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Old 03-15-2011, 01:59 AM
 
9 posts, read 16,931 times
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Dear citizens of Pittsburgh, please write about your feelings toward the city. Are you ready to leave it? Do you like the city, residents, climate? Just curious to know this
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Old 03-15-2011, 07:04 AM
 
20,273 posts, read 32,864,150 times
Reputation: 2910
I write a lot here, but to sum up:

Despite a few problems here or there, I find this to be a very pleasant, affordable, and interesting city, with more than enough for me and my family to do. It is in the midst of changing for the better, and that is somewhat exciting.

We have no intention to leave in the near future.

In my experience, people are more similar than different when comparing between cities. So the residents here as a whole are fine, no better or worse than one would expect in a larger American metro.

Overall I like the climate: it is a moderate four-season area, similar to what I grew up with and still enjoy. Relative to my personal preferences, I wish we got a little more snow that stuck around in the winter. Otherwise, I don't have any major complaints.
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Old 03-15-2011, 07:56 AM
 
Location: Marshall-Shadeland, Pittsburgh, PA
32,606 posts, read 77,254,359 times
Reputation: 19066
I still find myself quite enamored with this awesome place. Pittsburgh has literally saved my life after enduring nearly a year of severe depression and suicidal tendencies back in Northern Virginia. I struggled for a year-and-a-half there to organize and embrace a "second family" of sorts to no avail as everyone there had a certain "social limit" and then put up a barrier. I ended up feeling very lonesome, dejected, and like I belonged on "The Island of Misfit Toys". I felt like nobody there cared about me (and judging by how nobody has checked up on me since I moved out in November 2010 I was correct).

In the few short months I've lived here in the "City of Champions" I've bonded closely with new friends. Unlike the "friends" I had in NoVA these friends are genuine, and I know I could rely upon them to defend me. The people here are just different (in a good way). We're a major city that feels like a small town where everyone knows everyone else through someone else. I'm currently underemployed, yet I have one of the most rewarding jobs in the world to deliver smiles to people in dire need of cheering up. Financially I'm in dire straits, but I'd rather be poor and happy than living paycheck-to-paycheck and being as miserable as I was in NoVA.

The architecture here is just amazing. While many are repulsed by places like Braddock, Duquesne, McKees Rocks, and other areas that hit their prime many years ago, I find myself oddly drawn to these decaying communities. I walk the streets and envision what these places looked like 50 years ago. I think of the people who established these communities and the vision they had for their futures. I think of what I could do to help reinvigorate them someday. I haven't lived here yet while there is vegetation, but I can't wait to take out my new digital camera and snap some photos of places like Shadyside, Squirrel Hill, Point Breeze, Oakmont, Sewickley, and other areas that are so lush and leafy they'll make you melt inside.

I touched upon this earlier, but I love living in a major city that is a patchwork of small towns. Yesterday I made a delivery to the Hillman Cancer Institute along Centre Avenue in Shadyside. While at the receptionist's desk on the third floor a woman to my right said "Didn't I just see you?" I looked and realized I had just made a delivery to her home in the Hill District on Sunday for her 69th birthday! What a coincidence! I remember delivering to a home along Maple Avenue in Edgewood. The recipient pulled in the driveway just as I was on her front porch. As she opened the door I marveled at the natural woodwork in the interior, and she invited me inside, where she told me how the home had been featured in an early-1990s movie as the home of Olympia Dukakis. Around Christmas I made a delivery to a stately mansion along Beacon Street in Squirrel Hill South. An elderly woman (whom I believe was a widow) answered the door and immediately invited me inside to "see her Christmas tree". While making a delivery to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital along Lothrop Street in Oakland back in January I was coming down an escalator as my landlady of all people was coming up it! While driving down Forbes Avenue in Oakland one day I was the front car stopped at a red light at what I believe was Meyran Avenue. In the crosswalk right ahead of me was my best friend's boyfriend. The other day I was driving down Ellsworth Avenue in Shadyside on my way home from work, and my partner was driving in the opposite direction, also on his way home. Since moving here a post of mine on this forum has already been picked up by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and a representative from the mayor's office is now intrigued by my contributions to the city's Facebook profile.

I feel like I'm wanted here. I feel like I'm needed here. I feel like I BELONG here. People still think I'm crazy for leaving "super rad awesome" NoVA for a "decaying steel town", but so be it. When I'm 30, happily engaged in a civil union, and looking to buy my first home with my partner here I'll be able to buy a beautiful historic home that we can fix up to our specifications as we help gentrify a neighborhood that truly would appreciate us. Back in NoVA I'd still be renting a 1-BR place in a sterile suburb.

