Pittsburgh's real problems (Carnegie, Chapman: public schools, taxes, living in)

[VALT]

Here are some links to local resources from the Sierra Club

Sierra Club Allegheny Group Homepage: Explore, Enjoy and Protect the Planet

Sierra Club 'Steps It Up' Before Earth Day (Summer 2007)

Club Endorses Two for Pittsburgh City Council Primary Election (Summer 2007)

I will post more as I find them - and hope others will do the same. To say pointing out the pitfalls of dirty burning coal fed power plants is being negative, is similar to saying that pointing out that invading iraq is wrong is somehow un-american. Both are stupid, and both apathetic responses have put us in very grave danger!

[kpoeppel]

Valt,

Do you really think that coal power plants are putting us in very grave danger? Come on!

You'd better act quickly to save us all from certain doom! Tell the Chinese to scrap plans for 544 new coal power plants before they kill us all!
BBC NEWS | Programmes | Newsnight | A coal-dependent future?

[guylocke]

Tell the Chinese to scrap plans for 544 new coal power plants before they kill us all!

The Chinese will undoubtedly be my generation's largest problem. If they keep up the pace that they are, we won't even have cement in about 20 years.

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by dickens

Maybe the negativity is by design. We are all to familiar with a city/state being an annointed hotspot. The sheeple all jump on the band wagon and go to that place (Seattle, Atlanta, North Carolina, Arizona, Nevada et al) All the issues that make life unpleasant follow (crime, lousy infastructure, high cost of living) lather, rinse, repeat.

Please, please, please I really hope the perception of Pittsburgh being "awful, backwoods,yinzer"-whatever prevails. I personally, can't wait to live in a city with all the amenities but little/or none of the problems of hot spots.

This is Pittsburgh's major problem. It likes being thought of as mediocre. Also, Pittsburghers are always talking about why they wouldn't want to live anywhere else b/c of the above in the first paragraph. And most of the people who talk like that have never even BEEN to those places, let alone lived there. My father talked that way when I was a kid back in the 50s and 60s. Nothing has changed.

Dickens, do you really think that Pittsburgh is crime-free and has a great infrastructure? The roads there are awful! Even the turnpike which you have to pay to drive on! The cost of living may be less, but so are wages, for the most part. Good grief!

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by dickens

Maybe the negativity is by design. We are all to familiar with a city/state being an annointed hotspot. The sheeple all jump on the band wagon and go to that place (Seattle, Atlanta, North Carolina, Arizona, Nevada et al) All the issues that make life unpleasant follow (crime, lousy infastructure, high cost of living) lather, rinse, repeat.

Please, please, please I really hope the perception of Pittsburgh being "awful, backwoods,yinzer"-whatever prevails. I personally, can't wait to live in a city with all the amenities but little/or none of the problems of hot spots.

SHEEPLE??? OMG I LOVE THAT!!!

And I live in a former hot spot -- the Bay Area CA -- where no one earning a decent living can afford to buy a home, tourists rule the day and our milk has hit 5 bucks a gallon....

[CaptainObvious]

Originally Posted by burghgirl

This was in stark contrast to an interview he had in North Carolina a couple of years ago (we ultimately turned down that offer), during which every person he talked to, from the secretary to the upper management people he'd be working for, who were extremely positive about their city and state.

If this is the attitude being given out, is it any wonder that Pittsburgh has a hard time keeping its college grads, or attracting new people to town?.

I think so much of it has to do with, as trivial as this may seem, the visual that is Pittsburgh. It isn't particularly good-looking city. In fact, I'd say that about all of Western PA. Don't get me wrong- from atop Mt. Washington or Observatory Hill, the skyline is nothing short of spectacular. Still, the novelty of that lasts about 5 minutes until one passes by a few thousand rocky hillsides, muddy rivers, and old old beaten-up homes. To boot, the sky is cloudy more often than not. None of the above have much to do with the city's ammenities, quality of people, business climate, etc. etc., but I think it has a lot to do with the general negativity. I, for one, find it difficult at times to remain cheery in the face of so much blah. After visiting Charlotte or Atlanta or SanFrancisco or Houston or SanAntonio or Vancouver I often feel like Western PA is just, well, out-dated. There's so much more going on in other cities- new buildings, new roads, new homes, new shops. Couple that with green grass instead of mud slides or blue oceans instead of muddy rivers and many other cities, at least on the surface, seem more appealing. I've just always thought this had a lot to do with it. Most people that find Pittsburgh to be a "gem" tend to favor intangibles like "the history of Pittsburgh", people that think other cities are better tend to be more concrete and favor modern-ness (for the lack of a better term). Just a thought.

