Pittsburgh The next NYC (Liberty, Lawrenceville: neighborhoods, luxury, quality of life)

[NYSTYLE]

I work in the Fashion and Cosmetics industry, and hear that Pittsburgh is a Up and coming sleeper city that is going to take off any moment.

NYC, Philly, Boston, Chicago, San Fran, already had there boom. They all became very expensive cities where I notice the burgh is still in the works.


I have ideas about moving and starting a business here.


Just wondering what your feelings are about this up and coming city.

[LovetheEastEnd]

I have an idea for you, after reading all of your posts................why don't you follow the lead of all the other tv shows these days and do a RuPaul reallity show?

[guylocke]

I read a lot about this NYSTYLE. I'm not in the local fashion or cosmetic industry so I can't give you facts on if it is taking off or not. But Pittsburgh has aways been sort of a style/cosmetic backwards city so I imagine the only place left to go is up.

And maybe once it starts catching on it'll really take off, those are the type's of things I read about.

[BrianTH]

Personally, I wouldn't count on Pittsburgh becoming a "boom town" soon. Rather, I think it is more likely Pittsburgh will evolve into a slow but steady growth town.

Which is fine by me, incidentally: booms tend to be followed by busts. For example, many of the "Sun Belt" cities that recently boomed are currently being hammered economically as the housing sector goes into recession, and it may be several years before they can stabilize.

[londonbarcelona]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Personally, I wouldn't count on Pittsburgh becoming a "boom town" soon. Rather, I think it is more likely Pittsburgh will evolve into a slow but steady growth town.

Which is fine by me, incidentally: booms tend to be followed by busts. For example, many of the "Sun Belt" cities that recently boomed are currently being hammered economically as the housing sector goes into recession, and it may be several years before they can stabilize.

*Groan* Tell me about it. I live near Phoenix, AZ. This place is sunny and hot, but the economy has fallen apart here and may never recover. For the first time EVER in the past 50 years, Phoenix has LOST population! There are no high paying jobs for educated people, the economy was built ONLY on the housing industry, and now that we had the speculators come in and destroy the city, no one can afford to live here since 90% of our jobs in Phoenix only pay 10 bucks and hour! Shame, really.

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Personally, I wouldn't count on Pittsburgh becoming a "boom town" soon. Rather, I think it is more likely Pittsburgh will evolve into a slow but steady growth town.

Which is fine by me, incidentally: booms tend to be followed by busts. For example, many of the "Sun Belt" cities that recently boomed are currently being hammered economically as the housing sector goes into recession, and it may be several years before they can stabilize.

Well, Pittsburgh went "bust" on the old economy 25+ years ago and is still in the process of stabilizing. It all depends on your perspective.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Katiana

Well, Pittsburgh went "bust" on the old economy 25+ years ago and is still in the process of stabilizing. It all depends on your perspective.

Absolutely. Pittsburgh certainly was a boom town in the first part of the 20th Century (largely thanks to the steel industry), and unfortunately the history of Pittsburgh in the second half of the 20th Century does indeed provide another example of how busts tend to follow booms. My point was more forward-looking: barring something I currently don't expect (such as an explosion of interest in developing a high speed rail network in the United States), I don't really see much chance of Pittsburgh becoming a boom town again.

But I view that as a mostly good thing, since in turn I also don't see much chance of Pittsburgh going through a big bust again. And while a boom period may be good for civic pride, I think the evidence suggests that for the existing residents in particular, a slow and steady growth model is usually a lot more conducive to a higher quality of life than a boom model.

[guylocke]

Personally, I wouldn't count on Pittsburgh becoming a "boom town" soon. Rather, I think it is more likely Pittsburgh will evolve into a slow but steady growth town.

I think the OP is speaking "boom" more on terms of the industry (fashion and cosmetics) rather than say, population. I could see it happening in that industry.

[londonbarcelona]

Originally Posted by guylocke

I think the OP is speaking "boom" more on terms of the industry (fashion and cosmetics) rather than say, population. I could see it happening in that industry.

Whoa, there's a fashion and cosmetics "boom?"
Get outttttttttt...................

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by guylocke

I think the OP is speaking "boom" more on terms of the industry (fashion and cosmetics) rather than say, population. I could see it happening in that industry.

I have absolutely no idea how that industry works, so I indeed have nothing much to contribute on that particular subject (other than to wonder what Internet shopping is doing to it). I suppose my interpretation of the original question was more along the lines of whether Pittsburgh was on the verge of experiencing an economic boom, which could feed into creating a growing consumer market for higher end "luxury" items.

And to slightly refine that question a bit further, I do think there are parts of Pittsburgh proper which are seeing a bit of a "creative class" boomlet. I am particularly thinking of the various developing East End neighborhoods (e.g., Lawrenceville, Shadyside/Friendship/East Liberty, Squirrel Hill/Point Breeze, and Regent Square), along with the South Side and parts of the North Side.

Again, I really know absolutely nothing about the fashion and cosmetics industry. But I can at least imagine that if there are indeed such creative class boomlets going on in these parts of Pittsburgh (and I think there are), then there may be some good growth opportunities for such businesses in those areas.