I am tired of hearing how great Pittsburgh is! (York: new home, construction)

[quaymorris]

Originally Posted by tread102

The ones that consider it the greatest on earth are ones that never travel outside of it. There is a greater percentage of the population back home that refuses to travel, than other parts of this country.IMO

Pittsburgh can be a great place to live, but just like anywhere else there are drawbacks. Same with where I live now. I love charlotte, but I don't sit on the charlotte forum and pretend that it's perfect.

^^^^ This.

[Johnny C]

I lol'd when I read that somebody thought Pittsburgh was overrated.

Pittsburgh is still trying to shake it's rust belt reputation and nationwide is anything but overrated.

What a dumb topic.

[gortonator]

Originally Posted by ThumbingMyWay

... stuff deleted ...

I don't mean to turn this into strictly a Nashville vs Pittsburgh post, but since it is a city I am pretty familiar with, I will say it has everything you like about Pittsburgh (and even does many things better in my opinion). For example: they have a top university with Vanderbilt, a very large arts/museums presence, elegant areas (around the west end, Franklin, and others), green scenery north of the city and beautiful countryside surrounding, a more spectacular downtown, and there's not any 'crazy southern religion' or harmful weather (tornados seem to miss the area).

FYI, interesting thread on Nashville/TN tornadoes ...

//www.city-data.com/forum/nashv...-tornados.html

Short cut to the offocial data that is referred to in above link:

Middle Tennessee Tornadoes

Certainly not Oklahoma-bad. Certainly have tornadoes.

[ThumbingMyWay]

Originally Posted by Lobick

That some people feel that Pittsburgh is not the best city in the world strikes me as a self-evident and banal concept. That you feel the need to point out that others, namely the vast majority of the population of the world, share this belief with you is largely sad.

Be gone with you...explore...experience life..figure out what you want because if this thread has illuminated little else it's that you've no idea.

Note however, that much of the ire you've drawn, is from people who have done precisely what you have yet to do and landed...largely happily...here, in Pittsburgh.

I admit that comment was a little selfish. Although this thread/post was geared more towards Pittsburgh residents, not the "vast majority of the world's population." Obviously Pittsburgh isn't the greatest city in the world and I don't recall anyone saying it is.

Also, I would disagree that stating Pittsburgh is overrated and underdeserving of the praise it gets ("most livable city" and the way people talk about on here) is a banal concept, based on the interest of others on this topic.

Finally, I am not sure what point you are trying to make with your last sentence. People have landed, "largely happily," in 100s of other cities in the US as well. Your comment that there are some who have happily landed in Pittsburgh is insignificant, and irrelevant to the topic of this thread.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by Lobick

It's been my experience that this is exactly wrong. It was always the native Pittsburgher's who had no idea why I'd move here voluntarily. The transplants, those who had lived and travelled elsewhere were always quicker to point out this City's virtues.

I will agree, many of the old timers haven't travelled much but I think they're usually the first to sell the city short.

(Trying to choose my words carefully here)

There are plenty of people in all the cities in which I have lived (7 states) who would raise their eyebrows in disbelief if I ever said good things about Pittsburgh. There are many people all over this country who have this image of Pittsburgh as a smoky, dirty city. I even have some friends from Poland who said that. Now when I was a kid, that image was somewhat true. I have always responded that I didn't know anything different and thought it was normal. My point here is it is not just Pittsburghers who think Pittsburgh is "inferior". (Please note quotes and note that I am not expressing my own opinion here, but the opinion of others.)

My dear father, may he rest in peace, was not a well traveled man, except for his time in WW II, and then he was in London and Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa, which we are not discussing on this forum. He used to go on at length about how "unique" Pittsburgh was, bringing up issues such as have been brought up on this thread. It was not until I moved to ****** as an adult that I found that other major cities have these same attributes, e.g. public benefactors, good universities, museums, arts offerings, etc.

It's "chemistry", as I said earlier. That, and some people take a job in Pgh, start a life there, and all of a sudden, "Ich bin ein Pittsburgher".

[Lobick]

Originally Posted by ThumbingMyWay

I admit that comment was a little selfish. Although this thread/post was geared more towards Pittsburgh residents, not the "vast majority of the world's population." Obviously Pittsburgh isn't the greatest city in the world and I don't recall anyone saying it is.

Also, I would disagree that stating Pittsburgh is overrated and underdeserving of the praise it gets ("most livable city" and the way people talk about on here) is a banal concept, based on the interest of others on this topic.

Finally, I am not sure what point you are trying to make with your last sentence. People have landed, "largely happily," in 100s of other cities in the US as well. Your comment that there are some who have happily landed in Pittsburgh is insignificant, and irrelevant to the topic of this thread.

With regard to the "topic of the thread", it seems to me that you're arguing two distinct things; (1) Pittsburgh doesn't deserve its numerous accolades and recent puff pieces since it isn't particualry distinct or demonstrably better (however measured) than many other cities and (2) that Pittsburgh isn't a particularly great place to live and has dissappointed you.

The former is largely immaterial to me since they're not my rankings and I've authored no such articles although, depending on methodology, it is always comforting to find you own perceptions line up with more rigorous analyses.

My final point of my previous post revolved around the second argument. There's no reason to expound on it further, since it appears to have fallen largely on deaf ears but suffice to say, the point was that, in twenty years you may look back on your time in Pittsburgh and conclude that it had far more going for it than you appreciated at the time. Perhaps not.

[ThumbingMyWay]

Originally Posted by Johnny C

I lol'd when I read that somebody thought Pittsburgh was overrated.

Pittsburgh is still trying to shake it's rust belt reputation and nationwide is anything but overrated.

What a dumb topic.

Anyone that browses through the other topics on the Pittsburgh forum would certainly get the impression Pittsburgh is one of the best places to live. Also, it's hard to say Pittsburgh is still trying to shake its rust belt reputation when it was named America's "most livable city."

[gortonator]

Originally Posted by ThumbingMyWay

Anyone that browses through the other topics on the Pittsburgh forum would certainly get the impression Pittsburgh is one of the best places to live. Also, it's hard to say Pittsburgh is still trying to shake its rust belt reputation when it was named America's "most livable city."

6 months ago when I told my old boss I was moving to Pittsburgh, she said. "Pittsburgh? really?". She then called her boss in and he said "You really want to live in Pittsburgh? Really?"

These are highly educated, well traveled west coast folks. Who obviously don't read 'most liveable' surveys

[quaymorris]

Originally Posted by Johnny C

I lol'd when I read that somebody thought Pittsburgh was overrated.

Pittsburgh is still trying to shake it's rust belt reputation and nationwide is anything but overrated.

What a dumb topic.

I stand by my comment of it being overrated. I don't disagree about the rust belt reputation, but, as someone else mentioned, the number of times I have to hear about how "livable" this city is and how "great" the people are and how "great" the sports teams are and how it's the "best city ever" - a lot of people in and outside of Pittsburgh believe this hype. Why else does Pittsburgh keep getting called the next Portland? Pittsburgh is one of the "hip" new cities, and the rising population backs up that people want to live here because they believe the hype. Same with any other city like it (Austin, Houston, Charlotte, Raleigh, to name a few).

[ThumbingMyWay]

Originally Posted by gortonator

6 months ago when I told my old boss I was moving to Pittsburgh, she said. "Pittsburgh? really?". She then called her boss in and he said "You really want to live in Pittsburgh? Really?"

These are highly educated, well traveled west coast folks. Who obviously don't read 'most liveable' surveys

According to most folks on here, if they could afford living comfortably on the west coast (as I assume your boss could, being highly educated and well traveled), they would have said the same thing to you.