Why so cheap? (Pittsburgh, Beaver Falls, Gettysburg: high school, live, homeless)

[Hopes]

Good catch on the civil war mistake, Pittnurse. Stevo6's post would have stood very well if he hadn't mentioned the civil war. The reality is that even the revolutionary war can't be used as an example because we had the southern colonies by that time. (Being from Pennsylvania has caused me to become somewhat of a constitutional history freak.) Regardless, I believe Stevo6's point was that the northeast is comprised of the original colonies one of which is Pennsylvania.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by JoeP

You have it backwords, just because one part of a state is different than another, doesn't make it another region.

Is it really that difficult to grasp, that beyond NYC Boston Philly and DC there is Pittsburgh Albany Buffalo Baltimore and others...?

Pittsburgh like those above is a Northeastern city. Period.

I'm sorry . . . are we talking about culture, or geography? Cuz they ain't one in the same, and the rest of us were talking about the culture . . .

[JoeP]

I'm sorry . . . are we talking about culture, or geography? Cuz they ain't one in the same, and the rest of us were talking about the culture . . .

Culturally and geographically, Pittsburgh is Northeastern. The East Coast is not the Northeast, it's part of the Northeast.

So everyone please stop picking a narrow part of the entire region and making it the definition of that entire region.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by Drover

I'm sorry . . . are we talking about culture, or geography? Cuz they ain't one in the same, and the rest of us were talking about the culture . . .

Actually, I think we are supposed to be talking about the affordability of housing.

[PrairieBlossom]

Originally Posted by mcmartian

I have friends that live in the outskirts of both cities and they are all happy with their choices in residences.

Dear mcmartian,
What do you think are the good towns around Philly? I've been thinking of West Chester.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Hopes

Actually, I think we are supposed to be talking about the affordability of housing.

Well, the OP did ask about the differences between Philly and Pittsburgh. And I think the main point many of us are trying to make is that, even though Pittsburgh is in a traditionally "Northeastern" state and could therefore be rightly called a "Northeastern" city for geographic purposes, it's a much different place than a standard east coast city like Philly.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by JoeP

Culturally and geographically, Pittsburgh is Northeastern. The East Coast is not the Northeast, it's part of the Northeast.

It also happens to be where the vast majority of the major metropolitan areas and and total population of the Northeast are, which is why they are often lumped together -- not to mention because they really actually form one gigantic, contiguous megalopolis. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh is simply not part of that continuum; whereas it's 40 miles from a state that almost everyone agrees is in the Midwest and 35 miles from a state that almost everyone agrees is the heart of Appalachia. Is it really too hard to believe that the culture in Pittsburgh has more in common with those places than with a part that is 8 times further away? Does some sort of drastic transformation occur in those 35 or 40 miles that makes Pittsburgh distinctively different from those places, and yet the 300-plus-mile distance between Pittsburgh and the majority of the Northeast population centers does not diminish the cultural similarities between Pittsburgh and the vast majority of the Northeast population? Pittsburgh simply does not have a "Northeast" culture as most people understand it.

[JoeP]

The state borders have little population. There isn't a city sitting at the border like you claim. Again, the point is that regions vary. The fact of the mega cities is already noted, which is why I was pointing out that the region is beyond the actual coast. I don't understand why some refuse to accept that regions vary and certainly cities on the fringes will have influences of the bordering region.

Pittsburgh simply does not have a "Northeast" culture as most people understand it.

Yes it does. It doesn't to those that that confuse the Northeast with the East Coast.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by JoeP

I don't understand why some refuse to accept that regions vary and certainly cities on the fringes will have influences of the bordering region.

Just as I don't understand why some refuse to accept that cities on the fringes (or rather, where regions actually overlap) can have a lot more in common with the bordering regions than just about every other major population center of it's theoretical "own" region.

[JoeP]

Se my comment about confusing the East Coast with the Northeast.

It would be like saying that the Gulf Coast is the Southeast(please don't refer to the cities again, as that is not relevant in this regard).