Pittsburgh is as "hip" as you want it to be (Aliquippa: buyer, incomes)

[Awesomo.2000]

Originally Posted by COPANUT

Yeah, and how many stay at Notre Dame? How many does Slippery Rock absorb? How about Penn State?

Staying in State College would make you feel like the dude that is still in high School at 25. Seriously, I was feeling like I was too old for that town in my first senior year. My third senior year I felt like old man Awesomo.

[Tinare]

Originally Posted by Awesomo.2000

Staying in State College would make you feel like the dude that is still in high School at 25. Seriously, I was feeling like I was too old for that town in my first senior year. My third senior year I felt like old man Awesomo.

I totally agree! I spent 10 years in State College (five after graduation working for the University before moving back to Pittsburgh) and I totally felt old at 28. It was a weird in-between time. Too old to hang at the downtown bars with the undergrads, too young to really relate to most of my co-workers most of whom were in their thirties and forties with families. Anyway, totally off topic...

[Copanut]

I've been going back to that area since the 60's as my family was involved with a Hunting & Fishing cabin. Going to the "big" city of State College was always a treat. About 15 years ago my wife and I spent a long weekend right downtown in the summer, did a ton of bike riding, hiking, and hitting all the restaurants. It is really pretty up there, but as others have said, not much of a social life for the twenty something singles.

[pittsteelerfan]

Originally Posted by COPANUT

Yeah, and how many stay at Notre Dame? How many does Slippery Rock absorb? How about Penn State?

You're trying to compare college 'towns' to a major metro area. There's a big difference between the two!

[pittsteelerfan]

Originally Posted by khyron

I think you need to recheck your history a little bit on that claim. Ask someone from the Pacific Northwest who lived there before the twin tailed siren made coffee or webs were something to be browsed, and ask them what it was like when the logging empires failed. You might find some very familiar stories about reinventing industrial towns to support services and technology.

Oh and to the person above who mentioned having come up from the south, amen brother. We came up here and we're LOVING this city. All is relative. Maybe the folks who have an issue with this place not being "hip" as someplace else should just go wherever those other places are. I'm progressive, and I like it here. I don't need stores full of 1980s shirts with alligators on them being sold for $100 and lots of fixed gear bicycles to feel like I'm a part of something good.

I think you need to recheck your history. Both Seattle and Portland, have the HIGHEST populations that they EVER had since their cities birth.

Portland, since 1980', their population has increased by 40.4% (2007').

Seattle, since 1980', their population has increased by 13.6% (2007').

Trying to say that either city has suffered the population loss that Pittsburgh has, is both inaccurate and wrong.

There's nothing wrong with trying to defend Pittsburgh. But trying to make false claims in order to do so, ain't going to prove your point of view.

[Copanut]

I was being facetious. I'd like to know the retention rates for other schools in major metro areas. At one time when steel was king, I'm sure a lot of Pitt-Duquesne-Carnegie Mellon grads stuck around.

[pittsteelerfan]

Originally Posted by COPANUT

I was being facetious. I'd like to know the retention rates for other schools in major metro areas. At one time when steel was king, I'm sure a lot of Pitt-Duquesne-Carnegie Mellon grads stuck around.

I don't know about either. When Pittsburgh's economy relied on the steel mills, how many professional types of jobs where there? I would think less then there is in Pittsburgh today. Pittsburgh was VERY blue collar back then. And had a lot less options as far as different fields to go into.

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by COPANUT

I was being facetious. I'd like to know the retention rates for other schools in major metro areas. At one time when steel was king, I'm sure a lot of Pitt-Duquesne-Carnegie Mellon grads stuck around.

I posted some stats on that at one time in the distant past. You could do a search. It is lower for CMU grads than Robert Morris, or was it Point Park? That's all I remember now.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by pittsteelerfan

I don't know about either. When Pittsburgh's economy relied on the steel mills, how many professional types of jobs where there? I would think less then there is in Pittsburgh today. Pittsburgh was VERY blue collar back then. And had a lot less options as far as different fields to go into.

I beg to differ. The mills created a bunch of white collar jobs, my brother was a Jones and Laughlin Steel intern.(any one remember that company?) Do you have any idea how many secys worked Dahntahn for US Steel? Blue collar labor creates a lot of white collar jobs.

I had friends that worked in the retail clothing business back in the 70's & 80's. Kaufmanns, Gimbels, Hornes, Hughes and Hatcher, just to name a few. Who's left, Macys. They were buyers, managers, and department heads making 6 figure incomes. Those jobs are gone.

I worked at the US Steel research lab in the 70's in Monroeville. It's now an industrial park. But before it shut down it employed 2100 people, only about 200 were blue collar.

The two go hand in hand IMHO.

[pittsteelerfan]

Originally Posted by COPANUT

I beg to differ. The mills created a bunch of white collar jobs, my brother was a Jones and Laughlin Steel intern.(any one remember that company?) Do you have any idea how many secys worked Dahntahn for US Steel? Blue collar labor creates a lot of white collar jobs.

I had friends that worked in the retail clothing business back in the 70's & 80's. Kaufmanns, Gimbels, Hornes, Hughes and Hatcher, just to name a few. Who's left, Macys. They were buyers, managers, and department heads making 6 figure incomes. Those jobs are gone.

I worked at the US Steel research lab in the 70's in Monroeville. It's now an industrial park. But before it shut down it employed 2100 people, only about 200 were blue collar.

The two go hand in hand IMHO.

Of course when the mills were going strong they created some white collar jobs. Detroit is no different with the auto industry. The % of Pittsburgh'ers who were in the blue collar jobs, the % would've been much higher than the white collar ones.

Look up the % of college gradutes that lived in Pittsburgh during the 70's compared to today. Show me that it was higher back then compared to Pittsburgh today.

Pittsburgh has lost over half it's population since the 50's. Sure some of those jobs would've been white collar ones. But the majority were blue collar ones. Can you picture "Hell with the lid off", and a bunch of suit and tie types running around in Pittsburgh?