10 things I hate about Pittsburgh! (Denver, Braddock: ski resorts, price, moving to)
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Thank you, I like these statistics better, they tell much more! However I am currently in grad school, and I'm 31. I would say that in my school (which is not even in PA though) and my networking circles, graduate students tend to be in their late 20s and above.
There are certainly older grad/prof students, but the portion drops pretty steadily with age.
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Even so I am still flabbergasted by the amount of ignorance I encounter in various economic brackets across different regions of the city. Perhaps college education is not enough? I don't know.
Welcome to the human race. There are lots of educated but ignorant people everywhere.
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People elsewhere just seem to be more savvy; and it spans culture and economics (I know of some very poor and uneducated Jamaicans that can tell you all about American politics...its wild).
This is a common misperception. What happens when you travel is you are not encountering a random selection of local people--in other words, you are coming into contact with people who typically come into contact with people who visit from elsewhere. That non-random selection of people is giving you a biased view of what people in those other locales are like. If you actually lived there and started collecting experiences with a more representative selection of locals, very likely your impressions would change.
This is a common misperception. What happens when you travel is you are not encountering a random selection of local people--in other words, you are coming into contact with people who typically come into contact with people who visit from elsewhere. That non-random selection of people is giving you a biased view of what people in those other locales are like. If you actually lived there and started collecting experiences with a more representative selection of locals, very likely your impressions would change.
I agree! Except that I have effectively lived (as in spent more than 6 months at a time) at the following places:
Allentown, PA
Daytona Beach, FL
Hollywood, FL
North Miami Beach, FL
St. Catherines, Ontario (Canada)
Morgantown, WV
Queens, NY
Fort Lee, NJ
Sandy Bay, Clarendon Parish - Jamaica (actually only 5 months here, but about 9 trips over the course of my lifetime {family is here}).
3 of those states, I have driver's licenses from!
All of the other places, like Israel, Chicago, Philadelphia, Naples, FL, etc. I would NOT feel comfortable commenting on their overall social cultures. Just my perceptions of the physical cities.
Hmmm....I wonder what is causing this great disparity though?
Once it was stripped of its mass-employment industries, what was left was an overgrown university town and regional service center. You'd expect such a city to have high educational attainment figures, so this really isn't surprising.
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Also across the entire US is a big comparison.
Yes, but many of the comparisons are to other large cities specifically.
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The US lags behind several countries globablly in regards to higher education (hence President Obama's focus on higher education).
Actually, the US is generally still at or very near the top of the relevant rankings, although some other countries have been gaining and may well pass the U.S. if we don't do something to reverse some of the current trends. That is what Obama and others are trying to address.
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And most of the professions around here (teaching, medicine, high tech) tend to require degrees. Areas like construction, real estate, transportation and entreprenuership don't require as much in the terms of degrees.
I'm not sure if you view that as a good or bad thing, but again all that helps explain why Pittsburgh turning into an overgrown university town and regional service center has correlated with these educational attainment figures.
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Some added statistics that could offer a clearer picture are the age breakdown of the Pittsburgh region and also national trends over years. For example, the largest and fastest growing minority group of young people are Hispanic; the very same group that has the lowest educational attainment on average (and Pittsburgh has very few Hispanics).
So Pittsburgh has definitely been on a different population trend than the U.S. average. It looks like our younger population stabilized and now may be growing a bit, but there is still that older population that dates back to the steel days, which is still slowly decreasing (through mortality and out-migration). Meanwhile, we have gotten relatively little international immigration, and the international immigrants we have gotten have been WAY better-educated on average than the national average.
So yes, all that contributes to these statistics. It will be interesting to see if that changes over time, and how it changes if it does, given that the overall national picture isn't static either. Just to briefly focus on Hispanics, the Hispanic population was already reaching the point where second- and third-generation Hispanics were adding more to the population than Hispanic immigrants, and Hispanic immigration has been slowed by the recession. Meanwhile, in terms of language usage, educational attainment, and so on, Hispanics are converging on U.S. norms as they move through generations (like all immigrants before them), and similarly their non-Hispanic marriage rate is increasing.
Accordingly, even if Pittsburgh eventually starts acquiring more people of Hispanic descent, the people in question may be mostly highly-assimilated. In that sense, if it happens gradually enough, an increase Hispanic-descent population in Pittsburgh may well not do much, if anything, to change other demographic variables.
Even so I am still flabbergasted by the amount of ignorance I encounter.... Perhaps college education is not enough? ... These are all conversations that I've had within the last month. And I get these very odd blank looks that basically say, "How in the world do you know that?" As if I am telling them some great hidden secrets of the universe.
I encounter this with nearly everyone, and it doesn't relate to location. People in my own family, people here, people anywhere. How do I know such things? I'm just interested in how things work. A lot of people are not that curious. And no, it certainly won't correlate to college education. A person can easily get through college and not have a clue why Magic Shell would work or remember when Israel was founded or remember that Haiti and DR are on the same island. I think I probably remember because I've been to the DR once (sort of, if you call staying in a resort for a few days being there), and I happen to like geography. And I don't actually expressly know how Magic Shell works, but I can surmise that it probably has to do with the temp of the ice cream cooling down the sauce. That could be wrong, but it would be a reasonable bet when not really knowing. Plenty of people can get a college degree in something or other and still not have a good sense of being able to figure something like that out given the pieces. A lot of what gets you to a degree is all rote instead of really knowing what you're doing.
