10 Reasons Why Pittsburgh is Better than Philadelphia (Greensburg, Latrobe: buying, tax)

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by Katiana

LOL! I read a little ditty about Pittsburgh's dropping of "to be" that said in Pittsburgh, Hamlet would have said "or not", b/c Pittsburghers don't say "to be" as in "the car needs (to be) washed", etc. I don't do that any more, but I have to think about it every time.

"At" where it doesn't belong is also a midwestern thing.

Anymore used in negative sentences is a Pittsburgh/midwestern thing.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by ML North

How about "bacouz" (pronounced buh-COWS), meaning bathroom? I don't even know if it has a spelling. Is that an old Pittsburgh/Western PA thing? I don't know that I've ever heard my grandma call it anything other than that.

I can't find anything about it on the internet, but apparently it's not a real word, just a play on the way Italians would say "back house" back in the day. . .

That's the first I've heard of it. It must have been carried over from when they were out houses in the back yard.

[Blackbeauty212]

Originally Posted by pman

this is largely incorrect. John Street, the self annointed neighborhood mayor, did little for center city nor did he particularly care for it. you simply listed neighborhoods in pittsburgh, that's not exactly a good argument. Mayor nutter has been investing in neighborhood parks, neighborhood commercial corridors, and the city council is made up largely of neighborhood people. there just isn't any truth to the statement. sure, center city has more political muscle, but it's not like downtown has none. much of the extra services in cc are paid for by the center city district not the city itself, and there's an extra fee to fund it paid only by center city property owners. downtown partnership knows all about it and has modeled its annual report after the CCD's. every city is a city of neighborhoods it's nothing special.

I don't know where you're getting this.... Street cared for nothing but Center City, you rarely ever caught him outside of the Center City borders while in the news. All of his "so-called" focuses and initiatives were all geared towards polishing up Center City.

I'm not talking about some measly Parks and Playgrounds that serve as nothing but photo-ops for the 5pm news. I'm talking hard economic dollars and revitalization projects that would bring a whole new wave of Gentrification-life to "Non-Center City" Neighborhoods.

If the city council is made up of such "Neighborhood" oriented people, they sure are doing a pitiful job at getting such neighborhoods sharp economic focus.

[RightonWalnut]

Originally Posted by Blackbeauty212

Nope damn sure haven't, and just how many NON-Center City Neighborhoods his is planning to invest some major economic dollars back into and I'm not talking about "Parks, and Playgrounds"? Send me the details please



Really I count 9 for both Metro's within PA....... The Philly Metro outside of PA really doesn't really pump anything back into the city Philadelphia. Companies in NJ, DE, and MD contribute almost nothing as far as GDP to the City itself.

Fortune 500 2012: States: Pennsylvania Companies - FORTUNE on CNNMoney.com

Philadelphia2035

According to the link you posted... Pittsburgh has 8... Philadelphia has 12 fortune 500s

You wanna compare Fortune 1000s?

Fortune 1000:

Pittsburgh: 12 total
1. UPMC
2. Alcoa
3. CONSOL Energy
4. Duquesne Lights
5. EQT
6. Highmark
7. Matthews International Corp.
8. PNC
9. Dick's Sporting Goods
10. PPG
11. Reed Smith
12. Heinz
Fortune 1000 Companies Headquarted In Pittsburgh « Photo Galleries « CBS Pittsburgh

Philadelphia: 31 total
1. Airgas
2. AmerisourceBergen
3. Ametek
4. Aramark
5. Burlington Coat Factory
6. Campbell Soup Company
7. Carpenter
8. Cephalon
9. Cigna
10. Charming Shoppes
11. Comcast
12. Crown Holdings
13. DuPont
14. Endo Pharmaceuticals
15. FMC
16. Interdigital
17. Lincoln National Corporation
18. Penn National Gaming
19. Pep Boys
20. Radian Group
21. Sunoco
22. Sungard
23. Teleflex
24. Toll Brothers
25. UGI
26. Unisys
27. Universal Health Systems
28. Urban Outfitters
29. Vishay Intertechnology
30. VWR International
31. West Pharmaceutical Services
List of companies based in the Philadelphia area - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Global Fortune 500 companies with US Headquarters in city:

Pittsburgh: 0 total

Philadelphia: 4 total
1. AstraZeneca
2. HSBC Bank USA
3. ING Direct
4. Seimans Healthcare

US Fortune 1000 with divisions in city:
Pittsburgh: 0 total

Philadelphia: 10 total
1. Acme
2. Boeing Rotorcraft
3. Centocor
4. Delmarva Power
5. Keystone Helicopter
6. MBNA
7. McNeil Laboratories
8. Neoware
9. PECO Energy
10. QVC

List of companies based in the Philadelphia area - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Seriously I've said several times that Pittsburgh's city proper job density is impressive. Also, Pittsburgh's numbers of Fortune 500 companies is impressive... but Philadelphia blows Pittsburgh out of the water in Fortune 1000's.

