Megabus service cuts (and add) (Pittsburgh, Erie: how much, manufacturing, activity)

[Blackbeauty212]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

For now I'm sticking with my assessment that Pittsburgh has many cousins but no siblings.

That said, I think it may be slowly but surely shifting eastward.

with the overwhelming majority of Pittsburgh in-migration coming from the East Coast I think that's a safe bet......

No native can even tell you what the hell the Appalachian culture is now let alone tell you Pittsburgh "is Appalachian" I'm not even sure what the hell it means Culturally to Pittsburgh myself, "Appalachia" sounds like Hillbilly folk or Mountainous people.

[cheezit34141988]

Do people here pronounce it App-ull-atch-eeya? No? Then I'd agree

[Blackbeauty212]

Originally Posted by dtrtrggr13

Do people here pronounce it App-ull-atch-eeya? No? Then I'd agree

Do the People here even say "Appalachia" without talking specifically about mountains....NO...."Appalachia" is not a common word in Pittsburgh.

[escilade18]

Originally Posted by Blackbeauty212

Do the People here even say "Appalachia" without talking specifically about mountains....NO...."Appalachia" is not a common word in Pittsburgh.

tbh I hear the mountains referred to more as "the alleghenys" than "the appalachians".

[pman]

Originally Posted by Blackbeauty212

with the overwhelming majority of Pittsburgh in-migration coming from the East Coast I think that's a safe bet......

No native can even tell you what the hell the Appalachian culture is now let alone tell you Pittsburgh "is Appalachian" I'm not even sure what the hell it means Culturally to Pittsburgh myself, "Appalachia" sounds like Hillbilly folk or Mountainous people.

fwiw, according to data brian had posted earlier, the net in migration was mainly from the midwest. of course, in this case, net migration isn't really the issue, in fact, it's the volume of migration (in and out) that tells the story...whether someone moved from pittsburgh to philly or ny or from phily or ny to pittsburgh, the travel patterns will still tend to be between those two. in migration also matters for culture, so even though pittsburgh loses more people to NY, Philly, and DC (combined) the majority of people coming in also hail from those places...the fact that few people seem to move from pittsburgh to the midwest in relation to the other direction isn't relevant.

[ForYourLungsOnly]

are we really getting into this again? give me a break... this is a chip on certain Pittsburghers shoulders if I've ever seen one. Not that it should be...just ridiculous....

[BrianTH]

Yeah, for this purpose you really just want to look at gross in-migration, not net. And that is easily dominated by NYC, Philly, and DC, after which comes a bunch of more local originations (including Youngstown, but I don't think that counts as culture-changing any more than, say, Erie). Then comes some Great Lakes originations, but just guesstimating, they are something like half of the Northeast Coast. On top of that, a good chunk of the out-migrants are going to keep some sort of Pittsburgh tie allowing some culture transfusion (even if they don't become boomerangers, and likely some will). And the out-migration is even more disproportionately eastward (hence why net migration looks better for the Great Lakes than any of these other measures).

I'd also add I think the growing West Coast influence (both in terms of migration and industries like the growing technotainment cluster) has a sort of Easternizing influence of its own--call it a move out of what those folks consider "flyover country".

[Herodotus]

Originally Posted by ForYourLungsOnly

are we really getting into this again? give me a break... this is a chip on certain Pittsburghers shoulders if I've ever seen one. Not that it should be...just ridiculous....

Why does this bother you?

[ForYourLungsOnly]

Originally Posted by Herodotus

Why does this bother you?

I'm not the one who should be asking that question

[Herodotus]

Originally Posted by ForYourLungsOnly

I'm not the one who should be asking that question

Well you're the one complaining, but since you seem to want an explanation, I'll give you one. You seem to be pissed, because you think people here look at "Midwestern" as some sort of insult. That's not the reason most Pittsburghers will argue when outsiders attempt to label them as Midwestern. The reason why most Pittsburghers will argue, is because Midwestern has never been a part of Pittsburgh's self definition, not because we look down on that region. Go look up an online version of the white pages for Indianapolis, and then look for "Midwest"; you will find 100's of businesses with "Midwest" in their title. That's because they have a strong Midwestern self image. Now go to Cleveland; there are still a lot of businesses with Midwest in their name, but not nearly as many as in Indy. Why, because Cleveland's self image is a bit less Midwestern, and more local. Lot's of names alluding to Lake Erie, or the "North Coast. Now try Pittsburgh. There are virtually no businesses with Midwest in the name, and of the few that do turn up, most are branches of businesses based out there. Why is this? It's because Pittsburghers don't consider this to be the Midwest! To Pittsburghers, the Midwest is somewhere else, like "down south". Thus, when outsiders try to place us there, we're like, WHAT?? People here tend to be a bit contrarian to begin with, so it doesn't take much to make us argumentative. People here hold a fairly stereotypical image of the Midwest, and it tends to be more, Indy, Iowa, and Central Illinois, than say, Cleveland. If your image of the Midwest is those three places, then of course it would seem idiotic to place Pittsburgh in that region, because Pittsburgh is about as much like those places, as Brooklyn is to Charlotte. The hills play another role in this. While Pittsburgh tends to cringe at being labeled Appalachian, the hills are a strong part of our regional identity. To a Pittsburgher, when you go west, and the hills melt away, you are in a different region. Places as flat as Detroit, and Chicago, could never be in the same region as Pittsburgh.

These arguments are common in cities located near a regional border. You can find threads on city data, and SSP with heated arguments about:
Baltimore and DC (north or south)
Buffalo (east or Midwest)
Louisville (South or Midwest)
and how southern are Cincy, and St. Louis.