You love Pittsburgh, but you wish it had... (York, Carnegie: rentals, mattress)

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by pman

I'd bet that for the money, transit or intercity rail would make more sense than all that highway money

Yep.

[ForYourLungsOnly]

Originally Posted by UKyank

I can't speak to the prices, but at least as far as selection, the first picture you posted nearly mirrors what the GE in Wexford looks like.

yes...but that picture doesn't capture the entire isle worth of beer that extends in both directions

[Paint It Pink]

Originally Posted by ferrarisnowday

My number one wish for Pittsburgh is competitive salaries.

I know the low cost of living is supposed to make up for it, but it doesn't for 2 reasons.

A.) My Student Loans don't magically become less in Pittsburgh -- In fact, they're even worse for many people here due to the high costs of most of our schools.

B.) With the influx of population, I'm still competing with lots of people with out of state salaries for homes and apartments -- especially in the standard desirable neighborhoods. On the flip side of that, I'm also negotiating salaries against people older than me who are already established and don't require as high of a salary to obtain the same lifestyle.

Yeah, I didn't think of that till you mentioned it.

Low(er) wages, ok if cost of living is low- but really, it's not. High rent + renters insurance + cost of car/ gas +utilities + food +college student loans +credit cards (if applicable) ... doesn't equate to low cost of living when you make crap to begin with.

Unless, of course, you're fortunate enough to work for one of the huge corporations downtown and don't make crap money. Even still, I see plenty of those people struggling too...

Can we just get rid of the term "low cost of living"? It's obnoxious and a bit of a smack to the face.

[greg42]

Originally Posted by ForYourLungsOnly

yes...but that picture doesn't capture the entire isle worth of beer that extends in both directions

How big of an "isle"? Is it the size of Neville Island? Or more like Herr's Island?

[ForYourLungsOnly]

Originally Posted by greg42

How big of an "isle"? Is it the size of Neville Island? Or more like Herr's Island?

Haha good catch. About the size of Greenland

[WhoIsStanwix?]

Originally Posted by Paint It Pink

Yeah, I didn't think of that till you mentioned it.

Low(er) wages, ok if cost of living is low- but really, it's not. High rent + renters insurance + cost of car/ gas +utilities + food +college student loans +credit cards (if applicable) ... doesn't equate to low cost of living when you make crap to begin with.

Unless, of course, you're fortunate enough to work for one of the huge corporations downtown and don't make crap money. Even still, I see plenty of those people struggling too...

Can we just get rid of the term "low cost of living"? It's obnoxious and a bit of a smack to the face.

From what I gather, the companies located downtown that are headquartered in our lovely city pay pretty low relative to companies headquartered elsewhere. Like my other post, this is based on personal encounters/examples and nothing more. PPG, Highmark, and UPMC all pay below the national average for most positions, or at least the ones I've seen. Can't speak to PNC or Heinz.

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by eschaton

If Pittsburgh is going to have any immigration boom in the future (instead of say native-born Asians and Latinos, and upper-middle class immigrants, in dribs and drabs), they will settle in ethnic enclaves to begin with.

It's a pretty natural process. Once enough people of a given ethnicity are in an area, they tell their friends and family back home where they live, and they follow and relocate nearby.

Northern black ghettos (before the Great Migration) and Chinatowns, in contrast, were not organically developed neighborhoods on the whole - they were caused by forcing Chinese and Blacks (who tended to move to rural areas) into urban areas. This was not the origin of the Hill District, but it's how the first black neighborhoods formed in Chicago and NYC.

There was a semi-serious proposal after the Haitian earthquake to settle a large number of Haitian refugees in Pittsburgh (among other places). It would have been interesting to say the least.

So what you're really hoping for is increased population? I can understand that, and it's reasonable to expect that ethnic neighborhoods are a likely byproduct of that.

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by Paint It Pink

Yeah, I didn't think of that till you mentioned it.

Low(er) wages, ok if cost of living is low- but really, it's not. High rent + renters insurance + cost of car/ gas +utilities + food +college student loans +credit cards (if applicable) ... doesn't equate to low cost of living when you make crap to begin with.

Unless, of course, you're fortunate enough to work for one of the huge corporations downtown and don't make crap money. Even still, I see plenty of those people struggling too...

Can we just get rid of the term "low cost of living"? It's obnoxious and a bit of a smack to the face.

Pittsburgh is still "low cost of living" compared to some cities, but it's quickly catching up to the average cost of living for a city. The problem is that salaries haven't increased in proportion. We're starting to see 1 bedrooms go for $800 - $1100 in the best buildings and/or best neighborhoods. Median home prices are approaching the national average and are beyond it in many neighborhoods. Yet college graduates are often facing entry level salaries in the $25K range. Our low unemployment is great, but it isn't the only economic indicator we should be looking at.

[FreightTrainRunning]

I'm only familiar with the tech world and while Pittsburgh's salaries have traditionally been a little lower than say Silicon Valley's, they're pretty close these days. I work directly with engineers out there and they only make a little location bump in pay compared to us here. Most of the tech startups pay pretty close to what west or east coast startups pay.

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by GeneW

I'm only familiar with the tech world and while Pittsburgh's salaries have traditionally been a little lower than say Silicon Valley's, they're pretty close these days. I work directly with engineers out there and they only make a little location bump in pay compared to us here. Most of the tech startups pay pretty close to what west or east coast startups pay.

All I can say is that this has not been my experience in the IT world. I worked at one "startup" (less than 10 years old), but they heavily used H1-B visas and a branch office in India. I had to scratch and claw in negotiations just to get to $32K for 60 hour weeks...which I took because it was higher than my IT contracting job at the time (salary aggregator sites said that that position was $70K median on a national scale.). Even some well known big companies have paid me less than the going rate, though not quite that much lower.