Possible Relocation To Pittsburgh Region (Taylor, Republic: houses, construction, school)

[Loveallrace]

It is definitely not a good idea to move here. My husband is Italian american while I am eurasian and I can feel that I am not welcome here. We went to a Catholic church for the 1st time when we moved here and a couple that sat at the pew we chose to occupy walked away when they saw us. They were giving us the dirty look. I feel alienated. Most of the friends I met are foreigners or people from out of state. I dont have a single white friend here as they all keep away from me.

Originally Posted by WILWRadio

Hello everyone. I am looking for some honest feedback concerning the development of a small business and relocation to a suitable community near Pittsburgh. It’s a pretty complex issue with a variety of factors that have to be taken into consideration before I can make a decision. I am hoping that I can get some solid advice and relevant information and opinions from the people that live in or have experienced the Pittsburgh area.

The business is going to be a small community oriented radio station. An Adult Contemporary Oldies format with news, sports, weather and community information etc. Not a large corporate entity but a Mom and Pop operation with a limited broadcast radius of a couple of miles or perhaps a bit more. We need a city or town with a sense of community and a reasonably healthy Mom and Pop business district. Corporate owned businesses are not likely to advertise on our radio station. We also need to be in a community that does not really have a local station to serve the area and if it does have such a station the market needs to be big enough to support a second local station or the other local station(s) would have to be owned and programmed by corporate owners with syndicated fare and not live and/or local. The station will also be a training ground for aspiring broadcasters.

Now for the challenging part. In addition to the above criteria I also need to find the following in my potential new community.

1) A City Hall that will not try to insinuate itself into a Federally regulated business. I ran into a problem in a small village in New York a few years ago when the corrupt City Hall tried to regulate my business out of existence even before it got off the ground. I’d like to avoid this again.

2) Some job opportunities in town or in a nearby city. Pittsburgh and Youngstown seem adequate.

3) My business partner has a mixed marriage. He’s a Caucasian from Alabama and his wife is a Native American from Nebraska. We’ll need a place that will welcome them. I am from Connecticut and don’t perceive too many cultural differences in PA like I’ve found in my current area in the Midwest.

4) I am a Conservative/Libertarian (not Republican) and my business partner leans more to the left. We need a place that will be open minded and accept different social and political beliefs.

5) A community that welcomes new business concepts and is small business friendly.

6) Affordable housing to offset the higher taxes in PA. I plan to pay cash for a home and don’t want to be saddled down with a mortgage.

To date I’ve had a few recommendations from various people in radio but now I’d like to get feedback from people outside of the world of radio. Presently on my list I am looking at Carnegie, Crafton, Bellevue-Avalon and Ellwood City.

A couple people recommend locating in a college town because allegedly they will be a bit more open minded and culturally diverse. Often times college towns are the best small business incubators in the country!

I won't be making my final decision for about six months. Based upon everything I’ve passed along to you I’d like to get your feedback on which places, on my list in your eyes, best meet all the above criteria. And if you can add any other places I would be willing to keep an open mind and I’d give them a look.

[WILWRadio]

Loveallrace. When you say that you do not feel welcome here, do you mean the entire Pittsburgh area?

Believe it or not I can identify with some of what you are saying. I've been treated even worse in Kansas City than simply being shunned. I am not part of a minority group therefore the treatment I've received here is not ractially motivated. I don't mind being ignorned or shunned but being singled out and dealing with actual death threats and a hostile living and working environment like I've had to in KC is simply too much. I hope you are not having that kind of experience in the Pittsburgh area.

[CaptainObvious]

Originally Posted by WILWRadio

Cap'n. I can handle liberal (some of my friends swing that way politically) as long as they are not out and out, blatant socialists. That is what I've had to deal with in Kansas City and the mindset of the people directly clashes with virtually all of my personal and professional beliefs. And since I've heard more than one person from other areas label KC as such (Ohio and Alabama to be more specific) I do know that I am not simply imagining things.