In typical fashion I've become very verbose; however, I hope those reading through that novella above can have a new appreciation for the city they may malign after seeing how one person's life was transformed by it. Yes, this city has its faults (i.e. Why don't they patch potholes here? Why is the litter pandemic so horrid here? Why don't people use turn signals here? Why do we get two sunny days per week here? Why aren't same-sex civil unions supported here?) All in all, though, I feel blessed to be living here. I feel like a higher being called me here, but I still don't know why.
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Old 03-15-2011, 09:31 AM
 
268 posts, read 372,125 times
Reputation: 107
Quote:
Originally Posted by SteelCityRising View Post
I still find myself quite enamored with this awesome place. Pittsburgh has literally saved my life after enduring nearly a year of severe depression and suicidal tendencies back in Northern Virginia. I struggled for a year-and-a-half there to organize and embrace a "second family" of sorts to no avail as everyone there had a certain "social limit" and then put up a barrier. I ended up feeling very lonesome, dejected, and like I belonged on "The Island of Misfit Toys". I felt like nobody there cared about me (and judging by how nobody has checked up on me since I moved out in November 2010 I was correct).

In the few short months I've lived here in the "City of Champions" I've bonded closely with new friends. Unlike the "friends" I had in NoVA these friends are genuine, and I know I could rely upon them to defend me. The people here are just different (in a good way). We're a major city that feels like a small town where everyone knows everyone else through someone else. I'm currently underemployed, yet I have one of the most rewarding jobs in the world to deliver smiles to people in dire need of cheering up. Financially I'm in dire straits, but I'd rather be poor and happy than living paycheck-to-paycheck and being as miserable as I was in NoVA.

The architecture here is just amazing. While many are repulsed by places like Braddock, Duquesne, McKees Rocks, and other areas that hit their prime many years ago, I find myself oddly drawn to these decaying communities. I walk the streets and envision what these places looked like 50 years ago. I think of the people who established these communities and the vision they had for their futures. I think of what I could do to help reinvigorate them someday. I haven't lived here yet while there is vegetation, but I can't wait to take out my new digital camera and snap some photos of places like Shadyside, Squirrel Hill, Point Breeze, Oakmont, Sewickley, and other areas that are so lush and leafy they'll make you melt inside.

I touched upon this earlier, but I love living in a major city that is a patchwork of small towns. Yesterday I made a delivery to the Hillman Cancer Institute along Centre Avenue in Shadyside. While at the receptionist's desk on the third floor a woman to my right said "Didn't I just see you?" I looked and realized I had just made a delivery to her home in the Hill District on Sunday for her 69th birthday! What a coincidence! I remember delivering to a home along Maple Avenue in Edgewood. The recipient pulled in the driveway just as I was on her front porch. As she opened the door I marveled at the natural woodwork in the interior, and she invited me inside, where she told me how the home had been featured in an early-1990s movie as the home of Olympia Dukakis. Around Christmas I made a delivery to a stately mansion along Beacon Street in Squirrel Hill South. An elderly woman (whom I believe was a widow) answered the door and immediately invited me inside to "see her Christmas tree". While making a delivery to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital along Lothrop Street in Oakland back in January I was coming down an escalator as my landlady of all people was coming up it! While driving down Forbes Avenue in Oakland one day I was the front car stopped at a red light at what I believe was Meyran Avenue. In the crosswalk right ahead of me was my best friend's boyfriend. The other day I was driving down Ellsworth Avenue in Shadyside on my way home from work, and my partner was driving in the opposite direction, also on his way home. Since moving here a post of mine on this forum has already been picked up by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and a representative from the mayor's office is now intrigued by my contributions to the city's Facebook profile.

I feel like I'm wanted here. I feel like I'm needed here. I feel like I BELONG here. People still think I'm crazy for leaving "super rad awesome" NoVA for a "decaying steel town", but so be it. When I'm 30, happily engaged in a civil union, and looking to buy my first home with my partner here I'll be able to buy a beautiful historic home that we can fix up to our specifications as we help gentrify a neighborhood that truly would appreciate us. Back in NoVA I'd still be renting a 1-BR place in a sterile suburb.

In typical fashion I've become very verbose; however, I hope those reading through that novella above can have a new appreciation for the city they may malign after seeing how one person's life was transformed by it. Yes, this city has its faults (i.e. Why don't they patch potholes here? Why is the litter pandemic so horrid here? Why don't people use turn signals here? Why do we get two sunny days per week here? Why aren't same-sex civil unions supported here?) All in all, though, I feel blessed to be living here. I feel like a higher being called me here, but I still don't know why.
I agree a lot with this post! And also the negatives. Since you're from NEPA (same as me), those problems are very similar (potholes, litter, lack of sunny days). You moved in at the cloudiest time for climate. April it is noticeably sunnier (at least 5 out of the 7 days are sunny and sometimes you'll get over a week's stretch of nice weather). It really shouldn't surprise you. NEPA is very dreary in the winter with a lot of cloudy days, too. I guess coming from Reston, it is noticeable. Definitely not NEPA.
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Old 03-15-2011, 10:06 AM
 
