Is Pittsburgh the best city to live in the US? (Carnegie: hotel, university)

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by WPANative

I actually wish there was more horn honking.

I wish the horn-honking worked. Early yesterday afternoon on my way into work I was literally run off of Baum Boulevard and up onto the sidewalk near Melwood Avenue by a clueless SUV driver from Missouri who just merged into my lane without looking because the car in front of him was turning left onto Melwood and awaiting the clearing of oncoming traffic. I BLARED my horn at the first hint he was entering my lane, yet he CONTINUED coming right at me, as if completely oblivious, as I ended up on the sidewalk, still with my horn held in. They stopped just past the intersection, probably to make sure I was okay.

I have to blare my horn for 5-7 seconds at a time pretty much a few times per hour working my delivery shifts in the East End. So many people driving right now who should NOT be driving!

[gortonator]

Originally Posted by speagles84

Exactly. I'll take my 45 minute ride to 7 Springs over 3.5 hours to Lake Tahoe any day. Tahoe may be better, but for a constant thing, 45 minutes is great. Plus the turnpike does a hellava job keeping the roads to get there clear.

personally I'd love to be withing 3.5 hours of somewhere like Tahoe. Squaw is truly epic. 7 Springs is fun for a day, especially on a quiet day, but it ain't western skiing. We have season passes at Snowshoe, which is Tahoe-equiv distance. And that ain't western skiing either. But, as I said, at least we have 'local', and as you say, accessible skiing at 7 Springs. Better than many places.

I do also accept we have a skiing problem

[pghdude28]

Originally Posted by zman63

A friend of mine describes Pittsburgh as a Scranton, PA on steroids. I do think the "Groundhog Day" describes things around here. Ironically it was filmed not too far from here.

My favorite Bill Murray quote from that movie -- "It's gonna be cold. It's gonna be gray." He's basically describing the typical day in the "best city in the USA."

On a side note, I find it odd that many people living outside the city don't seem to view it as a great place to frequently visit or live in. They avoid it at all costs! They complain about the traffic and those damn city drivers LOL. It's like driving into NYC to them. They rather live an insular life in dull regions outside the city and watch the Steelers on TV rather than visit the North Shore or experience what the city has to offer. Pittsburgh has potential to be an attractive, growing city. However, it is strangled by the totally bland, boring, insular culture that surrounds it (aka most of Western PA). A lot of that spills over into the city. You can experience diverse, progressive parts of the city. But living there will feel like an island or a bubble. Once you step out of it, you will find yourself in the dullness that is Western PA.

[Peter1948]

Originally Posted by that412

I have never been to Louisville, but I've always felt that Pittsburgh is a more neighborhood-based city than either Cincinnati or St. Louis, and I like that (though someone who's spent more time in all three can feel free to dispute this notion). I've found that Cinci, in particular, gets rather suburby fairly quickly as you leave downtown, and their public transit system does not seem to be any better than PAT.

I've actually been more impressed with St. Louis, though I will say that a St. Louis summer gets far more uncomfortable than ours.

Also, neither one's topography comes close to Pittsburgh's.

Louisville is very very neighborhood based and the walkable urban nabes grow by the year. Pitt and Louisville are very very similar cities, only Pitt is bigger as it has more burbs.

Here is a very brief overview of the most walkable urban areas of Louisville.

Neighborhoods | New2Lou

To the list I would add Beechmont, New Albany and Jeffersonville, IN in their downtown areas.

[Peter1948]

Originally Posted by trackstar13

This is a good point that you and SCR have brought up about Louisville. It is kind of isolated in a political sense because the areas surrounding it and the other populated areas in and outside the commonwealth seem to hate the Ville because of its "blueness." When I lived there I can't tell you how often I had people from Lexington, southern Indiana, western Kentucky, etc. tell me about how bad Louisville was and the racist remarks were too numerous to count. I was amazed at how segregated Louisville was and how many people outside of Louisville felt the whole city was black. It was not the same type of racism you would see in most other midwestern cities, it was very overt and I literally saw KKK marches where I lived in Old Louisville near the U of L main campus. I have never seen anything like that anywhere else I lived so it was quite disturbing to say the least.

