Please help me understand these Pittsburgh oddities! (Erie, Youngstown: house, live)

[jea6321]

People tend to be so positive on pittsburgh because this is the first time in over 30 years that we are seeing improvement and development ( and quite a bit of it) and an influx of younger people. If you were depressed here before, good thing you were not here in the 80's-90's

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by gg

Sounds like you weren't living at all.

Enjoy!

Exactly. One would be miserable anywhere working 90-105 hours a week. Being so tired and exhausted is not good for your psyche. It also may have contributed to your 8 accidents (even if you weren't at fault, defensive driving skills would be pretty much gone at that level of exhaustion).

Yes, the weather is bad (to some people), the roads are confusing, the homes are old, and Oakland's student section is a dirty slum. All of that is true -- but I think your opinion was greatly influenced by your insane work schedule.

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by GoldenGate11

The weather is indeed very depressing. It is more gray than Seattle. There is marginal sunshine.

I believe I've said this before, but it bears repeating. The sun sucks. I get that it is necessary for human life, but so is plate tectonics and nobody complains that they don't live close enough to an erupting volcano.

The clouds are your friends.

[_Buster]

I don't know why I am bothering , but just out of curiosity, how do you think that woman was hit by three vehicles on the parkway, and flew up onto someone's hood? what was she doing out there on the highway? It just seems like with your experiences , you are at the wrong place/time quite often.

[Merge]

The OP has achieved the seemingly impossible... everyone is in agreement! We are glad you left, GoldenGate11. I hope you have found the help that you need so desperately.

[shadowfax]

Nobody should live someplace that they are not happy.

I am glad you found a home more to your liking. Personally I like living here so I think I will stay and appreciate all of the good things while recognising that no place is perfect. There are many kinds of people in the world who don't all see things the way I do. And that's okay.

Getting enough sleep can really help a person to have a positive outlook on life.

[Sciulli]

I feel like almost everything you posted about is not specific to Pittsburgh at all and ALSO it doesn't seem like you are cut out for city life and prefer a more rural existence.

do you have any experience with other mid-size to large cities? or is pretty much everywhere else you've lived like Colorado/Montana/Kansas?

[SteelCityRising]

I'm not going to jump down your throat since your experiences sound similar to the personal Hell I was enduring while residing in Fairfax County, VA from 2009-2010. I realize a "rant" can be cathartic every now and then, and I'm very hopeful you're happier wherever (West Virginia?) you're living now.

Different strokes for different folks. Some of your complaints are valid.

-There's a plethora of litter here. I've personally witnessed numerous people throwing cigarette butts; fast food wrappers; plastic bags; etc. out of car windows. I don't call 911 because I'm under the assumption that would be wasting a line for an emergency caller, and I'm also under the assumption the police wouldn't care unless I had dash cam footage to offer as evidence to cite the offender.

-Not only do an elevated level of people here chain-smoke, but many also don't try to avert their exhaust from non-smoking passersby, leading us to cough as we walk past them. I agree this is despicable especially on ironically-nicknamed "Cardiac Hill"---Lothrop Street in front of Presby. I make deliveries nearly daily to Presby and don't know how to avoid this.

-The old housing stock, to me, is a blessing. I moved here from Reston, VA, where an ugly Soviet-looking "village center" from the late-1960's (Lake Anne) was considered "historic" because it was the oldest part of the community. In 2010 I moved into an aesthetically unremarkable old house across the street from two very dilapidated structures. In 2015? Those two structures are ~90% of the way done with exterior rehabilitation, and interior reconstruction is now underway. Both homes will be very high-end restorations when complete, which is complementary with my neighborhood at-large, which has gone from slummy to chic seemingly overnight due to it being surrounded by other rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods.

-I've become very adroit at ignoring Steelers, Penguins, and Pirates fans. I try to view that belching beer belly guy scratching his balls while wearing black and gold face point as he comes to the door to tip $2 and retrieve his wings and pizza as being "charming" instead of morbidly grotesque. When people ask me "did you see the game?" I reply "Sorry. No. I was working." I usually am, too, since I've had one raise in 4.5 years while the cost-of-living here has been rising steadily.

-The infrastructure here is abysmal, which has led to so much tragedy on our roads recently, and the locals WILL make excuses for it because they know if enough of we transplants squawk, then politicians will respond with improvements that will lead to tax increases that they don't want. What I've learned about Pennsylvanians in general is that they like to complain about things, but when told a nominal tax increase can fund some of the things they're complaining about they complain about the tax increase(s) too. It's either be damned for raising taxes to make improvements or be damned for NOT raising taxes to make improvements. It must be impossible to stay sane as a politician in this state. Our gas prices are sky-high due to higher state fuel taxes, but I don't mind paying for them because I can see on a state level that PennDOT is making many, many much-needed improvements, including to PA Route 380 through my neighborhood. I wouldn't mind the city raising my wage tax if more "complete streets" with bike lanes would become a reality, and I don't even know how to ride a bike. This is because I don't mind paying more in taxes for things that will benefit the community. The amount of social media vitriol going around about the bike lanes shows most native Pittsburghers think getting to the bar more quickly in their pick-up truck is more important than the life of a cyclist.

Overall, though, I love it here---warts and all. I'm increasingly stressed due to what seems to be a toxic mixture of growing surface street congestion coupled with the lack of political testicular fortitude to improve our streets, but that's something that won't change until the "tax me to make life better" vs. "NO NEW TAXES!!!" ratio improves.

[DoubleStraps]

There are huge swaths of Pittsburgh that really need some beautification. The litter, the random debris that lines so many streets, leftover construction garbage, crumbling sidewalks, dirty buildings... I could go on and on. I'll pick one example: West Carson St. is the major entrance to the city from points west. There is so much garbage and debris from the West End Circle to the South Side that it looks like a war zone in places. The sidewalk is literally unusable as it's covered in construction garbage and trees branches. The blighted buildings near the West End Circle are a total eyesore.

Trash cleanup crews, street sweepers, and power washers would probably go a long ways.

[norcider]

You didn't see a sunset in 2.5 years? I'm calling BS.