Suburbanites: What Would it Take to Entice You to Consider Urban Living? (Pittsburgh: public schools, wage)

[SteelCityRising]

On occasion I see a suburban member on here casually toss around the notion of moving back into the city someday. To those of you who live in places like Upper St. Clair, McCandless, Wexford, Cranberry, Moon, Robinson, etc., what, if anything, could be done here in Pittsburgh to entice you to move here? If you're a former city resident, then why did you leave? I'm just curious as to how those of us who currently live in the city could focus our energies to make the city more attractive to new residents before we embarrassingly dip below the 300,000 mark in population.

[I_Like_Spam]

I live in the city, but I know a lot of folks move to the suburbs when their kids turn school age.

Most parents just don't have much confidence in Pittsburgh's public schools.

The city can, and does attract folks without children- but those households are smaller and you end up with a smaller population with the same amount of housing.

[pit2atl]

im guessing Public Schools but if parents that cared about their child's Educations are the type of kids we need because parents would be more involved with the school authorities someone has to be the ginny-pig to make a change!

[jimmyev]

1. A wage tax equal to that of the rest of the communities in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

2. A responsive, non-self-absorbed police department.

[Copanut]

Total elimination of the Democratic Party.

and monkeys just flew out of my butt.

[Sideblinded]

Rascism is no longer faked, just veiled.

Welcome to the USA. I am ashamed.

[FreightTrainRunning]

Schools are a big deal. I'm one of those people who left the city when my son was in second grade and moved back when he graduated. It wasn't my idea and ironically he got a pretty crappy education from Franklin Regional but schooling is the #1 issue for people leaving the city. The Pittsburgh Promise seems like a great idea, I'm interested to see if they can keep it going and how well it does to attract people back to the city.

Or barring that, maybe $8.00 a gallon gas will get people to move back!

[bradjl2009]

I don't have kids yet and won't for awhile, but that would probably be the thing to make me move to the burbs because I don't have much confidence in the schools or I would send them to a Catholic school. Hopefully when my future kids are school aged in 15 years the district will be way better.

[Sideblinded]

Since the "Pittsburgh Promise" was announced there has been a decrease in enrollment. Add the PA education cuts, combined with PPS Admin increases. (yes, it is real) City school chief Lane makes selections for eight top posts

It is next to difficult to have any faith in what is really at stake and does anyone even care anymore? This is not about the kids, "they" the Boss Tweeds taking the money and running, while blaming teacher unions.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by rashan5

im guessing Public Schools but if parents that cared about their child's Educations are the type of kids we need because parents would be more involved with the school authorities someone has to be the ginny-pig to make a change!

Most people are not willing for their kids to be the guinea pigs. Of course, there are a few good schools in any city, in areas that have already been gentrified (or always were middle class like Sq. Hill). But to reiterate, it's a rare person who is willing to sacrifice their kids to the "common good".