Businessweek America's Best Cities: Pittsburgh #11 (Philadelphia, York: crime rates, unemployed, neighborhoods)

[MathmanMathman]

For what it's worth...another ranking...Newsweek puts Pittsburgh at #11

America's 50 Best Cities - The Best Places to Live - Businessweek

They fault Pittsburgh for air quality and crime. I thought Pittsburgh was doing ok when it came to crime.

Bars: 143
Restaurants: 992
Museums: 23
Libraries: 36
Pro sports teams: 3
Park acres per 1,000 residents: 10
Colleges: 10
Percent with graduate degree: 12.7
Median household income: $51,907
Percent unemployed: 7

Park acres per 1k is a bit low. By that I mean I think Pittsburgh could do better. Not sure if library count really matters as much nowadays and they seem to count any museum and don't take into account quality. Same is true of colleges, just a count rather than weighting their quality. St Paul edges out Pittsburgh at #10 and is the only one to better Pittsburgh in the "rustbelt". Although, why not include Minneapolis which comes in at #12?

But regardless, Pittsburgh frequently hold up well in various best rankings.

[PreservationPioneer]

I don't agree with the list, but it's all subjective, anyway. I would have personally put New York City, Philadelphia, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Chicago in the top ten. Denver, Portland, Seattle, St. Paul, and Austin are not on the same level as those cities, but that's just my opinion.

[BrianTH]

The crime factor was not particularly transparent.

The Trust for Public Land collects all sorts of statistics:

Homepage - The Trust for Public Land

http://cloud.tpl.org/pubs/ccpe-city-park-facts-2011.pdf

Pittsburgh does pretty well in its designated peer group when it comes to percentage of park land and park land per resident (note this is just official park land--we have a lot more unofficial green spaces particularly on slopes), but where it really shines is playgrounds per resident, ball diamonds per resident, and swimming pools per resident.

[barneyg]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

For what it's worth...another ranking...Newsweek puts Pittsburgh at #11

America's 50 Best Cities - The Best Places to Live - Businessweek

They fault Pittsburgh for air quality and crime. I thought Pittsburgh was doing ok when it came to crime.

Given that they split Minneapolis (#12) and St. Paul (#10), or Virginia Beach (#2) and Chesapeake (#4), this is a city ranking not a metro area ranking. Pittsburgh city proper is not looking too good when it comes to crime rates because it doesn't have large swaths of suburban subdivisions within city limits.

[Blackbeauty212]

Originally Posted by alleghenyangel

I don't agree with the list, but it's all subjective, anyway. I would have personally put New York City, Philadelphia, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Chicago in the top ten. Denver, Portland, Seattle, St. Paul, and Austin are not on the same level as those cities, but that's just my opinion.

But its looking a more granular level metrics...and we you get down to it, some of the cities you listed have serious flaws as well..

NYC and SF - the COL is grossly prohibitive

Philadelphia and NOLA - have high Crime Problems, as well both cities themselves lacks jobs

Chicago - Has High Crime and one could argue Chicago is in a state of Decline both socially and economically..

[pman]

Originally Posted by Blackbeauty212

But its looking a more granular level metrics...and we you get down to it, some of the cities you listed have serious flaws as well..

NYC and SF - the COL is grossly prohibitive

Philadelphia and NOLA - have high Crime Problems, as well both cities themselves lacks jobs

Chicago - Has High Crime and one could argue Chicago is in a state of Decline both socially and economically..

no place is perfect. I guess people will always weight these categories differently depending on their preference. chicago is in decline? perhaps some areas, but downtown chicago by led the nation's cities in population growth in the last decade. maybe it's being written off too early
Metropolitan Area2010 Downtown Population2000-2010 IncreaseRate Chicago-Joliet-Naperville+36.2%
It's Official: Downtowns Are Booming - Neighborhoods - The Atlantic Cities

[Copanut]

I think having Primanti's raised our status, along with all the strip clubs n'at.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by barneyg

Given that they split Minneapolis (#12) and St. Paul (#10), or Virginia Beach (#2) and Chesapeake (#4), this is a city ranking not a metro area ranking. Pittsburgh city proper is not looking too good when it comes to crime rates because it doesn't have large swaths of suburban subdivisions within city limits.

Neither do most other cities; probably none that ranked higher than Pittsburgh. Just sayin'. I tend to think most of these "lists" are crap.

[Copanut]

[quote=Katiana;26290020]Neither do most other cities; probably none that ranked higher than Pittsburgh. Just sayin'. I tend to think most of these "lists" are crap.[/quote]

[barneyg]

Originally Posted by Katiana

Neither do most other cities; probably none that ranked higher than Pittsburgh. Just sayin'. I tend to think most of these "lists" are crap.

Sigh. We've gone through this before haven't we. I agree with your last sentence and my comment had nothing to do with the list, really. But most other cities make up a much larger part of their metro area populations than Pittsburgh does. My point is that "Pittsburgh's crime problem" only looks worse than most other US cities if you haven't taken the time to stop and think about what a city's murder rate means and how it's calculated.