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I used to live in Pittsburgh. I moved there from central PA to go to school back in 2001. I loved almost everything about the city and found it to have the personality of a big town, with all the amenities of a large city. People are friendly and I always felt safe walking around on my own. But, there are some neighborhoods to avoid, and you will certainly know them when you see them. If you live in the right place there is no reason to be overly concerned about crime. I have been downtown to see shows and eat dinner and I never felt like I wasn't safe.
I agree that Pittsburgh is a pedestrian oriented city. Many neighborhoods, like Shadyside and Sqirrel Hill, have all the amenities you would need within walking distance from your home or apartment. However, Pittsburgh has many neighborhoods and is very spreadout (with lots of hills!). While it may be easy to get around on foot in your neighborhood, it may not be as easy to get to other neighborhoods or parts of the city. Taking public transportation definitely helps, but I had a car and used that whenever I had to travel across the city. Needing a car really depends on how far you need to travel each day and how much you would be willing to pay to park your car.
Here's a video from a kid who's on the verge of being Pittsburgh's first major rap star, showing some of those pedestrian stairways up the hills, particularly at the 2:00 mark:
The housing in the background as he's walking up the ped staircase is pretty typical of what you'll find in Pittsburgh.
A lot of good shots of the skyline and well-known bridges in the vid too (Smithfield Stret and Liberty bridges and Fort Pitt bridge emerging from the tunnel, particularly), shots from Grandview Avenue, a quick shot of Carson Street, and some shots of what looks like the near North side. In short, this vid is a short sample of what the city looks like.
Well shizzle my drizzle ... that video is off the hook.
I've lived in Pittsburgh and around the area my entire life. Statistics aren't a valid way to look at crime in an area, because they are usually manipulated. For example, when the murder rate increased in Pittsburgh in previous years, police changed the way they reported aggravated assault and other crime. The truth is, is that when you look at the area as a whole, including the metro area, there are one or two murders a day. I've seen days when five murders have occurred within a 24 hour period. Just the other day a man was gunned down, downtown in broad daylight. The entire area has problems with crime, in and out of the city, all the way up through Youngstown. So that's another reason looking at statistics is not valid. They don't usually include the metro area. For example, while there may have been 60 some murders in Pittsburgh, there have been years with almost 150 in Allegheny County. There aren't too many "safe" cities around this country, and Pittsburgh also is not one of them. The cost of living is cheap though.
I've lived in Pittsburgh and around the area my entire life. Statistics aren't a valid way to look at crime in an area, because they are usually manipulated. For example, when the murder rate increased in Pittsburgh in previous years, police changed the way they reported aggravated assault and other crime. The truth is, is that when you look at the area as a whole, including the metro area, there are one or two murders a day. I've seen days when five murders have occurred within a 24 hour period. Just the other day a man was gunned down, downtown in broad daylight. The entire area has problems with crime, in and out of the city, all the way up through Youngstown. So that's another reason looking at statistics is not valid. They don't usually include the metro area. For example, while there may have been 60 some murders in Pittsburgh, there have been years with almost 150 in Allegheny County. There aren't too many "safe" cities around this country, and Pittsburgh also is not one of them. The cost of living is cheap though.
I live in Oakland CA, and even WE don't have 1 or 2 murders a day.... 2006 we had 138 murders (Oakland city population in 2006 411,755, Pittsburgh city population 316718)
150 a year in Allegheny County isn't 1 or 2 a day..
I don't have a problem with you disputing the facts, but back it up. Show me the numbers.
You can make stuff up, but someone will call you on it.
I've lived in Pittsburgh and around the area my entire life. Statistics aren't a valid way to look at crime in an area, because they are usually manipulated. For example, when the murder rate increased in Pittsburgh in previous years, police changed the way they reported aggravated assault and other crime. The truth is, is that when you look at the area as a whole, including the metro area, there are one or two murders a day. I've seen days when five murders have occurred within a 24 hour period. Just the other day a man was gunned down, downtown in broad daylight. The entire area has problems with crime, in and out of the city, all the way up through Youngstown. So that's another reason looking at statistics is not valid. They don't usually include the metro area. For example, while there may have been 60 some murders in Pittsburgh, there have been years with almost 150 in Allegheny County. There aren't too many "safe" cities around this country, and Pittsburgh also is not one of them. The cost of living is cheap though.
I see. So we can conveniently ignore Allegheny County as a whole when we want to criticize the City of Pittsburgh for not having a large enough population, but when it comes to murder rates, we get to include it.