This is why I don't have one, in fact. Couldn't stick it out through the rote crap.
Wow. Well I have spent the past two hours reading almost every comment in this "10 worst things..." topic. I am actually on the verge of moving to Pittsburgh from Las Vegas (complete contrast I know). And a majority of the things that people are complaining about are some of the reasons WHY I want to move there.
You see, I have lived in; Phoenix, San Diego, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and have been all around the world(over 20 countries), so I believe what I am saying holds SOME water. I will not be so naive to think everyone will or should agree with me, and that is my point. I think someone said it best before when saying it is all about PERCEPTION. I am 31 and have spent my entire life in the desert, only visiting the east in 1-4 week spurts. I am ready for a change. I know Pittsburgh pretty well (have friends and family out there) and am not oblivious to the downsides of the city. I just want to touch on some of the the most recycled "worst things" I've read. Remember, this is coming from someone who has lived all over the west and never in the east for more than a month. I am sure, in time, more and more thnigs would begin to bother me. The longer you are somewhere the more things you have to pick apart. It's the nature of the beast.
1. "Old and rundown buildings..."- You don't know how much I would enjoy some true American culture in my life. Remember, just about everything built west of the Mississippi was built after the 1900's (The buildings of America's Homestead Act of the late 1800's no longer stand). Other than San Francisco (which by the way is the greatest city in America) there is not much culture and MANY MANY track homes with no front or backyards and buildings with very little personality. So once again, perception.
2. "Nothing to do, boring, no entertainment"- Hmmmm...I have lived in Las Vegas for 8 years and have worked in the nightlife/nightclub industry for 5 of those. Before that I went to film school in Hollywood. And before that lived in San Diego. So yes, I agree, compared to those cities it is pretty lame. But at the same time, I love the fact that Pittsburgh doesn't thrive off of entertainment and have annoying tourists. There is some depth to Pittsburgh and that intrigues me. Again though...perception.
3. "The people"- There is good and bad people EVERYWHERE. Although the east is known for being less "friendly" than the west. I think it comes down to more of ignorance and broadening their horizons. Again...perception
4. "property taxes"- After losing homes, seeing cookie-cutter new houses going up, and losing my entire life savings....I have absoloutley ZERO desire t everown a house again. Remember, Phoenix and Las Vegas were the to fasting growing citiesand hardest hit by the rea estate boom/bust. Again...perception.
I can go on and about perception but a few thing am concerned with are...
1. Jobs (my work experience doesn't translate well in a Pittsburgh. I don't think)
2. lack of girls (I have been surrounded by them my entire life)
3. Weather (I love the snow and bundling up. But have no experience LIVING in it)
4. Taking things for granted out here in the west. (as I am sure alot of you take things for granted in east)
Any input on anything woud be appreciated. Thanks!
You are right about Las Vegas and Pittsburgh being near opposites as far as US cities are concerned. I think the job issue is the main one--obviously you will need employment, and while Pittsburgh hasn't gotten the full impact of the recession, it is still a tight job market.
But otherwise--if you are looking for a change and willing to be open to new experiences, and if you pick a nice convenient location, I think you will be fine. It will be an adjustment, but that is part of the fun of moving somewhere new.
I'm drawing a blank. What are some things that you take for granted in the west?
Here are just a few examples that I thought of:
There is not as much blight in Las Vegas as there is in these old Eastern cities, ( there is no Braddock outside of Vegas)
You are closer to some of the world's best ski resorts in the Rockies and Utah.
There are many more sunny days there than here and no worries about a hurricane or a tsunami, or snowmegeddon happening in Las Vegas.
You don't have to worry about ripping your tires up on brick or cobblestone streets in Las Vegas like you do in the Burgh.
You don't have to move your car to a flat spot to check your oil or change your tire because your car is always parked on a hill when you need to do that.
You can find many more and better direct flights that are cheaper from Vegas than Pittsburgh
Less on street parking and more driveways in Vegas being it's a newer city and was founded after the automobile was invented.
1. Jobs (my work experience doesn't translate well in a Pittsburgh. I don't think)
The nightlife/nightclub industry exists here, but it is limited and it is also a very "who you know" kind of thing and being in the right place at the right time. You can try, but your odds of breaking into it are not good. There are other opportunities here though.
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Originally Posted by VEGAS-to-PITTSBURGH
2. lack of girls (I have been surrounded by them my entire life)
It is slim pickings here - especially after the age of 25. That is when your average Pittsburgher proceeds to move to the suburbs to reproduce or the college graduate moves away. There are women here, but they are not easy to find.
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Originally Posted by VEGAS-to-PITTSBURGH
3. Weather (I love the snow and bundling up. But have no experience LIVING in it)
Spring - Wet and chilly with a mix of sunny and overcast.
Summer - Hot, humid and decently sunny.
Fall - Temperate, pleasant and decently sunny.
Winter - Gray, slushy and depressing for six months.
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