very good elementary school, 3 excellent Magnet high schools, and one middle school that's improving rapidly. I'd have no hesitation to put my daughter in private school if it's necessary, but I'm hopeful it won't be.
I'm guessing warm weather wasn't important to you. In such a case I'm not sure we'd have left Massachusetts, but we don't regret the move at all. I lived in back bay, south end, and a bit of Cambridge for almost 20 years, prefer central Richmond to all of the above.
What does "most open with religion" mean? I assume any major U.S. city offers just about any religion and people are able to choose without issue. That's a strange category and I can't imagine one city being more open with religion than another in the U.S.
I love Richmond and it's history/architecture, but I would want to live in a city with professional sports - so I would say Pittsburgh.
Outdoor actives in or within proximity: Pittsburgh
Colleges/Universities: Pittsburgh
Hospitals: Pittsburgh
Safety/Crime: Pittsburgh
Running/Biking: Pittsburgh
Best libraries/book stores: Pittsburgh
Most open with religion: Pittsburgh
Near good camping areas: Pittsburgh
Music scene: Pittsburgh
Being less crowded: Pittsburgh
Cheaper COL: Pittsburgh
What does "most open with religion" mean? I assume any major U.S. city offers just about any religion and people are able to choose without issue. That's a strange category and I can't imagine one city being more open with religion than another in the U.S.
I love Richmond and it's history/architecture, but I would want to live in a city with professional sports - so I would say Pittsburgh.
In some cities, apparently it's socially acceptable to ask a new aquaintance "what church you go to." Even if they didn't bring up religion.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.