Location: Yeah
3,164 posts, read 6,670,192 times
Reputation: 911
Quote:
Originally Posted by dosent View Post
Dear citizens of Pittsburgh, please write about your feelings toward the city. Are you ready to leave it? Do you like the city, residents, climate? Just curious to know this
I love the city and all it has to offer, as far as the park system, distinctive neighborhoods with shopping and dinning districts go. The natives are back in the early 20th century.
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Old 03-15-2011, 10:29 AM
 
Location: The canyon (with my pistols and knife)
14,169 posts, read 22,583,485 times
Reputation: 17328
Being placed in the confluence between the hills of the plateau to which those connect in order natural setting is beautiful, to form the Ohio River of the River of Allegheny and Monongahela and very to cut tear. Many bridges make those three these rivers cross, in Pittsburgh as for Venice and Italy all cities at times perhaps are many bridges in the world as another. As for the economy 1980's, seeking work between the jobs, in spite it advanced dramatically even in collapse of manufacturing industry it sends out many of population from all parts of the country last over 30 years. As for the labor force of Pittsburgh's rather than many people in nowadays United States believing, culture is high, many moreso. Almost half of all 25 in 34 years old of the Pittsburgh area. If it has the degree of the university, the graduate school there is a specialty in one of five. Everyone has known the American Steel iron, concerning H.J. Heinz and PPG, but in addition as for the Pittsburgh area to being large the other many headquarters, it seems like PNC in starting point, ornament trade of Eagle of the Federated Investor and America which are made to combine, Dick's the Sporting Goods of, as for 84, Bruster's the Lumber, Ice Cream and Fox's Pizza Cave. In 2009, the G20 top gave the golden opportunity which in Pittsburgh shows deformation in the world and succeeded extensively. As a result, after that directly there is the rise of dramatic in investment overseas of area. Then there is a tradition of rich sport. NFL Steelers, the Pirate of MLB and the Penguin of NHL were bonded because of championships of 14. Rather than between all American cities where the team of many professional sport has been attached, Pittsburgh having in Boston, just New York and Detroit there was a championship which wins at high ratio. It is place Pittsburgh which desires the fact that as for me now it can thing and sees exactly special or, how.
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Old 03-15-2011, 11:55 AM
 
Location: Squirrel Hill
1,349 posts, read 3,558,585 times
Reputation: 406
+
=====
Affordable (bargain) real estate
Plenty of history
Stable economy
Mostly nice, down to earth people
Get good service (most of the time)
Plenty of city amenities that are accessible without being wealthy (professional sports, dining, theaters, museums, etc)
Many nice suburbs to choose from in a wide range of prices.
Several nice, safe, distinct, livable city neighborhoods ranging in character from gritty to pretty.
Reasonable traffic and congestion.
Drivers are polite.
Weather is pleasant except during the winter.
The skyline is really pretty at night.

-
=====
Cold and cloudy during the winter (this is relative of course, its warmer than Minneapolis or Buffalo obviously)
Winter is long, mid October to early April (again, this is relative of course)
Very high property taxes make the home prices appear deceptively cheap (its still cheap relative to most cities, but not as cheap as the home prices indicate)
Combine high property tax with a 3% local income tax in the city (1% outside) and a 7% sales tax, it adds up.
Many run down, depressed areas still remain from steel collapse.
Some serious traffic bottlenecks during rush hour.
Some serious traffic bottlenecks on weekends due to seemingly never ending road construction.
Although people are generally nice, it can take some time for "outsiders" to make friends.
Outside of specific industries (health care, for example) finding a job without knowing people can be tough (see above about "outsiders").
Still perceived as a dirty, run down steel town by many people not familiar with it.
Upscale and luxury goods/services are more limited than many other cities.
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Old 03-15-2011, 11:58 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh's 'EAST SIDE'
2,043 posts, read 5,035,425 times
Reputation: 2673
Its home and where my job and family are. I don't plan on leaving, despite the lack of open minded and progressive thinkers.
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Old 03-15-2011, 12:52 PM
 
Location: Perry South, Pittsburgh, PA
1,437 posts, read 2,859,184 times
Reputation: 989
I don't like the people. The city is okay though.
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Old 03-15-2011, 12:54 PM
 
Location: Marshall-Shadeland, Pittsburgh, PA
32,606 posts, read 77,254,359 times
Reputation: 19066
I'm surprised so many here dislike the people who dwell within our fine city. My only beef with Pittsburgh is that it seems like everyone and their cousin here smokes (and then litters with their butts). While I'm all for freedom of choice I find it disgusting that when I walk Downtown (as I did today) I can't go for one block without having someone standing in front of a building exhale their cigarette exhaust into my face before tossing their cigarette butt onto the sidewalk. Otherwise I quite like the people here.
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