The nation's most coveted demographic has been flocking to Pittsburgh (neighborhoods, car)

[jfre81]

Pittsburgh seemed to be the first one to look at the dead steel mills and go "hey, this isn't coming back. Maybe we need another way to put some food on the table."

It hasn't looked back.

[Goodjules]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

Interesting idea of letting places fail. I recall a planner talking at Georgia Tech about the "Pittsburgh Solution", basically letting the steel industry fail. Maybe there's some advantage to these life cycles. Let it die and from it can spring something new, otherwise you just keep the old and decrepit. No change. That allowed for a new Pittsburgh to emerge. I wonder though, maybe it would have been better to have kept the old tolley and commuter rail system? San Francisco still has those old style trolley cars Pittsburgh had. Gives the place more character and seem more "hip".

In SF we call them streetcars. There are buses that hook up to overhead electrical wires that we call trolley buses. Then there are cable cars. Just clarifying the local usage. Pittsburgh had the exact same kind of streetcars we had when I was growing up in SF. I sometimes mistake old photos of Pittsburgh streets with streetcars for the SF of my youth.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by jfre81

Pittsburgh seemed to be the first one to look at the dead steel mills and go "hey, this isn't coming back. Maybe we need another way to put some food on the table."

It hasn't looked back.

Seriously? Many people felt for years that the mills would come back. An old mill in Beaver Falls was torn down in the past few months and one of my FB friends said "Maybe now people will realize the mills aren't coming back!" S/he then amended the statement to say that was still the prevailing attitude 10 years ago, if not today.

[FreightTrainRunning]

I moved here long after the mills closed and I've never heard anyone nostalgic for them.

[I_Like_Spam]

In a previous generation, young innovators like Carnegie, Frick and Westinghouse put Pittsburgh on the map in the first place with their innovations in steel, railroad transportation and electric power. With more young'uns coming here, maybe a new, future period of greatness beckons.

[FreightTrainRunning]

Although you know there is an operating steel mill in Beaver right now. A neighbor of mine moved here from Chicago a couple of years ago to work as a materials engineer there.

[Der Schwabe]

Originally Posted by Katiana

Seriously? Many people felt for years that the mills would come back. An old mill in Beaver Falls was torn down in the past few months and one of my FB friends said "Maybe now people will realize the mills aren't coming back!" S/he then amended the statement to say that was still the prevailing attitude 10 years ago, if not today.

Originally Posted by GeneW

I moved here long after the mills closed and I've never heard anyone nostalgic for them.

This likely has something to do with the slim chances that anything will take its place in Beaver Falls. That kind of clinging to the mill's past seems to have passed in Pittsburgh as reuse and redevelopment (in whatever form it may take) continues.

[Buckeye Burgher]

Originally Posted by jfre81

Pittsburgh seemed to be the first one to look at the dead steel mills and go "hey, this isn't coming back. Maybe we need another way to put some food on the table."

It hasn't looked back.

True in some ways, not in others. If you go down through the Mon Valley you will still find
sad souls sitting around wistfully, wishing for the mills to come back.

What's worse, some of them actually BELIEVE that they could come back, if ONLY we could
elect the right politician!

[charisb]

Originally Posted by Der Schwabe

This likely has something to do with the slim chances that anything will take its place in Beaver Falls. That kind of clinging to the mill's past seems to have passed in Pittsburgh as reuse and redevelopment (in whatever form it may take) continues.

Agreed. I have lived in Pittsburgh for six years and no one is talking about the mills. I even had someone ask me what those towers at the Waterfront are!
It may be different among some 'old timers' in small towns in outlying areas.

[friendsheep]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

In a previous generation, young innovators like Carnegie, Frick and Westinghouse put Pittsburgh on the map in the first place with their innovations in steel, railroad transportation and electric power. With more young'uns coming here, maybe a new, future period of greatness beckons.

It's going to come out of CMU and Google and the tech startups/innovation they foster. Has anyone checked out what Deep Local is capable of?!