Pittsburgh again rated "Most Livable" (Penn: job market, taxes)

[yellowdog]

We were No. 1 in 1985 and we're back !! And we are the only city to never leave the top 20.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pitt.../s_504689.html

[guylocke]

Wow back to no. 1!! To all those people that think Pittsburgh is more expensive with crazy taxes and a poor cost of living...... well somebody out there disagrees. and in a big way.

[guylocke]

I love this quote!

"It's not as thriving as some areas in the Sun Belt, but it's certainly not the Pittsburgh that people remember from the '70s," Savageau said.

[OutaFL]

I am leaving the sunbelt for Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh has so much more, for less money. That sunshine is way too expensive now. People will be leaving the overpriced coastal and sunbelt regions more and more, when they get tired of the high cost of living and lack of character, and hurricanes in my case.

[guylocke]

That sunshine is way too expensive now

or maybe, just maybe, it's the skin cancer that's way too expensive now.

[claremarie]

If Pittsburgh is so livable, why don't more people want to live there??

People vote with their feet, and many feet have walked out of the Pittsburgh area, both before and after this silly survey first put Pittsburgh on the map in the mid-1980s. It's unlikely that many will return just because the survey has once again put Pittsburgh on top.

But my guess is that the city will once again jump on the "We're number one!!" bandwagon, thereby distracting folks from the problems associated with declining population and failure to attract immigrants and businesses.

[JoeP]

I guess some people won't dig into the reasons for Pittsburgh's well documented demographics and just bash the region blindly. It's old and been done too often.

[guylocke]

If Pittsburgh is so livable, why don't more people want to live there??

job market and weather, that's about it I imagine. But those factors were also included in the ranking, Pittsburgh did bad in terms of climate and did only ok in economy (job market). Pittsburgh did well enough in the other category's that still managed to pull it up to the no. 1 spot including education, crime, transportation, arts, and healthcare.

And of course there is the more obvious reason why it won't cause a flock of people to run here. You can lead a horse to water but can't make it drink! And I don't understand why it would be so bad for Pittsburgher's to be proud of this. They have a right to be, and they aren't gonna suddenly turn a blind eye to the problems. LOL. Trust me, they are well aware of the problems. Maybe this little jolt of excitement will be healthy to motivate people. What do you think they're gonna do? Say, "ups, lookie, we were just voted most-livable by a single almanac, our work is done!" *dusts hands*

[guylocke]

Did anyone happen to notice this little fact, too?

Pennsylvania has 2 out of the top 10 spots, Pittsburgh and Philidelphia, our top two cities. That is something no other state accomplished.

[claremarie]

Originally Posted by boylocke

And of course there is the more obvious reason why it won't cause a flock of people to run here.

And that is because this survey is based on a number of faulty premises -- one of them being the decision to weigh all of the various factors equally when assessing "livability." Another being the selection of the factors themselves, which even the man responsible for the survey admitted was completely subjective.

In other words, what people actually want and what this guy thinks that they want (or what he thinks that they SHOULD want) are not the same. Which is why none of the fastest-growing Sunbelt cities were included in the top 10.