(and as mentioned in previous posts, I still for the life of me cannot figure out why there seems to be an inordinate amount of people living in and around Pittsburgh that do not mow their lawns...seriously...next time you are out driving around, check it out. Go out to Central and Eastern PA and its mowed lawn after mowed lawn )

Cap

[Drover]

It's hard to mow a lawn when it's on a 45-degree hill. My landlord gave up on that idea and my front lawn was all basically groundcover.

As for the "negativity" of Pittsburgh... I think it has a lot to do with who left in the 80s and who stayed behind. Those who had initiative left town at about the same time much of Pittsburgh's industry did the same. Those who lacked initiative stayed behind. (These are just generalities, so please don't anyone get on my case and start telling me about all the exceptions to my generalities.) And it's tough living in a city where jobs aren't exactly falling out of the sky if you lack initiative.

[arcadefire]

Originally Posted by CaptainObvious

I think so much of it has to do with, as trivial as this may seem, the visual that is Pittsburgh. It isn't particularly good-looking city. In fact, I'd say that about all of Western PA. Don't get me wrong- from atop Mt. Washington or Observatory Hill, the skyline is nothing short of spectacular. Still, the novelty of that lasts about 5 minutes until one passes by a few thousand rocky hillsides, muddy rivers, and old old beaten-up homes. To boot, the sky is cloudy more often than not. None of the above have much to do with the city's ammenities, quality of people, business climate, etc. etc., but I think it has a lot to do with the general negativity. I, for one, find it difficult at times to remain cheery in the face of so much blah. After visiting Charlotte or Atlanta or SanFrancisco or Houston or SanAntonio or Vancouver I often feel like Western PA is just, well, out-dated. There's so much more going on in other cities- new buildings, new roads, new homes, new shops. Couple that with green grass instead of mud slides or blue oceans instead of muddy rivers and many other cities, at least on the surface, seem more appealing. I've just always thought this had a lot to do with it. Most people that find Pittsburgh to be a "gem" tend to favor intangibles like "the history of Pittsburgh", people that think other cities are better tend to be more concrete and favor modern-ness (for the lack of a better term). Just a thought.

(and as mentioned in previous posts, I still for the life of me cannot figure out why there seems to be an inordinate amount of people living in and around Pittsburgh that do not mow their lawns...seriously...next time you are out driving around, check it out. Go out to Central and Eastern PA and its mowed lawn after mowed lawn )

Cap

I gotta agree for the most part. In a lot of areas of North Carolina, that are now booming and all new, it used to seem far more depressing than most of Western PA. But all of that depressing Blah, has been covered by new and improved developments. Now it all looks nice, clean and new. Go to Charlotte, and other cities and tour what ten years ago used to be working class neighborhoods and you will often find relatively new ghettos. The new neighborhoods have moved on to the next county or state.

Go to Vegas, Pheonix and other boom cities and drive through some of the NEW NEXT BEST NEIGHBORHOOD and you will find derilict homes and weeds. These homes and the boom times were artificial. The Boom was the housing economy. Easy lending disappears and so does the housing economy in addition to all of the other people the housing economy employs.

Southern Florida will be hurting worse than Western PA(during the Steel Industry implosion) in the next few years due to the NEW AND BETTER ATTITUDE. All of those high paying mortgage broker, developer, house flipper, real estate agent and banker jobs will be disappearing or cutting back soon. What will be left? Tourists jobs? Making 30k a year with houses costing 250k+? Not to mention Property taxes and the outrageous insurance. Good luck with that.

Denver as great as it is has had a high foreclosure rate due to a lack of economy to support it's building industry.....yet they still build. Like everyone else, I love the new, new, new when you visit these other areas. The only question is can this be supported with REAL earnings or is it just funny munny? In far too many areas it is nothing more than monopoly money to make it all look FINE.

I think in time Western PA will finally get it's day in the sunlight, but I hope it never really loses it's true flavor or attitude.

[VALT]

The great thing about Pittsburgh is it is small enough to have a positive impact - it happens everyday in countless ways -

I for one have failed in this regard many times. At a lecture at the University of Vermont, weeks before we invaded Iraq, there was some talking heads from the networks and cable shows there, and they basicially said that the word on the street was we are invading Iraq.

This was Vermont, these were students, and no one said boo. The invisible hand of big oil was on Bush's shoulder, at least a few knew it at the time, and not till we were all leaving did one lady stand up hysterical saying "this is crazy."

Now we have the same hand, it's worked it way through PA, WV OH - and it got the EPA standards lowered, lawsuits dropped, so they could burn coal cheaper and dirtier - but in the long run, nothing wrong can turn out right.

There are plans in the works for more coal fired power plants ijn the region - Who is going to say something, to have a positive impact?

[CaptainObvious]

Originally Posted by Drover

It's hard to mow a lawn when it's on a 45-degree hill.

True. Very True.

You would think someone would have invented something that does that by now. I see people out standing 4 feet below their mower trying to keep it from toppling over onto them (imagine the mess!), or my favorite...the mower on a string trick!

Cap