Gay couple finally moving to PA! (Pittsburgh, Washington: restaurants, prices, nightlife)

[bluecarebear]

Originally Posted by pittsburghaccuweather

Youngstown is midway between Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Less than 1 hour and 10 minute drive from each. You have your choice. Once you get south of I-90 In Erie is is a no mans zone. Edinboro and Meadville are the closest places within an hour drive. Youngstown has nicer suburbs too.

Everybody has different tastes. I think Grand Rapids is much nicer than Pittsburgh. And I am starting to prefer downtown Cleveland and little Italy more than driving into Pittsburgh. There is just a snobbish vibe with the cool Pittsburgh neighborhoods anymore. I just don’t have much of a desire to give my money to support it. Cleveland downtown has elevated itself past Pittsburgh’s downtown with restaurants and entertainment. And the little Italy and university circle area are more welcoming than lawrecenville and shadyside.

The strip can’t hold a candle to westside market either. I love the residential they built in Ohio city near the market and Great Lakes brewery as well as the high rise condos on the lakefront in downtown.

Cleveland has turned the corner and taken the lead in the Rust Belt. OP, I would pick Youngstown over Pittsburgh simply because it's closer to Cleveland.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by szug-bot

smack my head against the wall until rivulets of blood trickle down my neck.

i agree about the snobbiness thing, but that is everywhere. Even now people lament in parts of Brooklyn borough the loss of the former street culture to the new, young residents there.

but cleveland...as much as i root with my soul for the rust belt cousins (cleve, buffalo, etc.) in sports and on the national stage, gimme Pittsburgh. How are you comparing the two downtowns for "restaurants and entertainment"? What metric - number of places? Chefs of worldwide notoriety?
And, are you considering the numerous other city areas (Lawrenceville, for starters) and their offerings for food and entertainment?

Have you actually SEEN the developments along Smallman Street (east of St. Stanislaus)? I ask because even long time residents have no idea what they've done down there.

I feel your comment is very unscientific and based on 'feeling', and limited experience.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to szug-bot again.

If one thinks Pittsburgh is snobby, you're going to have a rough go at it in basically every large city in this country.....

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by pittsburghaccuweather

I have seen the developments. They are nice.

It pales in comparison to downtown Cleveland. Michael Symon has a restaurant there now. 20,000 residents live in downtown Cleveland. Sorry it has a lot more places and is much nicer than downtown Pittsburgh. I’m not gonna list every single place. What’s best is I can take light rail from downtown to little Italy and west to the airport if I wanted.

And little Italy is a larger neighborhood too. More restaurants ( all Italian) than any pittsburgh neighborhood other than the south side flats. Over 9,000 people live in little Italy alone, population density over 11,000 sq mile. It would be one of the largest neighborhoods in Pittsburgh. I’m not sure where folks come up with it being small. They are just jealous or have never been there. Look at it through google earth.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cle...dia=AMP%2bHTML

That's a lie. In Cleveland, Little Italy is lumped in with the larger University Circle neighborhood which as a whole has a population of 9,500. As anyone who has been to Cleveland's Little Italy knows, the tiny neighborhood itself DOES NOT have the space for 9,500 people....

[PreservationPioneer]

Cleveland is kind of dead. I was downtown a few weeks ago after 5pm, and it was so quiet. I was waiting for a tumbleweed to roll by.

Pittsburgh has more going on than it used to, but that's not saying much.

Honestly, Beaver Falls might be kind of like living downtown, tall buildings aside.

Buffalo is dead, too, but at least they have some nightlife.

I love the rust belt, but all of our cities are half dead. Yes, we have some nice restaurants and fancy apartments.

[bluecarebear]

Originally Posted by PreservationPioneer

Cleveland is kind of dead. I was downtown a few weeks ago after 5pm, and it was so quiet. I was waiting for a tumbleweed to roll by.

Pittsburgh has more going on than it used to, but that's not saying much.

Honestly, Beaver Falls might be kind of like living downtown, tall buildings aside.

Buffalo is dead, too, but at least they have some nightlife.

I love the rust belt, but all of our cities are half dead. Yes, we have some nice restaurants and fancy apartments.

Nightlife is dead. Gen Z and young Millinennials are not big drinkers. Cost keeps people away too. A night out will easily add up to over $100 with tickets and food.

[pittsburghaccuweather]

Originally Posted by bluecarebear

Nightlife is dead. Gen Z and young Millinennials are not big drinkers. Cost keeps people away too. A night out will easily add up to over $100 with tickets and food.

Bingo...

Downtown Pittsburgh looks great from Mount Washington. Other than that I don’t think it is a great place to hang out. I think Downtown Cleveland is better for dining options and overall things to do.

As far as little Italy the homers on this board will say anything to find fault with it. Even though it is densely populated, walkable, rail access to downtown and expensive housing packed together with more restaurants than probably only the south side flats in Pittsburgh. It meets all of the important metrics we hear about yet they scrape to find fault with it. Not to mention a neighborhood that gets over 2 million visitors a year and their pasta sauce is sold in groceries around Pittsburgh and the US.

It’s just a Cleveland vs Pittsburgh thing

[SteelCityRising]

Um. Yeah. I'm very familiar with both Bloomfield (Pittsburgh) and Little Italy (Cleveland). Cleveland's Little Italy feels much more authentically Italian than Bloomfield; however, Bloomfield is definitely more populated, more densely-populated, and has a much larger and more extensive business district overall (yes, including more overall restaurants). Bloomfield only has three Italian restaurants that I can think of. Little Italy in Cleveland has more.

Little Italy =/= University Circle just as Bloomfield =/= Lawrenceville (or Shadyside).

Stretching the boundaries of Little Italy to include University Circle is reprehensibly disingenuous.

[Moby Hick]

Bloomfield is deeply committed to its aesthetic, housing-wise.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

Stretching the boundaries of Little Italy to include University Circle is reprehensibly disingenuous.

And University Circle is really a poor shadow of Oakland as well. Take out Little Italy, and it's just the Case-Western campus, a couple of hospitals, a few new-construction apartment buildings, and like one block of historic homes.

[gg]

Originally Posted by bluecarebear

Nightlife is dead. Gen Z and young Millinennials are not big drinkers. Cost keeps people away too. A night out will easily add up to over $100 with tickets and food.

For the most part this is true for a lot of reasons. Social media is cheaper and easier. Echo-chambers are easier than encountering people you might disagree with. Then there is fear that plays a role. Fear of getting a DUI, fear of crime, fear of being videoed if you are dancing or just trying to have fun and so-on. Fear of someone putting something in your drink and the list goes on due to hyped up media and sensationalism. So glad I grew up when I did. Wow.

I was downtown last night and it was creepy. Best word to describe it. Very few people out at all and the ones that were were a pain in the butt. You can't go downtown without being approached by others and I just don't want to deal with them. They took over down there. The few restaurants that were open were busy as it was primetime, but I will try and avoid downtown for the most part. When you keep getting approached and there are so few people around and no cops that I could see, that is why I call it "creepy". Even if you are packing, it has such a bad vibe. Pittsburgh's downtown used to be crowded and crazy many years ago, then it was "cleaned up" and totally a ghost town. Then good people got it going and a very good crowd was down there on Penn and such. Now it is going back to ghost town because it is just a hassle. You get hassled in Pittsburgh more than NYC. Geez! I think because all the panhandlers are up close and personal and they are aggressive. In NYC they just sit there with a can out.