Population predictions for 2020?

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by charisb

Serious question because I do not go to any other city forums: Is it common to have so many people leave the a city, only to then haunt that city's forum and talk about how crummy it is? There just seems to be a lot of that on here.

Anecdotes are not evidence of course, but I just do not feel like Pittsburgh is dying. My neighborhood (Greenfield) has had a significant turnover of older people moving out/dying and being replaced with 30ish year old couples who have good jobs and are starting to have children. Most of them have moved here for jobs.
I certainly believe we need higher wages here but unemployment is relatively low and median income is reasonable. It is true that you are going to pay a lot for a shiny new apartment but I think that moving to the rust belt is always a problem for those who want shiny new housing.

I do not feel like the city is dying at all as well. However, I will say the Mon Valley and the further out areas of the outlying counties very much give that feel though.

[Geeo]

I'm reading a great book about the city and its environs called "Beyond Rust: Metropolitan Pittsburgh and the Fate of Industrial America" that delves into the history of Pittsburgh's emergence as an industrial powerhouse and the ramifications on the "hinterlands" of the metro. It's fascinating and I recommend it.

The history of how the mill towns came to be, the tug-of-war between Pittsburgh's massive capital in the 19th century and how it affected the smaller towns, the topography and the isolation of the mill towns, the suburban expansion after WWII to the hilltops, the decline of coal, it's all in there.