Are We "There" Yet? (Pittsburgh, York: apartment, neighborhoods, school district)

[Gee Whiz]

There seems to be a general notion that the great cities of the USA, like New York, San Francisco, LA, Chicago, Boston, and a few others are great and know that they are great, therefore, don't really care if outsiders or locals complain about the crime, cost of living, traffic, litter, crooked politicians, bad weather and everything else that goes on in most cities.
Pittsburgh is a great city in it's own right, but hardly takes it lightly when someone criticizes it. This is all in a general sense and not everything is etched in stone. Sure, there are many exceptions to every rule. This defensiveness about Pittsburgh stems from decades of being the butt of many jokes due to being the Smoky City during our industrial era. Yes, the city was gritty, still is to a degree. However, for those who lived here, we reaped the benefits of a prosperous city that was raking in the cash. Outsiders pictured a bunch of hillbillies who worked in a mill and lived on a slag heap and swilled beer. They may have been prevalent. However, when you have that kind of industry, you also have a lot of money. This money generated a great history of philanthropy, which lead to cultural institutions cities of similar size only wished that they could have. Pittsburgh is not in the same league as those top cities yet. Maybe some day it will be, and we will not give a hoot if others don't like us. Are we there yet? In my opinion, No. We are getting better though.

[speagles84]

No. I'm perfectly happy the way it is though. If it were perfect for everyone, I wouldn't like it because it would be overpopulated. Transportation sucks here though; and before I die I'm gonna fix it

[pghdude28]

Originally Posted by speagles84

No. I'm perfectly happy the way it is though. If it were perfect for everyone, I wouldn't like it because it would be overpopulated. Transportation sucks here though; and before I die I'm gonna fix it

You'll be in the Guiness Book of World Records for oldest living recorded human if you survive long enough to fix Pittsburgh's transportation. It's been this way since 1787. But I do admire your determination .

[speagles84]

Originally Posted by pghdude28

You'll be in the Guiness Book of World Records for oldest living recorded human if you survive long enough to fix Pittsburgh's transportation. It's been this way since 1787. But I do admire your determination .

Unlike your hypocritical yinzer attitude of complaining about things and doing nothing to change it, I will fix it. And when I'm done I'll have "I told you so, pghdude28" written on my tombstone (woo am I full of sarcasm tonight.) I do have, hopefully, at least 55 years to do so.

[FreightTrainRunning]

It's more about the journey than the destination. As long as we're progressing and more good things than bad things are happening, then we're doing OK. I don't worry that we're not good as Seattle or Boston, I just hope that we're better than we were last year. And that next year we'll be even better than this year.

[zman63]

Originally Posted by GeneW

It's more about the journey than the destination. As long as we're progressing and more good things than bad things are happening, then we're doing OK. I don't worry that we're not good as Seattle or Boston, I just hope that we're better than we were last year. And that next year we'll be even better than this year.

That is realistic. Concentrate on being a city of 300,000 because that is what we are. The days of Pittsburgh being a major airline hub or a fortune 500 mecca are long gone. We will never see that again in our lives. We will also never have a 24/7 downtown or city. This city will always sleep and taxi service will barely be existent.

As far as public transportation goes we will never see an extensive light rail system, nor should we with a city our size. I am actually in favor of downsizing our public transportation to serve the inner city and first ring of suburbs only. The people create the demand and the demand just is not there once you get 3 or 5 miles out of the city limits. Western PA has become a huge, expensive, unmaintainable mess of roads and public transportation. The problem is we are all spread out and the cost to deliver is more than the benefits.

As long as we come out ahead of our peer cities of buffalo, cleveland and detroit we are doing ok. Not sure about Buffalo, but cleveland and detroit are both improving themselves. Their downtowns are a notch ahead of ours, while our city neighborhoods are a little better. We will always be a distant second behind philly in the state.

I do not see the local culture changing much. There is an influx of people, but the number is so small it is barely noticeable unless you go to the east end and north side of the inner city. Work with what you have and expect more out of it.

Growing the city by 20,000 is an unattainable goal unless annexation, job explosion, and a complete 180 of the city school district takes place. How about trying to grow by 2,000 to 5,000 people every 10 years? That seems more realistic to me.

Again, Pittsburgh needs to concentrate on being smaller, consolidating, better land management and working to get small business startups. Clean up the air, build more apartment style housing, concentrate any new regional developments in the inner city/first suburb ring, try to not raise taxes. Stop spending tax dollars on august wilson centers, pro sports teams and public schools that are 25 percent full. Those are attainable goals.

[LIRefugee]

Originally Posted by GeneW

It's more about the journey than the destination. As long as we're progressing and more good things than bad things are happening, then we're doing OK. I don't worry that we're not good as Seattle or Boston, I just hope that we're better than we were last year. And that next year we'll be even better than this year.

I've been thinking about this based on info I've read and other threads and I've come to the conclusion that one thing I really like about Pittsburgh is that it is NOT considered a tourist destination, yet it has a level of activity and variety to keep me interested and engaged with the community. There isn't a single portion of Pittsburgh, at least none I can think of, that I assume is always filled with tourists. Just about everything in Pittsburgh was built with the idea of serving the community, not to attract people from other regions to drop in, spend some money, and go. I love having visitors in town, and by no means should tourism be actively discouraged, but the focus should be on making Pittsburgh better in substance rather than in appearance. Once the focus is on attracting tourism, any city threatens to become something of a theme park of itself, which is how I feel when I am in a place like New Orleans. That city has had it's own special problems that have exacerbated that feel, but I also get that feeling in the portions of New York or Boston that are heavily trafficked by outsiders. Not sure we really should be "there" in terms of having a shining "brand", but I agree Pittsburgh is going OK and heading in the right direction generally.

[SuburbanPioneer]

Originally Posted by pghdude28

You'll be in the Guiness Book of World Records for oldest living recorded human if you survive long enough to fix Pittsburgh's transportation. It's been this way since 1787. But I do admire your determination .

I wouldn't be so skeptical. Once he graduates from high school, works hard enough to become the next Carnegie and finally makes his billions, he will then be in the position to donate a couple of them to fix transportation in this city.

[Caladium]

Are you "there" yet? No, but Pittsburgh is headed in a good direction. You'll know you've gotten "there" when you stop hearing quite so many comments like "Pittsburgh is the San Francisco of the east" "the NY of the midwest" "The next Portlandia" etc. When you are "there" people in other cities start comparing themselves to you, not vice versa.

Do you want to be "there"? Maybe yes, maybe no. You'll get some advantages, I suppose, but you'll also get a whole new set of problems once you get "there." And you'll lose a lot of the charm and livability that you have right now. It can be very expensive to live in a city that's "there."

Personally, I think Pittsburgh is just fine right where it is.... on a positive path headed in the direction of being "there."

[TRH]

it doesn't matter where you go. People complain about "their cities". The grass is always greener somewhere else. I lived in the Boston area for example for 3 years and all people up there did was b***h about how they hate it.
Pittsburgh is a FAR better place to live. In many ways, yes, we're there - but there's always more work to do.