Something to consider before you move to Pittsburgh (Denver, Houston: tax, live)

[guylocke]

Unlike the individuals on here who have only been to Seattle or Houston.

Ok, I'm only doing this for entertainment purposes, but I've been to all of these places more than once.

Pittsburgh
Columbus
Baltimore
New York City
Toronto
Washington DC
Tampa
Miami
Atlanta
Seattle
London
Edinburgh
Dublin
Philadelphia
Orlando
Chicago
Indianapolis
Minneapolis/St Paul
Buffalo
Detroit
Cincinnati

I can't think of any more at the moment. But I'm definitely not one of those cramped up Pittsburgher's!! I live to travel!! Those are only major cities, btw, I've been many other places including the boondocks of Alabama!!

Oh, I take that back, I've only been to Seattle once.

[guylocke]

By the way, there are districts/neighborhoods in Houston that are amazing. Guylocke, you would love the Montrose area.

I've never been to Texas. I don't really have a desire to, though. I can't really say anything about Texan cities, I don't know anything about them.

[Stagger Lee]

Move there then. I been to Houston. It is the lamest urban sprawled out city I ever seen. I lived across the country too. You make me want to slice my wrist.

[Stagger Lee]

Originally Posted by guylocke

You aren't talking about along 2nd Ave right there, are you? You mean all the tech buildings along Technology Dr or Way or w/e. Christ, Google and Microsoft are both building local campuses just to be closer to CMU!

I think that is what I am talking about. That is the area I am speaking of too. It use to be a old steel mill turned around for these buildings.

[guylocke]

I think that is what I am talking about. That is the area I am speaking of too. It use to be a old steel mill turned around for these buildings.

It would be exactly where you said, it would be across the river from the SouthSide Works and below Oakland. There are probably a dozen or so nice buildings, one is the Sunoco R&D facility. They are planning on expanding that tech park? I didn't realize they had more room!

Move there then. I been to Houston. It is the lamest urban sprawled out city I ever seen. I lived across the country too.

I haven't heard all that many good things about Houston, but I have heard a lot of great things about Austin.

[Stagger Lee]

Places I have lived

Central Pa, Denver (in the city not the burbs), Philly (in the city not the burbs), outside of Baltimore for a while as a teen, and Pittsburgh.

Cities I have been in for a week at a time or more.

Boston, Chicago, N.Y., San Fran, Washington

Cities I have been to atleast one or twice.

St. Louis, Indianapolis, Houston, L.A., Dallas, Atlanta, Charlotte, Jacksonville, Hartford, Vegas, Pheonix, Boise, Buffalo, CLeveland, Kansas city, Milwaukee, Detroit, and there are some more I believe.

I too have been out of the house once or twice. Pittsburgh is unique and nice to a lot of these cities. A lot of them are just sprawled out everywherevilles. However, a lot of people like that though. Maybe gwspa is one of them. Some of them are really cool with tons of character though. Milwaukee, Hartfor, St. Louis, and K.C. are all underrated.

[guylocke]

San Jose, Seattle, Boston

I don't doubt that Pittnurse, I really don't. If Pittsburgh was among THEIR company at this stage, then something would be fundamentally wrong with those three cities. LOL.

Don't forget what our wonderful commander in chief said about Pittsburgh, it should be known as "knowledge valley!!" Of course, he was making a reference to Silicon Valley.

[guylocke]

A lot of them are just sprawled out everywherevilles. However, a lot of people like that though. Maybe gwspa is one of them.

A lot of them have booming economies, too!! But just because Pittsburgh's economy isn't like theirs doesn't mean it can't be or can't at least improve in a big way.

It also doesn't mean Pittsburgh has gone to ****, either. There is still enormous wealth in Pittsburgh, and like I said, our fastest growing job sectors are big business, of which, I anticipate "green technology" and "green consultant firms" etc etc will soon be listed as one of our world-leading industries.

I mean, I know people will be far from surprised when I say this, but I think Pittsburgh is truly going to turn a corner in the near future. I mean, there is so much development, revitalization, investment, and renaissances going on, it's hard for me not to believe good things are in store. There hasn't been this much activity, or even close to this much, since before the steel collapse. In another thread I listed tons of things that I said were "FACTS" in Pittsburgh and even listed a bunch of negative ones, too. But it's true, Pittsburgh is still hurting in several ways, but the problems are definitely not insurmountable.

The sprawl belts have a TON of problems that Pittsburgh DOESN'T have. Likewise, we have problems that THEY don't have. Their problems can be solved, so can ours. Problems aren't unique to Pittsburgh, it seems like people have a hard time believing that.

What's even more ironic is that if you head to other big city forums, like I know many of you do, they talk about their "BIG PROBLEMS" as though it's the end of the world as they know it, too!! Everything sucks and then you die, get used to it. :P

Head to the Houston boards and you will definitely find someone like gspwa. Head to the Denver boards and you will definitely find a Pittnurse. Head to the Pheonix boards and you will definitely find someone like London, oh wait, London already hates it there! DOH!

I've used this example before, but going to the Seattle boards is scary. They have MAJOR haters. It's all about the weather. OMG Seattle sucks, the weather sucks so bad, it never stops raining in the winter, it makes people depressed, we have the socially backwards "Seattle Freeze", it's too hard finding quality jobs if you aren't in technology (sound familiar?), too many people from California are moving here and hijacking our housing prices, the traffic is outrageous, the local politics move at a snails pace and are fractured (also sound familiar?)"

I mean on and on, and I LOVE Seattle. Sometimes people just don't have a fit in the city they are in, and often times, it's nobody's fault.

BTW, I've heard those examples on the Seattle forums way more than once.

[Katarina Witt]

Don't forget what our wonderful commander in chief said about Pittsburgh, it should be known as "knowledge valley!!"

Huh? If George Bush said that, I'd take it with a grain of salt! Yes, everyplace has some analogy of itself to SV. Denver is sometimes called "Silicon Mountain". I have heard others.

Silicon Valley has a few decent colleges, too, such as Stanford, Berkely, etc. I'm not at all disputing that Pittsburgh is a growing high tech area; I just think there are a few other places that are ahead of them. If practically everyone is already employed in high tech, the rate of growth will be slower than in a place like Pittsburgh. That's all I'm trying to say.

[kpoeppel]

Originally Posted by fragglewaggle

And if our government built this $1 billion complex for US Airways and got no guarantees that the company would stay around, then we in Pennsylvania apparently have the stupidest government officials on the planet.

Amen to that! PA has given away billions of taxpayer dollars to private companies in the name of "creating jobs," with little benefit. Allegheny Institute has several policy briefs about that.

Fragglewaggle...I was agreeing with you when I mentioned Allegheny Institute earlier. Even if they aren't completely objective, I still think their assessment of Pittsburgh's economy and our economically-illiterate leadership is accurate.