what is good and bad about Pittsburgh (Bethlehem, Beaver Falls: trip , jobs)

[Ryan101]

Pro's :

1- Great, open minded music scene across multiple genre's.
2- Very efficient public transport.
3- It's actually walkable or bikeable (unless you happen to be going to the outskirts from downtown) the city's not that spread out.
4- The people in Pittsburgh are generally social, and obliging.....more friendly certainly than they are within the rest of the Commonwealth.
5- Even during rush hour, it was easier and faster to navigate the mess of route 19/West Liberty into the Fort Pitt tunnels than it is to navigate even the simplest of city highways in other parts of the Commonwealth.
6- There's a great intellectual culture in the city once you move beyond the "yinzer" population.

Con's :

1- While the people are friendly, they're also incredibly clique-ish.
2- The roads are total crap (all of PA roads are) in terms of potholes, undeveloped infrastructure and a ton of bottlenecks....etc.
3- The commonwealth economy in general is in total atrophy...Pitt included.

Hope this helps!

Ryan

[Katiana]

1- While the people are friendly, they're also incredibly clique-ish.

I'm glad to hear this coming from a native. I'm a native, too, long gone. I've heard this from many people who went there to live, including some relatives of mine that moved from Colorado. "Everyone has family, no one interested in making new friends, etc". Some people like to blame the newcomers, but I see it as a significant problem in relocating.

[fleetiebelle]

"Everyone has family, no one interested in making new friends, etc".

I've heard the same thing about other cities as well, though. I'm a transplant to Pittsburgh, and 90% of my friends are also transplants. I don't know if it's specific to Pittsburgh, or just an issue with moving someplace new.

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by fleetiebelle

I've heard the same thing about other cities as well, though. I'm a transplant to Pittsburgh, and 90% of my friends are also transplants. I don't know if it's specific to Pittsburgh, or just an issue with moving someplace new.

It's possible you're right. And I was just thinking, I should revise what I said. I'm not glad that's happening in Pittsburgh. I'm glad to get some agreement. Out here in CO, very few adults are from here, so I don't have a real comparison. I have heard of places in the east and midwest (not specifically Pittsburgh) where it's hard to even get involved in the PTA due to the "Old Guard". Here, if you're willing to volunteer, you've got a job!

[kpoeppel]

Originally Posted by Ryan101

Pro's :

1- Great, open minded music scene across multiple genre's.
2- Very efficient public transport.
3- It's actually walkable or bikeable (unless you happen to be going to the outskirts from downtown) the city's not that spread out.
4- The people in Pittsburgh are generally social, and obliging.....more friendly certainly than they are within the rest of the Commonwealth.
5- Even during rush hour, it was easier and faster to navigate the mess of route 19/West Liberty into the Fort Pitt tunnels than it is to navigate even the simplest of city highways in other parts of the Commonwealth.
6- There's a great intellectual culture in the city once you move beyond the "yinzer" population.

Con's :

1- While the people are friendly, they're also incredibly clique-ish.
2- The roads are total crap (all of PA roads are) in terms of potholes, undeveloped infrastructure and a ton of bottlenecks....etc.
3- The commonwealth economy in general is in total atrophy...Pitt included.

Hope this helps!

Ryan

I agree with most of that.

Wow...another former Pittsburgher that now lives in Charlotte. I know of so many others. Maybe Charlotte should be called "New Pittsburgh"

[FromGA]

When a manufacturing facility shuts down (say, within few miles from the city), what happens to that in general -- stays that way for a long time, rebuilt, converted to something else, etc. Probably all of the above would be true? Are there any great examples of "rebuild" or "convert"?

[FromGA]

Pittnurse -- if you are reading this -- in a different thread you had mentioned that you were originally from Beaver Falls, and that it is now a distressed area. Is it basically a case of several manufacturing facilties that shut down over time, leading to a downtrend in that area? And, proba bly because it is fairly distant from the city, it has not receovered?

[guylocke]

Are there any great examples of "rebuild" or "convert"?

Yep, in Homestead an old mill was turned into a large retail/shopping/and eating district. It does VERY well for itself. It's called The Waterfront.

And what is so great, is that they've completely sand-blasted and cleaned up the old smoke stacks and kept them (along with some other things). They light them up at night and are BEAUTIFUL.

And you're right, when something like that shuts down, all of those things can happen in Pittsburgh.

An old Cork Factory was just converted into condo's and are REALLY fantastic. Take a look!

The Cork Factory - loft apartments on the river

Some of the old Heinz (Heinz still has a LOT of facilities in the area) factories were also converted into trendy living.

Heinz Lofts, Apartments in Pittsburgh

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by FromGA

Pittnurse -- if you are reading this -- in a different thread you had mentioned that you were originally from Beaver Falls, and that it is now a distressed area. Is it basically a case of several manufacturing facilties that shut down over time, leading to a downtrend in that area? And, proba bly because it is fairly distant from the city, it has not receovered?

Yes -- steel died and Beaver Falls hasn't come back, like a lot of places in the Valley -- but they aren't all that distant from the city. The valley's where we lived when we got married in 1983 (Monaca), and we used to go to Pittsburgh on a pretty regular basis -- usually to the Pittsburgh Filmmakers or the Pittsburgh Playhouse -- is that still around? And while we lived in Monaca, I trekked into the Strip District daily for work at Keystone Ribbon and Floral. A real pain during winter.

It's very hard in the true steel towns -- there was nothing else but that there -- you worked for Babcock & Wilcox, or Jones & Laughlin, US Steel, or Bethlehem....

All gone now -- or mostly...

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by FromGA

Pittnurse -- if you are reading this -- in a different thread you had mentioned that you were originally from Beaver Falls, and that it is now a distressed area. Is it basically a case of several manufacturing facilties that shut down over time, leading to a downtrend in that area? And, proba bly because it is fairly distant from the city, it has not receovered?

Thanks to Tallysmom for replying while I was out at a business/social party - ugh! She is correct, these towns are not that far from Pittsburgh. I went to Pitt and lived in the dorms, but there were people from BF who went there and commuted from home.

What happened? Slowly in the 70s and then bang, bang, bang, in the early 80s, the steel industry collapsed. Recovery is happening, but it has taken a looooooooong time. Turning a mill area into a mall is not the same thing as attracting similar high paying jobs into the area. These mill jobs paid well. My dad was an master's degreed engineer with USSteel, and many steelworkers made as much as he did. Not that that's bad, mind you, but that's the caliber of job lost, and was replaced (if at all) with jobs in retail. You really need to look at these population figures: Pittsburgh, PA MSA Population and Components of Change They will give you an idea how much the population has declined. Pittsburgh can be a marvelous place to live if you have a job.