Marxist Commies? Eh, I know I'll get in trouble for this, but Pittsburgh just isn't sophisticated enough for a political ideal to evolve that far. Pittsburghers are liberal, politically, in that they seem to favor the idea that conservatives (read: Ronald Reagan) were somehow the cause of their city's collapse in so much as I've heard one liberal after the other say, "WHEN did the industry around here collapse? And WHO was President then?" As if Ronald Reagan had some axe to grind with Western Pennsylvania and thus systematically dumped million of tons of government-subsidized Japanese steel onto the country. They also seem to favor the idea that government ought to get them out of every jam they are in- hence the statement about "welfare society". It never ceases to amaze me, having moved here from various other snowy states, that every time a snow storm hits the lead story on the local news is no doubt some local complaining that "The plows haven't gotten to my street yet and I can't get to work!" As if the SNOW wasn't what caused the problem. After major flooding in the region a couple of years back there was out-and-out despise for the local government for not being involved enough in the cleanup of private homes and busines- the government became the source of the irritation as if the damn WATER wasn't the cause of their problems. In that respect, I see a lot of socialist tendencies in Western, PA- many identify themselves as part of one class or another (most often "the working class") and contend that reason they are part of that class instead of a different-in their mind more desirable-class is because of government and "the system". They favor the redistribution of wealth as a solution to many problems because under that system they always view themselves as "getting more". There is also a huge pro-union contingency in Western Pennsylvania. I've personally asked many a union member who they planned to vote for in one election or another and the answer has often been "I have to refer to the sheet the union gave me". To that end, big labor trumps big business and big government trumps all in these parts and that is decidedly Liberal.

Having said all that, people aren't exactly carrying around copies of Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei either. People are much more apt to yap about their plight to their buddy at the local watering hole than take up a march on city hall around here. And again, socially speaking, Pittsburghers are more middle of the road, but generally politically inactive. Definitely set in their ways, intolerant, but I'd probably stop short of casting the "racist" shadow over the whole city, as some others have. I'd say "stubborn". It is this stubbornness that caused so many economic problems as many STILL (25+ years post) refuse to identify the city with anything other than steel, iron, and labor. They take so much pride in this heritage that they cannot let the city emerge from it to reinvent itself- to create a new identity and new heritage for their children to look back on one day. The worst thing a Pittsburgher can think of is the Steel City becoming THE COMPUTER CITY or THE CARBON-FIBER CITY or the WHATEVER IS NEXT CITY. They seem perfectly content to let it fade off into the sunset knowing that once great things happened here. This better describes your average Pittsburgher, not your average city-enthusiast intellectual posting things on a website like this one with other like-minded people.

That's my take on it. The next poster will completely contradict everything I just said, and I suppose that's the beauty of living in the good old USA, isn't it?

Enjoy!
Cap

[Katarina Witt]

Well, I am the next poster and I will not contradict what you said. I think it was great. Yes, Reagan did tell Pittsburghers to "vote with their feet" (in other words, move), if they were out of a job after the steel industry collapse, but otherwise, I agree with what you said.

It IS amazing that after 25 years, Pittsburgh hasn't recovered more from the steel industry collapse. The entire country recovered from the Great Depression a little faster than that, with, of course, the help of WWII. But good grief! My dear mother, may she rest in peace, always said they waited too long for big steel to come back. No one actually believed they were gone for good, for a long time. When the oil industry collapsed in Denver, the area agressively pursued electronics, telecom, etc.

I was gone by the time of the collapse, but I remember the stories my parents told me. Older steelworkers wouldn't vote for concessions that the younger ones favored b/c the older ones were near to retirement anyway. So much for "unity" or "brotherhood". The ones who wouldn't vote for concessions said the steel companies were bluffing. So now the steel for our cars is made mainly abroad.

[JoeP]

Here we go again. Ignore every thread that show that ther region has moved on and how it still has a has a ways go.

The Reagan thing is a nice touch this time. I suppose he does look like a genious with President Fredo in office.... but by all means continue to get thoughts from the AM dial and Wingnutland. That speaks for itself.

[WILWRadio]

Actually, things don't appear as bleak as they might seem, at least on the surface. I've done some homework in the subject of the Pittsburgh area economy and it seems to be a notch ahead of its other rust belt cousin, Buffalo. Your area is creating jobs in the health care industry and I've also read that some new high tech job industry is moving into the area.

