I am tired of hearing how great Pittsburgh is! (Northampton: home, unemployment)

[UKyank]

Originally Posted by pghdude28

I honestly can't imagine a place much gloomier than Pittsburgh. It is gloomy 90% of the time for 6-7 months out of the year (on a good year that is) and at best, partly cloudy/hazy the remainder of the year. The year 2011 was virtually sunless except for summer. I suppose if you like bleak, dreary skies on a daily basis, this is your Mecca!!

London is much much worse
Though of course it's not actually gloomy 90% of the time 6-7 months a year either.

[gortonator]

Originally Posted by ThumbingMyWay

Thanks for your replies. I will admit that one problem I have is I didnt really travel much until I moved to Pittsburgh (and started earning money). Now that I have visited different parts of the country, I just feel like there has to be something better else out there for me. As an example, right now I believe Raleigh/Durham, Denver, Nashville, and Southern Cal would make me a lot happier; however I have only visited Nashville of the 4 (which I love it there). Maybe I am giving Denver and NC too much credit.

Never been to Nashville or Raleigh, but I suspect they're too 'southern' for an Aussie. Denver is great. I'd move there tomorrow for the outdoors and skiing. But if you think Pittsburgh is a cultural/musical wasteland, Denver won't impress you. And look at a map - Pittsburgh location makes ocean beaches look like a short vehicular stroll.

SO CA would also be great, although I'm no great fan of LA, but San Diego is sure a beautiful place. Nice beaches all over. But those state taxes - uggh - was in SF last week and gas was $4.99/gallon, heading down from over 5 bucks.

So many swings and roundabouts to consider. Enjoy.

[gortonator]

Originally Posted by UKyank

London is much much worse
Though of course it's not actually gloomy 90% of the time 6-7 months a year either.

Pittsburgh weather seems like heaven compared to whole of UK. As the locals in the north say, "the rain in Spain falls mainly on Manchester"

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Pittsburgh may have the best marketing of any city in the United States. However, what people see and read may be far different from reality. Let's examine the top 2 talking points of how wonderful Pittsburgh is:

- The job market is solid. The reality: The job market has been saturated now and our job growth ranks last in the entire country.

- The cost of living is great here. The reality: Housing is cheap here, there is no doubt about that. However, salaries here are still low compared to the rest of the nation especially in the case of local college grads. Not to mention that the average age of a house in Pittsburgh is 55 years old compared to the average of 37 years old nationwide so you get what you pay for when buying a cheaper house.

Despite this, people repeat these two talking points over and over because they've been conditioned to due to the media bombardment over the past 3 years. Additionally, Pittsburghers are incredibly stubborn and will go to great lengths to defend what they believe in (be it sports, politics, or the city) even if they are completely wrong.

Everything else is a matter of perspective. But I don't know how the hell your can defend a mere 59 completely sunny days a year as good weather, but that's just me.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by gortonator

Agreed entirely. I first went to Portland about 15 years ago, and Pittsburgh has the feel of that city then. Hopefully its on a similar trajectory to weirdness

Uh. No. We ARE, undoubtedly, on a collision course to be the next "Portlandia", especially now that we've elected a mayor who is vowing to have us emulate Portland. I do NOT want our streets to become filled with throngs of unemployed hippies playing hacky-sack and bongo drums due to an unemployment crisis, though, as jobless migrants pour in more rapidly than jobs can be created for them.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

Pittsburgh may have the best marketing of any city in the United States. However, what people see and read may be far different from reality. Let's examine the top 2 talking points of how wonderful Pittsburgh is:

- The job market is solid. The reality: The job market has been saturated now and our job growth ranks last in the entire country.

- The cost of living is great here. The reality: Housing is cheap here, there is no doubt about that. However, salaries here are still low compared to the rest of the nation especially in the case of local college grads. Not to mention that the average age of a house in Pittsburgh is 55 years old compared to the average of 37 years old nationwide so you get what you pay for when buying a cheaper house.

Despite this, people repeat these two talking points over and over because they've been conditioned to due to the media bombardment over the past 3 years. Additionally, Pittsburghers are incredibly stubborn and will go to great lengths to defend what they believe in (be it sports, politics, or the city) even if they are completely wrong.

Everything else is a matter of perspective. But I don't know how the hell your can defend a mere 59 completely sunny days a year as good weather, but that's just me.

I completely agree with your post, but I do still love it here. My concern about the local cost-of-living is that while housing prices have consistently been appreciating modestly year after year after year here real wages have either remained stagnant or declined during the same timeframe, making the housing market increasingly unaffordable for entry-level home-buyers on an annual basis. Telling us "shut up and buy in Clairton" isn't really helpful. Would YOU want to live in Clairton?

I think the real problem here is that there is no accurate measure of an "underemployment rate". The vast majority of my college-educated peers here are working in positions that are "beneath" them OR are earning SIGNIFICANTLY less than colleagues in their professions in comparable cities. Pittsburgh's employers suck, overall, in terms of fair compensation. Our "revered" employer, the big bank that's building the big shiny tower Downtown, was paying me the same as others in my position had been earning YEARS ago, despite the city experiencing a continued MODEST cost-of-living increase here annually. If employers continue to hold the line on wages, and if the local cost-of-living continues its upward march, then in the coming years we'll have some MAJOR affordability issues here.

[Debbie1125]

- Far from the beach: if you enjoy the beach, Pittsburgh probably isn't for you. You're looking at a 7+ hour drive to Virginia beach or the outer banks (around 6 hours if you want to settle for the jersey shore). "Well Lake Erie is only 2 hours away" they say. I've never met one person here that was excited to go to Lake Erie.


If you like the beach, why did you move to Pittsburgh in the first place?

[Johnny C]

Sorry to hear that Pittsburgh weather didn't live up to the tropics of Eastern PA that you are used to. Perhaps one day I can get a better job and afford to travel to this wonderful place known as "Eastern PA" and relax on a tropical island or something.

My sister lives near Reading and recently sent me a pic of a nearby lake:



I rode bikes twice a week from Jan on and I have plenty of sunny day pics on the mountain bike trails if you are interested. Sorry, but the "weeks without sunshine" statement is completely bogus.

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

Uh. No. We ARE, undoubtedly, on a collision course to be the next "Portlandia", especially now that we've elected a mayor who is vowing to have us emulate Portland. I do NOT want our streets to become filled with throngs of unemployed hippies playing hacky-sack and bongo drums due to an unemployment crisis, though, as jobless migrants pour in more rapidly than jobs can be created for them.

Interesting Mayor indeed. In what ways does he want to emulate Portland? It's a great model to emulate, in my opinion.

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

I think the real problem here is that there is no accurate measure of an "underemployment rate".

This is a major issue with the United States as a whole that will never (for most likely convenient political reasons) be addressed head on. This and the 4 decade long wage stagnation problem exist everywhere, but stubborn media-manipulated Pittsburghers pretend that we are an oasis from it all.

If people are looking for that special place in the United States where a city escaped all of the economic woes that plague the rest of the country it simply does not exist, sorry.