What would you like to see in Pittsburgh? (Washington, Liberty: house, to buy)

[burgh]

John Heinz was a republican.

[lifepgh2op]

haha I didn't know for sure I had to Wikipedia it but I just rememberd Teresa-Heinz Kerry doing that so I just kinda figured he might have been a Republican.

[creepsinc]

Originally Posted by lifepgh2op

haha I didn't know for sure I had to Wikipedia it but I just rememberd Teresa-Heinz Kerry doing that so I just kinda figured he might have been a Republican.

From what I can see of his record, he was hardly a Coors-style republican, but Katiana was right. Hope she survived the troll attack!

[lifepgh2op]

Originally Posted by burgh

3. Complete the bike trail into Pittsburgh which will link us into Washington, D.C.

I believe this is already completed

7. Property tax based of square footage or eliminate it and sales tax everything. School districts budgeting within their means.

We need more state funding for school districts. The school taxes are what is making property taxes so high.

10. Good, viable retail downtown.
I don't know if we'll ever see retail downtown. It seems like it's dying in most mid-sized cities and heading out to the suburbs. Maybe if there was better public transportation we could have that.

Replies above ^

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

This is certainly one of the possible meanings of the term, and for that reason I have long thought some of the most provincial people I ever met were the college students I knew from Manhattan. For many of them the other Boroughs of New York were largely unexplored territory, and forget about the rest of the country.

That said, I think there are parts of Pittsburgh that are not really that provincial. For example, I sometimes jokingly refer to certain neighborhoods in the East End as "ex pat neighborhoods" in light of the seemingly large number of people around who aren't originally from Pittsburgh. Of course part of the "ex pat" joke is that it can sometimes feel like being non-Pittsburgh-natives gives us near-foreigner status. But I sense that we "foreigners" are starting to become more and more the norm rather than the exception, again at least in this part of town.

My daughter said that about college students from Chicago. Many had never even crossed the Mississippi.

Some stats about Pittsburgh: Information in parentheses is my commentary.

Place of birth for U.S.-born residents: (Total # is 315,827 per City-Data)

This state: 261318 (83%)
Northeast: 13428 (4%)
Midwest: 13593 (4.3%, most probably from Ohio)
South: 20546 (6.5%, most probably from W. Va and MD)
West: 4682 (1.5%, most probably from Cali)

Foreign born: 5.6%

58% of Pittsburgh residents lived in the same house 5 years ago. (211,000)
Out of people who lived in different houses, 68% lived in this county. (104,000)
Out of people who lived in different counties, 46% lived in Pennsylvania. (22,521)

(337,000 out of 364,000 lived in Pennsylvania for the past 5 yrs. 92.5%)

This of course, does not say anything about any one neighborhood. But it does show that most people there are from Pennsylvania, or have been there at least 5 years.

[burgh]

I know it is completed from around the Boston/McKeesport area to Ohiopyle, Confluence and onto D.C. I didn't think it was completed all the way into downtown. I thought that there is a stretch around the mills not done. If anyone has info., please share.

[lifepgh2op]

Originally Posted by Katiana

But it does show that most people there are from Pennsylvania, or have been there at least 5 years.

So that means it's provincial?

[creepsinc]

Originally Posted by lifepgh2op

10. Good, viable retail downtown.
I don't know if we'll ever see retail downtown. It seems like it's dying in most mid-sized cities and heading out to the suburbs. Maybe if there was better public transportation we could have that.Replies above ^

It's all relative, but Pittsburgh has quite a bit of retail downtown compared to a lot of midsized cities. Sure, it's mostly GNCs and CVSs, but there's a Macy's too (or Kaufmanns or whatever you want to call it). I know it's a ghost town on weekends, but still, a bit more bustling than a lot of downtown areas I've seen. Ever been to downtown San Francisco? Meaning the financial district.

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by lifepgh2op

So that means it's provincial?

No, it means most of the people who live there are from Pennsylvania. One implication: my nephew and family moved there two years ago from Colorado, found most people were from there and had families there and not much interest in expanding their social circles beyond their families. That was in Wexford, which is a fairly new area, with lots of young families.

[lifepgh2op]

Originally Posted by Katiana

No, it means most of the people who live there are from Pennsylvania. One implication: my nephew and family moved there two years ago from Colorado, found most people were from there and had families there and not much interest in expanding their social circles beyond their families. That was in Wexford, which is a fairly new area, with lots of young families.

Ohh, I see. Are they still there? Did it get better for them or are things still the same?