Why is Pittsburgh losing population even though it's economy has been transformed? (Butler: home, buy)

[Humanoid]

Pittsburgh still has a lot of corporate headquarters for a city of its current size.

The majority of big businesses headquarters in Pittsburgh are from its boom period, not many new business are headquartered in the city. In fact it would be a pretty stupid to locate your headquarters in Pittsburgh, unless you were getting some huge tax incentive to do it.

[MissShona]

Originally Posted by The_soul_controlla

Because there's nothing to do for anybody from the ages of 23-35. And those are the ages that people are looking to have a career, make some money, find a significant others and enjoy themselves.


As someone who's been trying to contribute to the history of the music and arts scenes in Pittsburgh, it's frustrating how little people support the arts and how many people support mindless activities like Penguins and Steelers games. I understand that people love sports and that makes the city some money, but if this is one of the major benchmarks of the Pittsburgh economy, then it's safe to say that the economy of Pittsburgh really hasn't matured from the post-industrial days to even retain a steady population of young wage/salary earners. And sadly, I think that it probably won't mature and that it's steadily heading on a downhill spiral. Even if it took 100 years to fully revive the economy, Pittsburgh will never be on the level of bigger U.S. cities like LA, NYC, SF, Chicago, or even Atlanta. The city really just made a bad move with PNC and Heinz field, and once the casinos get built here, you can stick a fork in this city and officially call it done.

Actually I find that Pittsburgh has a lot for young (and not so young) people to do here; especially given it's size. I have a lot of friends that are artists and musicians and there is always something going on. (I posted in a thread about the music scene here...you may want to check out what I said there). I had one friend in particular (she's in NY now) who for years got "old money" to fund art projects; she was one of the key players in starting FLUX (huge "block party" style celebration of artists/musicians...I dunno...you can Google it).

There are a lot of sports fans and dating is not easy. But if you compare Pittsburgh to other places...we are actually doing really well. Believe me, I lived in Miami and had musician/artist friends there...and you always had to know someone to do any sort of show. That and if you were not into the club scene or the rap/hip-hop scene (maybe Caribbean scene too....although there is overlap there) there was nothing for you to do. Not to mention if you didn't have at least $100 to blow...yeah...Miami is a very boring place. Many, many weekends would go by and me and my friends would just drive around and around looking for something indie or something along the lines of creative rock or jazz music...just nothing to be found. And South Florida has a whole lot more people than this place does.

[BrianTH]

I'm not into the club scene, but one thing is for sure: the restaurant selection in the East End has improved immensely since I first moved here in 1993. That alone has made it a more attractive place for us to go out (although we have now edged past the 35-year-old line).

[pman]

As an outsider, I'll say what I said to people in Milwaukee "this seems like a nice place to live, the problem is, people have no reason to come here and, consequently, never find that out." that may be even more true for Pitt because it appears far less devastated by ill conceived "urban renewal projects" from the '50's, '60's, and ' 70's. Transportation is also an issue. In another thread Brian and Katian and I discussed trains. I've taken the train once through Pitt, and it looked beautiful and sort of captured my interest. If you're driving, you never see it. out of sight, out of mind. Cheap flights is another issue, although SW has helped with that a lot.

[RockLobster]

Pittsburgh is realizing it will be far more to it's advantage to consider itself an education, techology, medical, reserach and, corporate support hub over being a corporate headquarters city. Those days of being the third largest headquarters city in the nation are long gone. Mergers ate them up !

There are so many attractive areas nationwide for locating the administrative and financial side of a buisness. To offer the infastructure for buisness operations though can be something Pittsburgh can do well in and be a leader in nationwide.

Pittsburgh's economy is the most deverse it has ever been. And some of these operations are poised for good growth, hence more jobs and more opportunity for people.
There is a reason that Pittsburgh ranked number three in the top 10 “North American Cities of the Future” in the April 2007 issue of Foreign Direct Investment (fDi) magazine, published by the Financial Times group in London. The category of major cities showed Chicago coming in at number one followed by Toronto then yes Pittsburgh !

Pittsburgh rated in the category of cities, out of 108 considered, with a population over two million. In addition, it ranked as number one in the most “cost effective” cities for business and landed in the number two spot for the best infrastructure. Cities in the US, Canada and Mexico were ranked.

[ExPit]

Originally Posted by WoodturnerMike

Actually Pittsburgh hit it's peak population of 676,000 in 1950 and slowly declined from there. Initially, that is to say for several decades Pittsburgh's population declined while the population outside of the city but still within Allegheny County increased. However in the 80's the county population began declining as well.

Many left to seek employment in the sunbelt.

