Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Pennsylvania > Pittsburgh
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 03-03-2015, 01:08 PM
 
86 posts, read 96,011 times
Reputation: 92

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ambitions View Post
I'm not too big a fan of cloudy winters. I'm not sure how they compare to Purdue, where I did my undergraduate work.
I also went to Purdue for undergrad but have lived here otherwise my whole life. Without looking at stats, the winters are pretty much the same, I believe.

Can you bring me a Purvis burger when you come into town?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 03-03-2015, 01:22 PM
 
80 posts, read 95,259 times
Reputation: 50
Quote:
Originally Posted by keyser412soze View Post
I also went to Purdue for undergrad but have lived here otherwise my whole life. Without looking at stats, the winters are pretty much the same, I believe.

Can you bring me a Purvis burger when you come into town?
Can you believe I only went to Triple X during my senior year, and I only went twice? Mistakes were made.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-03-2015, 01:33 PM
 
5,894 posts, read 6,848,549 times
Reputation: 4107
Likes:
Lots of shows/acts/exhibits come through that usually only tour through larger cities, so hits above its weight in that regard
Lots of intact business districts in various neighborhoods with an eclectic mix of small businesses
Housing still relatively cheap
A nice mix of outdoor activities in & nearby the city
Crime relegated to a few small areas for the most part
Lots of nightlife options
Top notch museums & other institutions thanks to a nice chunk of old money that had stayed here
People who seem to legitimately care about where they live

Dislikes
Bad mass transit options
Prevalence of litter
Lots of nepotism is all facets of city governmrnt/governmental organizations
Inconvenient direct flight options & flight prices in general as a result
Giant eagle dominance of the grocer market
Property tax system
Pittsburgh public school system
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-03-2015, 03:17 PM
 
86 posts, read 96,011 times
Reputation: 92
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ambitions View Post
Can you believe I only went to Triple X during my senior year, and I only went twice? Mistakes were made.
You...what....no way!?!? I ate that twice in 1 day multiple times...maybe even 3 times!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-03-2015, 04:15 PM
 
Location: Mid-Atlantic
12,529 posts, read 17,459,063 times
Reputation: 10629
I like the diversity, world class cuisine, great public transit and sophisticated sense of style and fashion.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-03-2015, 04:20 PM
 
Location: The canyon (with my pistols and knife)
14,169 posts, read 22,607,449 times
Reputation: 17328
Quote:
Originally Posted by Copanut View Post
I like the diversity, world class cuisine, great public transit and sophisticated sense of style and fashion.
The weather is great too.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-03-2015, 04:22 PM
 
Location: Mid-Atlantic
12,529 posts, read 17,459,063 times
Reputation: 10629
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gnutella View Post
The weather is great too.

How could I forget that, especially the way I seen it today n'at.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-03-2015, 07:31 PM
 
Location: Pittsburgh
7,541 posts, read 10,210,104 times
Reputation: 3510
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ambitions View Post
You mentioning the water brought up another question. Do people actually use the rivers recreational purposes?
A lot of people are out there with boats in the summer in Pittsburgh.

The industry that built this city, and provided the money to found your school, is largely gone now.

We've moved from an industrial city to more of a touristy town in recent decades.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-03-2015, 07:54 PM
 
Location: Stanton Heights
778 posts, read 835,668 times
Reputation: 869
I'm a Pittsburgh lifer-slash-boomarang. I've lived here for most of my 40 years, with brief sojourns in Maryland for college and then for my husband's job for a few years. I wouldn't live anywhere else in the US. (Washington DC was a hole. Definition of "nice place to visit, wouldn't want to live there.") I've worked and gone to school in Oakland for a couple decades (I've worked at CMU, Pitt twice, and the Carnegie Institute twice.)

Things I love:
Low cost of living (ignore the whiners, it's still one of the lowest cost-of-living urban areas around). I can afford to own a home and have a good quality of life here.
Size: big enough to have all the amenities I want, small enough that it feels like the world's biggest small town. I live centrally, in the East End, and I can be anywhere in the city in 15 minutes, barring traffic.
People: I've mostly grown up around the academic set (my dad is a Pitt professor) but you have to be the biggest, most obnoxious jackhole to be pretentious here. The overall vibe is down-to-earth, unfussy, untrendy and laid-back.
Topography and Green: My modest little 2 BR home looks out over the Allegheny River Valley from waaaay up above. There's so many trees and so much green because so much land here is impossible to build on. There's little patches of woods everywhere (like right out back of my house) and huge forest parks. And I love the character of the neighborhoods perched on hillsides, the weird little valleys like The Run in Greenfield and the Lost Neighborhood in Oakland.
A Sense of Place: When you're in Pittsburgh, you know you're in Pittsburgh. People put down roots here and there are traditions. I visited my sister in law in Atlanta a few years ago and I don't think I met a single person in Atlanta who was actually from Atlanta. That's not the case in Pittsburgh.

Things that aren't as bad as you might think:
Diversity: Pittsburgh is behind the curve on recent immigration, but because of the universities, there's a more transient population of foreign nationals that makes up for it a little (and a smaller slice of that pie are university faculty and staff from other countries and they settle here and stay). I used to take the CMU shuttle to work every day, and on most days I did not hear a single conversation in English taking place. At CMU especially, there's a huge contingent of South and East Asian students and on nice days cricket games break out on the Cut.
Food: If you like greasy, fried junk food, we have that covered and everyone knows that, but... you don't have to eat that crap. There's plenty other stuff to choose from. I love a good french fry, but I've been various shades of vegetarian for 25 years and I have no problem at all eating great food in Pittsburgh.

Things I don't like:
The weather: Does anyone like this weather? Winter sucks, straight up. Just the same as it sucks throughout the northeast and midwest, yes, so it's not like it's better in New York or Chicago or whatever, but I'd be lying if I said I liked it. I hate it. I've hated it my whole life. I don't don't hate it enough to up sticks and move to San Diego though.
Public transit: It's improving, I have to give PAT credit where it's due, but our topography largely makes any kind of light rail system a no go for most areas and relying on buses only is a pain.
The sadsacks: Some folks here just haven't moved on from the crushing malaise of the 70s and 80s. Or maybe it's that we're a fairly isolated city (as someone mentioned above) and people here just don't get out enough to see that every city has problems, every city has downsides, there is no magical urban nirvana where everything is perfect. It's tiresome, but there's still people who think that only uncool squares and losers love Pittsburgh. (When I was younger, the cool kids all wanted to go to Chicago. I guess now all the cool kids want to go to Portland or NYC.)
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-04-2015, 12:04 AM
 
Location: Crafton via San Francisco
3,463 posts, read 4,626,309 times
Reputation: 1595
I actually like winter. The summers are too hot and humid for me.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Pennsylvania > Pittsburgh

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top