Sometimes the local people of a given region judge their own backyard more harshly than outsiders. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. From where I sit the Pittsburgh area has shown some promise in attracting and developing new industry but because taxes are high it will have to overcome the stigma of being a tax and spend northeastern city if it wants to boom again. Buffalo also suffers from that very same problem.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by JoeP

Here we go again. Ignore every thread that show that ther region has moved on and how it still has a has a ways go.

The Reagan thing is a nice touch this time. I suppose he does look like a genious with President Fredo in office.... but by all means continue to get thoughts from the AM dial and Wingnutland. That speaks for itself.

Sorry to disappoint you, Joe. I think for myself. The only AM radio I listen to is NPR in Denver. I will treat you with a little quote: George Santayana wrote: "Those who forget the past are condemned to relive it," . It is important to know something about Pittsburgh's history. Captain Obvious had some good points. And I think it is against the TOS to refer to someone as a wingnut. It's called a "personal attack".

[WILWRadio]

Aww hell. My radio station will be an AM station and definitely consider myself to be a Wingnut. :-) There still is some good AM radio left in a number of areas of the country but you have to know where to look.

[CaptainObvious]

Originally Posted by pittnurse70

Well, I am the next poster and I will not contradict what you said. I think it was great.

Thanks, Pittnurse. I can be abrasive at times, I understand. But, I sure do appreciate the compliment. I truly do enjoy many aspects of Pittsburgh life, but the one bone of contention I have is this seemingly unwillingness to emerge from its past. All great societies have ended at one point or another, and more often than not it seems their demise was the result of a certain resistance toward change. Change is inevitable, and in my opinion it is best to embrace and capitalize on it, rather than to resist it. The economic forces that lead to the steel industry's collapse were extraordinarily strong- it would be impossible for any community that was built upon that industry to survive. Having said that, we here in Pittsburgh could have done a lot better since...there's been plenty of opportunity.

As far as "AM stations" go, JoeP,... I know it is difficult for those that rely upon liberal media to give them talking points to understand, but this man speaks from the heart and doesn't need prompted by some political joker to form and opinion. Discounting my opinion, with your unintelligent personal attack is exactly what I'd expect from an uninformed hack. I'd much more appreciate honest debate and well-formed arguments-- THAT is what me and the other good people of this forum respect.

Captain

[JoeP]

"Those who forget the past are condemned to relive it,"

I am very well aware of the past, as well as the present, which is what you continue to dismiss.

And I think it is against the TOS to refer to someone as a wingnut.

I didn't refer to a poster as a wingnut. I referred to something as "wingnutland."

I have commented before on the subject including the significant ground the city has gained in the last 10 years in terms of venture capital and spin offs from CMU and Pitt. Pittsburgh is one of the top two or three cities with green buildings, hardly not progressive.

I know it is difficult for those that rely upon liberal media to give them talking points to understand

really you get "liberal" media? Insteresting since the mainstream media is corporate, conservative and lazy. That's why I'm sure you not only enjoy the infortainers on the radio, but also the networks owned by the few media giants, of Disney, News Corp, Universal, and Viacom.




The Yinzers who are stuck in the past are irrelevant. Steel died 20+ years ago.

It doesn't matter to Pittsburgh's future what these people think as they will not create it.


Commenting as if they have influence - like it's still 1985 - is miguided at best.

If you want to criticize Steubenville or Wheeling for hanging on to steel, go ahead, but steel in Pittsburgh is gone.

Also treating the aftermath like anything else is not completely relevant either.

Pittsburgh and its environs spread as we all know, along the rivers.

Many cities that have been growing the past several decades have excellent highway infrastructures (which Pgh does not have) and can easily sprawl along insterstates with new construction.

Pittsburgh, could not do that.

Couple that with the burden of too many older communities that have baggage and it creates a mess.

The 130 separate communities in Allegheny county need to be reduced to a handful. This will streamline cost and other issues.

But Pittsburgh can't simply make that change and neither can the other communities. The State must do so. and as we have seen, the vast area between the Pittsburgh and Philly areas could care less about the state's two economic engines.

So to blames unions and others who are stuck in the past is terribly misguided.


Now as with the past, when I highlight the work in progress that is Pittsburgh, I get called a blind cheerleader who "who forget the past are condemned to relive it"

There are many things wrong and now the city has a young mayor who is as bad as it gets.