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Old 04-19-2008, 09:28 AM
 
Location: Fairywood
125 posts, read 397,292 times
Reputation: 21

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Well I am kind of disagreeing with some people here, so I'm going to just post my own answers:

1. Housing: Is Pittsburgh affordable? What kind of housing do you get for your money? Are apartments expensive? Pittsburgh is absolutely affordable, nothing else really to say about that.

2. Crime: I've read that Pittsburgh is actually a fairly safe city. What is your opinion? Where is crime concentrated?
Crime is concentrated basically only to certain neighborhoods. If you are looking to move here, just research a lot, because I live in a certain Pittsburgh neighborhood where we leave our doors unlocked at night and I park on the street and never worry about it getting broken into. It just depends on the neighborhood for the most part.

3. Weather: I've also read that Pittsburgh is VERY dreary. Lot's of cloudy days. What is weather REALLY like? I am usually the first one to complain about the weather here, but we don't only have two sunny nice days a year. I was outside all day yesterday because it was a perfect, beautiful day. It does rain a lot and gets humid (we are right near three rivers), and that definitely sucks, but I don't think it's quite as horrible as some people are making it out to be.

4. Transportation: Does Pittsburgh have a good transportation program? If not, are they investing in one at least? I think a lot of people gave you good information with this topic.

5. Schools: Are schools in the area pretty good? Like others said, some are great, some are not-so-great. My parents chose to send me to private school (even though it was not quite affordable) rather than me go to the city school in my area... and that wasn't even the worst one. That was the typical situation for a lot of my friends in the area as well. If you are looking for a good school, you can definitely find one in the suburbs, there are a ton of great schools there.

6. Attractiveness: Is the city fairly clean? Are there a lot of run-down buildings, vacant lots, unkempt houses, and so forth? This is another one of those things where it depends on the neighborhood. For example, Shadyside always looks great, while the Hill District may not. Regarding litter - I've never noticed it being quite the problem that someone else said it was. Not saying it doesn't happen, since it definitely does, but I wouldn't say more than the average city.

7. Is the city green (as in trees, parks, bike paths, yards, gardens) and so forth? Are there a lot of lakes and rivers? Yes, absolutely. Everyone gave you good information here, too.

AND FINALLY

8. Recreational and Leisure activities: What is there to do in Pittsburgh? Are there lot's of festivals? Fun things to do? There are a ton of different festivals - probably one for every ethnicity. I know they have the Irish Festival in September usually, and that's a ton of fun. There are also other things to do that people listed (going to pro sports games, museums, etc.). The South Side is great for drinking if you're into that. There is an Arts Fest and Regatta in the summer and both of those are fun (at least I think those things are annual events). There is the Race for the Cure event every mother's day that a lot of people go to. I would say that you would be able to keep busy if you were on the look-out for things to do.

Well that's my two-cents. Pittsburgh is certainly not a perfect city, and it's nothing compared to say San Diego regarding weather, but it does have it's positive points (such as affordability), so I guess it just depends which things you're looking for more.
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Old 04-19-2008, 03:28 PM
 
Location: Center City Philadelphia
1,099 posts, read 4,600,793 times
Reputation: 451
Quote:
Originally Posted by Smily Gladshanks View Post
If you leave the forum and go to city-data main page, you can get a rundown of each city--it's sunshine-days and whatnot. Just looking at the sunshine days graph makes you depressed. And I can tell you that those sunny 70-72 degree days with little wind and few clouds?...maybe 2 a year. Maybe 10 if you are lucky.
Uh, Pittsburgh just had about 5 sunny, mild days in a row. Next week looks sunny and warm as well!
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Old 04-19-2008, 04:36 PM
 
2,039 posts, read 6,304,379 times
Reputation: 581
Quote:
Originally Posted by londonbarcelona View Post
I was there lst wek and we drove around for about 5 hours from one end to the other and in bewteen. I'm not talking huge garbage bins full of goarbage but general littler all over the place. It's litter more than anything.
I have to laugh, I posted on my I-Phone very late last evening and I cannot believe how many typos I had! Good Lord!
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Old 04-20-2008, 02:05 PM
 
