Another stupid Forbes survey (Pittsburgh, Uniontown: real estate, 2009, houses)

[bradjl2009]

Apparently we are America's 8th most downsized city. I think Forbes is biggest pusher of the setrotypical ideas that the Rust Belt is nothing but failures, everyone wants to leave the Northeast, and that the South is some "city of Oz". Plus other than population loss (which while bad it's not like we have blocks of abandoned houses) I don't see how we have "downsized". If anything they are the ones who still think Pittsburgh is like it was in 1982.

8. Pittsburgh, Pa.

2008 Population: 2,351,192
2007-2008 Change: -0.1%
2000-2007 Change: -3.1%
Despite the fact that Pittsburgh's steel industry began to dissipate all the way back in the 1970s, the southwestern Pennsylvania metro area is still better known for its mills than for its $10.8 billion stake in the technology sector.

Here's the link. America's downsized cities - MSN Real Estate

[Hopes]

Write a letter to the editor. Seriously.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by Hopes

Write a letter to the editor. Seriously.

About how sterotypical most of their silly ratings are?

[Katiana]

I don't take any of their lists seriously, even when they say something good about a place I like. They use oddball criteria, and they have a new flippin' list every week.

[Geeo]

They need to do something to sell magazines and drive traffic to their website. I guess these ratings ploys work.

[mattjd]

Originally Posted by bradjl2009

Apparently we are America's 8th most downsized city. I think Forbes is biggest pusher of the setrotypical ideas that the Rust Belt is nothing but failures, everyone wants to leave the Northeast, and that the South is some "city of Oz". Plus other than population loss (which while bad it's not like we have blocks of abandoned houses) I don't see how we have "downsized". If anything they are the ones who still think Pittsburgh is like it was in 1982.

8. Pittsburgh, Pa.

2008 Population: 2,351,192
2007-2008 Change: -0.1%
2000-2007 Change: -3.1%
Despite the fact that Pittsburgh's steel industry began to dissipate all the way back in the 1970s, the southwestern Pennsylvania metro area is still better known for its mills than for its $10.8 billion stake in the technology sector.

Here's the link. America's downsized cities - MSN Real Estate

If you look at the Forbes article, they clearly mention the Pittsburgh region. Obviously, we don't have 2.3 million people living in the city. Do you really think we don't have blocks and blocks of abandoned houses outside the city? Take a trip down 837 and check out Mckeesport, Duquesne, Versailles, Glassport, Clairton, and Elizabeth. Take another trip outside of Allegheny County and check out places like Monogahela, Donora, Charleroi, Uniontown, Connellsville, Brownsville, etc. Go up north to Beaver and check out Aliquippa, Ambridge, Monaca, and Rochester. Those places have suffered massive population loss. What's left are tons of brick houses built in the early 1900s that are 2BRs or small 3BRs that need a lot of work to fix up and nobody wants. The average American family doesn't want to move into a small 3BR, 1,200sqft house in Charleroi. There are thousands and thousands of houses like this that will need to be torn down and newer, more modern, communities will need to be built, but politics are stopping that from happening. People still like to hold onto the past and the old way of life, but that's not coming back. Heck, we can't even get the mon-fayette expressway done, how the heck is the gov't expecting people to move into these areas without that first?

[BrianTH]

Obviously the Pittsburgh region did in fact downsize considerably after the steel bust, and the echoes of that downsizing are still occurring. On the other hand, if you dig into the 2000 Census data, the urban part of Pittsburgh (which as defined by the Census would include the city and most of the major suburbs) actually had a growing population--it was the outer "rural" parts of the metro area that were still shrinking. Here is a comparison of 2000 and 1990 Census data showing Pittsburgh's urban area growing:

USA Urbanized Areas over 500,000: 2000 and 1990 Comparability

And here is a map of the Census definition of the Pittsburgh urban area:

http://ftp2.census.gov/geo/maps/urba...ua69697_00.pdf

In any event, in my view the real question is how well Pittsburgh is managing this transition to a smaller city. And while not problem-free, I think we are doing a relatively good job, particularly as compared to places like Detroit.