Also, did you really just say Pittsburgh metro is catching Philadelphia metro in GDP output? Lol not even close.

In millions
Philadelphia: $353,323
Pittsburgh: $117,845
http://bea.gov/newsreleases/regional..._metro0213.xls

If you call that close than okay...

[BR Valentine]

Originally Posted by Blackbeauty212

UGH!.....Look at this little ol' Pittsburgh aint that far behind Philadelphia and this is on Metro level and we know that the majority of Philadelphia's GDP comes from its suburbs and not the city. Where Pittsburgh is the stark opposite, majority of Pittsburgh's GDP comes from within the city proper.

I'm trying to figure out why you used the graphic below to supposedly bolster your argument. You do realise that the gap between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh increased during the time period you've inlcluded, don't you? The numbers are in the table. It's not as though the math is difficult.

[pman]

Originally Posted by Blackbeauty212

I don't know where you're getting this.... Street cared for nothing but Center City, you rarely ever caught him outside of the Center City borders while in the news. All of his "so-called" focuses and initiatives were all geared towards polishing up Center City.

I'm not talking about some measly Parks and Playgrounds that serve as nothing but photo-ops for the 5pm news. I'm talking hard economic dollars and revitalization projects that would bring a whole new wave of Gentrification-life to "Non-Center City" Neighborhoods.

If the city council is made up of such "Neighborhood" oriented people, they sure are doing a pitiful job at getting such neighborhoods sharp economic focus.

you simply do not know what you are talking about. John Street was the antithesis of the CC mayor. I could buy the argument that rendell focused on CC but your viewpoint is decidedly 1990's (perhaps that's when you lived in Philly). Street was the reaction against it including his poorly executed neighborhood transformation initiative that largely failed at the time but was obviously not the brainchild of a cc mayor.
John F. Street - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

During Street's first term, much emphasis was placed on the "Neighborhood Transformation Initiative." The Neighborhood Transformation Initiative (NTI), which was unveiled in April 2001 was an unprecedented effort to counter the history of decline in the City of Philadelphia and revitalize its neighborhoods. The program was designed to revitalize and restore communities, to develop or restore quality housing, to clean and secure streets, and to create opportunities for vibrant cultural and recreational facilities.

"measly parks and playgrounds" are the lifeblood of healthy city neighborhoods. the problem is you are confusing failed economic ideals (so called revitalization projects) with someone being a center city mayor. Pittsburgh isn't more neighborhood oriented, it's simply a better place to do business and to open businesses in neighborhoods. Job growth in Philadelphia has been stagnant even in center city for the last decade and it was in decline before that(university city has been the exception). in other words, Philadelphia isn't all about center city but like Pittsburgh's business friendly tax and regulatory scheme (at least relative to Philly) helps raise all boats, Philly's awful tax and regulatory scheme helps to sink all boats and nowhere is that felt more than in neighborhoods that don't have the advantage of being the historic downtown. simply dumping money into places doesn't make anyone more or less pro neighborhood nor does it guarantee neighborhoods will succeed. in fact, wasn't it Pittsburgh's spendthrift ways that led to 2004? and look at the success of market sq, hardly a big project, but small parks projects can have outsized impacts.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by Hopes

Anymore used in negative sentences is a Pittsburgh/midwestern thing.

Not Omaha. DH thinks it's cute when I say that!

[rotodome]

Originally Posted by pman

you simply do not know what you are talking about. John Street was the antithesis of the CC mayor. I could buy the argument that rendell focused on CC but your viewpoint is decidedly 1990's (perhaps that's when you lived in Philly). Street was the reaction against it including his poorly executed neighborhood transformation initiative that largely failed at the time but was obviously not the brainchild of a cc mayor.

Seconding this. Rendell straight up said that his priority was building up Center City. But Street ran on the platform of continuing on the success that the Rendell administration had (with him as City Council president at the time), while shifting more attention to the neighborhoods.
Not saying Street was necessarily a great mayor (or council president), but that was his focus.

[bradjl2009]

The one thing I saw that I found just as dumb as the Pittsburgh tries to be like West Virginia thing was "Pittsburgh has 446 bridges vs. 19 in Philly" if anything, that gives Pittsburgh a much better selling point especially with some of the architecture of the bridges here.

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by bradjl2009

The one thing I saw that I found just as dumb as the Pittsburgh tries to be like West Virginia thing was "Pittsburgh has 446 bridges vs. 19 in Philly" if anything, that gives Pittsburgh a much better selling point especially with some of the architecture of the bridges here.

Agreed. I also think the bridges are a selling point.