I lived for many years in Pittsburgh and really like the city but moved in '02 to Cape May NJ. The reason, because we vacationed in Cape May and just loved it there. Now because of the taxes (highest real estate taxes in the nation) and high cost of living in NJ we're planning a move back to Pa. but somewhere in the rural southcentral part of the state. Not because of any dislike of Pittsburgh but because we really like the semi-rural areas near Harrisburg.

Pittsburgh needs to revitalize the downtown area and make better use of the rivers and land bordering them which could be a recreational goldmine.

Great city that survived the end of it's manufacturing era and is reinventing itself.

Mike

Yeah Mike, I think you've got a good perspective on it. Pittsburgh, when we lived there was as UN-chic a city as you could find, a grinding, no frills, not a care for aesthetics kind of place that looked suspiciously upon the latest styles from cosmopolitan cities that had time for that sort of nonsense.

But now, I think largely due to an accident of topography, Pittsburgh has all the indications of becoming a boutique city, a post-industrial chic tribute to its own outdated self. But where will the money come from?

Like yourself I've moved around a little too; and by the way I always loved Cape May and South Jersey in general, and I think, from an outsider's view you have to be struck by the rough beauty of the city, the hills and rivers that surround downtown, the packed in and up, a so accessible downtown, a North and a South Side brimming with life, an ever-vibrant Oakland, one of the constants in the city as far as growth potential...But look at the city from the air on Google, the hybrid version where you get the layout and the street names, and tell me what you see; I see a city with a whole in the middle of it, a wasteland.

Please, I don't mean to offend residents of the Hill past or present; my own family has long, strong ties to the Hill. My father was raised on the Lower Hill, before it was torn down to make way for the "Civic" Arena. He went to Epiphany Catholic School and Fifth Avenue High. He owned a saloon in the six hundred block of Wiley, a saloon where I spent the early part of my childhood and of which I have vivid memories...I say all this so that readers on this forum know where I'm coming from on this, that I'm not a racist or an elitist, a heartless, anything for progress, anything for a turn of a buck kind of guy. On the contrary, I don't think that any development plan for the Hill should be entertained that doesn't "truly" benefit current residents.

I'd like to see another college or two put up in the Central, Upper and even Lower parts of the Hill, a college that would play to the area's strengths (medicine, technology, alternate energy) as well as tap into the artistic side of the brain, and that would grant free tuition to all current Hill younger residents and employment for those beyond college age...

Can we envision a downtown Pittsburgh that stretches from the Point out to Oakland? A Hill District development that uses Pittsburgh's natural and historic strengths to re-incorporate Pittsburgh's oldest and in that sense, richest neighborhoods. I know the Hill's a touchy subject; just look at what the Penguins have had to go through even on the Lowest part of the Hill, but c'mon, let's look at it...How can you have a virtual(old sense of the word) no-man's-land in the middle of a city that is straining to redefine itself for the future?

The Hill can not be overlooked. It can not be circumvented, placated or ignored, anymore.

[Humanoid]

In addition, it ranked as number one in the most “cost effective” cities for business and landed in the number two spot for the best infrastructure.

This is laughable.

[BrianTH]

I agree about the Hill. To indulge myself in a quick anecdote, when I first moved to Pittsburgh to attend grad school at Pitt, my office was high up in the Cathedral of Learning, looking out toward the Hill. I remember thinking that the houses up there must be quite expensive, since they had such a great view in a central location. I've never really lost that sense of what the Hill should be, although I would strongly support redevelopment plans that were truly mixed income and that gave the current residents a legitimate chance to be a part of the redevelopment process.

[RockLobster]

Originally Posted by Humanoid

The majority of big businesses headquarters in Pittsburgh are from its boom period, not many new business are headquartered in the city. In fact it would be a pretty stupid to locate your headquarters in Pittsburgh, unless you were getting some huge tax incentive to do it.

A handful of the largest Pittsburgh based biggies that have shown the greatest growth over the past five years are in retail, Pharmacuticals and Shipping. And some are relative new members of Pittsburgh's corporate family.

American Eagle Outfitters
Dick's Spoting Goods
Bayer North America
GNC
GlaxoSmithKline North America
FED EX Ground
PNC

Then the traditional biggies>
Allegheny Technologies
USX
PPG
HJ Heinz
WESCO INTL

As for the article I mentioned being laughable..Hey, feel free to laugh..

[londonbarcelona]

Originally Posted by right-here-i-say

Pittsburgh is a much better place to live if you choose to live here. If you are born here and never leave, you may not appreciate it as much as somebody who lived in another area, or somebody who was born here, left, and came back.

I say, "Home is where the heart is." Doesn't matter where...