Ive been to many medium/large cities in North America and Europe, and Pittsburgh is one of the best in what it has to offer, especially in regards to cost of living. My friends in Florida can't believe the beautiful Victorian house Im buying in Pgh, for a third the price it would be in South Florida! (and its completely new inside) If Pittsburgh is so bad (I say to the nay-sayers) then why does it keep getting rated so highly from so many different sources? I can assure you no one is writing about my "glamorous" South Florida city anymore, except to say it is overpriced in everyway.
For the majority of people, it's all about jobs. Like Evergrey said, people go where the jobs go, and unfortunately, the Pittsburgh job market is tight. That causes a low percentage of net increase migration and immigration. I personally believe that there is large group of people (I know many) who left Pittsburgh because of their work and these people WANT to come back.
Those people just sitting on the fence essentially say two things, "ohh... eee... Pittsburgh is losing population, I just don't know, that doesn't sound good" or "I can't go back to Pittsburgh, it would be too hard to find work, it's too much of a gamble"
But as many people have pointed out and i'm sure Evergrey has heaps of knowledge on this subject, the job market in Pittsburgh is softening as the dramatic increase of women in our workforce has tapered and as our future industries (and not only one I mind you) are really taking off. Most predict that Pittsburgh's population and economic market will hit bottom (or has already) and that the trend will start to reverse. I believe the second that concrete evidence comes to light that shows Pittsburgh has positive growth and or the Pittsburgh job market has expanded to a great enough extend that you will see a LARGE number of people coming back and that it won't just be a trickle. I personally know several people in this exact scenerio who are chomping at the bit to come back and are just waiting for that bit of assurance that their treck back won't be in vein. Every year many of them start feeling more and more comfortable with the idea that it's "not a gamble" but the right thing to do for them to be happy and successful - and for their family.
I don't include climate in my little post because I believe unless it is for a medical condition, the majority of reasonable people realize climate does not guaranteed happiness or success. And don't believe for a second that there aren't hoards of people who would never leave because they won't abandon the seasonal changes and actually LOVE winter (like the majority of my family). Also don't think for a second that there aren't plenty of people that have to leave the sun-belt. I could never live in Southern Florida, I have an extremely fair complexion and intense heat makes me feel extremely tired, unclean (sweaty all the time) and I am a much greater risk of developing skin cancer due to my pigmentation. Also, EVERYBODY knows that genuine Floridians don't ever leave the house and just soak in the air conditioning about 364 days out of the year. I know that's what my Uncle's and cousin's do in Florida. lol.
I live in Oakland CA, and even WE don't have 1 or 2 murders a day.... 2006 we had 138 murders (Oakland city population in 2006 411,755, Pittsburgh city population 316718)
150 a year in Allegheny County isn't 1 or 2 a day..
I don't have a problem with you disputing the facts, but back it up. Show me the numbers.
You can make stuff up, but someone will call you on it.
My point is that statistics are not relevant when looking at some areas, especially Pittsburgh, when looking at the entire area. No one is making anything up. Some cities under report crime and the city of Pittsburgh and its surrounding areas are one of them. Pittsburgh is not the type of city where the suburbs consist of big houses and trim lawns with white picket fences. When you leave the city, in many neighborhoods the crime is just as bad if not worse. There are nice neighborhoods, and some upperclass neighborhoods, but there's not a lot of wealth in the area in general. The area is every bit working class. Apparently some of you didn't get the point that I was not looking at statistics, and decided to include them back into the argument anyway. When comparing crime in large cities, statistics aren't a valid way to do so. There's a lot of manipulation included in any kind of statistics, especially when politics are involved. So go ahead keep giving statistics, but I've seen Pittsburgh get national spotlight for crime a lot more than Oakland this year. By the way, I'm not trying to compare cities, or try to make Pittsburgh look like the most dangerous place you could live. I'm just trying to make the point that there aren't too many "safe" cities out there, so calling one safe and another one dangerous and trying to compare on the basis of statistics is not valid. However I'm sure I'll get a response about how big bad Oakland is so much worse.
P.S. There are typically 1-2 murders a day in the area, although there are periods with relative calm. That's not being made up for whoever it was that called me a liar, I check the news everyday. The area doesn't just include Allegheny County. I was trying to make a point. Also, I'm not saying Pittsburgh is a horrible city. I'm saying it has its problems just like most cities.
Welcome to City-Data.com forum! Make sure to register - it's free and very quick! You have to register before you can post and participate in our discussions with 700,000 other registered members. User profiles and some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your free account you will be able to customize many options, you will have the full access to over 15,000 posts/day about local topics and you will see fewer ads. 
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