Location: Pittsburgh, USA
3,131 posts, read 9,334,940 times
Reputation: 1111
Which Are The World's Cleanest Cities?
Pittsburgh ties for 10th place.
Which Are The World's Cleanest Cities? - Forbes.com
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Old 04-20-2008, 03:19 PM
 
Location: Foot of the Rockies
90,316 posts, read 120,179,658 times
Reputation: 35920
Quote:
Originally Posted by PeterRabbit View Post
Which Are The World's Cleanest Cities?
Pittsburgh ties for 10th place.
Which Are The World's Cleanest Cities? - Forbes.com
It's not clear what the criteria are and the article doesn't even mention litter. They seem to be focusing on transportation. The bike paths in Minneapolis are a joke, too, b/c it's below freezing for much of the winter, with permanent snow cover. Not a lot of biking going on.
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Old 04-20-2008, 03:38 PM
 
2,039 posts, read 6,304,379 times
Reputation: 581
Default Scottsdale whould be on there!

Quote:
Originally Posted by PeterRabbit View Post
Which Are The World's Cleanest Cities?
Pittsburgh ties for 10th place.
Which Are The World's Cleanest Cities? - Forbes.com
I'm surprised Toronto is on that list also. It's cleaner than Pittsburgh (in my opinion) but man, with all the construction there, and all the crap that's flying about, I'm surprised it made the list. I don't know how they measured it though. Some areas of Toronto are pristine, but other areas are not as clean. However, I do think Toronto is much cleaner in general than Pittsbrurgh though.

I'd be curious to see how they measured that too. Did they even bother to send people to these places and take a look around? LOL

The article states: "
"To be clean a city has to face and solve many problems that otherwise lead to unsanitary conditions and poor health as well as possible economic stagnation. Producing energy for industry, homes and transportation has to be planned and executed reasonably, and this means some form of regulation and control."

"To be clean means organizing what is done with waste. Landfills are being closed or filled up. Recycling is the only long-range answer, but this takes civic discipline, a system and preferably a system that turns a profit. Green only works well when it results in greenbacks.
In addition a city has to look closely at its transportation infrastructure (roads, rail, air, subways) and their impact upon being clean or going dirty or staying dirty. The logistics infrastructure is also critical in terms of efficiency that can translate into money and fuel savings that in turn affect cleanliness (air quality, water quality and ground quality)."
"The most common trait in common to each is a focus on high tech, education and headquartering of national and international companies along with an extensive public transit system."

It would appear to me that by "Clean" they are referring to green building. Yes?
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Old 04-20-2008, 04:23 PM
 
Location: Pittsburgh, USA
3,131 posts, read 9,334,940 times
Reputation: 1111
^ I don't know. I posted it as a joke to counter all the posts saying how dirty the burgh is. It's not that bad and also not clean enough to make the top ten in a world list.
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Old 04-20-2008, 04:36 PM
 
Location: Foot of the Rockies
90,316 posts, read 120,179,658 times
Reputation: 35920
Quote:
Originally Posted by PeterRabbit View Post
^ I don't know. I posted it as a joke to counter all the posts saying how dirty the burgh is. It's not that bad and also not clean enough to make the top ten in a world list.
I'd certainly agree with that. Makes you wonder about these "lists". I mean, you know dirty when you see it.
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Old 04-20-2008, 08:03 PM
 
20,273 posts, read 32,864,150 times
Reputation: 2910
That list is certainly going beyond aesthetic issues.
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Old 04-22-2008, 02:20 AM
 
136 posts, read 165,853 times
Reputation: 30
The only litter I have ever noticed in the area is off the Parkway East. Last weekend I was stuck in the stupid "let's close the Parkway East" this weekend traffic (I know, I shouldn't have even considered driving it).

Anyway, I was sitting in the traffic between the Squirrel Hill Tunnels and Edgewood/Swissvale and noticed a lot of litter on the grassy areas off the Parkway. Things such as fast food bags, Gatorade bottles, and other nuisance materials. This is the first time I noticed any major amount of littler and I have to admit, I was rather disappointed. It's quite embarrassing to have that be a problem after all the other negative things people say about Pittsburgh.

Like I said, I rarely notice it on streets downtown or in the suburbs...it just seemed to be a problem off the Parkway. People probably just threw that stuff out of their car windows.
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