This is a huge exaggeration. You would never find KKK signs anywhere in urban Louisville, and the city is no more segregated than any Midwest city. I would never believe your remark unless you produced pictures. In fact, it is likely more integrated than most. For some reason, interracial relationships seem so common in Louisville, and Old Louisville is absolutely one of the most diverse neighborhoods between Chicago and ATL. We are talking white, black, hispanic, asian, gay, student, yuppie, empty nester, poor, super rich. Old Louisville has it all.


Going back to the OP's question, I believe Pittsburgh is definitely one of the best and most livable cities in the USA.

[gortonator]

Originally Posted by Peter1948

This is a huge exaggeration. You would never find KKK signs anywhere in urban Louisville, and the city is no more segregated than any Midwest city. I would never believe your remark unless you produced pictures. In fact, it is likely more integrated than most. For some reason, interracial relationships seem so common in Louisville, and Old Louisville is absolutely one of the most diverse neighborhoods between Chicago and ATL. We are talking white, black, hispanic, asian, gay, student, yuppie, empty nester, poor, super rich. Old Louisville has it all.


Going back to the OP's question, I believe Pittsburgh is definitely one of the best and most livable cities in the USA.

I think I'd like to visit Louisville based on this description. Who'd have thought ...

[Herodotus]

Originally Posted by gortonator

I think I'd like to visit Louisville based on this description. Who'd have thought ...

I've been there a few times. Love Old Louisville For many years, before the explosion of growth in the Sunbelt, Louisville was the biggest city that was not considered a "major city", with Buffalo being the smallest place that was still considered somewhat "major". Louisville has good bones, and the best collection of cast iron front commercial buildings outside of NYC.

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by Peter1948

This is a huge exaggeration. You would never find KKK signs anywhere in urban Louisville, and the city is no more segregated than any Midwest city. I would never believe your remark unless you produced pictures. In fact, it is likely more integrated than most. For some reason, interracial relationships seem so common in Louisville, and Old Louisville is absolutely one of the most diverse neighborhoods between Chicago and ATL. We are talking white, black, hispanic, asian, gay, student, yuppie, empty nester, poor, super rich. Old Louisville has it all.


Going back to the OP's question, I believe Pittsburgh is definitely one of the best and most livable cities in the USA.

Having grown up in a Midwestern city, near Detroit, I would definitely like to state that Midwestern cities are very segregated. When I've went anywhere South, including Louisville, I see people mixing quite a bit more than the Midwest. I think part of it is that blacks in the south also live in rural areas. Whereas in Midwestern cities it seems that rural is just white white, and urban is often seen as being the places where you would actually see black people who live in the Midwest.

[LexusNexus]

For some people who live there, it is. I know people who live in Pittsburgh who wouldn't live anywhere else. Of course, they have never been to any other city, they barely finished high school, and they are only qualified to work where they're working and no other place. Family in the area for generations keeps them firmly planted in the 'burgh. Long as they're happy, that's all that counts.

As eastern cities go, I like Pittsburgh. Best city? Not for me.

[steindle]

Originally Posted by LexusNexus

For some people who live there, it is. I know people who live in Pittsburgh who wouldn't live anywhere else. Of course, they have never been to any other city, they barely finished high school, and they are only qualified to work where they're working and no other place.

The majority of my friends in Pittsburgh have advanced degrees and have lived large portions of their lives elsewhere -- often New York or the West Coast.

If what you describe has been your primary experience with Pittsburghers, it's more about you than Pittsburgh. The hilarious part about posts like this is that, in an attempt to appear worldly, the poster always just reveals their own cloistered ignorance.